Sorry I know these next two blogs are overdue but here goes... September 15th was Costa Rica's Independence Day. They gained their independence that day from Spain along with Guatamala, Honduras, and Nicuragua I believe. So every year, they have a torch that starts in Guatamala on the 11th and travels to the north of Costa Rica by the 14th. Their flag colors are red, white, and blue as well so you see decorations with these colors everywhere. The children also make lanterns to carry around that promote the country's colors or symbols of their heritage. On the 14th, at 6:00pm, everyone in the whole country stops what they are doing to all sing the national anthem at the same time. It's pretty cool. That night we also had a program at the school. We sang patriotic songs for Costa Rica and then the children put on a parade. Drummers follow behind and they are all dressed up, it's cute! After this, we watched the children dance traditional dances and then I got up with four other women, not costa ricans, and we danced a traditional dance of Costa Rica. It was so much fun! Those dresses are heavy though! The next day I was sore from dancing and swinging my skirt around! On the 15th we saw a parade in the morning. It had more traditional dances, schools marching, and men driving ox carts that were painted very fancy. It was a great time to see a country celebrating their heritage!