I am going to climb to the top of a hill, and I am going to free my will.

Today, my friends and I hiked up the mountain outside our house. It was a 3 ½ mile walk up! Like most of my Costa Rican experiences, it was both challenging and rewarding. When I got to the top of the hill I was reminded of a lyric from a song I have been listening to recently, “I am going to climb to the top of a hill, and I am going to free my will.” I decided then and there to free myself to experience everything Costa Rica has to offer. I realize going head strong into these strange and sometimes uncomfortable situations is not going to be easy, but often the most challenging experiences are what help us make the most gains in our spirit and character. I am going to free my will and spirit to feel all. I am going to free my mind of all worries, and just be. I am going to free myself to learn and grow as much as possible from all experiences both positive and challenging.

Sorry, I seem to begin all blog post similarly, but I think it exemplifies my thought process during the last month. I have encountered several situations in which I have had to look to quotes for inspiration and encouragement. I hope that those of you reading this may find them somewhat inspiring, too.

I have some catching up to do. Last weekend I headed to the beach with the other student teachers. We left on Friday after I was done teaching. This was our first venture through San Jose, and I must say it was kind of scary. There was a lot of prevalent poverty, and city was pretty run down. We finally got out of the city around five, and spent a long three hours making our way to the beach on the twisty roads. We finally arrived in Jaco, and got settled into our nice little $10 a night hostel. We were all tired from the week. So, we hit the hay early and got ready for surfing on Saturday!!!

Sarah, Amber, and I took surf lessons and had a blast! We all did pretty well! We didn’t catch any huge waves, but overall I would say we were pretty impressive. The hardest part was definitely carrying that massive surf board throw the waves!

My third week was my best week so far. Thankfully, I am now splitting my time between two teachers, and the second teacher utilizes me a lot more in her classroom. The staff is also slowly starting to warm up to me. I even had a five minute conversation with one of the Spanish Teacher this week. We just talked about general things, but I was still proud.

The student teachers and I decided to lay low this weekend and stick around home. There is a mountain right outside of our house. We decided it would be a fun adventure to hike it, and indeed it was. We saw some beautiful, and terrifying things on the way.