Thanksgiving Vacation

I’ve gotten in the habit of calling this trip my “fake life” because we spend more time traveling and having fun than sitting in the classroom, I don’t do chores, everything just feels so relaxed from compared to life at Linfield. Last week we had vacation from our fake lives and my mama and brother came to visit!

They arrived on Friday afternoon after a long and scary flight full of turbulence and got to meet my wonderful host family. We didn’t get to spend too much time since it was starting to get dark, but of course my host mom made them a huge meal and my real mom got to give out all her homemade presents. I was surprised at how well Kristin and I translated back and forth, there were even some things I chose to cut out and no one noticed J Then we were off to La Fortuna! Poor Clinton had to drive on this tiny windy road and couldn’t see a thing because of all the fog, but we finally made it and we stayed there for two days. We mostly just explored in the car, but we also took a hike to a viewpoint of the volcano which was really fun, and beautiful! On our way out we decided to take the scenic route and drove around the volcano, it was relaxing and pretty which was a nice change from our first night of driving. We randomly ran into this restaurant that had beer tasting and as we drove up the hill we saw a sign that said “Skate park. Seriously. Check it out.” We spent some of the afternoon there as beer and skating are two of Clinton’s favorite things!

After driving on the most awful road we made it to Playa Tambor at a beautiful boutique hotel. I didn’t want to leave the hotel once we got there! We spent most of the week exploring and one day we spent on the beach at Montezuma, which was really nice! We tried driving to Mal Pais and Santa Teresa but the roads were so awful we had to turn around. Our car was leaking and we were all stressing out, but it turns out nothing was wrong. I was super thankful because that would have changed how our entire week would have gone. The day before we left we did a zip lining tour, I had so much fun watching my mom and Clinton do it for the first time. The tour included a ton of uphill walking, which we weren’t expecting but at least we got to work off some of the delicious food we ate at our hotel.

On Tuesday or Wednesday night I heard crying outside our door so I went to see what it was and it was the cutest, tiniest, most adorablest happy little puppy I’ve ever seen (besides Buddy of course ;) ) but he was so sickly looking from being underfed. My mom immediately took out our leftovers from the fridge and we fed him, which was the right thing to do but the puppy, or Harley as I renamed him, didn’t leave our doorstep after that. My mom and I were trying to figure out how to help him, and kept resorting to taking him home with us but he would need to be healthier for his shots before we could take him home L Thankfully the hotel managers took him into a shelter to help make Harley healthy and find a good home for him. I’m still sad we couldn’t take him home though, it was love at first sight!  (Clinton if you’re reading this, stop laughing at me!)

On our last night we all just relaxed in the room and played cards, and the next morning we got up early and headed back for San Ramon. I am so thankful to have two great families and I’m so lucky they got to meet each other!

I spent Saturday with my host family in Heredia visiting family, and Sunday our group of students threw a Christmas party for all of our families. It is definitely one of my favorite memories I’ll have of this trip. 80 people came including all of the students, we have so many people here in Costa Rica supporting us! We played games and ate yummy food, and got to know each family. Although I’m excited to be home, I’m not ready to say goodbye to my family here yet. 

A Week in Nicaragua!

We spent the past week in Nicaragua. I could write a book on all the things we did and saw, but I’ll try to keep it short!

We spent the first night in Guanacaste, Costa Rica, with our ecology professor. It was pretty boring to be honest, I am not the biggest fan of biological reserves after the first weekend we spent in one. I was surprised and angry the next morning to find out I had been bitten 33 times during the night by chiggers, which if you don’t know what that is, they leave the itchiest bites in the world! I am also allergic to all of the bugs here because every time I’ve been bitten the bites turn red and swell up all big and ugly. It’s embarrassing when you want to wear shorts but have 33 swollen and red bites covering your legs! My director of the program wanted to take me to the hospital to get a prescription strength itchy cream, but that option kind of scared me, so I just tried to stick it out until the itching got a little better.

Next we went to Managua, which is the capital of Nicaragua. The poverty was so extreme there I could hardly stand it. There were children in the streets trying to attach themselves to our legs and begging us to by their product. One night after dinner we were stopped at a red light and a girl and her little brother came and washed our windshield hoping for money. We decided to give them our leftover pizza from dinner, and once our director put it in their hands they high fived and jumped up and down for joy like it was Christmas morning. I’m pretty sure everyone in the bus was crying at that moment! Managua had Christmas lights and Christmas trees all over the city, and I was beginning to feel homesick. I’m so excited that I get to come home just in time for Christmas!

We stopped in this little town called San Juan de Oriente, which was one of my favorite experiences of the trip. We got to watch a demonstration of a young man making a ceramic bowl, and then he let us try. Everything they make is handmade and hand-painted. Ceramics are a huge part of the Nicaraguan culture and it’s how they make the majority of their money on tourists in San Juan de Oriente. We saw them all over, and they were so tempting, I wanted to buy them all!

Granada was our next stop and soo beautiful! We took a tour of the city and found out it was one of the first cities colonized by the Spanish so the entire city has major Spanish influence-especially in the architecture, I felt like I was in Spain! They have horse carriages as their taxis I really wish we would have had time to take one. During our tour we stopped in a little hammock factory, which we later found out is run by a family who works with children who have disabilities both physical and mental. It was such a cool organization, I really wish I could go back. They had a hammock that fits 17 people so we all climbed in for a quick photo-op, which is not as comfortable as it sounds! Both nights we went to the same restaurant because they had delicious Caesar salads, which we haven’t found anywhere in Costa Rica!

