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I don't want to leave :(


I don't want to leave. No quiero ir. I don't want to leave. No quiero ir. I don't want to leave. No quiero ir. I don't want to leave. No quiero ir. I don't want to leave. No quiero ir. I don't want to leave. No quiero ir. I don't want to leave. No quiero ir. :(

 It’s Saturday night. Which means I leave in the morning at 9am to head to San José. I’ll be there doing reorientation stuff with my classmates until Tuesday morning when my plane leaves at about 8am. I fly to Georgia and arrive in Texas around 5:30pm. I think that this will probably be my last post from the CR.

This last week has gone fast. I’m still on an emotional roller coaster, but for the most part I’ve been dreading tomorrow. I know that once tomorrow morning comes it will hit me that I’m leaving and I’ll want to hurry up and be in Texas, but for now… I just don’t want to leave. Seriously. I really really really don’t want to leave. Of course I want to see everybody I miss, but I’ve fallen in love with this place.

This experience in Cartago has been more that I ever thought it would be. I’ve never been a part of a group of people that loves each other so much. I hate that I’m leaving it all behind. I want this for my family one day.

I’ve also learned a lot about the physical culture here. It’s really different than the US and San José. I almost feel like I could walk around in booty shorts and a bra all day and nobody would look twice. Well. Except for the fact that I’m gringa. Modesty is defined very differently here. See-through shirts, every part of your bra showing, and as much boob as possible is very widely accepted. If it wasn’t winter, I feel sure that booty shorts would be in as well. People also don’t really find it unacceptable to walk around the house in just a towel or with no pants on-regardless of who is in the house. I never really got accustomed to that...

Here is an awkward example for you. The other day I was trying to explain the phrase “hook-up with somebody”. The guy I was talking to didn’t get why I thought it was a bad idea. I know you’re probably wondering how that conversation came up. You should stop. I can just about guarantee you’re wrong. Anyways. I explained it multiple times in different ways, but they still didn’t get why I thought it was wrong. Here, you aren’t dating if you aren’t doing it (or so I’ve gathered) and PDA-even in front of your family-is not weird at all. I finally ended up telling them (in Spanish) that, “After a guy gets what they want from the girl, they just leave. Girls have more worth than that.” At that point, he understood… but he still didn’t get it… It’s been really interesting to learn these strange culture differences.

So anyways… Friday started off really hard. I got up and went to my last day of work at the orphanage only to find out that the little kids were off doing another activity for the day. I didn’t get to say goodbye to them. My heart was pretty broken. :/

Today my family drove me around for about 2 hours. We went to all kinds of different historical landmarks of Cartago. It was really kind of them. At one point, a man approached me and gave me a paper on the history of the church we were at. He then apologized and handed me a different paper because the first one he gave me was in English. Naturally I told him I spoke English. He looked at me and said. “You don’t look like you do!”. Winning. Next, he asked me a question in English. I literally froze. My brain was so confused because I haven’t spoken English face to face with somebody in so long that I couldn’t think. The only thing that was in my head was “español, español, español”. I just stood there awkwardly until he repeated his question in Spanish… I would call that winning as well, but I think it’s just a preview of the culture shock I’m about to experience. I’m not ready for it.

            Well. I’m about done here. I’ll keep you updated on how things are going with the culture shock, (and i'll be attempting to go back to blogging about Tuesday morning breakfasts) but until then, thank you for the prayers! I will have my normal phone number when I get back and I look forward to talking to all my favorites. My niece is sitting outside my room crying out “Elena” because she wants to play with me. I’m going to go enjoy my last little bit of time here! Chao!



Thursday night I was forced to go on a double date with my cousin. We went to see Amanecer 2 (The last twilight). While the movie was great, the fact that we were sitting there awkwardly as the other couple made out the whole time was… very uncomfortable. Ohhh Costa Rica culture…













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