Vamos a... Costa Rica

Today, we went white water rafting! It was so much fun! Our rapids were class 3+ and our guides, Jorge, Pepito, and Freddy were hysterical. Hannah was the only one who fell out though Jorge tried to pull me (Jess) in pretty early. He and the guide decided I had strong legs because they just couldn't pull me in. In reality, I had just wedged my foot under the side of the raft really well, we all did, so well that our legs fell asleep. We made some new friends too. We met a guy from Germany who was in the boat with us named Marcus. He studied Spanish in Panama City and was only in Boquete for a day before he began a really cool internship in a Panamanian hospital. After our rafting trip, we went to Costa Rica! But really, we went to Costa Rica in our bus and took pictures at the border. We bought some fruit in Costa Rica too though it tasted the same as in Panama. Unfortunately, we couldn't get our passports stamped because we didn't go far enough into the country. But we visited, another country to add to the list! Tonight is probably going to be a relaxed night since we're all pretty tired from rafting. Tomorrow, we don't have really set plans other than we want to find somewhere to celebrate July 4 with some other Americans.
Oh wait, I almost forgot, yesterday, for our last day of class, we went to David with Caeley, Alex, and my teacher Ericka and our friend Eric, who was in Hannah's class. We went shopping and drank fresh coconut milk, straight from a coconut, which was delicious.
Abrazos,
Jess, Caeley, Hannah, and Alex

Caeley working on her homework during the game...

The Holland-Brazil game, check out all the orange!

HOLLAND...WOOOOOH

We watched Holanda beat Brasil surrounded by many excited and not-so-excited (the Brasil fans) staff members and students outside Habla Ya. There was a lot of orange there!
Sorry for the quality of the video, it's more about the sound rather than the images...



Quick update on yesterday:
We walked around town in the morning, bought some DVD's in Spanish, drank strawberry and pineapple milkshakes, and then went out to lunch at our favorite $2/plate restaurant. We had our ice cream during class as always (Brie and Rachel) and then after dinner at our respective casas, we all went out to an event with the school.

This afternoon, we hope to go with the school to David for the weekly field trip, let's hope it doesn't rain! In a few minutes, we plan on returning to our favorite restaurant for another cheap and delicious meal...
Hasta luego!

Con mucho y mucho amor,
Jess, Alex, Caeley, and Hannah

Our nerviousness this morning was subsided when we took our first ride
down one of the thirteen cables. We all managed to "break"
significantly each time, which means we didn't pull a "George of the
Jungle (Jorge de la selva)" and crash into a tree. Although it felt
like each ride went by so fast, we were able to pass over two
waterfalls and a lot of trees. We met (many) interestig and calming
guides who were pros at ziplining, even upside down and with no hands!
Afterwards we ate lunch at an American-like restaurant that was part
of the company's building, it even had American prices (gahh) and
American music (which we haven't heard in so long...especially Party
in the USA). Turns out we were hungry after, we figure that American
food doesn't fill us up as much after all this rice and carbs!

During the second part of class, my class (three Canadians and I) and
Caeley, Jess, and Alex's class went on a field trip together since we
are now all in the same level. Our hilarious teachers, Erica and
Ismenia, took us to Valle Escondido, a private and gated community,
mainly for retired Americans. And we really found out how the place
got it's name of Hidden Valley, there really are no people inside...in
the beautiful country club, on the pristine golf course, tennis court,
or horse stables. It was very very odd but felt like a dream village
and that we lived there. But then, the dream stopped when we entered
the pool area...it was blue lighted, steamy, and had creepy horror
music that was supposed to relaxing. It felt like a murder scene,
especially since there were no people around. It was eerie and we were
glad to get outside to the living world.

Our teachers took us into the ampetheatre where we played charades in
Spanish. Afterwards, we continued our walk through the beautiful
community, and did not see another soul except for the Panamanian guys
who were employed to walk the "rich people's" dogs!

And don't worry Brie and Rachel, we did get our daily ice cream snack
before the field trip (although Jess didn't).

¡Hasta mañana!

Con amor,
Jessica (aka gatita), Caeley (aka ching ching), Alex (aka ALEXCHIN),
and Hannah (aka Hannah Montana)