Cartago and lots and lots of walking

 My and my mama tica

 my roomie, my mamita, and I:)

 this little guy is on the door to my bedroom

 La Basilica in Cartago

 nothing beats a good ole jumping picture 

 got it with all three of us! 

 some ruins in Cartago 

 my long lost cousin Sara Raquel

so happy

Dientes! I love these candies

    It has been a really good and pretty productive week.  I'm glad it's going like that otherwise the days would drag on and that would be a major bummer.  Well this week Crystal, Anisa and I ran every morning M-F at 10 am. At first it was really hard, but it got better and better. So hopefully this week will be a little better for us. I don't need to go back to the United States totally obese haha.  So not a whole lot went on during the week. Just ran, walked around, did some learning(sort of) and did some homework.  On Wednesday Crystal and I walked to El Centro Commercial Del Sur...which is a big outdoor mall.  It's really close to some places we've eaten and shopped and walked around so I do not really know how we had never been there before..but we hadn't.  So while we were there I bought two pairs of fake Keds for only 6700 colones or like $13. Which I thought was a pretty good deal. They are super cute too. One pair is bright pink and the other pair is bright orange....and I am in love with them.  Thankfully I have them. My keds are muddy and look gross from horse back riding, my tennis shoes are muddy from hiking, one pair of my sandals got ruined here, another pair got ruined at the beach. So basically I have one pair of flip flops, my Toms, and dirty shoes or ruined shoes, but now I have some new shoes. Later Wednesday night Anisa, Crystal and I went and watched Colombiana. It was WWAAAYYY better than I thought it was going to be so I was glad we went. On Thanksgiving we went to the NAU adviser's house to have a little dinner. It was pretty good compared to nothing I guess. But it was nice to be with friends and just have a good time.
   Thursday night I came home to my mama tica and her granddaughter decorating the house for Christmas and I got super excited. It looks so cute now. But it was fun because her granddaughter's son Julian was helping out and he was just hilarious. Now the house is all Christmasy. Then my mama tica and I and later Sara took some pictures together. That was our first picture together so I was excited about that. she is such a sweetie. 

   On Friday Crystal, Anisa and I went to Cartago. That is the old capitol of Costa Rica and there is a huge basilica there where during the holy week and all that everyone(who is Catholic) goes there to worship and ask La Negrita(La Virgen de Los Angeles..their version of Mary) to cure or help them in some way. The basilica is huge and beautiful.  After looking at that we just walked around for hours. We found some cool ruins and some cool shops to look at. At one candy store we started talking to a worker whose name is Sara Raquel and I told her my name was Raquel and my sister's name is Sara and she basically hugged me and said we were cousins. I think from her I got like 4 hugs in one sitting. She was hilarious and a lot of fun to talk to. After spending the whole morning and most of the afternoon we headed home. Then Crystal and I went to the temple with our ward. It was GREAT!! I definitely needed it and just felt so peaceful afterwards.  

   So yesterday was a shopping and walking day. Crystal, Anisa, Jessica, Jane and I walked to Centro Commerical del Sur and walked and shopped around there. I bought a super cute croquet top there that I LOVE! Then we decided to walk to Multiplaza del Este which is at least a good 40 min walk from el Sur and el Sur is like a 10 min walk from my house. So needless to say by the end of the day our feet really hurt and we were done walking.  

   Today was a good day in church.  The primary had their program. It was super cute to see all of them singing and giving their little testimonies. There was one little boy who knew his stuff. He knew all of the songs and all of the actions to the songs. It was so cute. And tomorrow my mamita is going to show me how to cook gallo pinto which is a traditional Costa Rican breakfast. WAHHOOO!