Christmas

Soo first Merry Christmas everybody! I dind't write anything in quite a long time.. I'm sorry, but I'm actually doing something here, so sometimes I just don't have the time (all lies, I'm just too lazy)
Christmas was really nice. Yesterday on the 24th we ate together in the night and watched the fireworks at 12 in the night, this is how they're celebrating Jesus birth here. Today we got up at 9 and gave each other our presents, I always love that part, not because I get a present, more because I can make someone happy. Afterwards we went to the church and visited some familymembers.
I'm really, really tired right now. I made some nice shots of the lights outside..

holidays!

My holidays started this week! That means nearly 3 months no school! Tomorrow I gonna go on a trip with my hostfamily to Guanacaste, for a week. It's gonna be wonderful, I'm already pretty tanned, but there I gonna give my tan perfection. I will post photos and everything when I'm back!

tortuguero

So yesterday I came back from my 3 day Tortuguero trip and I had so much fun! I saw so many animals 3 out of 4 monkeys who live here in Costa Rica (White Face, Spider Monkey and a sort of howler monkey I guess) than Crocodiles, Arrow Poison Frogs, Snakes, Baby Turtles...

So we started Wednesday in the morning.. A friend slept at my house, because so it was easier for her to get there. We met at 6 ' clock and took a bus in San José who made a stop also in Heredia so everyone had a good opurtunity do get there. On the way we made a stop to have breakfast, there I saw a sloth with a little baby sloth, damn cute! We arrived like.. 10 or 11 o' clock I can't really remember it.. We had time to look around a little. It wasn't really a hotel more like little lodges on stilts (you really need them there.. a hell lot of rain on the caribbean side!!)
After lunch we went to the little town of Tortuguero, where everything was pretty touristic (they could only give us money change in dollars and every second person was from the states or germay)We walked around a little and took some pictures at the beach.
In the evening we played some stupid group games with our organization.. Ok they tried..

Thursday we went on a pretty rainy trip trough the canals of the national park. It was wonderful, though I feared that some crocodiles would kick our little boat all the time, but it didn't happen. Our driver had eagle eyes, he saw even the smallest animals, but taking photos was really hard, because as I said it rained (as the british would say) cats and dogs.
We also walked a little around in the rainforest (but just in the part that belonged to the hotel) earlier, there I saw a poison arrow frog.
In the evening we "danced" a little and had some fun. I stayed up too long..

Friday in the morning I had to get up at 4:30 to see the little baby turtles on their way to the sea. I was tired as hell but this experience was totally worth it! We got back at 6:30 I just fell in my bed because it was freezing cold and all my clothes were wet as hell. But I got up at 7 again to eat. Pretty soon after breakfast we left.

I had wonderful 3 days. I'm really exhausted but yeah totally worth it ;)

birthday girl

I promised you guys, to tell you how my birthday was.. I'm sorry to disappoint you, but it wasn't that special. No emotional breakdown, no special activities; just like every other ordenary day. Ok I had a cake. My presents from germany didn't arrived yet, so I'm still waiting for them. Saturday I'm going to celebrate my birthday a little with a couple of friends, cake, movies and food. Nothing big, just a little celebrating my 17 years of life.

You'll hear from me soon!

zoo ave

On monday was no school, so I spend the day with my hostmom and my hostsister at a zoo. Zoo Ave, to be exact. It was a nice day with good weather. I took a bunch of photos that I'd like to share with you, I don't have that much more to say about it, a zoo is a zoo, even in Costa Rica ;)

something interesting soon!

Soo, soon you will hear something more interesting from me...
First, my birthday is in one week, so I will exactly tell you how it feels to be without your family on your birthday and I will show you some pictures from my little (I hope so..) birthday party.
And second and I guess more interesting for you guys... I'll go on a 2 days trip through Tortuguero National Park! And I'm soo damn ecxited! The park (or the little village) is named Tortuguero, because this region is famouse for turtles and turtlewatching (since 1955!) But I'm going in November, so there are not going to be that many turtles, but anyway the park is amazing! You really have to see my pictures! And if you can't wait just google it. (so did I...)

I wish you all a wonderful weekend, I have one day more because monday is the day of international cultures, or something, so no school.

everyday life

As I started this year I thought it was about learning the language and the culture. Yes of course it is about these things but first of all it's about learning something about myself. I'm here for 2 1/2 months now and I already learned a lot about myself. I can find so much peace in simple actions and thinking is so much easier without the noise of my Hometown, without getting distracted by everything that happens there.
I'm sorry that I can't tell you any intersting travellers stories yet. I arrived in the everyday life. And it feels good.. I mean I miss my family and my country so much, it hurts, but I have normal "teenager" problems here, gives me the feeling of being at home.

you will hear from me soon. If you like you can check out my tumblr.

