Children's Museum and Surfing

So this week has been a fairly busy one, so this may end up being a little long ish. In the last week I have been on a field trip to the Children's Museum here in San Jose, and I have been to the Pacific Ocean and gone surfing and I have made it through 3 of the 4 weeks of my first class.

First class. I am in my final week of Advanced 1 Spanish. Which of course means that this week is going to be really busy. I have a group presentation on Thursday that needs to be close to 45 minutes and a quiz over comprehension of a story that same day. Then the following day I have my final for Advanced 1. It;s going to be a busy week of studying. But I really feel like I am gaining more confidence in my Spanish skills and I am able to speak more fluently and for longer at one time. Last night I even had a conversation with my Tica Mamá over the differences between Oregon and here, especially at the beaches. It was nice to be able to hold an everyday conversation in Spanish (something I have been missing since I've been here). My teacher also says that she has seen a lot of improvements in my Spanish. It feels good to both see and hear from others the growth of my skills that I am here to develop (although with a growth in Spanish comes a shrinking of English skills, my English Grammar is taking more and more thought the longer I am here).

Friday my class went to the Children's Museum here, which was an amazing field trip. It was fun to be able to act like a kid but be old enough to truly enjoy it. First we had to run through the museum in our groups trying to find specific answers to questions and get signatures from the employees. Which was crazy and fun (my group placed second by the way, no big deal really ;) ). Then We split up and thoroughly examined one exhibit per group. This is going to be what my 45 minute presentation will be on Thursday, my group is studying Costa Rica and their culture. We finished with about an hour to spare and then explored the museum more. There was lots of exhibits about many different things (Space, the body, Costa Rica to name a few). I have posted some photos below highlighting the best of the activities there. If you wanna see more you can go here Museo de Niños


(Keep reading below the pictures for my description of Tamarindo)

Yeah, I'm in Star Trek. Be jealous

And here I'm being eaten

Zen master

  OK, I told you this was going to be a longer one. Next comes Tamarindo.

After my trip the the museum, I went on my second excursion in Costa Rica, this time to the West Coast at Tamarindo. The beach actually looked pretty similar to Oregon, just imagine slightly more sun and palm trees and 20 degrees warmer, and you have Tamarindo. However, this also mean that there wasn't much of a wow factor in Tamarindo. It was basically just a warm Cannon Beach to me, but I still enjoyed my time there.

On Saturday My friend David and I went surfing. It was my first time surfing ever, and I was really excited to try it. We rented the board and got lessons for only $20 total. The instructor was very helpful (and the lessons were in Spanish, I was proud that I understood them). After about 10 minutes on the beach practicing laying on the board and standing up, we hit the water. During the lesson, which lasted about an hour and a half, I never attempted to catch a wave without the instructors help, but that's OK because it was helpful. On my first wave that I tried to ride, I was able to stand up and ride the wave for a little while, and on the third wave I tried I rode all the way to the shore, which is a fairly big deal for first time surfers (granted I was being pushed into the wave by my instructor, but I still had to be the one staying balanced and standing up). After the morning of lessons, we broke for lunch and souvenir shopping, then we were back in the water to finish the day on a surf board, this time with a few friends to take pictures. In the afternoon I was all by myself, and I still rode many waves. It was seriously so much fun. Now I want a surf board back in America really bad (*wink wink* mom, dad, family, Kelsey *cough* Christmas Present *cough*) I already am feeling the surfing itch and it's only been 3 days since I was there.

After we had to return the boards I was feeling a little sick, probably from dehydration, sore muscles and all the salt I swallowed, so I went to bed early and then hung around the hotel until we left on Sunday. We had Monday off due to a National Holiday (I think something to do with Columbus) so I was able to fully recover and relax after my excursion, which I didn't get to do last week. 

here are some more pictures from Tamarindo, also you can go here My Costa Rican Adventure to view all my photos from Costa Rica.

(If you can't see either of the albums I linked here, email me at nculbertson07@georgefox.edu and I will find a way so that you can see them)

Thanks guys
Vayan con Dios
Nick Culbertson

The day is officially done for me

Tamarindo at dusk