As my time comes to an end...

Well, it's my last day in Monteverde and only about a day and a half until we leave to come back home! It sunk in about a week and a half ago that this was no longer a vacation and that I was here to stay. I can honestly say that I would be completely content living with my host family, with the exception of missing everybody from back home like crazy; I genuinely feel as if I am a part of their family and 100% at home. All of my clothes have been put in my dresser and away in the closet, I have my own dirty clothes hamper and even my own bathroom! Unfortunately, I'm leaving all of that in only hours :(

Tuesday: We attended the MonteVerde Cloud Forest School, or also called creativo educacion. This school is AWESOME!!! The school itself stresses environmental education and farming and it's ran largely from donations. They stress an organic curriculum which is rooted within the National Standards. The most interesting thing about this school was that the courses are taught in English, with the exception of Social Studies and obviously...Spanish. Once in high school, or what is known here as "colegio" every course is done in English. I talked a little bit in my previous blog about how this school is considered to be a more prestigious school and that I was curious if social status could affect literacy;I have found the comparison between Santa Elena and this particular school that could serve as an example to a certain extent. Some parents of students have paid to have their students attend the Cloud Forest School but pulled them out because they felt their children's Spanish was suffering and that they were losing a part of their culture. My mama tica's niece and nephew attend this school and from what I've seen of them and talked with them, know a good amount of English. Mariana is 4 and in pre-school while Jualito is 6 and in kindergarten. I've noticed that they already have more English language knowledge than my tica sisters do who are 6 and12. Visiting this school opened my eyes to see the influence I can have on our environment, how I can teach kids and other students ways to have an impact on their surroundings, and also just how important parental involvement with a school can be. The Watson School of Education is working on a program where the last five weeks of internships are done at the MonteVerde Cloud Forest School and I'm really hoping this program can work out! This would be a great opportunity and allow me to come back and be with my familia. 

Mariana and I (my mama tica's niece) 

Library 

This was laying in the art class at the Cloud Forest School. It speaks the truth :)

The Meadow

Wednesday: This day was our second and final service project. The project consisted of volunteering on a farm called Life Monteverde. The main concept of this farm was  sustainability and learning about conservation. The farm has only been opened since the 1990's and is still improving but is on it's way to great success. The farm is family-owned and our tour and volunteer work was done with one of the sons of the owner; William was his name and he was excellent! Hearing him talk about the land and each plant for what they were was inspiring; He had so much knowledge about farming and sustainability and the Costa Rican culture itself. Our volunteer work consisted of putting organic soil on the coffee bean plants and this came with hard work! We had to carry sacks of compost a pretty good distance and then dig the holes where the compost was to be deposited. After about an hour and a half of working with the coffee plants, we had a little break and then hiked a bit of a ways to an open field where we each had the opportunity to plant our own tree. I hope to come back in a few years to see my tree and just how much it has grown :) Overall, this was a great service project to participate in. I felt good knowing that I was helping the environment, as well as helping a local farmer. Pura Vida! 

My tree that I planted! 

Hard work & dirty hands! 

Thursday: OH MY GOODNESS!!! This day was a complete whirlwind of emotions; scared, nervous, happy, energized, exhausted, and even left me with a bit of a sore throat! Located in Monteverde are many different zipline companies but the one that we did was called Sky Trek. We got to Sky Trek around 7:30 and didn't leave until after 10. After we got all geared up, they took us on the "test" line which was scary enough! After the test run, we rode a sky lift 5,700 feet up and then the real fun began. We went down 9 lines in total and each one got more and more intense, whether it was the altitude or the length of the zipline. Our guides were great though and made our experience even better. I've never been too afraid of heights but doing this took height to a whole new level. It's much different being way above the treetops and seeing the countryside for miles and miles and milessssss. I tried not to look down much because it scared me but I couldn't help it sometimes because the landscape is so beautiful. With every look down though came screams...I hope you enjoy! 

Arenal Volcano is located on our right; this was the place we visited last weekend that was four hours away! 

Friday: I'm writing this blog today and it's a bit of a bittersweet day since it's my last one here. I've been pretty busy spending time throughout the town shopping some and trying to finish up this blog but my night will consist of spending time with my tica family! I started to pack up some of my things this morning and my mama tica just stood in my doorway and told me she didn't want me to leave, so I know tomorrow morning saying goodbye is going to be pretty rough. The two weeks that I've spent with my tica family have been absolutely incredible. I couldn't have asked for a better family. I plan on staying in contact with my family. Their going to have a place in my heart forever as I hope I do theirs. Once I'm back in Wilmington, I'll have one more post about my overall experience and what I'm really taking away from this trip so I hope you can continue to stay updated with my blogs! :)

See ya in a couple days!