Just Another Crazy Week...

Our week has been crazy, but what else is new? It seems like LIFE is crazy since we hit the mission field!

• We decided to venture out and attempt to take Costa Rican buses to another town in the country. We had to catch the bus to downtown (.60 cents), then change buses to another town (.50 cents), then change buses to get to our final destination town ($1)... so for a little more than $2 each, we rode the bus out to the country to visit a town that is famous for the artisans who paint the famous coffee ox carts of Costa Rica. The town was nice and seeing all of the painted ox carts was great, but perhaps the best part was the adventure of taking all those buses and figuring out that we could spend the whole day speaking spanish and actually get to where we were going! Hallelujah! Small victories every day...


• On Sunday, we attended the annual Ox Cart Parade in downtown San Jose. There were over 350+ carts and almost 1000 oxen in the parade. Ox carts were originally used to transport coffee from the plantations to the ports. The oxen and the carts were the only feasible way to move heavy coffee crops over the mountains and the soft ground. During the parade, Sarah was asked by several oxen drivers to pose with them and their animals. One cart asked her to ride with them in the parade... she rode for a good half mile or so before Billy got her back out of the cart!


• We have been able to tune in a Denver network channel this week, so we have been able to see a couple of holiday children's shows (Grinch, Shrek Holiday special, Charlie Brown Christmas, Polar Express). It's nice to have a little piece of USA Christmas culture in our week. We are missing our house and our Christmas decorations, family & friends right now. We used to have to juggle our schedules and make decisions about which Christmas parties and holiday events we were going to attend - now we don't have ANY parties or invitations to juggle. It's a different holiday this year...


• We are nearing the end of this trimester of language school. This fact brings with it the stresses of exams and wrapping up loose ends. We have several big tests (oral and written) next week and our brains are past full. All of the information is in there, it just isn't organized properly and we can't seem to recall it at will - yet.


• I cried in class again today... go figure! I've about decided that I'm not ever going to speak using pronombres, complimento directos o indirectos. I'm just going to say everything the "long way" because it is easier and doesn't make my head hurt or force me to break down into tears.


• Thank goodness we have nothing to do this weekend (well, except homework and studying). We all need a break. Sarah is nursing a bad cold and needs to have some down time. I think we all need to sleep in for once. I'm personally looking forward to drinking coffee on the back porch tomorrow morning!