Catching Up-- Reflections on Costa Rica

           It's been quite a while since I've visited this blog, my own personal corner of the internet. It's been a little over three months. And within those three months, so much has occurred; it is time to catch up.
           Since the last time I've updated you all, I've ended one year and started another (as I assume most everyone else has...), adventured to Costa Rica, and started a new semester, among other less-notable things. The end of one year and the beginning of the next was refreshing, as always, but was filled with preparations for a once in a lifetime trip. From January 9 to 20 I left the frozen tundra that is MI for an orchestra tour around the beautiful country of Costa Rica. Originally, I had planned to split the trip into three separate blog posts to recount stories, share pictures, and just generally tell what I was learning/ experiencing. However, while I was in CR time didn't really allow for that, and once I got back, I felt as though I'd rather reflect on my adventure on the whole instead of chopping it up into little bits. So here it goes:
           Costa Rica was absolutely amazing. I'd go back in a heartbeat, if the opportunity arose and my own personal resources allowed. The country itself was gorgeous, filled with rolling hills, stunning mountains, rain-forests with more shades of green encapsulated in them than you can possibly imagine, beaches that were the epitome of tropical paradise, buzzing cities and so much more. The people we met were so warm, friendly, giving, appreciative of our gift of music, and they all graciously put up with our attempts at speaking Spanish, even though a lot of us just ended up butchering the language. The trip was a lot of work, we essentially played 11 concerts in 8 days, but we also had plenty of time to try new things, enjoy each other's company, and relax every now and then.

Photo Credit: Ruth Vanden Bos
of Ruth H. Photography.

           The first couple days we were in Costa Rica, we stayed in a dorm from a Methodist seminary. It was for the most part, a dorm; it wasn't as nice as some of the hotels we stayed in, but in it there was a big common room where we could all come and hang out after a long day of traveling and performing. To me, a little thing like that room made a big difference, because it had the power to bring us all together at night and just fellowship with each other. One night, we decided to have a back massage train in this big room. It was very much needed after several days of playing concerts, our backs were starting to get pretty sore. And it was a lot of fun.
           Even though we were rehearsing for and playing concerts a lot of the time we were down there, we also did so many tourist-y things. We went to places like: Poás Volcano, La Paz Waterfall Gardens, downtown San José, Arenal (where we went zip-lining!), a couple rain-forests, a cloud forest or two, Sky Walk suspension bridges in Monteverde, Manuel Antonio National Park, a beyond beautiful cathedral in Cartago, and so many more. 

Angela and I in our zip-lining gear!
Photo Credit: Ruth Vanden Bos.

           I went zip-lining 600 feet above the floor of the rain-forest--which we were told is the highest zip-line in all of Central America. It was exhilarating and was over much too fast, but I'm really glad to be able to say that I did it and I had fun. I'm also really glad that I got to go with such a cool and encouraging group of people, and with my best friend. My dear best friend since first grade did something really adventurous with me (well and the rest of us); I was excited to see her be so daring and enjoy it! The view from the top of the zip-lining course was stunning. You could see for miles and miles, from Arenal Volcano, to the deep blue-green waters of Lake Arenal, to the surrounding rainforest--and it was gorgeous. Later in the trip, I also got to swim in the Pacific Ocean for the first time! It was so lovely and warm (and salty...which I kept forgetting since I'm used to freshwater lakes). And I thought I got some pretty fantastic beach hair!

Top photo: mine; Middle and bottom:
Ruth Vanden Bos.

           [The collage to the left depicts my favorite beach pictures. Top: My first time touching the wonderful Pacific Ocean. Middle: Angela, me, and Bethany having some spontaneous fun on the beach. Bottom: The silhouettes of me, Angela, and Bethany against the sunset. All the beach pictures were taken at Manuel Antonio National Park, though they were at two different beaches within the park.]
           On top of zip-lining and beach-going, I got to experience a lot of other new things. Like food... I can't even begin to tell you how amazing the food was. And how much of it we were given at each meal. One of my favorite things were the "batidos" which are basically smoothies, sometimes made with ice, milk, or ice cream and of course, loads of delicious fresh fruit. The other thing food-wise that sticks in my memory were the "casados." The word casado literally means marriage, but food casados are plates with rice, black or refried beans, a salad of sorts (like lettuce with tomatoes and carrots on it, but no dressing), fried plantains, meat (I mostly had chicken or beef, sometimes seafood), and tortillas. I think the "marriage" part of it comes from the fact that you mix it all together and eat it.
           Going on this trip I knew I'd be stretched as a person and learn a lot. One of the best learning experiences was actually one of the most awkward experiences: going to a Catholic mass for the first time. I am not Catholic, I don't think anyone in the Calvin group was. The first time we went to a mass, we were given the very front bench by the priest. This made things awkward because we couldn't watch what was going on around us; we didn't know when we were supposed to stand, sit, or kneel (or even if we were supposed to kneel). Before mass, we asked our conductor what to do-- because there are certain things in mass that you're not allowed to do if you aren't Catholic (like take communion). He said to just follow his lead, but the whole group didn't catch that apparently. None of us took communion, so I'm glad we didn't offend them in that way, but when it came time to kneel about half of us did, and the other half just sat. The row I was in kind of crouched above the bench, not standing but not sitting, before deciding to kneel. Also, the service was in Spanish. My Spanish is alright, but it's hard to grasp what's going on when it takes a lot of effort to even understand the words being said.  All in all, it was awkward, but it was a good learning experience.

