Oh how things have changed!

As I was eating lunch at the food court here at the mall in Desamparados after church I was thinking about all the things about me that have changed since a year ago. Some of them are silly changes, some obvious, and some a little deeper. I'm going to take this opportunity (and free wifi connection) to document some of them.
-I started painting my own fingernails on a regular basis.
-I drink coffee once, often twice a day. Last year I had never had a cup of coffee.
- I no longer get highlights in my hair.
- I read books on a kindle rather than a "real" paper book. Not sure how I feel about that.
- I am no longer employed by Fowler Unified School District.
- I prefer watching English tv programs with Spanish subtitles.
- I am a student rather than a teacher (for the time being).
- I am a first time aunt!
- I read the Bible in both Spanish and English in my awesome bilingual Bible.
- I no longer live in the USA (obviously)
- and everyday I am challenged to think, speak, act and understand in a language and culture that is different than my home culture.

Despite all that, I was reminded today at church that Jesus is the same in Costa Rica as he is in California. He loves his children wherever they are in the world, and He is praised in whatever language spoken by his children. It may seem as though most everything around me has changed in this past year, but praise God that he hasn't (and won't!) Now may I remember that and trust in God's constancy and unchanged nature.

Lately

Today I'm just going to post a few pictures to represent what I've experienced lately. 

View from the elliptical trainer at my gym.  Such a blessing to go workout here regularly.  Notice the dark rainclouds...

Chocolate cake from a delicious bakery in San Jose.  YUM!

Sort of odd but awesome display of art at the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design.  We went to a free Art City Tour one evening this week.

And Indian meal made by an Indian couple at their restaurant in San Jose.  Super yummy and reasonably priced!

The Scrabble app on my phone that I play on a regular basis to keep up with my English skills.  I learned that "prolly" is not, in fact, a real word.  Bummer

Recording my joys

No, it´s not Thanksgiving time, but who says you can´t post a blog about being thankful in April?  Rather than go on and on like I sometimes can on here, I´m just going to mention a few things that I´m especially thankful for recently. One thing that I learned at my SPLICE training in January is that making a regular habit of "recording my joys" is very helpful in maintaining a thankful spirit.  I´ve been trying to do that on a daily (or every other day) basis.  So for today, Monday, the day after Easter, here´s my list:

• living in 2012 were there is the capability to communicate with people via video chat over the internet (ie. my brother, sister in law, and my sweet niece)
• reading the verse today that said "Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever" and finding great comfort in that  
• clean water to drink in Costa Rica
• my gym has zumba classes for me to take!! HOORAY!!
• praising the Lord, in Spanish, on Easter Sunday and (bonus!) knowing a lot of the songs we sang in English
• discovering that I can still "check out" e-books from the tulare county library website for my kindle from over here
• the joy of opening an encouraging card daily from someone I miss at home, and most recently, from many of my beloved junior girls from Neighborhood Church
• watching "The Passion of the Christ" with my host family and being able to talk about some of the biblical truths found there
• and finally, resees peanut butter eggs to eat on Easter. :)  sometimes it´s the little things...

Semana Santa

This week is what Latin America calls Semana Santa.  It is the week between Palm Sunday and Easter, and there are lots of activities going on around Desamparados (and the entire country) relating to the death and resurrection of Christ.  Yesterday (Good Friday) I went downtown to see some of the processions that were going on around the big Catholic church.  There were tons of people there, watching or participating in the "parade" with the giant Mary statue and some other statues of people we weren't quite sure who they were.  Perhaps Peter since it seemed like he was holding a ring of keys.  There was also a statue of Jesus holding the cross on his back.  There were children walking in the parade that looked like Roman soldiers, people waving bags of incense, young girls dressed in long flowy outfits, and many people carrying the statues on their shoulders.  It was interesting to see how serious everyone was in the procession, and it made me kind of sad at the same time. Below is a picture of my friend Rebecca and I at the procession enjoying copas, which are sickeningly sweet snow cones.  Refreshing on a hot morning. 

The thing about Semana Santa is that many businesses are shut down around here, as well as most people make a mass exodus for the beach, their relatives' home, etc.  My host family took off for the second half of the week, and to be honest, I've really enjoyed the quiet house to myself!  I've been realizing that it is a really big deal to go from being pretty independent with my own car, room, bathroom, schedule, cooking for myself, doing my own laundry, etc.  Here I have none of those things, besides my own room, and that's been difficult!  My value of having independent time has been challenged to say the least.  

This morning I went out exploring with my friend (and future roommate) Cailah and her brother.  There is a mountain behind her house that is full of coffee plants, bamboo forests, and many other types of flora and fauna.  It was a really fun adventure that we went on and I look forward to returning to the "jungle" behind my future home.  Here are some photos from our morning:

Coffee plants growing

Looking out over Los Guido and the valley

Cailah and me (with lots of sunscreen and bug spray!)

Walking through the bamboo forest, with my trusty water bottle of course!

Cailah swinging from a long, sturdy vine.