Twin Travel: November 2013

Greetings from Alison,

So as we approach the wonderful season to be jolly the weather is getting warmer here... whaatt?!! I am actually starting to miss the cold and layering up, but I know I will be longing to come back to the sun in January. Yet again I have been so busy it is just one thing after another here, but I love having things to do! So here is what I have been up to in beautiful Costa Rica.

I and many others participated in a 40hr famine, I gave up food for 40 hours ad only allowed myself to drink water and sugar (which is not a nice taste). Others slept without a bed, confined themselves to a hut, stayed in a tree, went blind, didn't sleep, spoke in another language, the list is endless. During this I also had my service in the slum La Carpio, in which we went to the slum to have a fun filled day with teenagers around the topic of gender roles and sex education. However, due to communication issues, we were met with a bunch of very small children to entertain. So we played with them and got to do a short session with some of the teenagers at the end of the day. Also in the evening I went to see the band Sonambulo at Jazz Cafe. It was a amazing, a great and energetic latino band! I did all of this whilst still on my 40hr famine, I can tell you that it got extremely difficult to maintain activities with such a lack of energy. I didn't feel hungry at any point, I just felt a complete lack of energy and this was affecting my thinking, my attitude and my physical well being. Even when I started eating again I had to do so in small amounts because my body was so confused by the lack of food. I definitely appreciate food a lot more now.. if that is even possible!!

UWCCR had a Gender Bender Day in which, well, genders bended! Females dressed as the 'stereotypical' males and males dressed as the 'stereotypical' female. It was a really fun day and some people went to the extremes, let's just say. Some males suddenly lost all of there hair, and I mean all, and some girls grew hair! It was interesting to feel like the another gender and to experience one aspect of their everyday lives. I can't wait until next years!

To celebrate my friends (Carla-usa/honduras/costarica) end of exams we went to Lindora for a nice meal. In Costa Rica the majority of school years work differently, so they have finished their finals now and are now on the equivalent of my 'summer break'. Lindora is a fairly westernised and Americanised place near Santa Ana, it is full with American restaurants and fast food places. We went to Applebee's, which many of you might know as it is a big restaurant company. I reallyy enjoyed it and the food was lush, and if you're wondering, I had the soup f the day and brownie with ice-cream mmmm!

I went on a hike in Poas, a community of the poas volcano. I and a few others from my school attended, due to the fact it was very early on a Sunday morning but never the less and to my surprise I was up! The whole Poas community was on this hike, which was more of a lovely walk through the beautiful surroundings and plantations. Where we started and ended there was loud latino music, even in the early hours...how very latino!! So off we went on the hike and suddenly the group was small and no one was following, there was only me, Gabriel and Weiru from uwccr and the rest had disappeared! So us and some others climbed over a log over a river, climbing up and down the slopes of the coffee plantations before concluding that we were in fact lost. After some giggles and confused stares we headed back the way we came and eventually got back one track. I also got to see some people again who were at our MUN which was nice. It was an interesting and amazing walk and yes, I did get sunburnt AGAIN!

Conociendo Costa Rica is what the tutor groups here take part in, there are many trips available around Costa Rica to get to know our new home better. My tutor group and our tutor Brian (the best tutor group) paired with Bernados tutor group and we had a trip into the capital San Jose. Here we visited the Gold Museum and a Masonic Lodge. It was really intriguing learning about all the money and gold in Costa Rica, liking with the current issue of the large amount of gold deposits under the ground. However, Costa Rica decided to save its stunning rainforests instead of having gold mining, but some big foreign companies are eager to get it. The nature is beautiful here and I wouldn't dream of it being destroyed! Anyway back to the point, our tutor groups then when to a roller skating disco which was aweeesommmeee, but I have never been on the disco roller blades with 4 wheels in a square so it was really hard to get used to. But they played loads of songs and games with the everyone so it was really fun, it was incredible how talented some of them were!!

On Thursday the 14th of November we had service day, the whole school participated in it doing various service days. I did mural restoration in La Carpio, the slum I do my service cas at. We had previous meetings to arrange it and I was part of the creativity group, I help come up with numerous designs for our new mural. Once there I helped paint the new murals and other groups painted playground games on the ground and others were restoring a current mural. There was also another service day here who were painted houses and assembling bunk beds. It was so nice when all the kids came up asking what we were doing and we painted their faces and played games. It was such a hot day and yes I burnt myself, yet again! After a late lunch we got to walk around La Carpio and down to the river where the poorest part of the slum was, it was incredible to see how they live. It seems like they never move and that they are stuck there in very bad conditions, especially the women who have to look after their family and children from a young age. Despite this many of them are very positive and friendly people!

Last weekend on Saturday I went into San Jose with Maia, Kayleigh and Vilde and none of us spoke amazing Spanish, so it really pushed our language skills as well as our guessing and improvising skills. We visited the old market and the art market and the main square.We had a great time shopping and seeing the sights, it's nice to get to know the capital more! And on the Sunday a group of us went to la playa Jaco, which is the one of the closest beaches to Santa Ana on the pacific side. It was a really nice day lying around or playing in the sea. It was nice to get away from campus with a small group just to escape the madness and chill with less worries. And yes it was hot and yes I did burn myself.. AGAIN, but this time it was worse. I burnt myself so much that I could not move and had to take a day off school because it hurt so much. Right now it is mostly blistered and peeling and still bright red, oh the pros of being a stereotypical Brit!

So trimester one has ended and exams are done and our grades are in, but now work is still on for second trimester. Academics are going fine, I know the areas in which I have to work harder now but I'm adapting well. The weather is still very hot, as you may have guessed, but there has also been a lot of bad thunder and lighting. Just recently one stuck campus and I screamed so loud and ran to my friends room, the electricity went and it cracked a roof... this is Costa Rican weather for you, but I'm getting used to it! Our school is putting on a musical and this year it will be West Side Story. As some of you may know I love being creative and I love textiles so I am on the creative team for set and costume design, I'm excited to get going!

On Thursday the 21st we all had blind dates, our lovely second years organised this so that they each had a first year to take on a blind date, I had Claudia from Spain and it was a really fun time. I had to meet her outside my residence and I was so sceptical as to who it was. My friend Amiya's date hid in her closet then burst out and captured her and blind folded her to take her date, after all it was a blind date! The on the Friday I went on an E-Systems field trip to two beaches, this was to look at the sea creatures and the oxygen levels in the water between a tourist and non tourist beach. The first beach was Esterillos, the non tourist beach, it was soooo beautiful. We collected our data in the hot sun, and yes I did burn a little but I got heat exhaustion and my previous burn got worse and blistered bad so I had to go and sit in the shade and chill until I was better.What as ironic was that all the Brits were the most effected by the sun me and Dilly started the sick Brit hammock and then the rest joined! I will get used to the sun...let's hope. Then we went to Jaco, like last Sunday, to do the same there and have fun on the beach before heading back to campus.

Sooo that's about it until now, I'm excited to be going home soon but I'm still making the most of being here!

Pura vida mae!
Alison :)