Another hair cut!

On monday I was up in Traverse for another hair cut. They aren't the cutest pictures, but you get the idea. Its a cute short bob.... I contemplated getting a short pixie cut, but decided to hold off on that a little while longer.

Ending this chapter

My, I can hardly believe that I've pretty much completed the "school phase" of my life. Although, I'm pretty sure I'm not done with my education- I love learning, and can actually say a PhD might be in my future... But I want to work for a little while. It might be fun to try out my degree :)

This last year of my education have been especially meaningful to me. I could have never guessed how much I would learn and grow professionally and personally while in grad school. I also realized how much more learning I have to do, but I'm extremely excited about that being apart of my next "phase" in life.

Thank you so much to all of you who supported me with many prayers, words of encouragement, and positive examples of happiness. I feel so blessed to have wonderful friends and family that love and support me.

Commencement is on the 18th so I will be sure to post plenty of pictures!!

New Hair

I've chopped it off again!!! I have been thinking about it for a long time. Every time I see someone with short hair I miss mine, and decided that it was time. I figured that as I start to look for jobs it will help people take me a little more seriously too. I'm sure though that now when I see people with long hair I will miss mine... I think it will take a little getting used to. It's still a little shocking every time I walk past a mirror.

the never ending to do list

So, I got up extra early this morning to knock off a few things from my todo list, but obviously I'm a little distracted. School has literally been kicking my but this semester. It feels as though, since the start of school, my life no longer belongs to me, I am a slave to the endless amounts of reading aaaaand paper writing. I guess this is how Gradschool should feel, but I didn't feel like this last semester so this was not how I anticipated the start of school. Not to mention that this is my last semester and the idea of that is a whole other box of anxiety provoking thoughts. But I really do think that the only thing getting me through this hellish amount of school work is that at Thanksgiving I'm headed to Utah to for TEN days! Yes, TEN DAYS!!!!

I'm just a little excited!! I found a ticket fro $280 from Detroit to Salt Lake City (I think it was mean to be, for me to find such a good deal!!). I take off Nov 20 and return Nov 30. The way my schedule is for school this semester, I will only be missing 1 class, so I decided that it would be worth it. I don't EVER miss class so this one time in my whole Gradschool career, I think I'll be okay. I am excited as ever see the family I have been missing so much. Plus, I will get to help with the Thanksgiving preparations, and if any of you have talked to me recently you know what a cooking machine I've become!!

Ugh back to the paper writing... Just though I'd share the exciting news!!

5K

Before the race...

After the race... on our way to breakfast :)

I ran my second official race today!! It was a crisp 45 degrees at The Big House in Ann Arbor, and the sun was shinning!! There were 20,000 people either running or walking today. I'm not sure what my official time is, but i think it was just about 3o minutes. I think I want my next race to be a little bit more competitive though. And I even felt a little bit inspired to start training for a marathon.... possibly in the next few years :) I wish I would have gotten more pictures because it was such a gorgeous day, but I didn't want to hold my camera while I was running.

Running

Nothing like a nice morning run to start my day. Apart of me felt like I was back in Costa Rica, and I missed it. As I headed out of my house (well, Kirby's house), part of me hopped to find the crooked, broken road, the smell of the earth, and the view of the mountains, and lush greenery of San Jose. But I was greeted with a new sense of connectedness to Ann Arbor. Main Street and Campus were quiet, still, and dark. It smelled like fall, and the air was crisp and cool. It was the kind of run that made me fall in love with Ann Arbor all over again. I am going to miss Ann Arbor when this semester comes to an end... but hopefully it will be a bitter sweet end with me moving on to bigger and better!

Aaaaand, I'm running another 5k this coming sunday morning. I'm pretty excited about it. I'm running with Kirby and Liz (from my program). I would like to start doing more races... next time I will do a 10k. My personal goal is to be running a consistent 10 miles as my long run, by Christmas. Right now my long run is 8 miles.... but I've only kept that consistent for 2 weeks. Hopefully I can keep that up.

The new place

Family Dinner

Homework party... this is how we spend

most of our time together.

Our Bathroom. I did the paintings on the right to match our shower

curtain that you cant see because the lighting is terrible.

Our Living Room- angle 1

Living Room- angle 2

I didn't think I would ever get the chance to live with Lara again, but it has been such a blessing. We don't get to spend a ton of time together because of our crazy schedules, but I look forward to the nights when we are home together. It was a fun project to decorate for this place, I know I'm not going to be here very long, but it makes it so much nicer to spend time at home when I like how everything is decorated.