Our last night we stayed in a town called San Juan del Sur, and we had a free day! We were all pretty tired so we did some souvenir shopping (my specialty) and then laid out around the pool. It was nice to have some down time with friends after we had been go, go, going all week.

The boarder going both directions was awful! When we were trying to enter Nicaragua the passport guy decided to take his lunch so we had to wait an hour standing outside of our locked bus waiting for him to come look at the picture on our passport and let us on. Then on the way back, they all of a sudden had a new rule that you need your flight reservation ticket with you, and they weren’t going to let us back into Costa Rica. Thankfully one of the girls in our group had her iPhone and found the e-ticket in her email. We would have been stuck between Nicaragua and Costa Rica overnight if she hadn’t been there to rescue us!

Overall the trip was definitely my favorite of them all, and now we’re making up for it by having lots of papers and tests this week! I am currently avoiding a history paper that’s due tomorrow. I only have one paragraph left if anyone is feeling generous ;)

            On another note, my family got their first toaster oven last night and they were so excited they toasted the entire loaf of bread. It was really funny watching them trying to figure out how to use it, and I had to teach them how to pull the lever up to help get the toast out once it’s finished! We all sat around the table drinking hot chocolate and eating toast with butter and jam, yum!

Okay, better finish my essay! Sending my love!

            

La Fortuna

This weekend we decided to go to La Fortuna, which is a touristy town right next to Volcano Arenal. I had expected that we would just walk around the town and go souvenir shopping, which of course we did do, but the day exceeded my expectations. We got caught by a Tourist Attraction guy (I can’t think of what they’re called in English…ahh!) so I was kind of annoyed at first, but he ended up being extremely nice to us, so we considered doing an excursion for part of the afternoon. Everyone had different ideas of what they wanted to do so he offered us a canopy tour, repelling of a cliff, and horseback riding for just $40. How could we say no? (minus the fact that I was asked to repel off a cliff…) Anyways, we decided to do it!

First we did a 9-line canopy tour which probably took about an hour. It was so much fun! My arms and abs are really sore today from holding on so tight to the harness that strapped me to the line. Three out of the five of us hadn’t done a canopy before, so it was fun experiencing it with them for their first time. I was worried that Ashli wasn’t going to do it, she looked sick to her stomach before we started! So after we finish the 9 lines, I look to my left and I see a cliff and that’s when my stomach about falls out of my body. Thank goodness for Miss Adventurous Sydney, she was the only one who wasn’t nervous to repel down- if she hadn’t been there I don’t think the rest of us would have been brave enough to go first. Ashli and I were the last two of our group and we’re staring at each other like there’s no way on earth it’s going to happen. I’m literally just about to tell our guide that I don’t want to do it when he jerks me forward towards the cliff to hook me up to the harness. So much for that! This is how excited I am:

So yes, I, Chandler Brooks Harrison, repelled 180 feet off a cliff in the jungle of Costa Rica. Doesn’t sound like me, does it? Kristin, Sydney and Mariah were at the bottom cheering me on and I know I wouldn’t have been able to do it without them down there. I got to the bottom shaking like a leaf and on the verge of tears! But overall, it was such a cool experience that I know I won’t be able to experience again.

After that, we walked over to the horses and I got one named Rosilla. Our guide gave him to me because I have the “most experience” riding horses. Haha. So now I’m all nervous that I’m on a wild horse that I won’t be able to control. Turns out I was wrong. My horse was the complete opposite of wild- he wouldn’t budge! I was behind the pack the whole time, clicking my tongue and telling her what a good girl she was hoping she’d speed up. The guide came back once to help me and he kept telling me to use the little whip, but I wasn’t comfortable using it-or letting go of the reigns to turn around and find it while on a mountain. I was kind of irritated in the moment because I couldn’t keep up, but I’m certainly glad that she didn’t take off on me while I was riding. At one point when the guide was helping me he showed me how to make her gallop, which was really fun, minus the fact that I opened my mouth for a split second and dirt flew in my mouth! In the middle of the ride our guide stopped us and we saw a beautiful toucan on a branch that was right next to us, I was so amazed! When we got back, the guide was showing us all of his horses and he opened up a stall and brought out a beautiful black horse to let us touch her 8-month pregnant belly. I got to feel the pony moving around in her tummy, I personally thought that was more cool than riding the horses because I’ve never seen a pregnant horse before. Overall our tour was one of the most amazing things I’ve done in Costa Rica so far, and I can’t wait to show my mom and brother La Fortuna when they come to visit!

After that we went back to town and did some souvenir shopping until it was time to catch the bus back home. On our ride home I was thinking about how crazy it was that I was on a bus in Costa Rica and I wasn’t lost! Normally I’d never get on a bus without my mom there telling me exactly where to go! 

I got home, excited to take a shower, and guess what happens. I’m rinsing the shampoo out of my hair and I look up to see two cockroaches showering with me. Ugh. I opened my mouth to scream (which thankfully I didn’t because everyone was sleeping) but I ended up eating shampoo instead. Yum. At least it cleaned the dirt out of my mouth from horseback riding! Needless to say I took the fastest shower in history.

I am trying to take advantage of the limited free weekends we have left to travel. I can’t believe how quickly this trip is going by! I love it here and will be extremely sad when I have to leave, but I am also excited to come home for Christmastime!

¡Nos vemos muy pronto!