The past few weeks have been filled with lots of ups and downs, and realizations that my time here in CR is quickly drawing to a close. Here's a quick update of some of the stuff we've been up to!

• Nicole and I went to a concert at our friend Josue's church to see Tapon, a Costa Rican reggae/reggaeton artist, perform. Apparently he started out as a pretty mainstream singer but in the last decade or so has been producing Christian music. The show was good (and we got to see Josue play at the end too!) and certainly different...how many Christian reggaeton concerts have you been to?  
• Margie, Arthur (the volunteer at St. Francis for the summer) and I took a bus to Coronado one Saturday just for kicks. We got on a bus that passes by our house all the way to the end of the line, got off, and navigated our way to the center of Coronado on foot. It was really fun, and a neat way to see a new town. The church in Coronado is strikingly different from most others we've seen here, and the park in  town was pretty hopping, which made for great people watching.
• Jordan came to town for a week! He was here for a few days before our Summer Retreat, which took place at a cute retreat center up in the mountains. Friar Jorge accompanied us for part of the retreat too, which was very special. 
• The day after the retreat, we went to La paz, a waterfall garden that has been turned into a huge tourist hot spot, complete with a beautiful hotel, various restaurants, and all sorts of other attractions - jungle cats, birds, butterflies, snakes, etc.   It was a beautiful day together!
• Nicole turned 23! To celebrate, we made ice cream sundaes and went out to our favorite Mexican place, in that order :)
• Margie, who had been pretty sick, decided to head home a little early to recuperate before our final retreat in Syracuse in July. It was sad to see her go, and it's weird to have only two people in this big, beautiful house, but she's doing better now that she's home. 
• At Centeno, my students were out of school for about 3 weeks because Guiselle was sick, so I was working with the group next store. I was so sad that my kids were out because it was last few weeks of work with them, after having spent about 8 months with them every day.  Fortunately they found someone to fill in, finally, so they should all be back next week.  Working with the other group was fun, but there were usually more adults than students since anyone who would have been working with my group was there.  
• Yesterday my coworkers threw me a surprise goodbye lunch, which was so sweet. Through a series of very sneaky plans, they decorated the room, collaborated on a delicious meal, and sent me home with some pretty gifts and memories (ictures to come!).    

That's it for now...one more week of work left then a bit of traveling before heading back to the states...updates to come, I promise!


Enjoy some photos :)

Jordan's buddy

pretty!

true friendship

birthday girl!