I'm in Costa Rica! A lot has happened in the last WEEK. I can't believe it has only been one week. But first things first...

I left Moscow after the worst finals EVER. Honestly, the grades turned out just fine but I was just kind of stressed and overwhelmed. Take studying and add in moving, a day with a nasty hangover, and a few hilarious twists of fate and you have one wild week. The last day in the 'Scow I was trying to clean my bestie's apartment with him, finish a Stats project, fix a car that we managed to almost destroy, and pack all of my stuff. Thankfully, it ended with me, Becky, Troy, and Audrey in Spokane for my last night, trying out every happy hour in the downtown area and running through fountains in the sunshine. Could not have asked for a better goodbye from the West.

At home, I tried to mix enjoying the sunshine and Bass Lake and snuggling with Sheila and cooking with my family with finishing a proposal. What a lousy time to finish a proposal. But home was amazing, of course. My little brother is the most awesome upcoming farmer in the mid-west. Also, I ate fried cheese curds and drank Miller Lite at an outdoor bar... twice. I love home... WI in the summer is pretty amazing.

A few days later, I left on my evening flight from Chicago. Chicago was amazing for a few reasons:
1. My sister is still my other half
2. Cuban food outdoors with live music and Mojitos
3. Plenty of time to relax, work on some stuff for school, and re-pack, re-pack, re-pack.
4. I got to see my sister's life! Finally, after hours and hours logged on the phone where I had to make up all of the places and people in my head.

So I got on the flight and hung out in various airports and planes until arriving in San Jose at 5am the next day. If you want to hear a funny story about a red-eye flight, just hit me up. It was NOT the best sleep I've ever received.

When I got to San Jose, I had a few tasks: get colones (CR $$, jaja I know funny name...), take a taxi to the SJ bus stand, take the bus to Turrialba, and take a taxi to CATIE. Luckily, I had been practicing the phrase: "Necesito ir a la estacion de autobuses que viajan a Turrialba" throughout my many flights, so I got to CATIE by 10am. After a run with Mo, a delicious papaya snack, and a few faculty meetings, I was finally able to relax with Zayra's family, have a pisco sour, and get some sleep!

I spent a few days at CATIE before venturing west to the coast with my friend Mo. It took us a good 12 hours of bus riding, but we got to Nosara and eventually found a beautiful language school. If you ever want to learn Spanish in Costa Rica, I would highly recommend Nosara Language Institute. We are taking two weeks of intensive Spanish lessons (its just the two of us with one instructor) and getting a homestay (two meals a day included) for $550. In addition, the owner of the school is really awesome and has hooked us up with surfboards, bicycles, rides places, and great connections. He is a really inspired guy who uses the Spanish language program to fund his non-profit English courses for Ticos.

In addition to language classes, I have been really busting my booty to get in a grant proposal due tomorrow... I only need one letter signed and I will be done! Hooray!

I also took surfing lessons the other day with a hottie named Adrian. It was pretty fun staring into his beautiful eyes and... faceplanting into the waves for an hour and a half. What can I say, I don't perform well under pressure! I'm going to go on my own tomorrow and probably surf some gnarly olas.

Bees? Not yet. More on those later. Hoping to get out in the field next week after we pick up our car... and I can't wait! More adventures yet to come... and I'll add pictures ASAP.

PURA VIDA!

Well, here we are: finals 2012. I wish I could say that I am feeling excited, happy, and successful this week, but alas, the general gloom is still settled a bit on my heart. Combined with stress, it's not working out real well for me. But is it normal to feel great on finals? Let's do a flashback:


Finals Spring 2011: This was a very mixed-emotion time. Leaving Olaf was one of the saddest, hardest things I've done, and I knew I was leaving behind a relationship that really made me happy, on top of that. The stress of graduating really got to me, too- I remember freaking out when my family was all at Olaf. But I also got a 4.0 this semester and it bumped me up to my goal GPA for graduation, plus there was so much celebration in the air.








Finals Spring 2010: A confusing, but happy time. Getting ready to move to Oregon to participate in an REU, not encumbered by any relationship but with a prospect that was making me giddy, and a lot of new friends that I was very excited about. Plus I was going to move into WB in the fall- how awesome was THAT going to be!?







Finals Spring 2009: Thinking back this far is difficult. I had just found out I was going to India in the fall.... and I was taking vertebrate bio and doing a hilarious failure of a final project with Erin Seybold... I was living in Rand, but my roomie was living with her bf so I remember being lonely at times... but I was dating a SWEETHEART of a guy and I'm sure that I was excited to get home to be with him. It was my brother's high school graduation... here is a pic of me with said sweetheart and my bro's friend.



Finals Spring 2008: Oh yeah, drama spring. This was the year that I was struggling to finish CH/BI, the course of my nightmares, I was breaking up with Bryce (who is still one of the MOST important people in my life) and I had broken a guy's heart and was regretting it (the sweetheart from Spring 2009). I was also about to start my first summer at Camp Sturtevant, which I may not have known it, but that would be life-changing, positive experience for me!




So anyway, the point of this blog is: my heart got broken this semester and I'm still reeling. But drama happens, and every finals is like a door to another stage of life. Looking back, I can see how big every step was and it makes me think... what awesome stuff is headed my way? Maybe I wont just survive, maybe I'll thrive.