My last post turned into a bit of a rant.  This is just an example of how United Statesish I am.  to generalize we don't like double standards and tend to question authority, and are not afraid to criticize everything.  I would like to say that despite the faults in my school here, I enjoy it much more than in the US.  It's more relaxed more breaks, everything is more chill.  And some of the classes are interesting and all are great for learning Spanish.  As I was talking saying People from the US criticize everything that isn't the case so much here.  People say everything is lindo, or almost everyone is buena gente ( unless they are gossiping which hey also do a lot).   Coming from the US as much as we all love our country we aren't afraid to bash it every so often and will be the first ones to admit all its flaws.  Costa Ricans tend to describe their country more positively ( they are very proud to be from this beautiful country :D ) so I have to be careful when I am talking about the USA when I am negative about it they'll think it's a bad place or that I don't like it when the opposite is true.  Today I was very sad to see on the news the fort hood shooting.  It's scary to see this kind of news about your country when you are abroad.  When you are in another country everything that happens in your own country feels so much more personal.  It's wierd to see things from the outside.  According to my host parents there are never shootings in Costa Rica, or terrorism either.  And from their perspective I can see how the USA could appear dangerous, or that we seem like violent people with everything broadcasted in the news.  It makes you wonder what causes this violence.  It also makes you imagine all the things that could happen to your family when you are gone.  Going abroad everyone worries about what could happen to you going some where unknown, but sometimes you worry about what could happen to your family at home, no matter how unlikely it may be.
On a different note I would like to apologize for the guzilion typos in every post and say that you can blame my iPod.  I wrote these posts from my tiny iPod screen and am constantly hitting the wrong buttons.  It would definitely be unintelligible if it went for spellcheck.

School...

I have learned to appreciate my education in the US.  before coming here i thought our education  i i system was terrible. But I have learned that we have it pretty good.  Last week I had exams.. I am pretty sure I failed practically everything.  I have go back some of my grades a 56% in physics and a 100% in English (obviously), a 46 in Spanish and 37 in biology that's the worst I have done in my life..  I did get a 74 in social studies though which is a passing grade,  I have never been more proud.  As bad as my grades sound the shocking thing is that I did better than my friends..  I got a higher score in every subject than several of my friends.  It's really surprising I would say almost 1/2 to 3/4 of my class failed everything.  When I got a 74 in sociales my friends were all like super impressed. like here you have done good if you passed.  in fact one of my friends got a 40% in socials.   It's very strange I didn't study and I have minimual Spanish but I still managed to get about twice as many points.  I guess that's just a testament to the difference in education.  The socials test was wierd, it started out with the most basic questions identifying the continents.  Which some people didn't get right :(.  Then there were a bunch of really obscure random questions, which I can't help but wondering why thy are important.  For example what is the highest lake in America?  ( it's Titicaca if you were wondering). My grades thankfully don't count in my highschool in Wisconsin but of I don't pass my classes I won't get any credit for them.  Coming here I assumed it would be easy to pass my classes but it may be a struggle.  In the USA everyone wants you to pass.  There is like no one in my school that has failed enough classes to need to repeat a year.  It's practically impossible as long as you pay minimual attention in class and do your homework once and a while you should squeak by.  And if you are doing bad you are forced to go to a special class and everyone interrogates you about why you aren't succeeding and try's to help you.  Here it's different it just seems like nobody cares how you do.  The parents obviously do.  But the teachers don't seem to be too concerned.  If you do bad it's your fault you should have studied.  Which is the opposite in the USA if everyone does bad you blame be teacher.  Here And when half the class fails, I guess that just sucks for them..     The teschers here don't teach all they do is dictate from some sort of text book.  And then we copy.  It's not like we are learning anything to difficult they just don't teach.  The whole point is to pass the exams who cares if you remember anything of it in 3 months.  And although these grades don't matter and I am only here for 5 months the education system here makes me upset.  I am sure it's better in the private schools, but in public schools it is just a massive waste of time for the students.  For me it isn't because I am learning Spanish and learning a lot but I feel bad for my class mates.  If the next exam is like this one most of them wil be repeating next year.  Homework here counts for almost nothing, there are two exams a semester which counts for 70% of the grade 35% each, if you don't do well I guess your just out of luck. Some of the teachers are also habitually late to class, this is also due to the fact that many of them have other responsibilities in the school, like working in the lunch room. Another thing is that the female teachers dress what in the USA would be considered a little innappropriate for anyone but especially for teachers.  They wear 6 inch heals, tight jeans, or leather leggings and see-through, tight or low cut tops, revealing love handles and everything. It's really different because the students have a very strict dress code, but the teachers apparently not.  to me it seems like a big double standard.  the dress code is very strict.  In some classes we all have to stand up and the teacher looks to make sure the pants aren't too tight and we aren't wearing makeup, also guys hair has to be short.  If the teacher is in doubt he actually takes the material of the pants and moves it around to make sure it's loose enough.  Also some teachers make girls take off their nail polish they will hand you a bottle of remover and cotton swabs.  It's very ironic though because many of them wear heavy makeup which we aren't allowed, and have colored hair which is also against the rules.  These are all thing s that my class mates think are normal, but I find strange.  How can a teacher tell you to take off your makeup when she has it caked on?  It's just cultural differences.  I have to remind myself as AFS says its not better or worse just differnt.  I guess that in Costa Rica the students need to take more responsibility  for themselves which can be a good thing..

