Back in Costa Rica!

To my fellow blog followers I am incredibly sorry that this has taken me over a month to get on here!

Twice in one year. Only Wirlan could have predicted it… Wirlan always said that I would come back to Costa Rica at some point but who knew it would be so soon.  But here I am back in Costa Rica, arriving 364 days since I last arrived in Costa Rica.

I was originally trying to study abroad in Monterrey, Mexico and take language intensive courses then complete a co-op for an organization called CIC, Centro de Integracion Ciudadana, which translates to the Center of Integration of the Population. The organization acts as a median between the people and the government to try and improve policies and infrastructure in Monterrey, Mexico.  The organization sounded perfect, however, Mexico is on the State Department travel-warning list, which means that Northeastern will not allow students to go to that country and after attempting to appeal this regulation I was still denied.  However, an advisor (I will not name names hehe) made me believe that I there was a decent possibility that the waiver would be approved so I held on the hope that it would be approved until November when they finally got back to me with a huge, heart crushing, NO.  Because Northeastern took so long to come to this decision they reached out to a couple of Spanish language intensive programs that would still allow me to participate even if the deadline had pass… where were those programs… Chile and Costa Rica! I’m sure Chile would have been great but after living in 3 different countries and moving every 4-6 months the idea of moving somewhere were I already had friends and a network of people sounded fabulous. So here I am back in Costa Rica taking language intensive courses at the University of Veritas.

Luna. Luna. Luna. I am living with my friend Anais, I mentioned her a bit the last time I blogged while I was here.  Anais has a two-bed room apartment and a cat named Luna. On my first day in Costa Rica when I got to Anais’ she showed me around her apartment (she moved since I was here last). I asked if she had any petpevs and she said no but it turns out her pet has a few pevs. She then explained a few things that I needed to keep an eye on when living with Luna… I came to learn that it would not be hard to live with Anais but the problem would be … living with Luna.

Cats tend to have a stereotype of being independent keeping to themselves but Luna Oh, Luna she is the reason that is a stereotype not a fact… She is anything but independent. She is needy, always wants attention, to be pet and smothered with love. As far as living with Luna it is like living with an infant… Bathroom door must be closed at all times or else, any towel hanging up will be knocked down, the toilet paper will be ripped apart and all over the floor and anything laying around is bound to be Luna-fied. The sponge in the kitchen must be put in the cupboard and any small cords lying around will also be Luna-fied. As for my room, it is a little adventure land for Luna / Luna seeing how she can torture me on a daily basis. She is obsessed with hair ties, she sniffs them out, she looks through my bags and if there is a draw open she immediately investigates. I have learned to be cautious as to where I place my hair ties. Her latest and greatest curiosity/snack time in my room is my newly purchased plant. Seriously?! Yes. If I walk out of my room leave my door open for 5 minutes when I come back in she is on the dresser munching away at my plant. So my poor plant now looks like… This….

The Flowers are beautiful... 

but the leaves... 

or non existant leaves.

And now you are about to be bombarded with a million pictures of Luna... 

Here you have sexy Luna... 

Luna helping me procrastinate and being a pain in the butt 

Luna getting in trouble in the cupboards...

Luna making herself at home in my room.

Luna aking a nap in my drawer. 

Luna and her styling watch.

Luna really enjoyed the movie I was watching... but she made a better door than a window for me.

Now, I promise I had good intentions. So me trying to be active and save a few bucks on bus fare thought it would be a great idea to buy a bike to bike to school. So stupid… in oh so many ways… First, the bike ride from Anais’ to Veritas is about 6 miles… uphill (at least its downhill on the way home). Secondly, the biker population in San Jose is about 1%, which means that drives are not used to bikers nor are they fans of them. It also means that “bike lanes” do not exist… not that lanes really exist anyways because people drive like animals here so biking in San Jose can only be described as a good ole near death experience … every 5 seconds. But stubborn ole Molly here is still determined to bike to school a few days a week and teach the Costa Ricans how to deal with bikers!  I have been biking to school on days that I only have one class (2-3 days a week) and it is just thrilling… not kidding about the near death experience every 5 minutes. My favorite experience so far was watching 9 consecutive cars take a left turn without turning on their blinker… and no it was not a left hand turn only lane.

Going to the beach in January. A few weekends ago I went to Manuel Antonio, a beach about 3.5 hours south of San Jose, with a small group of students from my University.  It was one of the places that I regretted not going to the first time I was here so I had to make it the second time! At Manuel Antonio I enjoyed the best Camarones con arroz (Shrimp with rice) and I got to see a sloth in the wild!