Another fun thing about living with Lara and Sarah is practicing my cooking skills. I try to cook dinner for us at least one night a week. I have really loved this because of my recent decision to cut meat out of my diet. Last week was meatless meatballs- that were AWESOME!!! Better than the meatballs I have made with meat... Tonight I think I'm going to try and experiment with something new :)

Turrialba

So the last week in Costa Rica we spent in a very small rural community about 2 hours north of San Jose. It was the sort of environment I imagined I would we be before arriving in San Jose. I won't bore you with my journal entries from that week. I'll show you in pictures this time!!! (sorry I haven't up loaded any other pictures... I'll get around to it. I thought my blog was broken and wouldn't let me upload). I thought a lot about my Christian roots during this project. I also spent a lot of time thinking about what my dad taught me about charity and service. It was very humbling work, and I loved being able to do this project... and hold the babies. Enjoy!

-A

Front of the orphanage

The tiny room we slept in... on the cement floor

Setting up camp. Kirby and Alej playing tug of war.

Some of the adorable babies.

Pure Love

Notice the face peeking in the window :)

Some of the scenery of Turrialba

A little mischief

Adorable

Kirby Working

Beth Working

The house where we ate our meals

Walking to the woman's house that made us our food

The giant cake from our last day at the orphanage

MIA

Sorry I didn’t keep up with my blog the last month of my trip. It was always on my list of things to do, but each day it was moved closer and closer to the end of the list. And then before I knew it, it was time to return to the states. I think that time moved faster, so much faster the second month, because I had my routine down and I was very comfortable in San Jose. Monday through Friday I was getting up to run in the morning, heading off to the office, Spanish school, or the café to use the internet and work. After manyyyy hours of research and writing each day, I would head home for dinner, and either go out with the girls or some of my Tico friends. I went to a lot of futbol games (mostly local league games, but one night we went to a professional game), we out dancing quiet a bit, out for ice cream, to the gym, and we even went to a cover band, rock concert, I got a pedicure (and wouldn’t recommend this to anyone else because its not quite like the relaxing spa experience in the states.). I feel like pretty much every night there was something going on, and I loved it. And then finally we spent our last week in the rural community of Turrialba, where I did not have internet access.

So, after my weekend in Puerto Viejo, I only went to the beach one more time. I went to Jaco with Fabian and two of his friends. It was a fun little adventure because I was going without any of the girls. Jaco was nothing to write home about though. It really made me miss my Northern Michigan beaches… Nothing like home, I guess. I did enjoy being able to take a weekend trip without having to take the bus. Fabian’s friend, Kenneth, has a car and was the one to drive us to the beach.

Another activity I loved was the professional futbol game we went to. Futbol is nothing to joke about here in Costa Rica. Everyone plays, or at least watches, and is very passionate about the sport. The match that we went to was a very important game because it was the countries rivals, Saprisssa vs. Alajuela. This was a fun activity because all six girls went with our professor, and one of his close friends Andres, who actually played for Saprissa’s minor league team until deciding to focus on school. I was also extra excited about the game because Fabian lent me his Saprissa jersey and filled me in on the stats of players… I fit right in with my purple jersey and practiced cheer for number 8 (okay maybe I didn’t have a cheer, but I knew who to root for!!).

In one of my earlier blogs I talked about how I would run in the mornings. This is one thing that helped me keep my sanity on this trip, and my figure. There was no way I could skip this part of my day because of how much we ate… I would have come home with an extra 50lbs around my waist! Well, when I spent my mornings running, it was always my time to think and process things on the trip. I never listened to any music, I was always just quietly left to my thoughts. But, I always had to be aware of the road/sidewalk I was running on because they were not kept up nice. They were often uneven, with large potholes, a little dangerous sometimes if you weren’t paying attention. Just a few weeks before I left, I realized that the University of Costa Rica was pretty close to my house, about a mile away, and it was known locally for being a perfect place for runners. There was a smooth circle drive all the way around campus about a mile long. So on my second run at the University, as I was just minding my own business, thinking about my week, I totally missed the step up on the sidewalk, and ate cement…. Probably one of my more embarrassing moments in life. My pride might not have been damaged so much, had it not been for the huge group of male students to my right. I was flat out on my stomach… no way to pretend I was bending over to tie my shoe. I hopped up as fast as I could, and booked it past them. I guess I learned to always remain alert, because those sidewalk curbs will get you when you least expect it!!!

