Chipotle and Raising Canes: please, for the love of all that is good do not roll your eyes that I said Chipotle. Just because I live in a country that eats beans and rice at every meal does not mean I am eating the Chipotle equivalent. Quite the opposite, actually. (And I don't eat rice and beans for every meal. Sorry to rain on your parade.)
Thrifting: I love going to thrift shops and finding super great stuff for dirt cheap. Everything in Costa Rica is outrageously expensive. I kind of look at this time as an opportunity for some free shopping rehab. But then again, I'll probably return to the states even worse than I was before.
The showers: wow. I feel like I'm at camp every time I take a shower here. Want a hot shower with fabulous pressure? Not happening; it's one or the other, you choose.
My car: oh, my sweet, sweet Toyota Corolla. How I miss you! I don't mind walking everywhere, but sometimes it's a pain in the butt tracking down a taxi driver and sometimes it's a pain in the butt when you want to go somewhere at night but you're not allowed to leave because you might get robbed or something like that. Never again will I take accessibility and freedom for granted!
Enough of my spoiled white girl rants, how about what I've been up to lately!?
We went to Manuel Antonio this past weekend. We left Friday after classes and traveled 3 hours. Of course we stopped somewhere in there and you better bet I got myself a milkshake!
The absence of waves was appreciated. Sometimes you just want to go into the ocean without feeling like you're being hit by a train, ya know? There were a lot of other tourists there. I love that I live in Costa Rica, even if temporarily, because I have this feeling of satisfaction that I'm somehow one step above the gringos visiting on their spring break trips. I don't know, I'm weird. We went to a public beach after that and got to watch the sunset with my amigas and maestros.
Then we came back and stopped at Pizza Hut because we're college kids and obsessed with pizza. In case you were wondering, which I'm sure you weren't, the Pizza Hut here is a actually a nice joint. You could take your lady friend there without being called cheap and other names that aren't appropriate.
My classes are still difficult and I still find myself struggling to adjust. I say this all the time, but I just can't believe that I'm in Costa Rica, doing the things I'm doing. I know I'll wake up tomorrow and it's all going to be just a memory. I'm ready for more, though. I want to see the world and see all the different cultures that make up this planet. Lately, I have been feeling really trapped and discouraged. I want so much out of this life, but I'm realizing that it's going to take work and determination to get those things. There's stuff that I am learning about myself that I know I could not have discovered back in the United States. Studying abroad has been, and is, quite the experience. Central America is awesome, but I'm ready for Europe!
I guess I'll leave you with this:
I've been really interested in the book of Colossians lately. There are certain passages that are perfect for what I am going through. I shared this with my amigos and would like to share it here!
"9 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you.We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, 10 so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, 12 and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. 13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."
I love when it talks about prayer and having great endurance and patience. Nothing is more relevant for my current situation than endurance and patience! I am realizing the power of prayer more and more. It is no longer just a practice that I do because I was taught to. Praying, for me, is now a way to communicate with God. I thank Him for the good things in my life and ask Him for help with the difficult. I can honestly tell the difference in situations when prayer is involved and when it is not. I had always had a negative relationship with prayer. There was a time when I had prayed so hard that my entire body felt it. I spent hours with God, pleading for Him to specifically answer one prayer. That prayer wasn't answered the way I had wanted it to be answered, and that angered me. I was upset; I was hurt because I had been told that praying would solve all my issues. Yet it had failed me...or so I thought. God doesn't answer our prayers to give us a perfect life. God answers our prayers because He knows specifically what we need. I still struggle with prayer, but I am learning the beauty of it.
Well, I'm about to get super busy with little trips coming up which will give me some blogging meat. One week until spring break! I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...
good job pal on that last part... keep up that prayin life style knowing that with every pray comes determination and more intimacy with him and not necessarily an answer.. its growth... keep growin sister.. He is pleased with your work until you get to Him and He can say "...[Tess]'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'" Matthew 25:23, go in His will my dear
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