A view on the bus ride to Manuel... 

Lizard!

Sloth!!!!!

White face monkey

A family of American Raccoons... one of them stole someones entire bag of unopened chips on the beach...

A different type of monkey ... sorry I don't know the name.

Panoramic of the Beach. 

Back in the good ole USA!

After we got back from Novi Sad we only had a few days left in Belgrade and then it was time to head home.  The last few days were bitter sweet and we tried to fit in all of our last souvenir shopping, museum visits and one last group outing on a boat curse. 

 First we visited the Museum of Yugoslavia that exemplified the growth of technology in Yugoslavia.  There were many graphs that showed the growth of the use of radios, televisions and vehicles over the years.  The second part of the museum displayed Olympic history and articles from the 1984 Olympics that took place in Sarajevo, BiH which was then Sarajevo, Yugoslavia.  

The outside of the Museum of Yugoslavia. 





Time line of the Olympics!



Tito's Grave!

Tesla Museum.  Nikola Tesla was a Serbian inventor mostly in the areas of electricity.  He is best know for his contribution to modern alternating current (AC).  Tesla also lived in the United States for a while where he invented the first remote controlled boat! 

The remote controlled boat.

Electricity!

Lastly we went to the Belgrade Military Museum, which was located at the Fortress!

The white T-shirt team at the museum! 

A Serbian Toilet!



USA Army Uniform in the Serbian Military Museum! 

Before the boat cruise we said farewell to our Serbian friends at the Mexican Restaurant that we frequently visited.



Our final night on the boat cruise was a great way to wrap up our trip!

Novi Sad

For our last weekend in Serbia we took a trip to Novi Sad.  Novi Sad is the second largest city in Serbia, however, it still maintains the feeling of a quaint small European city.  Many of the streets in downtown Novi Sad are pedestrian only streets, which makes the city feel more relaxed and old fashioned.  Novi Sad is also home to the Petrovaradin Fortress that looks over Danube River. On Sunday we took a walking tour around Novi Sad and to the Fortress! 

The square in Novi Sad. 

The window in the center is built out because women were not allowed to leave their houses so they would sit by the window and look at the men and throw their handkerchiefs out the window at men that they liked.  The men would then go home and give the handkerchief to their father and the father of the young man and woman would set up a date for their children.  

We happened to walk by the filming of a Greek movie!  Novi Sad is very picturesque and has many pedestrian roads making it perfect to film movies so there is virtually always something being filmed in Novi Sad.  

On our way to Novi Sad we stopped at a small community that still practices religious traditions from Serb communities in Southern Croatia.  These unique Serb communities were forced to flee their homes in Croatia during the 1991-1995 Croatian war.  The community from Croatia has now nearly permanently settled in a town about 45 minutes outside of Belgrade where they still continue practices of their old traditions, which include these outfits, that one of our group member got to test out…

Below is Matt (one of the other students in my group) dressed in the traditional clothes along with is new family! :) 

                                             

Professor lovely testing out one of the rifle. 

Matt and I

 When the Serbs moved to Serbia from Croatia they could really only bring what they could each carry.  These outfits are so important to them that over a dozen people brought their traditional clothes with them. 

 The gate to the church and community center.

A cute little building... not sure what it is for. 

Inside the church... It was so colorful!

There was a baptism going on when we were there!

Matt's new family by the church!

Then there was a surprise wedding!

                                                 And a Band!

   

Busy. Busy. Belgrade.

On Friday we had an extremely busy day!  In the morning we went to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs where we spent time looking at their new exhibit on Serbian history and the history of Serbian Foreign Affairs.  After we went to the Institute of International Politics and Economics where we discussed Serbia’s main Foreign Policies objectives and the controversial issue of the recognition of Kosovo.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 

Typical Belgrade street.  

I thought this was interesting... instead of gargoyles there is a man in a stance ready to behead a man. (see the statues on the left side of the building)

Our meeting with the Institute of International Politics and Economics

After our political meetings we met with a fun organization called e8.  E8 works to improve gender equality, civil engagement and health awareness among youth in Serbia.  The organization is made up of fun and young employees that use creative tactics to improve key issues in Serbia.  It was really great to see an organization that is incredibly inspired and enthusiastic about creating a better social environment in Serbia.   

Our last meeting on Friday was with our energetic professor, Professor Lovely!  It was the second lecture on state building and tactics used for successful state building.  Professor Lovely is an incredibly enthusiastic lecture and I am really looking forward to taking his class next semester!