As I came to the end of my time in San Jose I completed my Life Skills Manuel for my internship. It was sad to complete my work here, because I spent so much time there over the last two months, researching and learning. This is one of my most favorite projects I’ve ever worked on. I was happy to feel like I created this document that will really help others give knowledge and share important lessons about the challenges of growing up. I also felt like this was a huge piece of my professional development. And as much as I talked about all the other parts of my trip and elaborated on the going out dancing, hanging out with the girls, and meeting my Latin Lovers… This was the most important part of the trip to me. This is where I felt like I grew the most, and I’m so thankful for the opportunity to try my Social Work talents in another way, and even more, to excel in the experience.

I’ve been home for a week now… I’ve had a lot of time to process what this experience has meant to me, and I will get back to that with my next post… Plus I’ll talk about my experience in the orphanage the last week.

Love you all!!! And as much as I miss Costa Rica, it is good to be home.

-A

“I wish I had a gun”

HAHA… I’ll get to the title of the blog later, I promise!

Sorry its been over a week… I was in the groove last week of work, going to the gym, and spending time with Fabsie (my latin novio). It is easy to loose track of time here.

So I left off with my vacation to the beach. Let me just say Puerto Viejo is AMAZING! It was literally the most perfect weekend ever! We arrived late Friday night and Liz, Beth and I went directly to our hostel for the night to crash. I loved our Hostel! It was just off the main strip of down town; a little place call Jacaranda. I felt like for $12 a night we had it made with a privet room and bathroom, hot water (a rarity for most hostels), clean towels daily, and bug nets (which were definitely needed). Saturday morning we were up early for breakfast at this cute local place called “Bread & Chocolate”. They had amazing food, it reminded me a little of mustards ☺ The place was so good we went back the next morning too (Corinn and Lindsay, you guys would both LOVE)! After breakfast we walked about 20 minutes to the beach and enjoyed about 5 hours in the sand and water.

That night was sort of a less than perfect experience trying to figure out where to go for dinner. Two of the other girls who came on the trip stayed in hammocks at a different hostel to cut back on costs. The groups were somewhat segregated for the weekend, but I enjoyed my weekend so really that’s all that I cared about. Saturday night was low key, so we could get up early and do the beach all over again. After another 5 hour day at the beach my back was a little crispy. Although you would not believe how many times I applied SPF 100 (well maybe 45, but still!) I wasn’t like some of the other girls though, thank goodness! I had a pretty rocken’ tan after the weekend. Liz who comes from Mexican dissent absolutely fried her back…. I told her that even though she is brown she is not immune to the sun. She learned her lesson. That was only her second sunburn in her life, and she will never forget to use SPF again!

That day on the beach we met some people learning to surf. Both guys were from the states, one there vacationing for a week and the other lives there with his girlfriend running a small hotel just down the road. They asked if we wanted to meet up with them later, and of course we were totally in (and it had nothing to do with the fact that they were both totally gorgeous). Dinner on Sunday night was excellent, and after we met up with the guys. It was pretty awesome to hear about the experiences of the one guy who owns the hotel. He has lived in Puerto Viejo for two years, truly living up to the Costa Rican expression “Pura Vida”. I can’t imagine living in paradise… I wouldn’t get anything done!! Monday we made our way back to San Jose, hot, tired, and sun kissed- Mission Accomplished ☺

It feels like it always takes two days to get back into the groove of things after being away for the weekend… that consists of catching up on sleep, laundry, and rehydrating. The rest of last week seemed to just FLY by… It seems like time is just moving faster and faster each day. I’m feeling more and more comfortable with my surroundings here, my Spanish is getting progressively better, and I’m feeling pretty competent about my work here. I am also feeling extra blessed to have first hand insight to some of the local culture for people my age. I have been able to go with Fabian and his friends to watch him play soccer a few times a week. San Jose seems to be pretty progressive as far as changing traditions, but still there are many differences culturally. It’s interesting to hear about the family life here, work and the difficulties of finding a job, especially a job that pays a decent salary. It’s great to see the way Fabian interacts with his friends, and to pick up on some of the mannerisms. The culture here is VERY affectionate. I am not used to that at all. Not only in the kissing hello and good bye, but guy friends are affectionate with each other. When I am out and about it is such the norm to see couples walking together holding hands, engaging in a loving embrace, and even sucking face…. Sometimes it’s a little more than I need to see. The other afternoon I was working in the café near the hotel my professor is staying at and watched a couple in the 40’s have lunch together. All I can say is I hope I have that when I’m married… They sat close to each other, her legs crossed towards him, they spoke quietly to each other through out the meal. They were both very attentive in the conversation, and he often put is hand on her back as they spoke, when she got up to use the restroom she stood behind him and leaned in for one last embrace and kiss on the cheek before walking out. I promise I wasn’t gaping at them, I did get work done, but I was just making a respectful observance of the very romantic culture here.

