14

14 days. 14 days until I am with my family, friends and home. 14 days until I leave my Tico family, friends and home. When I say my Tico family, friends and home, I mean it. This place and these amazing people mean more to me than anybody will ever know. They have shown me the best and hardest two years of my life and it will be the most difficult thing I’ve ever done when I leave them. However, I am enjoying the last month in Costa Rica!

It was recently some of my friends birthdays, my birthday and the fourth of July (as you may know) so we decided to celebrate it all together! About 20 Peace Corps Volunteers headed to the Nicoya Peninsula to Nosara for a weekend and we had a great time. The beach there is beautiful, not to mention unbearably hot…but that just meant more time in the ocean and our PRIVATE pool J We grilled for the fourth, played beach volleyball, visited tide pools and just enjoyed life. It was a great last vacation before our final days together at the end of July.

After the beach we headed to San Jose to see one of my best PC friends leave. We went to a favorite volunteer restaurant, to the mall, ate Cinnabon and went out for a nice dinner. It was so very sad to say goodbye to her, she has been a huge support throughout PC and we will be lifelong friends. However, she is on to fantastic things in her life and I cannot see where she ends up!

I am now back in Fila Tigre for the last time, so crazy right?! I couldn’t believe it was my last 10 hour bus ride back to site while I was heading back from San Jose. I head to San Jose for a final time on the 21^st so I am going to be soaking up as much of Fila Tigre as I can. Today I spent a few hours with a woman who I have become very close to over these two years, hung out with my little sister and helped a friend out with English for the last time. I think today is what many of my last days will look like, and it sounds perfect to me!

All of this is so bittersweet and surreal. Peace Corps has always been my dream and it is unbelievable that it is about to end, but what will never end are the friendships and lessons I have learned in these two short years. This tiny community has taught me more than I ever thought I could learn and I hope I can share that with all of you in the US. My volunteer friends here…I can’t even put into words how I feel about them. If you were going to meet the most interesting person in the world, times that by 100 and you have my PC volunteer friends. They are so incredible and I cannot wait to see each and every one of them, from Tico 24 and all other groups, back in the states.

I will check in again (probably) before I am back in Minnesota, I love you all and thank you so much again for birthday wishes and all of the support I have been given in the past two years J