Life goes on

Lately I haven't really felt like I have anything to interesting to write and I have also been too busy.  I guess that's just a testament to how normal life here is becoming for me.  I had an AFS camp this weekend.  It was great to have a little break.  School was kind of dragging on last week.  But thankfully I could leave for the orientation on Thursday.  I really like it here.  And I like school but everybody needs a break sometimes.  Going to the camp was very refreshing to be able to speak in my native language to people who are going through the same thing.  We kind of went crazy.  We stayed up super late every night talking some girls even lost their voices from all the talking.  It was a lot of fun.  But I am exhausted this week from the lack of sleep this weekend. And I have exams.  So lets just say I have had better weeks..  However I now only have 3 1/2 months left here and I am determined to enjoy it and appreciate and take advantage of everyday.  Even if I am just sitting around studying or watching tv I want to appreciate of even he dull moments. I have the feeling that in July I will be sad to go.  And I already have mixed emotions about it.  As much as a like it here it will be nice to be at home again where everything is familiar.  At the Same time though 5 months is really a very short time to actually get to know another culture and language.  Realizing this I want to make the most of the time I have left.  This new goal has been a struggle this week though with exams.  Everybody acts like its so important that I study but I just can't muster much motivation. They all have been studying all last weekend at least and started asking me like 3 weeks ago if I had started studying.  It's so hard to focus ready boring text in another language.  Speaking of language I am starting to see that I have improved a lot.  I pretty much understand everything now.  And I can actually joke around and have complex conversations with my friends.  They don't always get my sarcasm though which had lead to some awkwardness...  A random observation: the tv programming here is the same everyday.  On Channal 7, the morning always begins with Ave Maria, funeral announcements, Costa Ricas national anthem and then of course news,  when I am home in the afternoon it is always the same Brazilian telenovla an fthen at night there is always a wierd sports games show of the same really fit people competing in the same games and singing the same songs every night, then there is some sort of prize show.  It's wierd every day it's like some wierd dashavu ( I totally butchered that word, I have no idea how to spell it),   My sisters always watch an insane amount of Disney Channal every day with the same shows but hey never seem I get bored.  More later.  Chao