One amenity I’ve taken advantage of while being in Costa Rica is the cheap cost of classes at the gym. I’ve usually been doing 2 classes a week that cost $2-3 dollar each. I wanted something to supplement my runs in the morning, and this was the perfect way to do it. I’ve done a few Pilates classes, Baile classes, Total fitness cardio, and Total fitness abs… its fun because most of the girls go together…. So now for the story about the title…

One night, Liz and I were walking back to our house after 2 classes at the gym. We were both pumped and full of adrenaline after getting our butt kicked by this tiny total fitness instructor. I can’t remember if I’ve talked about how openly verbal men are when they see woman out and about, but yeah, pretty much any time I walk out of my house, I can usually expect to get anywhere from 10-20 honks, whistles, comments, etc.. I don’t ever let it bother me though; I’m starting not to notice because I don’t respond to it… I just figure there isn’t really anything I can do about it, and as long as no one touches me, I’m fine. Anyways, so we are walking, and I’m in mid sentence, and someone honks. And Liz shouts, “UGH! I WISH I HAD A GUN!!” I couldn’t help but just start laughing! Now, Liz is totally anti war, all for peaceful conflict resolution, totally politically correct, very sweet social worker…. She pauses and then responds, “Well, I wouldn’t use it. I just want to scare some of these men… Tell them not to mess with me!” Aww, just another Lizism…. Those seem to happen quite often, and I truly enjoy her as my roommate in Costa Rica!! Never a dull moment with her, sometimes you never know what will come out of her mouth.

Alright sorry for the novel, I still have plenty more to say, but I’m not sure you all want the details, and I should actually get some work done today… From what I’ve heard and read it sounds like everyone is enjoying their summers! I love and Miss you all!!!

Pura Vida- A

Just to note-
I know some of you are worried as you read about the time I’m spending with my Fabian, and I promise you have nothing to worry about. He has spent a lot of time with my friends and I, my professor has met him, my house mom has met him, and I have met some of his family. I’m pretty good at reading people, and although I feel completely safe, I’m still very aware of my surrounds. I promise I’m being safe!!!

Feeling Frustrated...

So, I mentioned my friend that I met last week, and how he only speaks spanish.... Well after spending some time with him and practicing my spanish more and more, I'm just feeling really overwhelmed with the language. I don't feel like I'm getting any better, and I wish, I wish, I wish, that I could communicate more effectively in Spanish. I never realized how disabled I would feel to not be able to speak the language. I never realized how much I crave dialogue as a form of intimacy until now. Not that I want to be so involved in this boys life forever, I just like to know where people come from and what makes them who they are. I love the process of learning who someone is by hearing their stories about their parents, siblings, friends, co-workers, and teachers... I am especially curious about learning about this boys life because of the cultural difference. I'm fascinated and intrigued by his behavior and mannerisms compared to that of the men I have met/dated in the states.

Alas, the girls have all reassured me that my spanish has gotten, but I am by no means approaching fluency. Reading and writing Spanish are getting easier... but I feel very nervous about speaking. I know I'm going to make mistakes, but I second guess myself too much. Hopefully, somewhere I can muster up the confidence to drastically improve my skills.

On an up note though, today I presented the first draft of my workshop manuel to my professor and supervisor. It went REALLY well!! I'm super excited about. Monica (my supervisor) expressed a lot of appreciation for the work I was putting to creating this workshop. Right now I have the manuel broken up into 4 main groups- Decision Making, Self Esteem, Diversity, and Sexual Health. Under each area I have created and adapted key points to touch on, discussion questions, and activities. Like I mentioned before, I'm really enjoying this part of Social Work, and wouldn't mind implementing this into my future career.

For this weekend, we are packing up and heading out to the beach again!!! I'm sooooooooo (x a million) excited. It has been so rainy and chilly here this past week, it's been kind of depressing. We are going to Puerto Viejo, leaving San Jose at 4 pm Friday. We wont get to the beach till late, but we aren't coming back until monday, so we will have all of saturday and sunday!! Puerto Viejo is on the Caribbean side of the country, so I'll let you know what I think of it. I've heard that the Caribbean side is nicer so I'm definitely feeling that.

Hope all is well on the home front!! I love and miss you all!!!

-A

Embracing the experience

Another week has come and gone. I can't even believe how fast time is going! I'm a little bit sad about that. I feel like I still have so much to experience that I can't possibly fit everything in to the time I have remaining.

