oh what a wonderful weekend!

Hola muchachos! This past weekend was long but the best yet! Friday the rain held off until after we left the volcano and the waterfall gardens. And let me tell you...the volcano was cool and the waterfall gardens even cooler. We drove up most of the volcano then hiked a little way (when I say hike, it wasn´t like actually hiking. They had huge paths and everything was cleared) to see the crater. Poas is not techinically active so it has greenish looking smoke coming out of it and it smells like sulfur (rotten eggs). That was pleasant. We took pictures then tried to decide if we were gonna go see the laguna on the other part of the voclano or just head back to the gift shop and hang out there for awhile. Well, this guy said that the laguna was SO beautiful we really should go see it if we had time...so we took our chances of being late and went.

**Have I mentioned that the last one back on the bus when we do our excursions has to sing?**

Ya, so none of us wanted to sing. It was all uphill to get the the laguna...a 20 min walk. Whatever, we kept telling ourselves how in shape we were going to be and how we were gonna come home skinny. When we finally reached our destination...it was just a lake. We were expecting tropical flowers, tropical plants...nope. It was a lake in an extinct crater which looked just like every other lake I´ve seen. But still in good spirits we made it to the bus without being last!

The waterfall gardens were absolutely beautiful. 7 waterfalls and all kinds of gardens (frogs, snakes, birds, monkeys, butterflies). For those of you who don´t know, butterflies kinda scare me. I don´t know why and I´ve been teased endlessly for it. So of course, as soon as I ventured in to the dreaded butterfly garden I glanced over to my left and what did I see? A butterfly that had so kindly chosen to honor me by landing on my shoulder. I let out a little squeal of disgust and all my friends were like ¨smile, we are gonna take your picture!¨ (FYI my smile looks very forced in those pics). We did a lot of hiking and stairs to see the waterfalls, and were very thankful that a shuttle took us back up to the gardens and we didn´t have to climb all the way back up (it was at that point we had regretted going to see that stinking LAKE). The day ended wonderfully, we were all exhausted and went home so we could get up at 4:45 the next morning to go on a cruise!

The cruise to Isla Tortuga was amazing. The weather was perfect (God has been so kind in holding off the rain!) and we took about an 1 and 15 min cruise to the island. I got to go snorkeling and on a banana boat (the banana boat was my first time). It was sweet! We saw so many beautiful things and my friend who was on the end fell off once. So funny. I got some sun but I didn´t get burned and I´m grateful for that. (Although sometimes I feel like I get darker if I do burn).

So then Sunday was the perfect end to the weekend. I went to church with (let´s just say) a friend of a friend (cause it can get so complicated). Once we got there Tanny (the lady I went with) informed me that they have what´s like Sunday School first and then the main service. So she brought me into the college age group (18-30...just like at home!) and introduced me to her cousin, Abraham (24), who took care of me and showed me the way for the rest of the day. He spoke fluent English (which was nice, let me tell ya lol), and translated for me ever so often when I missed the point during the College group. Then I went with him to the main service and we sat in the balcony b-c apparently the first floor was for the old folks. haha. I liked the message from the college group better but it was awesome to sing in Spanish. The whole morning I just fought tears because I was so blessed by the people of that church and the encouragement. After church I was going to go straight home but then Abraham suggested we go to lunch so we did and it was a nice time of encouragement too.

**Ahem, let me stop here and clear all of your assuming little thoughts. I don´t like him and he was just treating me with the kindness of a brother. Everyone straight? Good.**

The pastor of the church has a Christian English based school and offered me a job there lol. I told him I still have 2 years left of school but he said to give him my email anyways cause he wanted to send me an application. Abraham works there as a 5th grade teacher. The nice thing is they are on the U.S. school schedule so they are off right now. There was a lot of missionaries from the U.S. at the church and it was awesome to see what they were doing. A lot of the people from the young adults group weren´t actually attending the meeting b-c they were serving. A nice taste of home. (oh..and during the sermon the pastor mentioned integrity and how if the service starts at 9:30 we should be there at 9:30. How much more like home can you get?! lol).

The rest of the day was spent celebrating el dia del padre con mi familia! It was a blast. I got to call home as well and that encouraged me and made me happy as it always does. My dad was nicely surprised as well. They celebrate very similarly to us...gifts and spending time together. Sara and I bought some chocolates for our tico dad and brother-in-law (who has the little girl). They were blessed. Then we ate a feast, had cake and ice cream, joked around A LOT, and ended the night with dancing in the living room! It was my favorite night so far. Victor and Joanna (my sis and her husband) are great dancers and great teachers. We practiced salsa and merengue cause that´s what I´ve been learning in class. SO much fun.

And to end, we got another student at my house for two weeks. He is from Texas and his name is Greg. (again, not interested fyi!!! lol). Just letting you know whats up. He´s pretty serious and didn´t seem to enjoy our party yesterday, but hopefully he will want to be a part of the fam!