This was the best summer ever! For those of you who don't know I went with AFS on a Summer Homestay Program (essentially an exchange program minus the exchange part) and lived with a host family for 6 weeks.

By the way, I took 15 rolls of film while I was there (~500 pictures) so what's here is only 1/10 of the story. Also, the pics are more or less in chronological order. Have fun.

(jenny, sarah, me, hannah)
My AFS roommates in Miami, Florida, where we had to meet and stay a night before we left for Costa Rica. We all bonded so much during that time. We're holding up our nametags so we never forget each others' names. Jenny's from WI, Sarah's from Maine, and Hannah's from Long Beach (whom I saw again at our Acadeca competition)









(the whole afs group)
There were 26 people total from all over the US that went on this summer trip to Costa Rica. Here's everyone waiting for our flight at the Miami Airport.









(the group again)
Us all eating breakfast the first morning that we were in Costa Rica. It was our introduction to gallo pinto (aka rice & beans) and eggs for breakfast. I learned to love it and now I miss it a lot!









(anna, me, colleen)
This was saying goodbye to my fellow AFSers as we started separating and travelling to our host families all across the country. Anna is from upstate NY, Colleen's from WA. I hope they're doing well.









(anna, lauren, me, jody)
We became 'the Orotina girls'. (b/c we were all placed in the same teeny town of Orotina, Alajuela) There were only 5,000 people in the place and so the four of us became very well known. We because such good friends over that summer. This pic was taken before we got to know each other.









(me, ericka, lilliana)
I was really surprised when my host family came to pick me up from San Jose (Costa Rica's capitol). Everyone that was going in my direction was on the same bus ride to the town (it was 2 hours away from San Jose)









(ericka)
My six year-old host sister. I took this picture of her at lunch while she was at school (she goes to the private school Santa Fe) hehe Notice how she's drinking Tampico (their version of Sunny D) and eating rice + plátanos (fried bananas).









(girls from thailand)
One of the first things that AFS did once we arrived was to throw us a welcome party and introduce us to the other exchange students that were there. These are girls from Thailand that lived all across the country but joined us for the party. They did a Thai dance for us.









(***)
This was my first host family's house. It was pretty from the outside, but very humble inside. I once asked why they painted the bottom of the trees white (in the parks also) and I was told it keeps ants from crawling up. hehe
Also, everyone always asks if I was supposed to have more than one host family: the answer is no... I just had some problems with my first one...









(me)
At a famous hedge sculpture park. OoooO









(halley, me, kristin)
Halley's from Australia, Kristin from Norway. I loved their accents!









(anna, me, kevin)
Here's the same park but on the other end. The church behind us is famous. (btw Kevin is my 17 year-old host brother from my second family... lol let's just say it was interesting living with him)









(jody, roena, victor, anna, kim, kristin, others)
The back of the bus that we took to visit the garden. We then went on to a volcano. We spent about 14 hours that day on the bus. Roena was Anna's sister. Kim was Jody's. Kristin is from Norway and Victor was just this horny guy who tried to get with all of us.









(me, anna)
We arrived at the site of the volcano, but then had to pass the shaky wooden bridge to get there. By this time it started drizzling so we were both rather wet.









(all the people in kevin's class/grade at school)
Kevin also went to the private school. Here's the whole of the senior class at an 18th birthday party. She lived at the beach so we frolicked around first. haha. The bday girl (Margarita) is the one in the black with her back to us.









(lots of kids & me)
This was another birthday party I went to. It was Aimee Hartono's sister's 13th bday. It definitely had a different atmosphere but it was fun too.









(our guide for Carara National Park)
He insisted on showing us this leaf.









(me holding a poison dart frog)
That was so much fun. They kept jumping around everywhere though. But don't worry- we washed our hands afterwards.









(jody, me, lauren)
Still ready to rumble after a day in the jungle (Carara).









(lauren, anna, jody, jeffry, kim, me, kevin)
We went to San Jose by bus to check out the malls.