Death happens everytime and everywhere, even in paradise.
A friend of my hostsister had a terrible car accident on friday, there were 3 others in the car with him, all only 18 years old and just finished their A-Levels. 1 survived.
It was and is really sad. But I tried to be strong, to be there for my sister. I say sister because it really feels like she's my sister now. I spend the whole day on the big service and the funeral. Saw a lot of people crying and must admit that I dropped one or two tears too.

But things like that happen we can only try to forget and go on.

15 de setiembre

Happy Independence Day!
Costa Rica shares this day for an example with Mexico and Guatemala. The celebrations here are really nice. Yesterday we had celebrations in school, including some dances, music and a lot of food.
Today we went to San José to watch de big parade, it was pretty similar to the one yesterday just muuuuuuch bigger. Here are some photos.

 typical dance

my school

earthquake

Soo suddenly an earthquake...
Don't worry, I'm fine! Here in San José it wasn't that strong, yeah we had to leave our class and go outside, but nothing bad happened. But my hostfather picked my sister and me up, so now I'm at home.
But the earthquake was damn strong (in the epicenter Nicoya, Guanacaste) about 7.9 so it caused a lot of  damage in Guanacaste. Short there was tsunami allert in the pacific coast, but it was cancelled.
Earthquakes happe 3 to 5 times a year, so we gonna see how strong they can be ;)

Guancaste

There is one thing that you can say for shure about Guancaste, it is freaking hot! Siriously, you need an aircondition or something like that, if you like to sleep at night. But there is another thing, it is damn beautiful. There are a lot of animals, Colibris, Monkeys, Crocodiles...
I just took wonderful pictures, including the pacific ocean, a lot of animals and plants, enjoy!

mountain view

Feliz día de la madre! Happy Mothersday!
Today was no shool because of the mothersday, so we could sleep a little more which was really, really great. For lunch, we went to a restaurant on a mountain, with a nice view of some parts of San José. The food was pretty tasty, but for my opinion it was way to much meat, haha.
Here are some nice impressions:

tortugas!

I spent my day with my hostmother and my hostsister at a kind of park with places to make some BBQ or go swimming, I'm not shure how to call this place. However, I found a little turtle in a plastic cup, near on of the little sidewalks, so we decided to take her with us. On the plastic cup was the name Roy written, so we decided to name the turtle Roy. Now roy is in a little kind of aquarium next to me and listens to my tiping. I also saw my first Colibri today, what wonderful animals!

getting used to everything

I'm getting used to everything here. To the school, the people and the food. Slowly, slowly. But it truely works, I'm very happy that I have such a active hostsister and that she's so nice to take me with her, everywhere she goes, so it's pretty easy for me to make friends with someone.
I think we're going to San José tomorrow, to buy pants and ballerinas for my schooluniform and maybe visit the Mercardo Central a second time.

You will hear from me soon, Julia.

comida tipica/tipical food

Soo when your family offers you some tipical food don't respond: eeew, I only eat what I knew.
NO! Try, try, try! And if you just don't like it, say it, don't be scared, it's better than pretending everything is fine, in that case they'll may offer it to you again.

Be openminded and polite!

first day of school

Soo yesterday was my first day in school and it's really, really, really different compared to my school in germany. It's much louder and sometimes I don't know if it's still break or class. The pupils are just always chatting and doing crazy things and the teacher doesn't really react, yeah I think it's puberty. (hope so)
But the school is more or less good appointed with electronics and stuff. All in all the people are really nice, a little childish, but nice.

ps: today is the day of the virgen from los angeles (día de la virgen de los angeles) the really catholic guys walk by foot from San José to Cartago which are between 20 and 30 km(!)

at hostfamilies house

Soooo I'm at my hostfamilies house! Just can't believe it. Actually they should pick me up this morning, but they did yesterday evening and I spend a nice day with them here. The A-Level tests are today, so it was no school. I just love their house (my house for one year...) and the animals are really lovely, I'm still a little scared of the horses, but I tried horseback riding and yeah I think I will learn it pretty soon.
So today another hostfamily visited us for BBQ, they're hosting a guy named Willi from Dresden, they're not living here but their kids visit the same school (as well Willi) soooo yeah some Germans more, hahaha.

I'm really excited about school tomorrow and I'll write as soon as possible!

The pictures are taken in Heredia, which is a beautiful little city near San José.

market and teatro nacional

Wow, San José is such a wonderful place, today I visited the market and the Teatro Nacional what's build in a colonial style, sooo here are my photos.

Teatro Nacional