To Ellie, From Lauren

Dear Lauren and Readers [and Amah since I heard you have been following :) ],

I have not written in quite some time, as I've been busy. I wrote most of this blog last Tuesday the 20th. It recounts some of the happenings of the previous week. I will post again soon about my most recent adventures.

Start of older blog:

I have reached a point where I feel I can communicate fairly well.

I am currently sick, which is no fun at all. I got over the feverishness, but can't seem to shake the deep cough. The only think I want when I'm sick is my family (and maybe close friends) to take care of me. There is nothing more comforting than having your head in your mother's lap, or on one particular occasion, getting a giant get-well card, soup and flowers from friends. However, it is not practical to hop on a pane for a week (though I dreamed that I did just that) so I am here suffering through. Today I asked our program coordinator Claudia about it and she gave me the name of some medicine I could get at the farmacia, but first she wanted me to try rábanos (radishes). By the time my class was over she had had someone purchase some for me and she instructed me to slice them thinly, sprinkle with sugar and let sit to extract the liquid. Apparently radish extract is an active ingredient in most of the commercial cough medicines anyway. I drank that before my second class and hardly coughed at all for those three hours. Success for home-remedies! I'm currently waiting for another radish to 'juice', because my cough is coming back now.

This past week or so has been quite fun otherwise. Wednesday night we went downtown to watch the lantern parade. All the children had made candle lanterns in celebration of the Costa Rican Independence Day, which was Thursday. El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua all share this same holiday, and there is a torch that goes through all of these countries lighting torches in each town. We saw the runners carrying it through San Ramón Wed morning. Very cool, here is a photo my friend took.

Thursday I was feeling lousy but still mustered the energy to go see the parade with marching bands from all the schools. Very fun to experience another holiday. Here are some photos:

The kids are all so adorable

I can't resist taking photos of them

That night I wrote a not-so-great paper and prepared a not-so-great presentation from my sick bed, for my Friday morning class. Thursday night was my worst night of sickness, and Friday morning I somehow convinced myself (with the help of my friends) that I was well enough to go on the planned trip to Jacó beach. All thirteen of us went, which was very cool.

Jacó is a super touristy surfing destination, which I did not attempt since I wasn't feeling 100%. The beach was nice though, and the water here is so warm! Almost too warm for me, as I've always liked cold water. I enjoyed my night and day there, though it really was extremely touristy. All the prices were in dollars and the people spoke English. For lunch a bunch of people went to a pizza place, but Hannah and I wanted less expensive comida tipica so we found a soda and got casados. This is like the value meal of Costa Rica. It has rice, beans, protien, some sort of picadillo or ensalada (or both), and some plátano. Yummy! We went back to San Ramón (we travel everywhere by bus, which tends to be a long process) on Saturday evening. I had a fieldtrip with some of my classmates for my Plant Taxonomy class the next day.

Alright, I promise to post more updated info soon!

Pura Vida!

Ellie