Yes! Da er det endelig torsdag, arbeidet er gjort og det er laanghelg:D

I just finished work and now I`m going to pick up some pictures I have developed to decorate my boring room a bit, buy ticket for tomorrow, then off to the gym, then pack! Sooo excited to go. Seriously. The only thing that sucks is that the trip is like 6h and I`m going alone since I`m the only person that got the day off.. But I`m meeting sabine there and we`re gonna chill on the beach until the others arrive:)

More good news. On monday I`m going with 2 girls from the university here to do some presentations in schools! It sounds great, they have some activities, stories etc. and I`m going to observe the first few and then start helping them with the last one of the day. Think we`re doing 3-4 on monday and then some more later that week..So I will get a looong break from the newspapers which is great. I took some sweet pictures of me and my work today. Will post them after the weekend, promise!

I signed up for dance lessons..It`s a bit scary because I dont know anyone else going, but I really want to learn some latin dances and could be a good way to meet some more people. Starting in mid-march!

What else...I`m liking this blog thing, buuut it kind of sucks as well! You all know what I`m up to, but I have no idea how things are with you!! SO send me updates, please!

Ok. Have a good weekend everyone and I`ll let you know how Puerto Viejo was on Monday. Chiao:) xxx

Gym:)

I finalyy joined a gym! This really nice guy I met saturday came with me and showed me a few different ones and the one I chose has Yoga and everything:) AND it`s dirt cheap!! I went yestarday to get a program and stuff and the only thing that sucks is that there is NO aircondition and it`s really warm here these days, 30++ so I was suffering. AFter 20min cycling it looked like I had been swimming with my clothes on. Attractive. I plan on going 3 times a week to follow my program and then maybe some yoga and aerobics as well! :)

Stine-marie, du synes sikkert dette er interesant..programmet mitt er 1 dag med armer, 1 dag med ben og 1 dag med mage/rygg. Hver ovelse skal gjores med 15 rep. 4 sett...VELDIG lette vekter da. Men han sa at det skulle bli vaerre etterhvert..virker det bra eller? Vet ikke helt om han hjar saa peiling men han er ganske fit da saa ser saann ut;)

Other than that things are same old at work, but I did get friday off which is super fab cuz that means I can go early to Puerto Viejo:D SOO excited!

I will post pictures of my house, work and all that soon, but there are some problems with the computer at home so it`s a bit tricky. I miss wierless internett!!

Gotta get back to work, the newspapers are calling me! Hasta Luego:)

Saturday

Hola!

Things are going quite well now. STill room for improvement but it´s not bad at all. Work has been quite boring, but I think my tasks will change soon and hopefully it will be a bit more interesting. And I also now has the trip to look forward to:) Next weekend I´m going to Puerto Viejo on the carribean coast with my volunteer family, SO excited:D

Today is saturday, but it feels more like any other weekday because I have been working! Well, working is not really the right word....

This saturday was a promotional activity that COFERENE had with the university of costa rica and the municipality to collect more stuff to recycle and talk to people in san ramon about our work etc. I got up this morning (saturday) at 5.30. Met with a lady from work and went to my bosses house to make sandwiches. We had made about 60 of them and a reeeeally good drink, kind of like a smoothie with melon, pineapple and banana taaasty! I also met her whole family and she also introduced me to her plants, it seems like people here in san ramon really like their plants! But it was cool, they had a coffee plant in their garden which to me is very exotic! Amazing to think that coffee actually do grow on trees..

At around 8 we went to town, had breakfast with the people that was helping out and then we waited for people to come. And then we waited some more. And a bit more. It must be mentioned that today was a particularly shitty day. I know I shouldn´t complain because I´m norwegian and all that but this is tropical cold weather. Humid, very foggy and windy..BAD combination..brrr.
So yes, there was not alot of people that came with stuff, so not alot of work for us to do. But it was nice for me because I finally met some young people here. There was alot of students from the university and I talked to some of them, very nice people. And they spoke english, hallelujah. Even one of the known drunkers of san ramon had a conversation with me in english..or tried, but to be a poor drunker I was impressed with his language skills. So we talked, ate and ate some more (rice and beans of course) and then at 1 we finished.