A little over a month

I have now been in Costa Rica for a little over a month.  It has definitely been the most stretching month of my life.  But I am starting to really enjoy it here.  I am starting to feel like by the time July comes I won't want to go home.   Any time I start to miss home all I have to do is remind myself that it's 20 degrees and snowy in Wisconsin and I immediately feel thankful to be here.  Being away from home and experiencing life somewhere else has really taught me to appreciate home though.   Wisconsin has become a more special place to me.  Things I have learned to appreciate:
1. My family  and friends (obviously)
2. My independence.  The culture here is very different as far as young people.  It's normal for kids to stay with the parents until they are married.  One of my cousins is almost 30, and still lives with her parents and works in her dads office.  Also you can't drive here till you are 18.  I have been missing having a car.  It's a stupid thing to miss but a car and a licsense gives you so much independence.  In Wisconsin i could just take my car to a friends house or Madison practically any time I felt like it.  Here getting around is a struggle.   I haven't felt like I know the city well enough to take the buses.  I am just starting to feel like I know my way around.  So I have pretty much just gone everywhere with my family.
3.  Madison.  I thought every city was like Madison.  I couldn't have been more wrong.   I really miss the culture in Madison.  The diversity.  All the college students with a zillion peircingd and crazy hair.  All he hippies and organic food.  Honestly when you are abroad you miss the weirdest things. I really like how in Madison everyone is ( as a generalization) is so conscious.  There is hardly any trash in the streets, or stray dogs.  Here the street is used as a trashcan.  street is littered.  People just don't think sometimes.  They throw gum in the street, and my friends litter without even thinking about it.  Also there are about a guzilion stray dogs which is really sad.  People also don't think about wasting food.  They leave out a lot of things that we put in the fridge so things spoil quickly.  And there are always a ton of leftovers that get left out and go bad.
4. One of the ways that has stretched me the most is not having control over my life.   I never know what's going on till its happening.  Like I generally don't know we are going somewhere till we are leaving.  I have been learning to just go with the flow and just do whatever my family is doing.  Also I used to be a really picky eater.  I made a lot of my own food.  Here I eat whatever is on my plate.  And I am learning I like some foods I would never have tried.  Like plantins with honey and cheese, and cauliflower and eggs.
5.  One thing that I miss is how active our culture is.  At my old highschool everyone was in sports, music, drama, or some sort of club.  And often like 3 or 4 different things at a time.  Here sports really aren't that big of a part of the culture.  Clubs either, everything is more relaxed.  Which is good.   But it's a hard a adjustment being a person who loves to be busy.  People take bike rides or go for a run at times but it isn't that common.  When I went running in my neigborhood people gave me wierd looks.
6.  Another thing I miss is my anominousness.  I don't even know if that's a word but whatever.  Here I really stick out.  At school people are more subtle about looking at me but on tr streets I turn heads like 90 degrees.  I am still not sure of its rude to stare here or not.  Like people driving by literally turn and stare at me, I am surprised there aren't more accidents caused by people being distracted by staring at someone.  My host mom even comenented that I have a lot of " lookers".  It's just unusual to have blond hair here.  And I am extremely blond for Costa Rica, plus my hair is extremely long.  So I pretty much always stick out.  I really don't like people staring, but I am getting used to it.  Also like I can hear my class mates talking as I walk by and I can hear them exclaiming about my hair.  Everyone loves to play with it and comment on it.  Like I will feel someone touching my hair and turn around and some random person I have never met is playing with my hair, most I the time they don't even say anything just keep on playing with my hair and smile at me.  It's kind of awkward.  People also group around me and bombard me with questions at school, which makes me kind of uncomfortable because I tend to be a shy person.
Although this post was dedicated to things I miss, I really am having a great time.  And am very thankful for how welcoming the family I am staying with has been.  Everything is getting so much easier.

