Our weekend/Only having 2 weekends to go...

This weekend was really refreshing! It was also really interesting, and full of things I've never done/haven't done in forever... good and bad! The first night we went to Isla Cedros, a very small and deserted island in the Nicoya Peninsula, and camped out on the beach. It was fun, we brought an inflatable mattress and avoided crabs the best we could. Zak brought a yoga mat to sleep on and claimed that he woke up once to a crab looking at him, while this Swedish guy Tony said that crabs were attacking him all night. I experienced no bad crab times, and actually slept surprisingly well! There was a fun group of USACers and some Ticos, but that was pretty much it. We built a bon fire and looked up to see palm trees and an amazing heat lightning storm, and even saw glowing water on the way over because of something about algae- I won't pretend to understand science, but it was still really cool. It was a pretty relaxing night/Saturday morning, aside from the fact that there's a stomach bug going around and some of us threw up on the beach at one point or another... but the good news is, we mostly feel kind of better now!
On Saturday, we left for Malpais/Santa Teresa (we're still not really exactly sure where we were...) again. Me, Zak, Michelle, and Peligro stayed in the same hostel that we stayed in before, but this time with a SWEET trundle bed! ...and a really cool green lamp. We spent the afternoon on the beach which is really really amazing and had enormous waves, and then got some delicious smoothies and such. Zak bought a compilation of Leonardo DiCaprio movies for 2 mil which is only 4 dollars (common price of a good pirated movie down here, or in this case, 3!), and we watched one of them before we all fell asleep. Today we went to the most amazing bakery ever and then the beach again, which is seriously gorgeous. The Nicoya in general is really wonderful and relaxing, and filled with delicious food and fun hostels. We were all agreement that we could spend a lot of time there and thoroughly enjoy it. Where else can you spend an entire weekend without footware and not have anyone care? (We went through The Great Sandal Famine of 2010 this weekend... 3 of us lost sandals in various ways, and I opted not to buy a new pair yet, and it wasn't a problem at all).

So, now we only have 2 weekends left. It is unbelievable. We feel so at home here, definitely more so than we feel in the States at this point. It is such a bizarre feeling to know that it's ending soon, and it's extremely hard to put into words. I still feel like I'm just getting started here, like I just got here. I just keep thinking of all the small details about returning home that are so foreign to me now, and I can't get my mind around them. At first, this all just felt like an incredible vacation. Everything seemed new and strange and amazing, and the amazingness never really faded, but now what seems strange to me is thinking about going home and being in my living room and taking Tigey for drives to the store (who drives?!). The strange things have become the every day things I did in NH, the simple things, and I can't even picture what it's like doing them anymore.

What did I even do when I didn't have any plans? I honestly can't remember! I didn't take a 2 minute walk to the beach and lay around in the sun, that's for sure. And I HATE THE COINS, I hate them so much! They are SO SMALL and useless and I just never want to see a dime again! Am I going to be bored when I go back? I feel like I'm going to be so restless and aching for adventure and it's going to be so hard to just go back to life there. I'm not really sure if I can do it. My plane ticket says I can, but I'm not so sure that my heart will board with the rest of my body. Ughhhh, I can't do it at all!

My life is so changed, and it sounds crazy because it's only been 4 months, but I think it's because it took us hardly any time at all to adjust and make lives here, and we've had so, so many incredible and fulfilling experiences here already. We've gotten to know and explore an entire country, and learn the language, and see so many absolutely stunning places. We've all gotten used to traveling and spending insane amounts of time just looking out the window of buses and being in love with where we are.

And as amazing as it has been to live on a tropical beach and see all of Costa Rica, the hardest part won't even be leaving the place, but the people that I've met here. We all live so far away from each other- my best friends here are from Missouri, Alaska, South Carolina.. opposite ends of the country. And the entire USAC community is like a big family. There's always, always something to do or someone to hang out with, and everyone always has a smile and an interesting story about their travels to tell. I haven't been bored once since I've gotten here thanks to the amazing community of people, and it's so sad because even coming back to visit Puntarenas will never be the same without all of the familiar faces I know and love.
This has truly been something to treasure- easily the best 4 months of my life to this point, and has solidified my yearning to travel forever. I knew I wanted to travel lots in my life, but now I can't picture doing anything EXCEPT traveling, and living in amazing places, and meeting more amazing people. It really is exceptionally difficult to picture anything ever being any better than this, but you never know what's out there until you go explore it, so I hereby declare myself forever in search of perfect experiences in more incredible places. I can't picture a better way to spend my life.

So now I'm just left with this bizarre mezcla of feelings- being completely in love with where I am and who I'm with, but at the same time so nervous to leave, and so nervous about what will change... being impossibly happy, and not at ALL ready to change that. I'm so incredibly enamored with everything here, and it's seriously breaking my heart to think about the nights on the pier with apretados and my best friends that I won't have, and the late nights in Lidiette's living room descansing, and the runs along the beach, and the pull-ups I still can't do, and the crazy weekends of epic journeys and ridiculous experiences, and the salsa dancing at Happy Days on Thursday nights, and my host family, and host town, and just everything here that makes it so perfect- even the terrible, moldy perros all over the fricking streets. I love this place, and I love these people, and I love feeling this full of life, and it's going to really tear me apart to leave, but I guess that's how you know you enjoyed it the best that you could, and had no regrets, and made everything so so so worthwhile.

Siiiiigh sigh sigh. If you have any advice on how to be less neurotic about this, please let me know. I don't even really know what to be telling myself and this point. Also, if you live in NH, we're eating curry puffs and cookie cake the moment I get home, and we're all gonna like it.