I went shopping after that. But I don´t really like to walk around in town here because people really make me feel weird and different! It is not true that Costa Ricans are shy..not at all! Anyways, bought some stuff and went home and slept like 3 hours which was really nice:) Then me and my host mum watched a film, redemption - good film, but very sad. And then they asked me if I wanted to go out for a beer with them so we went. Me and the parents. It was a small, cozy place, I had imperial and seviche (raw fish marinated in lemon\lime juice with chilli and coriander) for the first time and it´s good! Different, but good! And yes, we talked quite a lot..it was nice:)

Hope all is well at home!?

Miss you! Besosss!

Update!! :)

Since it`s been about a week since the last blogg update I think it`s time for anotherone:)

I left my dear and deeply missed hostel family on saturday morning around 8. It was sad. I cried in the taxi and the taxi driver told me that it seemed like our friendship was Pura Vida, but I shouldnt cry! So then I stopped crying.

After about an hour pluss I arrived in San Ramon and was picked up by this sweet, little, hairy man. We drove home, I gót a tour of the garden which includes banana trees, with bananas, mandarine trees, orange tree, lemon, tree and lots of pretty flowers. The house is nice as well. And there is a maid. ANd a lady that comes one a week just to iron the clothes. Facinating. I also now have to get used to taking hot showers and throw the toilet paper IN the toilet and not in the bin again. Such big problems Im facing here.

ANyways, after about 20 min in the house we left to pick up various mambers of the family and I was told we were going to a small get together. SO we drove for about 1h, beautiful scenery, and arrived at a place with about 20 or so family members and friends. So I had to try to keep conversations with all of them in spanish of course. My favourite was this old lady with a strong case of ALzheimer. It was great for me because I didnt have to ask her to repeat things, it happened automatically. So I actually understood everything she said in the end as ahe had repeated it about 20 times!

After alot of talking and eating and drinking we went home. And I went straight to bed. Amazing how tiering this language thing makes u.

Sunday. I studied some spanish outside, we had lunch with granny around 1, then we went for a small walk around town and watched some tv. Then around 7 I was really hungry but apparently here they dont really eat dinner. I had a sandwich but the others did not eat. Strange. Apparently lunch here is dinner. ANd breakfast is lunch. And then the dinner is more like breakfast. Or something along that line..

Monday I started my project. I`m working for an organization called COFERENE (Colectivo Feminino Rescatando Nuestra Ecologia). Which is a recycling project. As I have written earlier there is no recycling system in this country so everything ends up together in the same place. This org. is doing the recycling, people come with stuff that can be recycled, we sort it and the send it to places that uses it to make new stuff. Also, there are meetings and presentations to make people understand why this is important, how to do it etc. I`m atm doing various office tasks as well as working down in the recycling centre. I will, when my spanish improves, have activities, presentations with children to teach them about the environment. So it`s interesting.

The people here are really nice, but there is only about 5-6 people working and they are a bit older. But I can use to computer during my lunch break (which I am doing now) and it even has skype:) Yesterday I went to one of the presentations that my boss had and she even bought me food. I love her.

The family is nice. But it`s a bit boring at home as there are no children so I still haven`t met anyone my age to hang out with. And I still haven`t seen much of the place either cuz when I get back from work I`m usually too tired and it get`s dark which means no walking outside alone. But I have found a gym that I will join. So that`s good. So far haven`t taken that many pics but I have uploaded this nice little logo for you to enjoy on top if the page:) Amazing, I know.

So take care folks. I miss you alot!!!

Uups!!

I have posted the wrong phone number on here earlier!!! MY number is +506 8955-3664. So please correct that:)

Weekend in Paradise

Hola!!

This weekend was GREAT! We had so much fun. The place was beautiful. I saw real crocodiles AND wild parrots flying around on the white sanded beach. Too beautiful to describe so have uploades alot of photos. And it was elections too! Costa Rica has it's first female president! Exciting stuff. The elections were a bit more crazy than what I was used to, but I like it!

