SORRY IT'S BEEN SO LONG!

HEY.

Sorry that I haven't written in a while.  Everything is so busy.  Well... I'm still loving it here. The people are so amazing and God is so obviously alive and working here.  It's awesome because I feel like I can completely be myself around everyone.  And I have definitely been developing some amazing friendships, and I really love all the staff too.  We have all become one big family.  

Classes have been going well.. this is my last week of Spanish classes :).  I like my Spanish classes alright but I think 4 hours straight each morning is a slight overdose.  And also, I think I've been learning more Spanish from talking with the Latino students here than I do in the classes.  Although I've been learning a lot of Spanish, it's still hard because most of the students here speak English all the time (including me) so we aren't getting as immersed into the Spanish language as I thought we would.  But hopefully it will get better with time.

Anyways, back to the people.  Every Monday morning we have an hour of worship for singing and prayer (half the songs in English/ half in Spanish) and it's definitely one of my favorite times of the week.  This morning, Karolina, who is on staff for cleaning, fainted twice and gave us all a scare, but I thought it was so beautiful to see the body of Christ come together to pray for her.  I am so very blessed to be a part of everything that is going on down here. 

To continue on that note, we've been having a lot of injuries lately.  One boy came to Port on crutches because he broke his leg falling off a mountain rock-climbing, I dislocated my knee (which by the way is getting a lot better.. thanks for your prayers!), one girl fell and might have fractured her neck and is currently wearing a head brace, another boy injured his ankle and has to use crutches because it's super swollen.  So anyways, we could use prayer for all the injuries. 

Let's see, what else? This next weekend we are all going to have to stay with Tico families (Costa Rican families) which I'm a little nervous about, just because they will speak all Spanish. But I'm sure it will be a very good experience.  I can't think of anything else to say right now.. if anyone has any specific questions, I'd love to answer. Hope you all are doing well! Miss everyone!

Love, Sophie

Beach! and other things..

Hola!

This past weekend we had the opportunity to go to Manuel Antonio beach on the Pacific Ocean, about 4-5 hours away from Portantorchas.  It cost about $60 to pay for the transportation, the hotel and a few meals. Anyways, we left at about 6:30 Friday morning and it took us about 8 hours to get there because we got stuck in traffic.. literally a stand still for like 2-3 hours because of some surfing competition on the way there. And then when we got there, it was kind of rainy and everyone was pretty worn out from the bus ride but we had a nice dinner at the hotel. The next morning we went back to the beach until around noon and then drove home. And once again, we got stopped in some town along the way for like 2 hours because they were having a huge town party (basically a huge beerfest). Anyways, we were all really happy to get back to Port! 

This week has been busy with Spanish classes for 4 hours every morning and Bible classes Monday and Tuesday nights. This is my first free night in a few days.. it's pretty exciting! Anyways, this wasn't a super interesting post, but oh well. Miss you all! 

Love, Sophie

Beginnings.

Let's see, where to start?

So I have been her for about 5 days, and it already feels like I've been here for a long time. But it still hasn't been long enough to make me too homesick. I still kind of feel like like I'm on a short term missions trip or at summer camp. It hasn't hit me that this will be my home for the next 4 months. I'm getting to know all the students and staff and I love everyone. 

So far I've only had one somewhat major disappointment.  A few days ago a group of us were playing ultimate frisbee and I was going for this crazy catch and I somehow ended up dislocating my knee. Thankfully it popped back into place on it own.. but for the first day after that I had to be on crutches and I've been icing it multiple times a day.  It's still a little swollen now but it's getting better. I'm praying for a fast recovery!

Anyways, I've started both Bible classes and Spanish classes.  Monday morning we took a Spanish placement test to see whether we would be in beginner, intermediate, or advanced Spanish. I'm in advanced. OH BOY. We had our first official spanish class this morning. It's pretty difficult because everything is completely in spanish, but even in the 5 days I've been here, I feel like I've improved a lot, mainly from talking to all the spanish speaking students.  On Monday night we had our first Bible class on Romans taught by Marco (the director of Port) and then last night we had a class on Mark taught by Tom (our principle). The classes are mainly in Spanish, but for now, the teachers try to translate the basic concepts into English. Thank goodness. 

Hmm. What else? The food is alright. Most of us are constantly hungry.. but thankfully we went into town this afternoon and I bought a few craved food items :) 

Well, I guess that's all for now. 

Miss you all!

Sophie

I have finally arrived.

HOLA!

I am finally here in Costa Rica! It's so weird to finally be here after so much anticipation. It doesn't feel like I will be here for 4 months.. it kind of just feels like I'm at camp or a missions trip or something. Yesterday morning I had to wake up around 4 for my 6:45 AM flight. All of the traveling went well.. except for when my huge bags fell on top of me and made me fall over after going through customs .. slightly embarassing.. especially because I was by myself at that point. But anyways, about 6 other students had just arrived at the airport and we all drove to Portantorchas together. The campus is so beautiful.. it is usually hot in the mornings and then rainy in the afternoon, and then a lot cooler at night. I am staying in a casita with 9 other girls.. so far only 4 of them are here. 2 of them are here for their second semester.. so it's nice to have some people who already know how things work around here. My roommate is a girl named Emily from Texas and we unpacked all of our stuff this morning. She brought like 4 huge 70 lb bags.. I guess everything is bigger in Texas :). Anyways, we are like the same person in a lot of ways! So that's good. About half of the students are here so far, so I have been meeting so many new people. Everyone is realllly nice and I'm so excited to meet the rest of them! This morning we took a trip into San Jose and walked around a lot and got pizza for lunch and I bought shampoo and conditioner because I couldn't bring it on the plane before. (so Mom, you don't need to send me any :)) Thank you all for your prayers! It has been a very smooth transition. Miss you all!  Mas luego.

Love, Sophie