The one with the plate full of ants

This morning I woke up ready for the day. I popped in my frozen french toast and had it with a nice plate of syrup. After I finished the first toastie I looked carefully into my syrup and saw a little black thing..in my head I said, "Tricia don't over-react until you are for sure..." Then I noticed these black things were covering my toasties and all in my syrup...yup ants. I started gagging and haven't stopped since. I want to go home where there are not bugs everywhere!

The one with the firestation and the Caribbean

Here are some pictures! Our class went to the firestation and loved it! We saw bomberos-firefighters and now all our boys want to be firefighters.

We went to Puerto Viejo this weekend, which is in the caribbean! It was beautiful and we spent the day snorkeling and hiking. We saw: a reef shark, lion fishes, colorful fishes, I swam through a huge school of fish from a dare, sloths, monkeys, poisonous snakes, raccoons and so many more things! I loved snorkeling, I love holding my breath and going deep just to look closer at things under water! It was definitely amazing and I would recommend going there! In Puerto Viejo, its a very chill environment; too chill at times, I got offered brownies with weed and Bob Marley is posted everywhere, there are signs that say "No Smoking Weed in the restuarant." Its so interesting how different a culture can be...and this was completely different than Escazu and many parts of CR. It has more jamaicans and nicaraguans and other cultures mixed.

I am ready to return to the States. I realize that I won't get another chance like this and I am therefore trying to make the best out of the time I have left. Its hard when you can see the end and the things coming and not to be thinking ahead. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time here! 10 days left!

Thank you for reading, I am so grateful for you
Tricia

The one with Saint Teresa

I posted pictures below check em out!

Picture this: Heaven
Now think about a slice of Heaven on earth...what you are picturing is Saint Teresa. Saint Teresa is on the Northwest peninsula of Costa Rica. This trip was a Blue Valley girls teacher trip! :) Carley, Vanessa, Kathrine (3rd grade North Carolina teacher) and Megan (prep NJ teacher) went on a long but worth it trip starting 6 am Saturday morning. The night before we had a Blue Valley girl Teacher pasta night at one of the women's house. They told us that normally teachers don't hang out with the student teachers from OSU and we are the first ones they wanted to hang out with! We all spent the night at Kathrines Friday night and woke up 4:30 Saturday morning to start the morning off in Coca Cola Station San Jose...who wouldnt want to wake up to the most dangerous part of the province? We were fine and went on a 2 hour bus ride (air conditioned!) to Punteranas then jumped on a ferry for an hour. The ferry ride was breathtaking: rocky islands around, blue clear water, perfect temperature with a cool breeze.. We got off the ferry and took 2 more ours of a bus ride to get to our destination. Saint Teresa is a quieter beach that everyone says if you cant go to the Caribbean go to this beach. My friends-Bekah, Emmy and Luke- went there and suggested it to us.

We laid out on the beach and then Van and I came up with a cool game: throwing rocks. Side note: the waves were HUGE, so big that if you went ankle deep, the undertoe would be so strong that it knocks you down. I got knocked down and I fell on the sea shell sand and cut my leg! Worth it. Anyways Van and I threw rocks in a hole for awhile and had competitions who could throw the farthest. We took a long walk on the beach to go to a surfing competition. It was so cool watching people surf almost as a profession.

We watched the sunset and it was absolutely incredible. The most beautiful view; Always makes me stand in awe of God seeing a different painting in the sky!

Funny Story: We went to this empty place to eat dinner and before we sat down we asked if they had a credit card machine and they didn't. The guy then turns to us and goes "do any of you have a license?" Us "um no..??" Guy"ok I will have him drive you to the ATM" (pointing to a U.S worker) so the guy drove 2 of the girls to the ATM which was 6 kilometers away! I just couldn't believe that he was going to let us (strangers) drive his car 6 kilometers away where we didn't know where the ATM was..

We came back today on the 6am bus and are exhausted.
20 days left and counting!
Staying strong and running the race!
Patricia

The one where Saint Teresa really is beautiful

Saint Teresa!

Explanation of the sand in my hand: the one where its full of sand-God fills us up with love, strength, joy..
One where the sand is falling: Its our job to pour this love and joy to others...this is my thoughts about me being in Costa Rica. As Travis has told me, "my students might not see Christ's love" therefore I have/need/want to pour out onto them.

The one with Semana Santa

Pictures: Vanessa and I on Easter! The Dinner we made on Friday night (read on!) Mary Beth Burns and I outside a church made from Tin! and an old man, not made from tin!

Started off Holy Week by forgetting my passport accidently went to Houston with Vanessa, and to my knowledge I was going to have a terrible week starting that lonely Friday night. The LORD knows the best plans for us, even though through our tunnel narrow, self centered eyes we cannot see it, we always have to TRUST that He knows what He is doing!!

I hung out with Elza and Nikki all day Saturday and went shopping with them. That night I went to a huge arts festival with my brother Gigo and his girlfriend Andrea and their married friends. Ha I think I spoke 6 english words the whole night, but the guy that sung was really good...in spanish.

