I'll dance to that...

Well, my birthday has come and gone and I'm a year older. 24. Doesn't that mean that I am now in my mid-twenties??? Or does that only happen when you hit 25? Anyway regardless of how old I am beginning to feel (at my age, still in the university, no boyfried, no prospects, years away from a stable job) at the same time I am totally thankful for another great year I passed as a 23 year old. Looking back over what I had accomplished the year that passed, I realized I have everything to be happy for as the year progressed: I graduated undergrad with my best friends, I moved to California, I watched my best friend getting married, I got a job working in the field I wanted to, I met and made several new great friends, I moved to Costa Rica, I got into a Master's program in translation, and above all I spent another great year with the people I love most, friends, family, and my dogs. What more could I ask for out of 365 days?

Well, the birthday itself was great. Friday night, after classes, I came back to the house where my tico family had planned a party with some friends and a bunch of the family. Mom cooked some delicious fajitas, dad whipped up some delicious "azulito", Jaime and the cimarrona band played music just for me! and Danilo tried to dance (although, sadly, he is the one tico I have seen that has no rhythm...) I danced along with the cimarrona, with Andrey, with Jaime, with dad. It was a great night and made me feel special that they had planned all of that just for me. This year is the first year in 4 years that I haven't spent my birthday on Spring Break with the loves of my life, but my family made me feel welcome and loved. I couldn't have hoped for more. Saturday, my actual birthday, I received visits and phone calls from friends here in Costa Rica, and emails, messages, and calls from my family and friends in the US. I am truly blessed to have as many people that care about me as I do! Satuday night I went out dancing, again, with other friends and by the time I got home my feet were killing me...I could hardly walk!

Other than the birthday celebrations, classes are going well. The work load keeps intensifying but I am enjoying the challenge of the translations and the time spent working in groups. I also especially like that I do not spent 9 hours on a Saturday in theory lectures! Thank the Lord for classes of more practice than theory! Although I'm not sure that at this point I can say my translation skills have improved, I am constantly improving my Spanish skills and find it easier everyday to speak and understand. I noticed tonight though, after watching a movie and then a couple of hours of tv in English, that being surrounded by only English even for a couple of hours makes it difficult to think in Spanish when I need to! Come to think of it...this blog is probably not helping me in that respect either!

Pues, cambiamos al español entonces...no mentira! This past week I took a few days off from doing homework and headed to the beach in Guanacaste, on the Pacific coast. The beach and atmosphere were amazing, and it was nice to be away for a couple of days without having to think in work for the university. Sadly though, the trip ended too soon and I had to get back to the Central Valley to do a group translation, which, although was not that long, took forever to do with the group I have! By the time I finally got back to the house I felt like I needed another beach trip to get over the one I had just had! And now as this new week is starting and I look at the amount of homework I would like to have finished by this coming Sunday, (when Julie comes to visit!!!!) I can't help but think how great a beach trip at the end of all of it would be! 8 days and counting...que riiico! I'll dance to that!