Celebrations in Costa Rica

   So a few weeks ago I celebrated my 30th birthday here in Costa Rica. We had a really fun celebration with our Tico family. There was tres leches cake, a piñata, balloons and lots of food. They were really sweet to celebrate my birthday. If you had told me 10 years ago that on my 30th birthday I would be in Costa Rica studying Spanish, I would have laughed at you! It is really pretty amazing to look back at all that has happened in my life since I was 20. I guess all my big adventures of moving have mainly happened after I married my sweet, adventurous husband. And, at this rate, who knows where I will be when I celebrate my 40th birthday. For now, I am content in my 30s. 

I was blindfolded and taken to see my birthday party. Diana, my Tico sister is behind me and Louis David, Mamí and Papí's grandson is beside me.

My tres leches gluten free cake

Piñata time!

Papí and I 

Louis David, Kelly and I with all of our candy. We were really surprised that Louis David let us keep any of the candy. 

    We also had our first Thanksgiving outside of the States last week. When we normally would have been eating turkey, unfortunately, we were at school. It really just felt like any other normal day to us. Last Saturday, we did have an "American" Thanksgiving with our team. It was a really fun time to hang out and eat great, familiar food, minus a turkey! We had the next best thing, chicken :=) It was sad to not be at home with our families and friends for Thanksgiving.

     In Costa Rica, the month of December is a huge holiday month. All the students have their "summer break" from December-February each year. There are many parties with lots of food and dancing. This is going to be a fun month to watch and learn their traditions. Mamí, our roommate from Canada, Kelly, and I have already been busy making stockings, wreaths, and other various decorations for our house and rooms. Mamí is really talented at decorating and sewing, so it has been fun to learn from her. It is definitely cheaper to make your own decorations, so it will be good for me to know how to do this in Peru. I will have to post pictures of my sewing projects when I am finished.

   This next week is our last week of school. We are excited for a little change for the month. Hopefully, Nathan will be doing a lot of the blogging (for all of us) about his experiences in Kenya. Vamos a ver!