Tico Tuesday, April 20th

Happy Tuesday to you all!

This is a very exciting week because one of my good friends from college is here visiting me! Brenda graduated 2 years before me, but we formed a strong friendship in the time that we shared together. And she is a fellow New Englander, so we have been able to not only keep in touch but also see each other from time to time when I've made it back to the Maine/New Hampshire area. We started the week as beach bums, Sunday in Puntarenas and yesterday in Jacó (pronounced hah-CO). The rest of the week won't be quite so exotic since I have to work. But we will continue to enjoy each others company. It is such a blessing to have her here. More on that on the blog. And make sure to tell me when you're coming to visit!! :-)

May God use you to bless lots of people this week!

Carrie

Brenda (or Brender in the Northern New England area, jijiji) was one of the amazing juniors that I met my freshman year at Grove City College. We bonded especially because she was a fellow New Englander and she was just a really cool girl. I remember her telling me that she prayed for God to give her new freshman friends-and God made me an answer to that prayer!

But now, talking and hanging out with Brenda... college feels SO long ago! I graduated almost 2 years ago. We have both definitely moved on from college life, but thanks be to God we have been able to maintain several friendships that God gifted to us in college.

We have had a blast thus far. I picked Blender up at the airport Saturday night. And though it was almost 11pm Eastern time (9pm here), she had adrenaline pumping, so we went to watch the men from CCI play futbol 5 (“indoor” soccer-the building isn't totally enclosed, but it is artificial turf and 5 on 5). They usually play every 2 weeks. It was a great chance for Brenda to meet some people from church too (which really means a lot to me). We didn't stay the whole hour because she began to crash, but it was enough to introduce her to people, watch some of the game and chit chat.

Sunday we got up early and went to Puntarenas with my friends Vivi and Christian. We went to the little aquarium there. It was fun. I hadn't been to an aquarium in a long time. It reminded me of the Woods Hole aquarium (Cape Cod, Mass) we used to always bike to when I was little. But the animals were a bit more tropical. There were turtles and crocodiles instead of seals, and tropical fish instead of striped bass. It was pretty small-pretty dumpy compared to a big city aquarium, but not bad for Puntarenas. They had a neat exhibit on the Isla de Coco, a Pacific island that belongs to Costa Rica. The whole thing is a national park (Costa Rica is really into national parks), but has a lot of endangered animals because of ruthless fishermen, treasure hunters, etc.

We had fun walking down the Paseo de los Turistas, looking at all sorts of souvenirs and chunches (thingamabobs). It was interesting for me-looking like a tourist and kind of acting like one, but not really wanting to admit being one because I live here. It's ok. There is nothing wrong with being a tourist! I did get a lady to knock down a price a little bit for me. That made me happy. I wasn't going to buy anything, but something leapt out at me and screamed the names of 2 friends, so I had to buy it for them.

We did actually get to beach a bit too, but we didn't have much time because we wanted to get back for church that night. We did make it back and had just enough time to shower beforehand. We'd contemplated not going so we could have more time at the beach, but it meant a lot to both of us for Brenda to come to church. I wanted her to see what it was like and meet the people, and she really wanted to go too because she loves worshiping in Spanish and it's always neat to go to a church in a Spanish speaking country. (Brenda studied some Spanish in high school and college, so she can understand and speak some, but needs more time to process things. She also got to spend several weeks in Bolivia one summer during college.) So, church was nice. There had been a wedding there the day before and they left a ton of delicious smelling lilies and roses behind. That was a wonderful little detail.

Monday we decided to go on an adventure to Jacó. I'd never been, though I'd heard about it before. It is a really popular beach because it is one of the closest ones to San José. It was nigh empty yesterday though. We walked all the way to the other end of the beach. It was great to go for a good long beach walk! We found some yummy smoothies for rehydration. She got pineapple strawberry and I got mango-maracuyá (passion fruit). YUM! Then we went and got ice cream. :-) Getting coconut ice cream was on Brenda's to do list in Costa Rica and I was happy to help her cross it off. I got “pasión queuqe,” which my friend Cadorsil introduced me to went we met up and hung out the other week. It is basically carrot cake ice cream -SO DELICIOUS!!! For not being chocolatey, it is fantastic!! I LOVE carrots, carrot cake, pretty much anything with carrots in it. Oh and it had yummy plump raisins in it and everything. Oh so good!

After poking in some touristy shops, (there was one guy that we enjoyed talking to. He is an artisan and makes a lot of the things he sells. And he did a good job at not being too pushy a salesman. He also highly complimented my Spanish. :-) Oh yeah and Sunday in the bus terminal on the way to Puntarenas somebody asked me if I was from Argentina!! That made me happy too.) Anyway, after poking in the shops we took turns playing in the waves. Even though there weren't a lot of people around we still knew it wouldn't be the most brilliant idea to leave the backpack with cameras, money and my phone for the taking.

We took the last bus out of town... the original plan for the day was to go to the beach just north of Jacó, which is much calmer. But, we ended up running out of time. That's ok though. It was neat to watch some surfers actually get up and ride out the waves.

So, that's been life with Brenda here thus far. Oh I was going to tell you what a blessing it was to have her here. It just means so much to me to have a friend from the States come and see what my life is like here. I have to work the rest of the week, so our exciting adventures are over, but I know there is still much left to enjoy. I've really appreciated our conversations. Brenda and I are on the same page in a lot more ways than I am with most people here. And she and I are both verbal processers, so talking through things enables us to understand them better. And we are opening up and learning things about each other we never knew before! Thanks be to God for friends like Brenda!