500 Stairs

Today was one of our free days. Most of us got together and rented a bus to go to Baldi Hot Springs in La Fortuna. This city has the Arenal Volcano. We saw the volcano, but not the top of it like at the Poas Volcano. It was a three hour drive, and half of it (at least) was made of up really curvy roads, making some car sick. We ended up getting there 45 minutes before the Hot Springs opened, but we were able to entertain ourselves. The hot springs were amazing! They got hotter as you went up, and there were many pools. The first pools had swim up bars where later we all got smoothies. Continuing up there were some water slides, which were a ton of fun. At the very top- a really cool man-made waterfall with scolding hot water (though some people thought it felt great). I stayed in the water as long as possible, and was very pruney by the end. It felt so great to get to swim around again. It had been too long! After the hot springs, we went to a Mexican restaurant in town that was pretty good. I tried fried Yuka, which is like a potato and tasted similar to french fries, just less greasy.

After lunch, we headed to the La Fortuna waterfall. It was 500 steps up and down, some very steep and complicated, but we made it! The waterfall was beautiful, and I will definitely post pictures later! I didn't have my bathing suit on anymore, so I just got my feet in. It was fun watching the few that got all the way in attempt to swim toward the fall. Heading back up the stairs was difficult, but my group knocked it out quickly to get it out of the way. After that I watched the waterfall from a lookout tower, and did not want to leave. It was then time to head back, and we were all wiped out. After an hour nap, we all started waking up to a very, very foggy evening. I am surprised the bus driver was able to drive those curvy roads with so little visibility. We entertained ourselves with joking and singing the rest of the way back. Some of us then ordered pizza, and I went with a group to a nearby Chinese restaurant. She spoke Cantonese, and so does our friend Patrick, so he ended up ordering for us since the menu was in Spanish. It was fun.

Yoga, McDonalds, and Warm Water

Thursday June 03, 2010
“Day 6- warm water”

This morning Rachel came out of the bathroom saying that she has finally gotten warm water in the shower. You can only get it out of the bath faucet, but that is better than nothing! Finally, warm water. :)

Class was a lot of fun today. The girls all got off a tangent with Liu Laoshi (Comprehensive Chinese Teacher) about how to get our nails done and how much it would be. It equals just a few dollars American. We were very excited. We decided to go tomorrow after class, and our teacher will come with us! Our teachers are wonderful.

We had our first Hulusi class today, which is a Chinese gourd wind instrument. Our teacher doesn’t speak any English, and we didn’t get a translator. He would put music on the board, and the 12 of us would play. It was very noisy. Our teacher would be off on his own in the corner practicing. He looked like he really didn’t want to do this.

We decided today to do the P90X Yoga that Michael had. It was pretty intense, but fun. Afterward, we decided we would make the trip to the city center for Mcdonalds. It was the greatest Mcdonalds I have ever had. We were all very, very happy. We went to one store to see if it was a Polo brand store, but it was just another Polo-like brand. I got a wallet there though, that would fit my Chinese money. We then went to Carrefore, which is a French Wal-mart. It was gigantic. It was Michael, Jeremy, Rachel, and I. There were about 4 floors, and the guys wanted to leave almost immediately (after finding fans for their rooms) but of course Rachel and I wanted to look around a bit. We ended up finding a children’s book section, and I bought some to help me learn.