So, it's been a while since I wrote last and a lot has happened. We have basically finished up language school, with the exception of one week in January, for trouble-shooting and any questions we might have. Back in December, all the SI Costa Rica staff got together to check out the Festival de la Luz parade for Christmas. It was a little different experience than I had expected. We got there early to get a good spot and waited about 3 hours for the parade to reach us (one hour or so of which was in the rain), but it was surprising to me how few people left because of the rain. When the parade reached us, it was not quite what we were used to in a traditional Christmas parade. There was maybe one or two of what we would have called Christmas themed-looking floats or characters, quite a few bands and cheerleaders and the rest were a vast array of everything from mime groups, dressed in unitards doing some type of interpretive dancing to huge floats with giant swans and unicorns. Leaving proved pretty difficult when we were ready to go because of the incredible amount of people, a lot of whom were trying to catch a bus, like us. But we got out okay and it turned out to be a pretty fun/crazy outing.
For Christmas and the New Year, my parents decided to bless me in an incredible way. They offered to fly me home for the holidays. In doing so, I was able to surprise a number of my friends. I was also able to attend one of my best friend's college graduations, hang out with my entire family (all of my brothers were home, as well), which doesn't happen super often anymore, we were all able to go visit my Granny (my mom's mom), hang out with friends, including one from Chile that I haven't seen in probably about 6 years and because of this trip home- my tourist visa will be renewed and I won't have to leave the country for another 3 months, along with so many other benefits to being home. So, I pretty much killed like 8 or 9 birds with that one stone. Not too shabby.
And now, I have returned to Costa Rica and I'm getting set for all that's to come. I just got back Friday night, so I'm still trying to get some things in order after having been gone for about 2 weeks. And Krysta has not yet returned, so I'm currently holding down the fort on my own. As soon as things begin to progress a little more, I'll shoot out another blog, so you can keep updated ; ) Thanks for reading!
The swan/unicorn float, up close and personal.
Almost the whole SI crew at the parade! (l-r: Sawyer got cut off, Tracey, me, Olivia, Jeff, Erin, Judah (in the kid carrier), Ella and Jeremy and Krysta was the one taking the picture
me and Krysta- we were super excited, despite the rain.
Dominique and I at her graduation.
The typical chaos equated with a Pritchard gathering (l-r:) Diego (friend from Chile), David, Mom, Dad, Oscar in Dad's lap, Jonathan, Grace (David's dog) and Isaac
Whale-watching in my Granny's back "yard"
Hanging out in my Granny's house. (l-r:) Mom, Granny, Isaac, Dad, Albie (a friend of my Granny's)
Jonathan, Isaac and me!
liked your description of the parade. quite humorous
ReplyDelete