Day 103, el jeuves 25 de octubre 2012 21:25

Friend visit!

There were just classes in the morning, so I had the afternoon free. I spent my afternoon in my internetcafe, and I studied! Tomorrow I have an exam about insects. I went running to Ruth’s house later in the afternoon. There we just chilled. I ate dinner with her and her parents, they are really really nice and they told me I can always come there! We ate ‘perro calientes’ which means hot dog, and they were delicious hotdogs!

There not so much happening right now, just being relaxed and not doing so much right now. I’m really happy I went to Ruth today, I had something to do. I prefer Monday, Tuesday, and Friday because then I have Taekwondo! I didn’t get any email back about my waterpolo practices, so I doubt if I can go Saturday but I really hope I can!

Oh, and tomorrow there’s another exchange student coming to Orotina! It is Sarah from Switzerland, cool! J

Day 104, Friday 26^th of octuber.

Season change

 I started the day with failing my tourism exam about insects, but in return I get 100% in English exam.  Furthermore we made a small beach inside our tourism classroom for the openday next week. I think it looks pretty nice, gotta bring my photocamara on that day.

In the evening there was a Taekwondo meeting for all the parents and we just talked about the sport, and that there isn’t a lot of money etc. this made me decide that if I will be rich that I will donate money to this Taekwondo academy, promise made.

And this week I realized that the seasons are changing, the rain isn´t that heavy anymore and it is more like in the Netherlands, soft rain all day. When I come back from school it was raining really soft and the sun was shining really hard, I was walking through the park and it was just an amazing feeling, the hot sun with the nice rain and the sun shining through the palms and the rain being very visible. Really cool.

Dia 105, el domingo 28 de octubre 2012 18:30

Sleepover!

Yesterday I had an old school sleepover! I went to Esparza in the morning with bus. Romeyn picked me up from the park, we bought some ice coffee and we walked to josh’s house. Josh is a friend of Romeyn, he’s half from the USA, and half tico. I met josh’s mom and some other people. They made a pumpkin pie and I don’t say no to that, obviously. We just chilled a bit, we helped putting on some curtains and later we made milkshakes.  In the night we ordered pizza, watched a movie and just chilled. It was really nice to do something like this again!

When we woke up I had to hurry a bit to get the bus at 9 back to Orotina. That hurry was for nothing, I was told there was a bus at 9, and if not it would come at 9:30 for sure. The bus for 9:30 didn’t come, so I asked in a pulparia at what time a bus will come for sure, this would be at 10:30, that bus didn’t come either. When another bus passed I asked what time the bus to Orotina passes, it was 12:30, I didn’t have any other option so accepted it, and waited. The weird, or good thing is, that I didn’t get grumpy because of it. In the Netherlands I would have gone crazy for sure. But I just kept a big smile on my face, as most of the time here by the way, and I talked with other people at the bus stop. I was very relieved when the bus finally came, and I slept the whole ride so that wasn’t that bad.

When I got home I quick took a shower and went to my grandmother’s house for her birthday. I was afraid that my host family would be mad at me for being late, but they weren’t. They understood it! We had a typical Costa Rican party, first a big plate with rice, beans, salad and chicken and later cake and coffee. It was nice and I met some more family members.

Now I’m watching Avatar in Spanish, and I understand everything!

Day 106, el lunes 29 de octubre 2012 22:27

No inspiration,

I don’t really have inspiration nor energy to write something. It was an open day today at school, so we finished up our classroom and it looked pretty good, the sea and ach were nice. Then I had a math exam and later some small kids went to see our school. That wasn’t that interesting as I thought it would be, don’t know why I thought that. So after the lunch we could home.

I’m dying to get in contact with Sarah, the new girl in Orotina, but the other school has holiday so they are always busy. Then that made me a bit jealous, but then I talked with somebody and realized being jealous is the worst thing I can do. Just got to appreciate what I have, and that is a lot.

                                                                                                          

Day 107, el Martes 30 de octubre 2012 21:45

The quote of the day.

 I wanted to blog about this for a long time but I just kept forgetting it. Everyday a teacher writes the ‘quote of the day’ on the blackboard. Today it was ‘Traducir palabras a acciones’

This means, change words into action. Every day there is a quote like this. I think this shows a part of the difference between Dutch teachers and Costa Rican teachers. In The Netherlands the teacher’s job is to educate their students about their subject. In Costa Rica, the teachers really are mentors, and because of that the students treat them better as well. Of course this is for the majority of teachers, and not all of them.

Today I met Sarah and Ruth real quick in Orotina, good to see them again. I dropped out of Taekwondo practice because my back thingy exploded; a lot of blood was the consequence. I really hope that they will fix it tomorrow.

Day 108, el miercoles 31 de octubre 2012 22:07

Costa Rican surgery.

This definitely was the most painful day of my time in Costa Rica, well actually of all my life. I took a bus to San Jose at 8:30 and arrived exactly 1 hour later. I was going to be picked up at 10:30 so I decided to go to the foodcourt which I know was nearby. There I got the best iced cappuccino I ever had, so I’ll go back there sometime. At 10:30 Carolina picked me up and took me to the doctor. When it was my turn I first answered all the regular questions like do you take any medicine and stuff. But then the real part was about the happen, I took my shirt of and turned around. ( in this sentence the context is important :p ) I had to lie down on a doctor chair / table no idea how that should be called. The doctor examined it for a few seconds, and said that it might be a parasite, so then I got a bit scared. She told me what she was going to do and started the surgery.

First she burn froze the thingy, that was extremely cold but bearable.  Then the painful part came, she had to cut it off with I knife which had electricity flowing through it the close my veins by burning them. I didn’t get any anesthesia so I felt everything, it hurt really bad, and there was a lot of blood coming out of my back. This took like 10 minutes, and then it came off! She put the thing in a later jar, and cleaned and up and the surgery was done! She explained to me that there were bad cells in my system who wanted to leave, and they wanted to leave through my back. I forgot the name of it though. I realized that it was a good decision to go to this doctor and not to the clinic in Orotina, she is a specialist and helped me pretty good, and since I have unlimited medical expenses…. J

Carolina and I went to the lab afterwards to bring the thingy there for examination, so I was actually walking through the main street of San José with the just cut off part of my back. After lab back to the doctor to pick up our bags and afterwards we went to a Greek fast-food place to get lunch and it was very good! Then we went to the office to do the paperwork, the office is pretty cool! and after a hour or 2 it was all done and I went home with bus, unfortunately I forgot my medicine at the office so I will be going back tomorrow to pick these up… clever…

The best part about this day is that I was talking with Carolina a lot about all kind of things about the exchange and stuff. That helped me with understanding how EF works, and other parts of being on an exchange year. Also she answered some questions I was walking around with.

In the end, it is a good day to remember!