My roommate is a surfer chick from San Diego. A really cool girl. We have weekends off and she is going to the south-western tip of Costa Rica for the weekend, where there is the longest surf break in the world. I guess you can just ride the waves forever and its sweet. I'm going to lay in the sun, read, and sleep!
There are people here from all over the world. I have spent a lot of time with these two people from Germany. They are really nice. There are two guys from Switzerland and one from Brazil, but mostly everyone else is from California or Canada. I had a conversation with a friend named Marek a couple of nights ago, he lives in Canada. His Polish parents were doing medical mission work in north Africa so he was born in Tunisia. Then Poland wouldn't accept them back because this was before the fall of communism in Poland. They were political refugees so they were "forced" to move to Italy for a year, and then ended up in Canada. He speaks Polish, French, English, and Spanish. His dad speaks 7 languages. I felt like a very boring person after that conversation.
I have been surfing for two hours every morning, then studying Spanish for 2-4 hours every afternoon. Surfing has been amazing, I'm really glad I decided to do it. It is such a good work out. You have to paddle out as fast as you can while getting the crap kicked out of you by breaking waves. You then sit on your board and rest while you wait for a good wave to come. I really like that part. There is just you, God, the ocean, and islands in the distance. When a good wave comes you paddle as fast as you can to catch it and then you either wipe out really hard or you get the best rush ever! I am getting a little better each day, although I drank like a gallon of salt water when I wiped out today. Even if I have had a rough morning missing home or feeling lonely, surfing takes all of the tension away from me. It wears me out so bad I am then too tired to miss home.
When I was waiting for a wave a couple of days ago, there were stingrays jumping all around me. I am scared to death of getting stung by one. They stick these two barbs into your body and inject venom. The wound swells up and you get dizzy and throw up for 30-90 minutes. Today I saw one swimming through a wave and I freaked out. Then my instructor Carlos proceeded to tell me about how when he got stung by one, he couldn't cry, couldn't breath, couldn't scream... because the pain was so great. Hah, please pray for me...
Spanish has been really good, I am learning a lot. I haven't had much of a chance to use it outside of the grocery store, but I am learning. My teacher is Sergio from Colombia. His style of teaching is very conversational, which is good because my weakness is comprehending what other people say to me. I can't understand what people say to me half of the time in English.
I went with a group of people from the school on a kayak trip two nights ago. We got in the vans and drove about 30 minutes north up the beach. We took the road on top of the mountains so we could see the ocean the whole time, it was beautiful. We drove up this little farm road that was lined with huge trees that the farmer used as fence posts. There was cattle on both sides of the trees. A little down the road there were two ticos (Costa Ricans) carrying machetes, walking with a horse. Interesting. We kept driving up to the beach where the kayak place was. We got in our Kayaks and paddled a mile 1/2 up the Gulf of Nicoya, passing huge rock cliffs with lava tubes all over them. It was so cool. I saw an iguana that was so big it looked like a dinosaur. We got to this secluded beach and played soccer, hiked up to a waterfall, ate pineapple, and watched whales jump in the distance. It was a pretty cool experience.
I like living so close to the beach and everything, and its beautiful here, but I really don't like Jacó very much. Everyone stares at me like they want to eat me because I have blond hair. I don't really go anywhere other than the school and the supermarket and I never go anywhere alone. I can't wait to move to San José. It is the capitol and biggest city in Costa Rica. I really liked it there. It is really diverse and liberal, reminded me a lot of Europe.
When I move there I will live with a GCLA (Great Commission Latin America) pastor (Carlos Gomez) and his family. They are Honduran. They are going to speak to me only in Spanish when I return to their house. They are the most amazing God centered family, I could not even dream up a better family to spend my time with while I am down here. I am really excited to live with a family again, to have sisters my age and a little brother. They have a Miami phone so I can call home (YES). I will be moving to San José just before the Costa Rican independence day. Valerie, Stephanie and I will take a bus downtown and watch the lantern parades. I guess they are a big deal, I'm excited to take lots of pictures. I will be doing mission work for the three months I am in San José. Most likely at an orphanage, or something else with kids. Kids who don't speak English. They said that the places I will be working there will be no way I will be able to speak a word of English. I can't wait.
I have found Costa Ricans to be very proud. They remind me so much of Europeans because they are extremely liberal and people are kind of ok with not having God. They just go about their day without a real interest in the purpose of life.
So God is shaping me quite a bit. "Knocking me on my ass" is the best way to put it into words I believe. And it has only been a week. I will keep updating about my little adventures.
Ok, here are some picures of inside and around my school:
My spanish classroom.
One of the dogs that wanders around the school.
The other dog that wanders around the school, Figi.
Miyah and Simon, speaking German in the Kitchen.
The spot where we have been surfing, on a cloudy day.
If I'm not surfing, studying or sleeping then I am here. Please send me emails, All of you, I seriously don't care who you are. I have a lot of time to sit in this little hammock chair thing, read books, and check my email, and feel lonely when I have no email in my inbox. It is easing the homesickness to hear from people at home. FrannyDeJongh@gmail.comTake care wherever you are, ¡Pura Vida! as they say here in Costa Rica...
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