Rock, Sun, Gringo

The TOP FIVE PLAYS OF THE WEEK:

5) FIELD TRIPS

For my class, Spanish for Health Professions, I got to tour two hospitals. The first hospital was a public hospital and the second one was a private hospital. The private

Varieties of fruits at the market

hospital was one of the nicest hospital I have ever been in with beautiful rooms, great technology and a very well trained staff. One of the doctors did a presentation to us (in English thankfully) about the hospital but the coolest part was that they are non-profit. The doctor all give back by volunteering with a village in the rainforest that requires an 8 hour hike to get to the location. This is just another example of kindness I have seen this past week. 

4) Morning Runs 

Most people are not morning people but God created me with a special biological clock that loves to wake me up early in the morning. One the best parts about this is waking up on weekend trips and going for runs on the beach. This past weekend I went running on the morning on the beach in Tamarindo and it was on the beyond beautiful. Surfers in the ocean, waves crashing on the shore, 80 degrees and sand between my toes.  Sorry everyone in the Michigan snow storms but this is PURA VIDA!!!

PURA VIDA

3) MISS INDEPENDENT…NOT

Back at school in Michigan, I can walk to class at night, go to the gym and do anything I want by myself and feel perfectly safe. I tend to think I am a self-sufficient person but coming to COSTA RICA, my world has been rocked. Not only is it VERY dangerous to walk around at night, you should always be walking with other people. After night classes, I often have to wait for the shuttle home even though it is only an 8 minute walk. BUT as embarrassing as it is, my independent style, fast paced and trying to get everything done on a schedule life is Idiotic. I realized that slowing down, listening to others and recognizing my need for others is real.

I depend on my parents for support, my sister for advice, my friends for adventure and my teachers for wisdom. I noticed this week that everyone is dependent on different things based on society. What does society tell you to be deponent on? Money, FAME, “busy” trap, Friends, God, food, etc.  This past week, I witness many people depending on others, showing kindness and slowing down to enjoy others. I believe in society we’re tied town to our gripping responsibilities and often we miss opportunities to show kindness. The minute we ask for assistance, we're deemed futile or weak but I learned that to be false. Since being in Costa Rica, I have to learn that asking for help and relying on others is not a bad thing. 

2) ROCK, SUN, GRINGA

Ever play this game? Similar to the common game, Rock, Paper, Scissors, the game ROCK, SUN, GRINGA the rock beats the gringa but the sun also beats the Gringa. In other words, this weekend we got to travel to Tamarindo beach on the Pacific Cost. The beach was beautiful and a few of my friends and I rented surf boards for the day. But being a cheap DUTCH girl I was not willing to pay for lessons. Instead I instated on watching some other people take lessons and learn. We ended up picking up on surfing pretty fast and it was such a thrill. One of my life goals was to learn to surf (check). Towards the end of the day, I was surfing and fell off my board and landed on a rock. Not knowing what happened, I glided into shore to find out I cut my foot so I

hobbled up to the hotel and told Taylar I was bit by a shark (she didn’t think it was funny). Thankfully we had Band-Aids to fix my foot up. Later that night after a long beach day, everyone noticed they had been brutally defeated by the sun. The sunburns were real and the search for ALEO began. Lesson learned- the sun is not messing around here, wear a ton of SUNSCREEN.

1)Bus Ride Back to SAN JOSE

Traveling back for the beach on Sunday was one of the craziest experiences of my life. To start the journey back we had to get a different bus because the one we had wasn’t working. Once we got on a different bus we headed back to San Jose and about thirty minutes into our trip our bus driver (who spoke no English) stopped the bus, got out to get a Coke from a roadside stand and picked up a random person. Next we were traveling and stopped at this road for over twenty minutes and I was questioning what we were doing but then I found out that the road was a one way road and it went one way for twenty minutes in one direction and then switched directions…(logical right?). But just when we began to question the reliability of our transportation, our leader for the trip named GUSTABO stopped the bus and just left. Nobody knew where he went but we just kept going. About an hour later we were stopped dead still in traffic wondering what was happening. Our bus driver got out and started walking down the highway to find out what happened. He found out that a tractor trailer had flipped across the highway and nobody could get through. Not only were the 48 people and I on the bus starving but we had to go to the bathroom and just wanted to get home. Instead we made the best of our time by walking down the road and talked to people. Finally after an hour

Road side "Sandia"

in a half of waiting the police who were on “tico” time arrived and cleared the scene. But as many know, once a traffic jam happens it doesn’t disappear. To make matters worse, the bus we were in was a STICK shift and was the jerkiest ride I have ever experienced. After a long TEN hours of traveling we arrived home safely. This whole experience made me remember what TAYLAR MILER told me earlier in the week which was to “enjoy the little things daily” and not to worry about tomorrow. What a great reminder for me that when things don’t go as I had planned, that my FATHER had a different plan for those moments!   

Futbol

Learn how to surf: Check

This picture just makes me laugh