So Little Time

So, I now have about 7 and a half weeks left in Costa Rica. My host dad was explaining to me that I am now going through the stage of my exchange where I want to do everything and go everywhere I can because I can feel my time here slipping away. I would definitely agree with this as I look back on the last few weeks! Going on trips over the weekends with friends, going on AFS trips, signing up for more AFS trips, and planning more trips with friends to go on. I am extremely lucky to have a host family that understands this and is willing to help me with anything I might want or need! I am also very excited for this upcoming month because I have so much planned! I am going to spend a weekend in Jaco with friends from the US for Thanksgiving, my sisters and I are going to an amusement park the 3rd of December, my host dad said he would take me fishing for 3 days straight on an island that doesn't have fresh water or food(we would bring food of course), we are going on a trip to a beach for 3 days with cousins and aunts and uncles, we have christmas(that should be interesting without snow and a fire to keep us warm), there is a celebration in San Jose for Dia de la Luz, and im going to panama for about a week!! Also somewhere in there, I am hoping to fit in going to Monte Verde with friends! So, long story short, I would agree I have hit this stage of wanting to go everywhere and do everything.

A few days ago my host sisters, my host dad and I went trekking through coffee fields and cabbage fields in search of I don't even know what. My family doesn't like to stay on the path, so that's why we ended up going through various fields, eating cabbage along the way, picking oranges, and me learning more about how coffee is made! I also had the pleasure of almost stepping on an orange and black hairy spider about the size of my hand.

On Tuesday I was supposed to go coffee picking with my family, but we couldn't find someone who had a basket to lend us for me to use. My host sisters say it's awful because there are spiders and mosquitos everywhere, it's a lot of walking, it's really hot, and your hair always gets caught on the branches..but of course I insisted I go just for the experience. (and you get paid about 4 dollars for a basket full of coffee beans. A basket is about as big as if you were to put your arms in a circle with your fingertips almost touching, but not quite.) Yeah, so it's not a lot of money..but I've become a lot more appreciative for every cent that I have!  It's okay, one day we will find a basket for me to use and I will go coffee picking!

Monday me, my sisters, and kids from the neighborhood all went to the soccer field near our house and played baseball! Even though it was far from playing the actual sport on an actual field and with a plastic blow-up ball and a tin tube for a bat, it most definitely made me think of home! We played into the night and sat on the field and ate oranges when everyone was tired. Around 7(it's pitch dark by then) we started walking back to our houses, all laughing and joking around.. and I had a moment. A moment where I realized once again that this has become my life, and I couldn't be more happy to say that. Being an exchange student, I have gone through a fair amount of ups and downs, and think I will be happy to return to the US in January. Then, I have a moment like this and think I could easily stay for a year, or even for a lifetime. Pura Vida.

Tieta Keetle