My last week in Costa Rica

(Written- Sunday, June 6)
As I begin to write this I am on my way back to the United States, but I have much more to tell about my last days in Costa Rica.
Wednesday we all dressed in our boots and "old" clothes to work at a Coffee Co-op in Monteverde. At the co-op we all helped plant coffee. Some dug holes and other planted the small plants. It was interesting to see the field in which we were planting because it went up a steep hill. After hard work we returned to CPI for Spanish classes. After class I spent some time at the Internet cafe before heading home. With my computer acting up I was thankful for this. Many computers are available around Santa Elena. Santa Elena, a small town of Monteverde, is full of hostels, internet cafes, travel agencies, laundry services, etc. All of Costa Rica is very tourism centered but it is especially clear in this small mountain town. Most families have a member involved in tourism. Many drive tour buses or arrange excursions and etc. The internet cafe I used most was in an old school bus. The owners spoke only a little English and tried to stike up conversations in English to learn more. After a short time at the internet cafe I went "home". While doing my "tarea" (homework) Karla called me in to watch the news. There had been a Tornado (as of now they say maybe it was a hurricane) late the night before in Quepos and Manuel Antonio. the news showed images of the destruction which had occured in the place we'd visited just 8 days before. It was shoking to see. Trees and electric poles were scattered on the streets and business and homes torn apart. There was no electricity or water. It was such a shock to see the beautiful place so torn up.
Thursday was the 3rd of June, Ben and I's 4th anniversary. Our groups' plan had been to have a morning free, but the threat of bad weather Friday led us to move our Zip-line canopy tour to that morning. So Thursday we got geared up in harnesses and protective helmets and headed out to the Zipline. There were many nervous questions aske d by the group before this activity, but I was ready to go. :) I was the first on the 'practice' zip line and it was great. There was a kind of rope/bungee cord set up which helped us stop at the end, but if necessary we were taught how to brake. We road a tram up to the frist "real" zipline and had to climb a large tower to get to our starting point. All in our group, except Dr. Huber, went on the zip lines. (All = Me, Emily, Terri, Shelby, David, Dr. Powell and Sonia-our chaparone) A few cables we did tandem since they were not very steep and we needed more weight to be sure we'd make it across. I went across cable #1 with Terri and it was amazing. The views were great, even though we only had about 30 seconds to see them. Emily and Shelby came together after us and about 20 meters from the end, they stopped. Something about their arm positions had caused them to be braking almost all the way across and so they had to pull themselves in. After that, however, all the cables (a total of nine) went without any trouble. Most were sole and two more were tandem. It as such a fun experience. After our morning of "flying" we had lunch at Stella's, a great little restaurant and bakery near CPI. Our Spanish classes that day were, again, a lot of fun. Our "Profesora" had us acting out vocabulary words. She also had us finding vocabulary in song lyrics and sorting out Curious George pictures while describing, in Spanish, what was happening.
Friday we ended up having a partial free day. I was able to get my laundry done, check my email and begin to pack everything into my big suitcase. My host family had a washing machine and drying but it cost too much to use the dryer so they hung clothes to dry on the line outside. When it rained they tried to dry everything inside, but this took many many days and clothes never did dry completely and smelled a little funny. For this reason I paid for my laundry to be done at one of the service places. Our group met to go the bank that morning and pay our "Exit Tax". We had to pay $26 in order to leave the country. We had lunch at "Johnies", where most of us ordered a hamburguesa and papas (hamburger and fries), we'd grown a little tired of beans and rice. We had our last Spanish class that day and about 445, a graduation. Sonia put together a great slide show of our three weeks in Costa Rica with Spanish music in the background. We were given diploma type certificates and took pictures with our teachers. It was really nice. Afterwards we headed "home" for a last night with our families.
I arrived home and started organizing and deciding what I really DIDN'T need to take back with me. I was still organizing when Karla got home. She was wearing the North Carolina shirt I'd given her the night before. She called me into the living room where she was watching the news. She asked me about my day and said she had good news. She said she'd found out for sure that morning that she was pregnant. She and Erick were so excited and we decided to go out that night to eat and celebrate. We went to Morphose, a new restaurant which Erick actually helped built. It is a butterfly themed restaurant and the building is uniquely shaped with a roof like a squiggle ~ Inside it is beautifully painted all over with scenes of Costa Rica. I spent a long time just obsrving it all. Erick was explaining to both Karla and I about how it was constructed. It was a nice final dinner and night with them.
Saturday mornign I left my homestay early and met the group at the clinic meeting point. It was a sad ride to San Jose, I think we all had bonded with our host families. But we had some beautiful views on our way down the mountains. Of course,that actually made it more difficult to be leaving such a peaceful, beautiful place. We arrived in San Jose for lunch and it was a bit of a shock for us all because it was so noisy there. The cars and people were so loud and intrusive. It made us miss Monteverde. It was all overwhelming. We visited the National Theater and History Museum and then walked around the San Jose shops. We said goodbye to Javier and then headed to La Condesa. It was the same hotel we'd stayed in our first weekend in Costa Rica. Being there allowed us all to think about how far we'd come. I remember all the worries we had our first weekend about our host families and Spanish classes. There we were three weeks later with so many meaningful, amazing experiences behind us. We ate dinner at the same restaurant we had that first weekend. We all sat and laughed and reflected on the past weeks. This morning we all had a last breakfast together. At 830 Emily, Terri, Dr. Powell, Dr. Huber and I head to the airport with Sonia. Shelby stayed because her kids had come and they were spending the next week together in Costa Rica. David was staying another three days to see more of San Jose. We said goodbye to Sonia at the airport and left Costa Rica at 1230 pm.
2 1/2 hours later, at 5 pm Eastern time, we arrived at Ft. Lauderdale. We went through customs, which was a new experience for me. We had a short lay over in FL and at 745 we got on the plane for Myrtle Beach. Hearing so many English speakers has been a bit of a shock and probably the most unexpected thing we had to get used to was the time change. At 745 in Costa Rica, it was DARK. The sun was down by 6pm there. Now, as I type this in the plane headed from Ft. Lauderdale to Myrtle Beach, at 750pm, the sun is just beginning to go down. I was excited to see a Dunkin Donuts at the airport, but their coffee doesn't compete well with Costa Rica's. What made me most happy was to be able to turn on my iPhone and connect to the internet. I was able to talk back and forth with Ben via email and called my Mom. It was so wonderful to hear a familiar voice. And to hear about familiar things. I am so ready to be back in my own bed and then back to Missouri..