AAVE Trip BLOG » Hola de Costa Rica - Costa Rica 3A
July 29, 2010
Hola de Costa Rica - Costa Rica 3A
Posted by the AAVE team in : Costa Rica Clasica, General AAVE Trip BLOG , trackback
Hola Familias y Abbott!
The trip is going by so fast! We started outside of San Jose with a successful airport day and made our way to Volcano Arenal and the town of La Fortuna. The town is considered ¨fortunate¨ because Volcano Arenal has chosen to only send lava down the opposite side of the Volcano! In La Fortuna we hiked down (and back up) 509 steps to the biggest waterfall most of us had ever seen. After the hike our ever positive Emma went shopping since her luggage stayed in the states! We spent the rest of the afternoon swimming in the hot springs and going off the fast and crazy water slides. We got a lesson from Maria and Max on the proper way to do a back flip, but I was too scared to try! After a full day around La Fortuna the group stayed up to watch the glowing lava erupt and flow from Arenal Volcano.
Maddie has adjusted well from the time change in Holland, sharing stories of a different culture.
After La Fortuna we made our way into the cloud forest of Monteverde. Emily was an excellent leader of the day with a positive meeting, sending us off onto our home stays. Even though many people were nervous about the home stay, Alex showed confidence. This became clear once we heard him speak and his Spanish is awesome! Ari is a natural leader after her five weeks working at a summer camp, preparing her for her independent time with her home stay family.
This morning we went hiking through Santa Elena Reserve to bird watch and learn about the cloud forest. Here we had time to discuss our first nights with our families. Nicky was really comfortable telling stories about her casa sister and the fun they had the night before. After the hike, Nico was ready to finally play soccer! This is when we realized Ashley´s awesome defense skills, and even though Sarah was a good sport she´s ready to start up a basketball game instead! We played girls against boys (5 boys against 9 girls), and the boys were victorious!
Now we are in our second day of Spanish classes. The students all have funny stories but Ben´s really stood out. He is learning how to say funny phrases in Spanish to use with his family! The weather has been so great through our trip so far, no rain to really speak of and the group is forming a family already! We have all become masters at the game of ninja, but we need to step up our soccer skills for the night we play our home stay families!
Hope all is well at home and we´ll write again soon!
PURA VIDA!
Javier, Kelsey, Nico, Ben, Alex, Max, Ashley, Maria, Nicky, Emily, Emma, Sarah, Maddie, & Ari!!!!!
Comments»
no comments yet - be the first?