Only 2 More Days

Well, we're almost done here. Only 2 more days until I'm back in my own house. As always, it's hard to believe how much has happened since I last updated this blog. 

After our trip to Monteverde, we had a week full of last classes and final papers. We spent the week looking forward to an important ACM tradition: THANKSGIVING! As much as we were all wishing we could be home for Thanksgiving, we had a pretty good time at ACM. With the main room decorated with hand-turkeys (and some nice decorations from Iveth), we feasted on turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, salad, corn, cranberries, and rolls. One of my classmate's mom and brother were in town, so we got to share Thanksgiving with his family and with all of our teachers. The food was delicious, but some of us ended up taking naps on the floor of the library trying to let our food digest a little bit.

Early the next morning, we headed to Manuel Antonio for our last weekend trip. It's on the Pacific coast, about halfway down. The main attraction there is the national park, but we were staying in a hostel about 10 minutes away. We got to the town in the afternoon on Friday, so we decided to go to a nearby public beach instead of paying 10 dollars to enter the park for only a couple of hours. Of course, as soon as we got there it started raining. It was just a drizzle, so we decided to stay and wait it out. The problem with a drizzle is that when it goes on for 2 hours, everything you own is soaked. I didn't even get in the ocean that day, but when we left my towel felt like it weighed about 10 pounds and was dripping water everywhere.

The next day we headed to the park. A sloth happened to be hanging out in the tree above our bus stop, so I got a few pictures. As we were walking towards the park, we also saw a few monkeys running around the roof of a hotel. We walked for a while through the park, trying to scope out the best beaches. There are 4 or 5 different beaches within the park, but they were all extremely different from one another. Some felt like typical touristy beaches, while others felt like hidden little coves. We sat near one of the more popular beaches to eat our lunches, when an iguana decided he wanted some too. I've learned that iguanas have two speeds: still and sprinting. The iguana looked so harmless until it darted toward you. I stood up and kept trying to walk away from it, but it kept running at us, so I ended up eating lunch elsewhere. Eventually we settled down at a picturesque beach with hardly any people there. It seemed weird at the time that no one wanted to be at that beach, but I think we later learned why. I spent the entire afternoon in the water having a great time. The water was absolutely crystal clear and the waves were the perfect size to play in. We had also heard that it was a particularly safe beach in terms of riptides. Eventually we got out to dry off and put on some more sunscreen. 

While we were sitting up on the beach a park ranger blew his whistle and shouted something that I didn't quite catch. Then he said it again: Crocodile in the water! Everyone out! He didn't sound particularly concerned, like maybe it was a fairly normal occurrence. Since we couldn't go in the water anymore, Adam (or resident baseball fanatic) decided to start up a game of beach baseball. It consisted of a few lines drawn on a slanted beach, some big round seeds we found nearby, and a couple of sticks. And only 3 players, but that didn't seem to be an issue. After the game, we headed back out of the park and to a public beach to watch one of the best sunsets I've ever seen.

On Sunday, we went to the public beach one more time before our bus in the early afternoon. It's always hard to leave the beach, but it was particularly hard knowing it would be our last beach before we tackled the end of the semester and headed back to the states.

Sloth at the bus stop

Mama and baby monkeys outside the park

Manuel Antonio National Park

One of the first beaches we found

Monkey! It was making some crazy noises

The crocodile beach

Before the crocodile incident, Adam was teaching the girls about his favorite exercises

Baseball!

Adam was extremely excited to teach the others

I wish I had gotten a picture of the stick the girls were using - it was about 1/2 the length of that one and 1/3 the width

ACM surprised us this week with a big Christmas tree in the lobby/living room. The lights are usually on in that room, but they've been off all week so that we can fully appreciate the lights on the tree. It's really starting to feel like Christmas now. We gave our last ever presentations on Tuesday, did endless program evaluations on Wednesday, and today was one of the longest days of the entire program for me.

We showed up bright and early to take our written and oral Spanish exams (overall not too stressful). We hung out in the library for a couple of hours and had a great time ripping up all of the photocopies from the semester to recycle (we ended up unintentionally making "snow" out of all of the little bits that fell on the floor). After a couple of hours of that madness, our host families started showing up for our farewell lunch. The main room was decorated yet again, but this time in Christmas colors. We had a huge lunch (chips and dip, soup, portions of lasagna the size of my face, salad, vegetables, rice, and cake), followed immediately by some dancing. A couple of professional dancers came to perform for a little while (so that we could digest), and then we were pulled up onto our feet. I honestly can't explain much of what happened for that hour. I was laughing so hard I couldn't quite breathe, and then I thought I might throw up my lunch. We were a hilarious bunch of students, families, and teachers, all trying to follow these professional dancers. I haven't laughed that hard this whole semester (and I've laughed A LOT this semester). After the dancing we settled down again for... wait for it... cake. Yes, more cake. Everyone just laughed as they brought it out. My host mom and I weren't able to come even close to finishing ours. 

Eventually the families left and the students were left to say our goodbyes. A few of the girls knew we would cry if others started to cry. I can't be sure who started it while we were saying goodbye to our Spanish teacher (it could have been him, me, or 3 or 4 other people), but eventually half of the group was crying. We got ourselves together and headed upstairs, no one really wanting to be the first one to leave the building for good. Judy, who has become our "second mom" here, came to say goodbye next. We were all sad to say goodbye, but we were managing to hold it together. That is until she started telling us about how important it is that we follow our dreams and contribute something to the world. Yet again, we were a bawling mess. We said our last two goodbyes, and finally headed out the door.

I can't believe how emotionally and physically drained I feel right now, and I haven't even said goodbye to any of the other students yet. We're going to say a few goodbyes tonight to the three students headed to Panama in the morning. That will leave 5 of us until Saturday when 3 (including me) leave, and the last two on Sunday. We've all been wrestling with conflicting emotions, but today has been particularly bad. I'm getting more and more excited every day to go back to my own house, see my family and pets, eat my favorite foods, speak my own language, and just be generally more comfortable and at ease than I am here. But at the same time it's really hard to think about the fact that I may never be back here. I most likely won't see my host mom or teachers again. And even the other students live and go to school pretty far away. We were joking about a potential road trip to Minnesota next summer, but it's a 15 hour drive nonstop, I don't think there are any direct or cheap flights, and a bus ride would take at least a whole day. As much as I'd love to meet up with everyone again, I don't know how realistic that will actually be. 

I know that I'm going home soon, and I'm definitely ready, but the uncertainty of everything else is definitely making me anxious. Part of me wishes I could just fly home right now, because these next couple of days are going to feel like years. From here on out, I'm really just killing time before my flight home. It'll be a tough couple of days, but I think all in all I'm ready.