La medica

Hey everyone!! Sorry i have not updated in a while, been very busy!!!

This past weekend a group of 20 of us went to Jaco which is about 2 hours from Conversa. We arrived around 5 ish and all got ready for dinner. We went to this place called Taco Bar and it was phenomenal!! Cannot even tell you how delicious the food was...it sounds so weird, but i ended up eating there 3 times that whole weekend. haha. I got a chicken burrito and it was muy bueno! And they had these power milkshakes that were filled with bananas, peanut butter, and cinnamon! so good! After dinner, we took a walk on the beach and it was beautiful. Jaco's beach is huge and just a vast amount of space surrounds you and the stars are heavenly. Steph, Christina and I started to sing praise songs and we actually ended up singing for about an hour! It was so much fun and we got into the harmony and we were getting lots of complements haha! Later that night, about 8 of us went to this club and went dancing! The funny thing was we get in there and not many people are dancing, but there was great music playing and a live saxophone! We all get in there and start dancing for over 2 hours! We were all just moving to the beat and being silly with one another. It felt good to just loosen up and have some fun with everyone! We headed to bed which Stephanie and i had to share a little twin bed in the hotel, but it was great! Little did we know that around 6 am there would be a loud squaking bird outside out window. It woke all of us up and we couldnt go back to sleep, we all ended up just laughing about it and sitting in bed until the sun came up so we could go to the beach! We got in our bathing suits and went to breakfast at the hotel, it consisted of pancakes, fruit, and of course coffee! By 8 am we were done with breakfast and off to the beautiful, dark sandy beach! I have never seen a beach quite like this one, the dark sand really makes a difference but it was beautiful in its own way. The day consisted of swimming and body surfing in the gigantic waves. And lots of people rented surf boards. We all definitely got tossed by the waves many times, but seemed to always make it out alive. That night we went to dinner and walked around the Jaco and did some shopping. Again we went out on the beach and just marvled at how the Lord made this earth for us! Sunday morning rolled around and we were all a little more tired than the day before, but we still headed to the beach and hung by the pool too! It was nice because our hotel was on the beach so you could go back and forth between the beach and pool really easily. The day went on and it finally came time to go back to Conversa. We always like the bus rides though because it gives us a chance to just sit and continue to get to know one another better! I know I keep saying this, but I am surrounded by awesome people and I enjoy hearing about their lives and how they were raised. We arrive back in Santa Ana and we all go out for pizza before returning to our individual houses. That night, I was getting ready for bed and I notice that my stomach, hip, hands, and arms are a little red and splotchy...so i thought to myself oh its just sun burn. I woke up the next morning and it was still hurting so I decided to go outside and cut off an aloe plant and put it on my skin. It actually made my skin very soft, but it didnt make my redness any better. As the day went on, my skin started to feel like knives were digging in and burning at the same time. I got back from school took off my clothes and saw that I had weird irregular shapes on my stomach and huge, red raised bumps all over and they killed! So I continued to put aloe on and took some benedryl. I still woke up in the middle of the night from the pain that i was feeling on my torso. This morning I woke up and came to school, but I decided i would ask someone about my rash. But when I got to school steph came up to me and was like look at my leg and she had the same thing except that it went from her hip all the way down to her knee in an irregular finger like shape. And she described her pain and it was exactly what i was feeling. We ended up going to a private doctor which was very nice and clean. But when we got there she checked us out and said we were having a bad allergic reaction to something, so we were thinking she would just give us cream, but oh no we had to get shots in our butts! And you all know how much i hate shots, and steph is even worse than me. So I go first and it actually hurt really bad, but i made it through with out passing out. Then steph gets up on the bed and she is already freaking out and saying i am about to pass out. The shot goes in, her butt jerks and then she is gone. Passed out, but she doesnt just lie there she actually starts to shake. About 4 seconds of that and she wakes up. She is completely fine, but just had an odd reaction to the shot. After we are done we go up to pay and my ears start ringing and i cant see straight....so i started to pass out. We both ended up sitting in the office for 20 minutes sucking on chocolate and just laughing at how pitiful we are. We are now back at Conversa just resting. The only thing is we are in a lot of pain and mine had spread to my lips and face. So we are just a little swollen and are rashes have started to bubble. So we are red, bubbly, and itchy. Somehow we still seem to be able to laugh about it! We are grateful we had each other this morning and it is something we will never forget. Our little booties are a little sore and we are both a little loopy from the shot, but as the costa Ricans would say Pura Vida! We are still so happy to be here and I am not wanting this trip to be over. But every good thing must come to an end!

Hope all of you are doing well! Miss you and I will continue to update for the next couple of days!

Love you,
Erin