Dia de la Independencia

Hoy es la dia de independencia in Costa Rica and most of Central America. But it has been a while since I have posted so I´ll do a quick overview of the last week. Saturday I went to my little brother, Mariano´s soccer practice and then afterwards I went to a Pentecostal youth service with Rachel and Sam. Sunday we went to Cartago for the festival of the Virgen de los angeles. It is a Catholic festival about the virgin. Monday was the fist day of dance class. I am taking a dance class with 8 other girls from LASP. It was a ton of fun and I wish everyone could meet Hugo, our dance teacher. Tuesday we talked about economic systems and how heaven will be like the perfect communism. Definately some new ideas about economic systems that just challenge the way we are taught to view them in the US. Wednesday after spanish class we went to the mall and bought some cheap jewelry. Everything was equivalent to 50 cents a piece. Then we have dance class again which was great but then after class we realized we had been robbed by this lady that was in our dance room. Short version: we thought she was a friend of Hugo and Hugo thought she came with us. So 2 girls got their wallets stolen and Gracias a Dios that I didn´t get anything stolen. We also learned that that day another girl in our program was robbed. So after sorting out all of that and getting home late I was exhausted but my family wanted to talk so we talked for 4 hours which was good because we dont just sit down and talk like that normally. Thursday at LASP we talked about poverty and I learned a lot of stuff about the US´s involvement in wars in Central America that just made me sad to be an American. Then after class I went to church with Tio Jose and his family. Friday we left for our weekend trip. Here is the 3 day trip in a nutshell: saw coffee, banana, and pineapple plantations, walked around the city interviewing people, walked around the city in search of ice cream, visited the Bri Bris, saw lots of iguanas, went to the beach, saw lots of monkeys, danced with teens from the Limon church, had lots of good food, talked to a homeless guy for an hour and a half, walked around the town some more, made deeper friendships with some people, and just had a great time. I love Limon! When we were on our way back, I realized something. I couldn´t wait to go home and not home to the states but to my home here. The whole trip I kept thinking about how I couldn´t wait to tell my mom all about it. It was just a good feeling to finally feel at home here. Things are still hard but each day they are getting easier. It will definately be hard when I have to go to my next family. I am so attached to this one and I still have 2 more to go.
Anyways, today was Independence Day but I will tell you more about that later. Also I think I have found a way to get the pictures onto my familys computer (since my laptop still wont work) so hopefully tomorrow I can start putting up pictures for you Jenn. Thank you everyone who has commented. I dont always have time to post but I try to check this every couple of days and it is just nice to hear from people from back home. I love you all!