La fortuna

I have been living with a family in Costa Rica for just about three weeks now.  It feels like it has been so much longer.  It's hard to believe that I have has all these new experiences in three weeks.  It also feels like I haven't been home in years but in reality it's been less than a month.  At the same time it feels shorter than three weeks.  In that I still not very good at Spanish.  I am definitely improving but maybe not as quickly as I hoped.  I can see though that I am improving I understand about 70 percent of what my teachers say, and it's getting easier to get around at school.  I understand about 90 percent of what my host mom says to me and about 50 percent of what my host dad says to me.  And I can communicate with my classmates even though it isn't always very graceful.  At times it takes like ten minutes for someone to explain something to me, but they are very eager to help me for the most part.   We have had some very funny conversations like when one kid tried to describe what butter is to me in Spanish and he said it was "white, liquidy, cheese" as you can imagine I was pretty confused.  Also it is really confusing when people say things in" English", like my classmates were talking about  Las Vegas.  And I had no idea that's what they were trying to say cause of the accent.  To me it sounded like "las baegas".  Yesterday we drove to La Fortuna, a town about three hours away from Cartago.  It is very touristy.  It is full of Gringos like myself, and as a result over half the signs are in English.  It is a tourist destination because it is in the shadow of the largest volcano in the country Arenal.  Arenal is huge.  It's a little intimidating to look up at.  Although it has been "sleeping" for 3 years or so, we were still able I see smoke rising from the top.  This morning my host family went to a bike race.  And the little girls and a I spent the morning at the hotel with a cousin.  There is a small pool in the courtyard where we swam.  Then in he afternoon we went with some aunts and uncles and cousin, to more pools.  Some of these pools are very hot because they are fed by he scolding water which trickles down the mountain.  It was nice to be in the sun, although it is very very strong here.

2 weeks in cartago

Last night we went to a party if quince anos.  It was pretty crazy.  The only thing comparable I have seen is a wedding.  In fact I think a lot of weddings are less lavish.  It started at the church.  The priest talked for about 45 minutes.   They girl sat in the front of the church with her parents at either side.  They said a lot of prayers, the priest would say something and the congregation would somehow magically know the response. I didn't understand too much.  At the end of the service the girl took her fist communion.  As well as some other people who had watched.  Once hey had taken communion the priest drained all the wine from the goblet in a huge swig.  And ate several pieces of communion bread, before wiping out the cup with a napkin.  Then everyone got up an left, and drove to he party.  The party was in a rented out building.  The theme was "hoollywood" as a huge sign above the door declared.  I don't mention to anyone that "hoollywood" was spelled wrong.  At he entrance was a red carpet and all the tables had flowers and popcorn and soda, and the chairs were all covered in cloth like the curtains in a movie theater.  It was obvious that a lot of care was put into the presentation and everything was very elegant.  Outside the birthday girl greeted all her guests.  And welcomed me without question along with everyone else even though I had never met her before and was now showing up at her party.  Everyone went and sat at the tables then the dj announced the names of pairs of the girls best friends.  They came into he building in pairs and were greeted by applause.  Each pair paused on te carpet to have their picture taken.  There were several hired photographers there scurry around with their DSLRs trying to capture evrymoment.   They even had a huge portable light set up.  The couples walked in to sappy 80s music in English.  Finally the the parents walked in followed by the birthday girl and her escort.  She was greeted by a huge applause before going to he back of the building to dance the 1st dance with her father.  This was I'd course very carefully captured in pictures and everybody stood up to watch.  They girl looked to be feeling more awkward than anything, to be slow dancing in front of all the people.  Then all the friends of the girl danced the next song.  Eventually everyone joined in dancing.  The music was a huge variety,  Spanish hip hop and rap, oldies from the USA , pop from the USA, it was varied, also salsa and merengue music.  Servers in ties came to serve pastries to take with coffee.  People danced, they brought tamales and pork soup they brought out something new like every 40 minutes.  People danced, ate, danced ate....  Cupcakes were for dessert, they tasted like sweet cornbread with a vanilla flavor, topped with vibrantly red frosting, they were good, despite being a little surprising at first.  A mariachi band came, the girl stood in the middle of the room as the band sang like three songs to her and everyone looked on.  Then the the singer danced with the girl while singing.  He moved his hips really awkwardly and the girl looked a little uncomfortable.  There was more dancing, the girl stood underneath the "hoollywood" sign and took pictures with all the families, and there were a lot of families.  There were a lot of families too.  Here facial muscles must be very sore today from all the smiling she had to do.   Then they began passing out whistles and masks and sparkly hats.  I was a little confused.  The little kids started running around blowing the whistles all the while the DJ was blasting music.  The noise was deafening.  Then the caranaval came.  About five girls in what looked like matching bright colored sports bras and spandex, shirtless guys in silky red pants, and like three guys on stilts with masks, along with drummers.  The other music stopped but was replaced by very loud drumming.  Everyone made a circle and danced around the birthday girl and he carnaval who danced with her.  The girls shook more than danced, everyone guys and girls in he band danced wih a  lot of hip movement.  It was a little overwhelming te amount of color and noise.  One of the guys on stilts started dancing with me, it was fun, although I watched more than danced.  We left soon after the caranaval.  It was a totally different party than any I have ever seen, but a lot of fun!  It has been to very interesting weeks!

