Update:: City Life

I have been out of San José for a little over two weeks now, and my heart longs to go back. Don't worry, an update on what I've been doing for the final part of my adventure is still coming. But for now, I'm going to show you my city and my people here. Because I want you to fall in love with them as much as I have. Ready? Awesome.

[[Side note: my laptop charger did this cute thing a couple nights ago where it decided to spark out and not work. So all updates hereafter will come from my cell phone. Apologies in advance for any technological glitches/uber-short posts. It's really hard to gauge from such a tiny lil screen.]]

Okay. City Life.

Kaldi is a coffee shop about a 15-minute walk from where I had classes for the first two and a half months of the adventure. I think I've posted about it before, but I spent so much time there I figured it deserved another appearance. It was perfect for doing homework, skyping, or just taking a break from the rest of the world. And the coffee = 10/10.

Another Kaldi creation. Finding little coffee shops became my new favorite thing in San José. I also fell in love with any and all types of tropical fruit juices. Papaya is my weakness.

Other fun fact about Kaldi: They had live music on the weekends. A few of us went to check it out one night, and it was a blast. One of the best parts about this city is the people I'm in it with, and these girls have far outdone my expectations. Doing life with them has been an absolute joy.
[[We're two weeks into our community immersion and I am having legitimate withdrawals.]]

On the corner of the street our class building was on, there was a panadería (bread store) named Fredo's. The custom during our 2:15 break time quickly became a trip for something sweet to tide us over until 4:30.
[[Featuring: Taylor and Emily, two girls from Waynesburg University in Pennsylvania, who clicked almost immediately with me and Kwshay, which is so fun.]]

Trip to downtown San José with my host family. My sister, Andrea, was 15 years old and an absolute gem. I loved getting to know her and spend two and a half months being her hermana. She knew some English and I knew some Spanish so we worked the whole communication thing out pretty well.

My coffee drink of choice in a little restaurant my host family and I went to: blended drink with Nutella. I almost cried.
It was divine.

In case anyone was wondering, YES, I have talked to my family back home during these three months. They are so supportive and flexible and encouraging, and they are a huge reason why this adventure has been so rich and so empowering for me. I am so thankful for them.

There are 22 students on this LASP journey, and I really do love all of them. But I would say these are the girls I have so clicked with (obviously missing Kwshay here). We got together at Hannah's house one evening to make "big cookie," which apparently is an actual thing, even though Alexa and I spent a good deal of time making fun of her because we thought she forgot the article in "a big cookie."
[[Left to Right: Emily, Taylor, Hannah, Alexa, yours truly]]

Big Cookie: Half baked cookie dough on a cookie sheet with ice cream scooped on top of it while it's still hot. I obviously had a very powerful reaction to it. It was a borderline enlightenment type of feeling. And then about 15 minutes in, I couldn't stand to look at it and even fought the gag reflex. Because too much of anything is a bad thing. But wow, was this grand.

The IN/PA girls doing souvenir shopping in San José. Obviously we had a blast. Kwshay's host mom took us to a market where we could get the best deals, and I walked away with far too much stuff. But it was a fun day. So. I can't complain. 

Nearing the end of my time in San José, we had a pizza party in my host parents' room and watched The Breakfast Club, which I had never seen and was apparently a crime or something. [[side note: the pizza here? 10/10]]

Obviously you can't see my latest piercing in this picture but I tried. One day Hannah came up to me and said, "I kind of want to get a piercing... Would you go with me?" Guys, anyone who knows me knows how much I love my piercings. My dad's not all about it, but I so am. So after a little discussing with my parents back in the States, this happened. [[And I even got the parental go-ahead, which made it significantly better.]]

Some self-care after a Trump victory and fresh piercings: cinnamon rolls. [[which one of our professors considered "manna from Heaven." Bless. They really are so good.]]

Okay. Let me just tell you about these people. This is the advanced Spanish class, and I am 100% being honest when I say I was not skilled enough to be in this class. I am pretty good with Spanish grammar and sentence structure, but I just did not have the vocabulary that these guys did. But through the two months of our classes, these people encouraged me, helped me grow, and definitely did not make me feel stupid or not good enough. I cannot tell you how thankful I am for their patience. They made this class so fun.
[[Left to right: Lydia, Hannah, Vanessa, CARMEN (our prof), me, Mason, Taylor]] 

And here we have Sira, the absolute sweetest human to ever exist. She works at LASP doing cleaning and keeping basically everything put together. She's like the team mom. I loved getting to know her and chat with her when we had a free minute or two. 

Since we knew my community immersion was going to be in Heredia, my host family took me there during my last weekend in the city. We visited a beautiful Catholic Church, went out for lunch, and familiarized me just a little with Heredia, which I was thankful for later. 

Lunch in Heredia: bread and pasta; there is no way to go wrong with that. Also the company wasn't so bad. <3 

As one of my last meals in San José, we got sushi. My host parents don't like it, but my sister does, so it worked out phenomenally. Funny thing about the wasabi here though--it's not strong at all. My host sister gave me the weirdest look when I shoveled a ton of it into my dish. Apparently it's not normal to want your eyes and nose to burn until you cry?

We went to the theatre on my very last night to see a movie. I think it was called Genius? Idk but it was a real downer about a classic author and his editor. I didn't love it, but spending time with my family was cool.

I kinda like her. Even though it looks like I'm trying to choke her.   

So this is my family. They were full of so much grace and love for me, and I will never be able to thank them enough for all the time they invested in making me feel at home. They have been hosting students for years, and they still made me feel so unique and special. I can't wait to go back with my U.S. family and introduce them to each other. 

So that was my life in the city for two and a half months. I cannot describe to you how much I loved it. There are cute little cafés, bookstores, grocery stores, everything within minutes. You can sit in the same place for hours and never see someone you know. You can explore and adventure endlessly, because it never gets old.

I have a lot of friends who fell in love with cities they didn't grow up in. I never really understood why. Don't get me wrong, I love city skylines. But I've always been satisfied in my little hometown, with all my people and all my love. But my friends? Their cities have been Indianapolis, Chicago, Knoxville, Nashville, Denver, etc.

My home will always be Bluffton. And for 20 years, it's been my "city," too. The place I love, the place my heart stays. But here I am, head-over-heels for a city I never imagined loving so much.

From now on, when I think of "my" city, San José will always come to mind first. No matter where I might live.