Edition 7

Hi again! So...for those of you who are curious, the "open at your own risk" blog is still coming, but it's a little deeper than the usual entry, so it's taking me a while to get it just right. But I still wanted to update you on what's been going on.

We finished the first section of classes and had a four day fall break. Everyone split into groups and did their own thing: went to volcanoes, beaches, went zip-lining, swimming, hiking, etc. I ended up in a group of six and we went to a little retreat in the Cloud Forest. It's like a rainforest, but at a higher altitude so everything's a little different. From the name, I'm sure you could guess that there's a lot of fog and clouds that roll through the valley. It's awesome, you can literally watch the clouds roll over the tops of the really tall hills (they're not quite mountains). There's a young couple that live in the retreat building. The wife went to Northwestern actually and then she met her husband through this study abroad program! They were really fun and were really excited to have us there. We helped with some projects gardening and stuff one of the days. Another day, we hiked up to a cool view point. Another day we hiked 4 kilometers (not quite 3 miles) to two waterfalls that were incredible. And just to make myself feel better...I need to clarify that this was not a normal hike down a nice little forest trail. This was almost 3 miles of some rough trail, a few stairs, but mostly a path cut through random places where you had to climb rocks and cling to tree roots so you didn't fall down the short cliff. It wasn't life-threateningly dangerous, but definitely not easy to do. We were pretty exhausted, but then we walked another two miles to this really great bakery run by a Canadian woman and her daughter. She was so sweet and since we were with the couple from the lodge, we got to eat free. We left her a huge tip, but still! It was great!

Probably the most interesting part of our weekend, however, was the bus rides. To get anywhere if you don't have a car, you have to use buses, even if it's across the country. So we were supposed to meet the group for the 2:30 bus, but we had to buy groceries for the trip and we had problems and the end result was that we didn't make it until almost 3. So we bought tickets for the 3:30 bus instead. However, the bus didn't come and didn't come...finally Sarah (the girl living at the lodge) went to ask what was going on and they said there was a landslide and all the buses were screwed up. The woman told us we had at least until 5:30. So Melissa and I went to get food for everyone, but when we got back we discovered that our bus had come and gone. However, the 4:30 bus was there so we jumped on and rode that for an hour. Then, we got to the part where a bridge was washed away because of a landslide, so we all got out and walked for a couple miles in the pitch black in the mud on the side of a highway to a different bus on the other side. Then we rode that one for another hour and got to our stop. David (the husband) met us there in his van and drove us all a half hour down to the bottom of the valley where the community is. So that was the trip there.

To get back to San Jose, you have to just flag a bus down on the highway, but they won't stop for Gringos so Sarah got a guy they knew to give us a ride and flag the bus down for us. However, when we got to the top of the valley where the highway is, we gave him our money and he took off. So we were like, um...now what? We waited for an hour contemplating the best way to make a fire when it started to get dark. But then the bus came and we did manage to flag it down, although we all had to stand in the aisle for the first half. So we rode the two hours back to San Jose and made it home safely.

Then, we went to our homes and met back up at this really cool Italian restaurant to celebrate my birthday. It was really fun and we got to go to a dessert place afterwards and I got cherry cheesecake, so definitely a successful birthday. Then, my parents called me and we got to talk for a little while that night, too.
And that's pretty much my fall break! Now we're starting our concentration; I'm in the Language and Literature concentration and we had our first grammar and literature classes today. They were pretty boring, but there's only ten days of them and one's done! Tomorrow Kylie and I start working at a prostitution rehabilitation center, so I'll let you all know how that goes. Thanks for reading! I love you!