1 week in Agua Caliente

Today after church we drove into the mountains.  The mountains are he most beautiful thing I have eve seen, everything is green and lush, and it is a mixture of agriculture and wilderness.  I am going to move to the mountains in Costa Rica when I am old, I decided today.  There are a lot of coffee plants and sugar canes, the countryside on the side of the mountains is scattered with little towns, farms and of course fields of coffee and sugar cane.  The roads are very narrow and wind along the edge of the mountain.  If you forget how close you are to the edge of a precipice the view is breathtaking, you can see the towns below and Orosi Valley, and the dammed river Cachi.  Across the valley are the ridges of other mountains.  I could never describe it well so ill just say its GORGEOUS!  We drove for like 30 or 40 minutes up the mountian to a resturaunt.  Where some the family of the brother of my host father met us. The resturaunt was train themed, as they used to use trains to haul coffee in this area.  For lunch I had platinos con queso, or plantains with cheese.  It sounds gross but it was really "muy rico" or very good.  Rico is the word to describe any yummy food.  They use the word Rico here in like every sentence to describe food.  In general people here use a LOT of posotive words which is different.  Everything is "lindo" or "Rico", it is different coming from a place where people arent afraid to be critical of everything.  We then drove back down the mountain, bought some cheese from a vender at the side of the road.  At a town further down he mountain we stopped to visit my host grandparents.   Here we bought more food.   We went to a bakery and my host dad bought, bread with jelly, French bread, pinapple cake, and orejas.  Orejas mean "ears" in Spanish and are absolutely delicious.  It's a pastry covered in syrup in the shape of a huge disc, and its delicious.  We had coffee and pastries.  I have been drinking coffee twice a day since I got here.  And people think its wierd that I like it black.  We watched a football game, and some of the fans started beating up other fans on live tv.   My host family were totally outraged.  I have met so many family members over te last week, I will never be able to remember all their names.  My host dad has like 45 nieces and nephews.  For dinner tonight we had ice cream with food, the food here is very "Rico" but a lot of sugar and carbs.  Yesterday I went skating in an indoor skating place that rents skates.  There was music like American top 40 kind of thing and disco lighting and everyone was skating around in a circle.  One and a while one of the workers would call out directions, like skate in the other direction at the whistle and stuff like that, it was a lot of fun.  And also to a huge mall, bigger than any I have ever been to.  I have only been here 1 week but I have already been to two huge malls.  Yesterday I also went with my cousin to a meeting of  fans of Rihanna, even though I am not really a huge fan of Rihanna.  But that was very interesting.  Tomorrow I have school at 7 and my first class is English, this should be fun.... It's really funny listening to Costa Ricans talk in English, it is almost unintelligible.  ...probably what my Spanish sounds like.. But I think I am improving...maybe