The end is drawing near…. its the last week of classes and many people leave at the end of the week. I don’t leave until January 1st, but it will be sad to see so many good friends leave. I have finished my Alternative Health final, my presentations for Tropical Dance Theory are all done, and I have my last final this afternoon for Tropical Marine Biology. Tonight we are also going to go see The Hobbit since it is super cheap to go see movies here. I’m so excited to see my family who arrives here in Costa Rica on Wednesday. We will be spending the last 2 weeks traveling around to different areas of Costa Rica. It will be really wierd to have a Tropical Christmas. Koryn

Some of my friends got free tickets to a play since one of the doctors that they work with was directing it. The play was The Christmas Story which is pretty nice being away from home for the Holidays (They take Christmas very seriously here, esp when it comes to decorating). The play was really good, the acting was great and very comical, and I understood most of it despite it being in Spanish. We had been doing a detox for the 3 days  prior so 3 out of the 4 of us were very hungry, and at 8:30 (when our detox ended) we went and got a muffin and coffee since that was the same time as intermission. Best coffee and muffin EVER!!! So blessed 🙂

We didn’t go anywhere, but on Friday we went to the National Theater to watch the symphony. We got to get all dressed up and the National Theater is gorgeous. It is very fancy and they were serving wine… The music was beautiful as well. Its very relaxing and there weren’t words so Spanish wasn’t a problem. Great time out with friends. Koryn

We decided to go rollerblading after class on Tuesday of this week. We took a bus to the roller rink and it was only like $5 to get in and use inline skates. It was just like the roller rinks that we had in the states as kids and it was similar music as well. They played a lot of 90s music, some Latin music, disco, and some modern pop including Gangnam style. They would occasionally turn out the lights and use strobe lights instead. There were games every once in a while where you would have to make a chain and if you fell or broke the chain, you were out. They also had specific times for people who wanted to go really fast or race. There were some people that were really good and could do jumps or dance… some of them could even do partner dancing like salsa and merengue on skates. Afterwards some of us went and just hung out and told riddles at Burger King.      Koryn

I went back to Manuel Antonio with some friends who hadnt been there yet. We got a really good deal so we were able to stay in a suite for $14 a night. It had a Jacuzzi, pool table, and a kitchen. The first day we went to the public beach where we swam and surfed. However, there were really bad rip tides all along the beach and the waves were terrible so we had to be really careful. Later that night we went out dancing which was a lot of fun. The next day we went to the National Park where our lunch was stolen by raccoons. We swam and hiked a little and went to the other side of the beach. The beach was shut down by the end of the day because there was a crocodile in the water. We were able to see a bunch of different monkeys this time and the weather was fantastic. By the time we got back to town we were starving so we grabbed an early dinner. We stayed in that evening and got some much needed sleep. The next day we took the bus home. I had a great time with awesome people!     Koryn

For our Alternative Health class, we went to the Talamanca Indian Reservation which is on the Caribbean side near Puerto Viejo. It was about a 4 hour drive and then we hiked up into the mountain where the indian reservation is since their arent roads up there. There was an abundance of flora, the main thing was the cocoa trees.. we were able to try fresh cocoa fruit. Once you break it open you take out the seeds and suck on the them. The membrane is very sweet, however you spit out the actual seed because it is very bitter. We also were asked to chew on some leaves from a tree called hombre grande. These leaves prevent malaria and are a natural mosquito repellent. The natives grow up drinking tea made of this and just chewing on it… it tastes horrible though. We had a wonderful lunch with chicken, rice, and beans made Caribbean style (which generally means they use a lot of coconut). There was a watch tower that we hiked more to get to that you could see everything from. We were able to see Panama, the ocean, and the mountains along with some toucans. We went back down to town at Punta Uva and had dinner and went into Puerto Viejo in the evening where we went salsa dancing. Afterwards some people went to the ocean and went star gazing and played in the water. In the morning, we went back to the beach and did a martial arts form called chi gun on the beach. Chi gun is kind of like yoga and creates movement that is supposed to redirect chi flow. Once we got back we had lunch and returned to San Jose. The water in the area we were at was not potable and, even though we didnt drink it, all but 2 people in the class got sick. Despite that, it was a great trip.       Koryn