Sunday- went to a Catholic spanish church with Nikki and Elza. At the beginning of the service, we stood outside in the street watching "Roman Guards" beat drums in their outfits and saw 12 disciples and two real oxen carrying "Jesus" on a cart. It was really cool! The whole service was in Spanish though, so I understood some but mostly looked around at the completely overflowing church. I was the only blonde-score. The bulletins cost a little less than a dollar to use, and the preacher joked about bringing cake and cookies to pay for the sins..was a little thrown off by that.

Monday-Wednesday- I got to be with Travis' family! Travis' cousin Brooke Burns and her husband Doug have two kids-Mary Beth and Austin and they live down here only 30 minutes away from me! They have been missionaries here for about 4 years and are leaving back to the States in June. We made fudge, homemade pizza, and amazing pancakes. We had wonderful times at: Starchi (furniture city), coffee times on the porch, getting hooked on the tv show called The Unit, dressing up in weird clothes with Mary Beth, ROLLER BLADING-thats right I got back on rollers after my accident, painted, went to a cool tile design place and made crafts, drank about 1 gallon of cold milk because my family buys the milk that stays in the cuboard, and had wonderful conversation. This was exactly what I needed and I loved it more than Panama could ever offer. The Lord is so amazing.

Wednesday-Thursday- stayed with Tracy Waters. She is a teacher at Blue Valley and her husband is in the States. We hung out watched movies and traveled around Escazu. We picked up my girls on Thursday!

I hope you enjoy this part of the story:
Thursday- I surprised the girls with their favorite drinks-Monster for Carl and Diet Pepsi for Van- and chips, queso (actually impossible to find here)and beans. Friday Morning woke up and they ate cookies and waffles all day because literally there is no food at our house because our family was at the farm. We watched greys anatomy most of the day. I got some really good time in the word that day-read Genesis-amazing. Found out Charlotte our huge spider has a twin-Spidey-not anymore cause we killed it. For dinner, we had to go to a pulperia near by (this is a place usually owned by chinese people and they stuff the store with absolutely everything imaginable, but it smells horrible) we ate noodles for dinner along with corn, beans, guacomole, and a sauce made from: ketchup, mayonaisse, salts, lemon..so random, explains the picture above. All slept on a king sized bed together that night :)

Saturday- woke up and waited for the taxi we called the night before and they never came so we walked awhile into Escazu (its a hike) and found a taxi and were late for our bus with the other OSU students to a beach called Punternas or something. We got to the beach and layed out on it for awhile. It was pretty busy! We layed out by this pool with some connections the rest of the day. That night we ate more noodles and beans haha.

Easter Sunday!! We didn't have any way to get to church today so we made our own! We set up Carls computer and watched her church live! We all were dressed up and would sing along and read along in our Bibles. We read from Luke together and prayed together and it was such a beautiful morning with the Lord and in sweet friendship. We had the OSU students over to make Easter lunch. We cooked for awhile and inhaled in a short time everything we cooked. Then Carl Van and I went on a walk up in the mountains. My favorite part in Costa Rica is this green mountain that has a wooden cross at the top-standing bodly overlooking San Jose province. I look to it with HOPE. We got a really good view of it from the height we were at, I want to hike to it, but I heard people get killed hiking up there...hmm

That brings me to now. Thank you for reading and I am so thankful for you. Also, 4 weeks left. 3 weekends left to plan. 3 weeks of teaching-2 weeks left to plan...More memories to come!

The Joy of the LORD is my STRENGTH
Tricia Marie

The one with the mistake

Note to self and everyone out there: be careful where you put your passport, it might accidentally end up in a book and sent home with your roomate that went back to the states for a weekend. Yes, my passport is in Houston, Texas and I was supposed to go to Panama tonight. I am home..with Momma Elza and everyone else is on a 13 hour bus ride to Panama. Don't feel sorry for me, it was my stupidity. I am trying to figure out what to do for my Holy Week here. I might go to the farm with Momma Elza and Grandma haha! I wish I could be home with my family during Easter :( The Lord has a plan and even though I don't like it right now, I trust Him and know He knows what is best.

Story: I am sick with the virus going around school. I have a pharmacist best friend cause I have been to her several times; anyways, I go up to her today asking about a certain shot that alot of teachers recommended and she gave it to me. The thing about this story I want to get across: You can get basically any kind of medicine without being diagnosed or seeing a doctor. She gave me two shots that hurt like no other! I feel SO much better. Not fully, but BETTER!!! Getting medicine is interesting here in Costa Rica.

Pura Vida everyone and Live it up
Tricia

Picture Post explaining previous post!

Check out my previous post to know the stories behind the pics :)

The one where I am jumping is at the farm! We ran on this road, it was gorgeous

The one with the peacock, its mating season, therefore we saw alot of feathers

The one with the house, is the farm house! Its like a resort!!

The one with the spider= charolette

The factory is on the farm for the sugar production!

There is a lagoon/swamp at the farm and that is why some of the pics are really green!

My beautiful friends came and visited me! The pictures of us at night with the lights in the background is the place we ate at! So beautiful!!

The one with Carley and I in the pool, we can make some good homemade margaritas!

The one where I am holding a fruit..This is where cashews come from! It is on the top and you cut it open and dry it. We tasted the fruit at the supermarket once, and it literally pulls out all the saliva possible in your mouth, throat, tongue anything. It dries it up and you can't swallow. The ticos thought it was hilarious watching us gag at the market.
Gods Love and Mine!