Things at my internship are going very well. I'm still working on creating the manuel for the sexual health workshop. I went over everything that I have so far with my supervisor and everything looks great so far. Now I just have to do some translating so that there is a copy of the manuel in spanish and english. Google translate has helped with that, but it doesn't do everything correctly so, I have to have the girls help me with that portion of the project. I have really enjoyed this aspect of social work, it's totally different than anything I have done before. I think that program development will have to be something I look into when I start looking for jobs this fall.... and come December, hopefully I will be able to find ANY job related to social work!!!

Everything in the home stay is perfect. I feel so fortunate to have Marcela as my host mom. She has just been so helpful with my Spanish. I appreciate her being so patient with me. The food in the house is still delicious as always. I haven't learned to make anything yet because they usually prepare the food during the day while I'm out... but at some point before I leave I will learn a few things, I promise!

I feel very fortunate to have such wonderful support while on this trip. I have bonded so well with the girls here. I can't imagine trying to adjust without having such a tight knit group of girls. Every girl brings a different dynamic to the group that I absolutely love! I admire the skills and strength that each girl possesses, they are teaching me a lot about myself, and the world in general. It can be intimidating to spend time with such strong women who have many characteristics I would like to develop, but I am definitely working on my confidence, personally and professionally. My professor, Bob Miller, has also been another wonderful support. Every week each girl meets with him individually to talk about the adjustments, and how everything is going for us. Its kind of like a little mini therapy session :) I can tell that he is very concerned about making sure each girl is getting the support and experience they need while on the trip. Speaking professional, he is a good contact to have because he knows a lot of people and is very connected to the social work field. He is very intuitive to all of our needs, and picks up on how we are all adjusting to the culture and our experience.

This weekend, we all stayed in San Jose to spend some time with Bob and a few of his friends. Friday night, last minute, the girls decided to go out and see what the San Jose night life was like. We mad our way down to a few places that are close to the University of Costa Rica. There are a lot of schools here in Costa Rica, so there are a lot of young people here. It was a lot of fun!! The places we went to seemed to be mostly locals, so it was nice to be out of the tourist area. Then, Saturday night we made our way out with Bob, and a few of his friends, to a strip of clubs, and we just danced till 4 am!! It was soooo much fun (Lara and Corinn- you guys would have loved it)!!! We all want to go out and do it again soon!!!

So even after being out till 4 am, I was still able to make it to church on sunday for sacrament. I can tell that my spanish is getting better, because I could understand a lot more!!! Not everything by any means, but enough to get the idea of what is being talked about. Its pretty exciting!! The language is still a struggle, and I'm trying really hard not to rely on the other girls. But I met some Tico friends to hang out with and one of them only speaks spanish so I'm thinking that spending time with him will help me increase my ability even more!!!

Three weeks down and six more to go!!!! Believe it or not, I do miss home. I don't like feeling like I'm missing out on everyone else's life. Please email me and tell me what you're all up to!! Thanks, for all the comments on the blog, and prayers. I love you all!!

I'll post pics soon.... for those of you friends with me on facebook, you have an early sneak peak :)

-A

Birthday Surprise!

Sorry, I forgot to talk about this when it happened, but I wanted you all to know how well I'm being taken care of here. The weekend of my birthday we went to Manuel Antonio but the monday after we got back my house Mom baked a cake and had everyone over for a surprise. It was soooo sweet.

We ate dinner like normal, and then Marcela told Liz and I that she "forgot" to make dessert tonight- which is not true, she never forgets, we have dessert every night!! But she said that in 45 minutes she had to talk to us. After dinner, Liz and I were just in our room working on some stuff, and then she called us out into the living room... and everyone from our group was there waiting. They all sang Happy Birthday to me and we ate cake! It was soooo wonderful! She is such a sweet lady!!

MMM MMM MMM... I ate two pieces, in honor of my birthday!!

It was SO delicious and made from scratch!

Pictures of La Fortuna!!

Here are the pictures of my Fourth of July weekend, as promised. My camera died so some of the pictures were captured thanks to the other girls. There are just a few of my favorites!

-A

I fit right in :)

beth, kirby, and i

bob and i... and a dinosaur (i told you i visited jurassic park!!)

A creature from outer space, i think.

Cute little fountain at the shrubbery garden.

This is the hike on our way to repelling

Our hotel from Saturday night-

and the down comforter I wanted to take.

The jacuzzi tub could have easily fit 4 of us girls in it

This is the lake we kayaked on

The active volcano- Arenal!!

The group on our bridge walk. The funny looking guy behind me

is the guide that held me under the water fall...

Just walking in the rainforest!

Me about to cross one of the suspended bridges-

SCARRRY!!!!