(jeff, kevin, kim, me, lauren)
After the mall we went to the San Jose amusement park.









(kevin)
My host brother on a palm tree. I made him pose for this shot. He kept complaining... something about the ants... (at Herradura Beach)









(***)
A beautiful sunset at Herradura Beach.









(***)
A gorgeous waterfall called La Paz (the peace)that we passed on the way to white-water raft.









(people)
White-water rafting on the Rio Sarapiqui.









(people)
hehe Bunches of people fell out.









(***)
White Sand Beach at Punta Leona, this ritzy resort/private beach. This place was phenomenal. (btw I tried to paint this pic... see my attempt in doodles.)









(me)
Anna, Jody, Lauren, Pipat (from Thailand) and Jonas (from Germany) and I decided to go splurge and take a catamaran cruise to a private island (Tortuga Island). This was me on the boat.









(jonas, pipat, others)
Here's our boys playing a little volleyball.









(***)
Some pretty palm trees on Tortuga Island.









(me, jody)
We kayaked around at Tortuga and even found some of our own private deserted islands.









(lauren, me, jody)
This is us drinking piña coladas on the way back. Notice how black I am after that day?









(***)
Inside the National Opera House in San Jose. This is their prized possession. It was actually fairly small.









(***)
The ceiling of the National Opera House. I was so excited because one of the angels is carrying a bassoon. yay!









(pipat, kevin, karla, halley, jody, jerson, me, lauren, anna, kristin)
Jerson (aka Cofal) was filthy rich so his uncle has bunches of land and ranches, etc. This was us spending a day at one of the ranches.









(Kevin)
Kevin got up on a table and did an extremely good rendition of Lady Marmelade. Let's just say he really studied the music video.









(me)
Right outside our local bar/discotheque during the day. My brother loved this place... It kinda ran in the family.0









(jesse, kevin, halley, me, kristin, karla)
Outside the discotheque having some shots w/ Fanta. (Jesse was Australian but didn't live in our town.)









(kristin, me)
Kristin came & slept over at my house after a night at the local discotheque (La Fruta). This was the next day. It was pouring outside (it rained almost everyday there) and so we decided to go dance & sing in the rain.









(me, Napo)
Let's just say I was in love with this guy...









(people)
We spent some time saying goodbye to all our friends at the public high school.









(pipat, me, kristin, lauren)
We were eating empanadas with bunches of ketchup & mayo at the Rodriguez Soda (aka little stand).









(me, marielos)
This is me with my second host mom outside the hosue. Notice how much fancier/more modern it is?









(***)
A sign that Kevin made to put up at the goodbye party that my host mom threw us at my house. She was so cool... hehe she walked around collecting tequila money from my friends.









(everybody)
The morning Jody, Anna, Lauren & I left to go on the AFS week-long excursion of Costa Rica, all of our friends came to the park to wish us goodbye.









(jenny, me, chris, razzaq)
This was the beginning of our AFS-tour-the-country-trip. We were having some fun in the pool. Look at everyone's expression.









(***)
Then we went to a crocodile farm. I love how colorful this picture is.









(jody, me)
We decided to have some fun in front of a Hooters sign. I had no idea there were Hooters in Costa Rica... (hehe Jody spent a long time trying to rip off the 'banana leaf' that we're holding)









(***)
We went to a butterfly garden and got to release some butterflies.









(allison, anna, me, anna, razzaq, jody, jenny)
Siping hot coco outside a cafe in Monteverde. It was really high up so it was freezing at night.









(***)
Some bats I found under a fern. How cute...









(***)
A monkey that was hanging out in the trees near the beach we went to. It was amazing how close I got to it.









(razzaq & jon)
Our boys at the beach









(me, jon, kathleen, razzaq, sierra, lauren, colleen, jody)
At the White Sand Beach, Punta Leona again, but with AFS people this time. We were waiting for the bus to take us back to out hotel rooms.









(anna, me, chris, jon, anna, lauren, tarl)
At San Jose International Airport about to leave Costa Rica. ;-(