So we (7 people from the hostal) went to this great house with our lovely tico friends Aldo and Diego. The house was pretty much in the middle of nowhere close to a place called Orotina. No neighbours so we could be as noisy as we wanted to and it was so dark around us so the sky was Amazing!! Never seen so many starts so clearly in my life!

We had to buy some food on the way of course.

Here we have some of us the first night. Very happy with our imperials!

Because there was a pool there, Yann decided it would be fun to throw us in with clothes on. Of course. When we arrived on friday night it was still really dark so we didn't really see what it looked like around us. So when we woke up on saturday we were pretty excited to look around. This is what we found.

So that is why we decided to call it paradise.
We all wanted to go to the beach so on saturday morning we went to a beach close by (not Manuel Antonio this time;) called palya blanca (white beach). On our way there we found these cute little friends:

This one looks hungry..

SO this is playa blanca, and the happy newlyweds;)Chicas with VERY different skin coloures..

Parrots:)AND of course we were not completely sober all the time and we had SO much fun with random drinking games. Chip- Chipong!!!

So yes, successful weekend. Will upload pictures from the elections later..Take care everyone and enjoy the minus degrees;) Besos xxx

The story of theTelephone

Once upon a time there were some foreign volunteers that wanted a Cosat Rican sim card. But getting it would prove to be much more difficult than the foreign volunteers though it would be. It was a new system that they just started with In CR (kontantkort) and before it was impossible for foreigners to get a costa rican number. Therefore nobody really knew how to get it...someone told the volunteers that they had to go to the airport to get it. So they went by bus for about 30 to the airport. AT the airport the security guard told them they could not enter the airport unless they had a valid ticket to travel for the same day! The volunteers were very frustrated as they had come all the way to the airport but now they could not enter. Luckily, one of the guards said it could be possible to get the sim card at an office in a mall nearby. So, the volunteer took a taxi to the mall International and found the office. There they stood in line for 20 min to ask about where\how they could get the sim card. They gave them a ticket for the line. After about 3 hours of waiting in the office, it was finally their turnand after another 30 minutes, the sim card was bought.

SO the trip started after spanish classes at 12pm and we came back to the hostel at 7pm. But yes, I now have a functioning phone! The number is (506) 89553662!

We are still really enjoying ourselves, but one of the girls at the hostel was robbed yesterday and it really made me realize that we have to be careful all the time..Someone just tore her necklass off her neck in the middel of a crowded street during the middle of the day and nobody reacted. Scary! But yes, I'll be very very careful now..anyways, beach awaits so hasta la vista:)

Tengo que practicar más!

Spanish lessons have started for real now and it's difficult!!! The good thing is that I understand everything the teacher sais (only speaks spanish) but it's still difficult to speak and the grammar is frustrating. And we haven't even started with my biggest enemy yet: The Subjunctive. But yes, smører meg med tolmodighet hver dag!

The other meetings we've had have been very frustrating as well. It was info on host family situations and projects, but I hate the fact that they (very often) talk to us like children..and like we have no common sense. But I have realized that some of these people lack a bit of that, but they could have divided us into groups. The people lacking common sense in one and us others in one. They are like: "please don't make silly faces around the dinner table if you don't like the food. Don't treat the host family like they are your servants, don't call for hours abroad with their phones, be respectful..blablabla" And so far they have repeated this to us 3 times. about 2h each time. It's good fun. Really.

But the group is great, especially my hostal family. It helps take the frustration away. Oh yea, fun tip for you guys: gather a bunch of random international people who don't speak you language and make them sing the national anthem of your country. It's hillarious! Ja vi elsker never sounded so funny.

We're planning a trip to the beach this weekend, it's gonna be so nice! Probably going to Manuel Antonio on the pacific coast. We've heard it's beautiful and there is a national park there as well. Check out the picture on the bottom, Que bueno:D Yea we need to go to sort out our tan-lines, they are all over the place at the moment.

So yes, still doing well here. Starting to feel at home at our little hostel, but it's still gonna take a while to get used to the cold showers and having to put the toilet paper in the rubbish bins. But I got like 5 months so I think I'll get there:)

Snakkes:)
Besos

This is Manuel Antonio. Thought I'd make you guys jealous;) Hope it worked!?