My time is going by so quickly. I already had my goodbye gathering with my local afs chapter. Last night they had a gathering with everyone in Cartago. We aren't that many but all the host families came as well. We were served dinner, arroz con pollo, ensalada, and cajitas (a dessert almost exclusively made of sugar and milk I believe). They also had games, and a piñata. I now only have 39 days left. That's terrifying and exciting. It has gone by so fast. It already feels very bittersweet. I haven't written for a while because it hasn't felt like there's too much to tell. To be honest the last month hasn't been among the most exciting. We haven't had school since the 5th of may. The teachers are on strike. They aparently haven't gotten paid since the beginning of the school year in February. Or they have been getting paid only about $1.5 a week which is crazy because everything in Costa Rica is fairly expensive. Costs are very comparable o the USA. There is another rumor tht some haven't been paid since 2012 but I am not sure what's true. It's very disorganized, because some have been paid while others haven't and some have gotten only the equivalent of a few dollars for 3 months of work. It's pretty ridiculous. And there is no way of knowing when it will end. We just watch the news at night to see of we have school the next day. I do still have two teachers that show up for physics and math (lucky me.. My two favorite subjects...). So we have one class a day a few times a week. But it's just a pain to have to get all ready for school to go for only 40 minutes or hour 20 min. I haven't been doing to much. Just having out with my family. Watching a lot of tv. Although I did go to the beach the weekend before last with friends. We went to Jaco beach it was a lot of fun.

Paseo

The weekend before last was probably the best of my life. AFS organized a trip for the exchange students we left on Wednesday for San Jose.  Took the day off school.  My friend from Iceland came over for lunch then we left headed for cartago met up with another friend and all took the bus together to San Jose.  There we met up with more students and headed to the mall for a few hours before going to our hostel.  At the mall I went to a resturaunt and asked for a burrito.  The gave me a wrap of mainly fried mushrooms that was over a foot long.  It cost about two dollars.  Being in Costa Rica definitely helps me appreciate Mexican food which has so much more flavor.  The next morning we had to get an early start, we heard out of San Jose around quarter to seven.  Although the people in room woke up not much after 4 so everyone could get a shower.  A long day in the bus followed.  We arrived at a traditional ceramics museum and work shop at around noon.  Stepping out of the bus was a shock we were all red faced and sweating within minutes.  A man demonstrated the pot making technic.  It was really very similar to how we made pots in my ceramics class in Wisconsin but with more natural tools.  The guy made it on a potter's wheel that was hand operated, it didn't have a motor like the ones I have used instead he just spun it.  He also used a shell to smooth and cut the edges as well as a leaf and a corn cob in place of manmade tools.  The clay he used was also different than what I have seen before, it was the color of dirt.  He also said they painted it with some mineral they find in the mountains.  We never got to make our own pots but we did sit around and make art with the clay which would never get fired.  We stopped at our hotels to drop off our bags before a very late lunch.  We were very tired and ate like zombies.  After a much needed nap we headed to an afs activity with the volunteers from nicoya.  We were awaited by a group of traditional dancers.  The men wore cowboy clothes and the women flowing vibrantly colored skirts.  They served us traditional foods they had prepared.  They ate arroz con pollo, and tortillas with some sort of potatoe meat mash on top, later on arroz con leche with chunks of cinnamon which is delicious.  I being the only vegetarian had a pile of vegetables, and once I had finished my veggies they brought me a can of unopened garbanzo beans and saying they had forgotten them and asking if I wanted them.  We got to see a lot of different traditional dancing interspersed with some wierd yelping call which is traditional in guanacaste, added to the loud music it was an ear-numbing night.  They also showed us some other traditions like the girls started chasing the guys around and hitting them with branches, then they switched and the guys started dancing with the girls.  They also showed off their lassoing skills and had a mock bull fight.  One guy put a bull mask on his head complete with real looking horns and started chasing the others.  At one point the dancers came and grabbed people from the audience to dance with and I very awkwardly danced with like 5 of the dancers.  It was a great night.  We got back to the hotel and although it was stormy and rainy we went to the pool. It was a lot of fun playing keep away.  The next morning we headed out to parque nacional barra Honda.  We hiked for over an hour up a mountain in the sweltering heat.  We were all red faced and dripping with sweat by the time the path leveled out.  The hot weather and high humidity didn't help.  We split into groups. My group fist hiked to a look out point where we had a beautiful view.  We could see to the ocean and the islands there.  Later we walked to the mouth of the caves.  As we were waiting for our turn we heard a weird noise, like an angry dying dog or something.  It was howler monkeys which we could see hanging from the branches (about 4 of them).  The were black and bigger than I had imagined.  An iguana also was trying to eat someone's bag as we waited.   Finally we were able to climb down into the cave one by one.  We had to have a safety harness and they had to let the rope down with us in case we fell.  The entrance of the cave was surprisingly small maybe 5 square feet or so.  There was a latter attached to the wall to climb down the 15 meters to the bottom.  It was pretty scary looking down climbing the ladder.  It was fairly dark and you could just  see the outlines and the white helmets of the people below you.  I looked up halfway through, and there way above me was the circle of light and green, my over large helmet slipped backwards off my head and was hanging around my neck. I had to stop and hang on the ladder with one hand to fix it. It was nice to have the rope attached to my back in case something happened, the ladder was a little muddy and up very tightly against the rock wall. At last at the bottom we were all given headlamps. My legs were wobbly from adreneline once I was finally able to take off my rappelling harness on the cave floor. The inside of the cave was very big with a high roof yet the one opening was just a small circle way above, which sunlight was pouring through. The floor was made up of varying sized rocks with were slightly damp and gave the whole place and earthy smell. We had a very late lupper and celebrated my friends birthday with cake and singing in about 7 lenguages. We got back to the hotel and had a pool party in the rain. The next day we headed to the beach, another few hours in car. We spent to day at two different areas of samara beach. The beach was absolutely gorgeous. That night we had delicious pizza, and went out for ice cream in the rain. Te next morning, we were at the beach once again this time to pick up trash, with kids in the after school program called CREAR. It was run by foriegners, the women who talked to us was from the States but had been living in Costa Rica for 7 years. It unfortunately seems that most programs like this are run by foriegners. We had a last 45 minutes of free time at the beach, spent lounging in the sun with Mango juice and ice cream. We had a long sand covered ride to San Jose and from their took our seperate buses to our towns. Coming over the mountains and seeing the lights of cartago almost felt like coming home.