Un casado; the Cathedral in
Cartago; Ancient mounds/ ruins
in Guayabo.

           The next mass we went to was better, and was in a gorgeous Cathedral in Cartago. After mass we played a concert and the acoustics in there were beautiful: echo-y, but warm. As we were walking out a few of my friends were singing hymns and just enjoying the acoustics. We stopped near the entrance and sang a ton of hymns; it was really moving. Even though Protestants and Catholics don't hold the same beliefs in some areas, it was cool to still acknowledge that this Cathedral was as much the house of God as my church back home was. There's nothing better than praising God in His house. And even though I most definitely consider the music we'd just played in our performance to be an act of worship, and all for His glory, the words in the hymns are very powerful as well. Our tour guide, Ronald (who was super cool), told us we sounded like a choir and that we should sing like that on the top of a mountain.
           Unfortunately, that was one of that last days in the trip so we had no more mountains to visit. We did however visit Guayabo National Monument, ruins of an ancient civilization. There were many mounds there, where different parts of the city used to be. We weren't allowed onto the actual mounds, but we found a little hill next to them, dubbed it our "mini-mound," and gave Ronald the mountain-top concert he asked for. I thought it was a pretty neat moment.
           On our last two days, we stayed with host families who all went to the International Baptist Church in Escazu. I walked into the church nervous about staying with host families, not wanting to be split up from the rest of my compadres on the trip. But, there was an unusual sense of peace that I found in that church. It was something familiar, a Baptist church that looked similar to the church I went to back home, not like a Cathedral (there's nothing wrong with Cathedrals, they are just unfamiliar). The orchestra improv-ed on some hymns and contemporary songs, just like I do at my home church. And it was in English. It all felt very good to be in a place of unfamiliar familiarity. With my host family, my roommates and I got to go to the market where they get all their fruits/vegetables for the week. They even treated us to freshly squeezed orange juice sweetened with fresh sugar cane juice, plus breakfast. The market was a cool thing to experience culturally; it was definitely an experience I won't forget.
           Since it was an orchestra tour, we ended up playing our instruments a lot. What surprised me about all our concerts was how thankful all the people we played for were for our gift of music. On one of our last bus rides, we asked Ronald if he was getting sick of hearing the same program over and over. He responded by saying something along the lines of: I find something new and beautiful to listen to each time you play. I guess I didn't anticipate how appreciative people would be. We got to introduce string instruments to some small children at a couple of the concerts and we got to be the first orchestra ever to play in the Theatre in Jaco! Once we played a concert for only 2 people, but instead of calling it off or shortening the program, I think I tried that much more because these two people deserved to have a wonderful concert as much as the packed Jaco Theatre did. I love music, I love making music and traveling with a bunch of my friends and making music together was absolutely incredible.
           All together, it was 12 days well spent. I really didn't want to leave; we decided that we should just move Calvin and the people we love to Costa Rica, so we wouldn't ever have to leave. I suppose it is good to be back in my hometown, but I really fell in love with that country. I have many more stories and experiences that wouldn't fit in this blog post, because you'd be reading for hours. But I am way beyond thankful that I got to go! If you supported me in any way on this trip, thank you so much. I know this is something I won't be able to experience again, so I'm ecstatic that I went and had the best time. I guess there's not much left to say besides ¡Pura Vida!

Here are a couple more photos from the trip. 

(1) Me trying papaya (banana-carrot) for the first time and Katie enjoying the fresh pineapple; (2) Candid shot of us getting ready for our concert at Casa Adobe [Photo Credit: Ruth]; (3) Ruth, me, and Bethany having a spontaneous dress up night [Photo Credit: Ruth's Camera-- I'm not sure who actually snapped the picture though].

If you want to see a beautifully photographed and put-together picture montage, check out this YouTube video (also made by Ruth): 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRPSg9n0YXM

Photos (that aren't mine) were used with permission from the lovely photographer, Ruth Vanden Bos. Check out how extremely talented she is at http://ruthhphotography.weebly.com/ !