hola!!!

This week has already been flying by and i kinda wish it wasnt going so fast! The last couple of days we have been having our regular school days at Conversa. i got a new teacher for this week and he has been so good! I got to learn all about natural medicines and what plants treat certain sicknesses. I really think that i want to be a nurse that only deals with natural products...not sure what that is called, but it made me excited because i may have a new carreer ahead of me. We will see though! And Instead of just teaching us spanish he has been teaching us recipies and how to cook spanish food, so it has been very interesting. Today we learned how to cook bull testicles! haha and we are cooking them next monday! I dont want to really eat them, but since i am only in costa rica once i am going to have to make myself try it! pura vida!!! This past Monday night we stayed in and just ate dinner with our family! It was so much fun because we talked about girl stuff for over an hour! haha it was very enertaining because of the language barrier! Christina and i have so much fun just joking around with our madre and sisters! We have cliked so well with them and our sisters are taking us to a disco tomorrow night to dance!! We will be doing the salsa and tango all night...it shall be interesting! What i really wanted to share with you all though is the opprotunity i had to go to a costa rican christian church last night. At the last minute, on of my friends from this trip said he was going and so a couple of us ended up going to a church called cca in san jose. it was a pretty long taxi drive, but so worth the money!! I really didnt know what to expect or if i would even be able to understand anything, since it would be in spanish. Four of us went and we had such a great time just getting to know eachother better! The church is in a very dangerous area and not really a place to go alone. We pull up at the church in the taxi and it is such a nice building admist the poverty area that surrounds it. We walk in the church and they hand us a little bible verse that is in spanish and we actually end up meeting a lady who lived in florida for 27 years so she spoke really good english and she ran the womens center at this church. This christian church is very contemporary, they had the drums and even DANCERS, dancing while worship was going on...it was so great! The best part was when the worship started i was thinking i would not be able to understand anything, but they put up english and spanish on the screen! While we were singing i was just praying that somehow i would be able to understand the sermon or just be able to pick up a little bit! My prayer was answered because the pastor got up and he said we want to welcome our vistors (he was saying this in spanish) and he pointed to us and people came and said hi and all. And because just us four americans there they had an interpeter for us! I was not expecting that at all and it was awesome because we were all able to understand everything they were saying! the lord really provided for us the whole night! It was such a treat to be able to get away from santa ana and go to church! I really needed it and it was encouraging to see Costa Ricans praising the lord! We ended the night by getting some french fries and hamburgers...haha. such an american food, but it was still so good!

Today we had school, but afterwards our whole group got to go to cafe britt where they make all the amazing costa rica coffee. We had a tour of the coffee farm and learned how they grow and make it! It was very interesting and the best part was at the end we got to buy some delicous coffee! No worries, i was able to get alot since i know so many coffee lovers! But, our group had such a fun time just laughing and hanging out with eachother! And we got to drink coffee and eat chocolate...what could be better???!!!

I cannot express how much grateful i am go be here and just enjoying every moment and trying to be content with every situation! I am surrounded by phenomonal people and beautiful mountains.

Miss you all and you are in my prayers!

LOVE YOU!
ERIN