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Sorry it has been so long since we have sent an update, but here is what we have been up to in the past month. School is still going great and we are learning a lot and enjoying it. My confidence is getting a little bit better and Patrick is doing great! He talks to people all the time with no worries. Homework is getting a little harder as we end the trimester. We have two more big tests and then we are done for the trimester. I also had to do an hour long bible study in Spanish the other week and I have another one to do for next week. Our last day of class is coming up! It will be the 24th of April and then we graduate the 25th! We also will each take an exit exam if we choose to where we sit down in front of a teacher and talk to them. The teacher will evaluate how well we speak spanish depending on how much we have learned so far. There might also be a written part to the exam, I can't remember. That exam will be this Friday the 13th. OH, and only 19 more days until we are back in the USA! Everything will go fast from here on out.
Anyway, on to the fun stuff. On March 22 we had to leave the country to once again renew our visas. We are only allowed to stay in Costa Rica for 90 days and then we have to leave for 3 days to renew our 90 day visa. So, we went to Panama again. We got on a bus about two blocks from our house that took us to the border. From the border we got in a microbus taxi which took us to the coast. Then, from there we got in a boat which took us to the main island of Bocas Del Toro. Bocas del Toro means mouths of the bull. The islands got this name because that's what the coasts of the islands looks like. Go figure. The boat ride went much better this time since the boat driver didn't get lost:) We left that morning at 8am and arrived to Bocas a little after 6pm. We stayed in the same sweet little bed and breakfast that we did last time.
The next day we went to starfish beach and had a great time looking at the starfish, cracking open coconuts that the guys cut off the trees, and just hanging out on the beach. It wasn't a real sunny day so the water was a little chilly and we didn't swim a lot. That evening we ate at a resaurant that was on a boat. We had amazing pulled pork sandwhiches!
The next day we rented kayaks and kayaked over to one of the closer islands nearby. As soon as we arrived to the island, everyone except me went out to snorkel. I was standing a little bit away from the bags in the water. I was there to watch the bags but unfortunately, this didn't turn out so well. As I was standing in the water, something stung my leg. I'm pretty sure that it was during this moment when I leaned down to look at my leg that the thief came out of the woods. Without me ever hearing or seeing him, he took Patrick's backpack and snuck back into the woods. In my defense, it was a really weird sting. My leg went numb between my mid calf down to part of my foot and I couldn't feel that part of my leg for a week. It didn't hurt, it was just oddly numb. I still have no idea what stung me. Anyway, so Patrick came back on the beach and said, where is my bag? We immediately knew that someone must have taken it from the woods because we were on a very small part of the beach where there was nowhere to go but the woods. I remember that right when we got there I had taken a picture and put the camera back in the bag. The thief must have been watching this and that's why he snuck down and stole it. So, Patrick and our other friend Adam went looking for any sight of the thief or the backpack in the woods. They hiked all the way through the woods to the village on the other side. They asked around but no one knew anything about his backpack or typical spots where stolen things were found. So they returned and searched the woods to see if the bag was shaken out and left there. They didn't find anything. So much for our great time snorkeling. The thief didn't get away with anything too disappointing. Patrick just really wanted his good bag back. In the bag was the camera, which is the not so good camera that we carried around because we didn't care if it got stolen, our swimming goggles, some little things, $40, and my pocket knife:( It's ok though, nothing extremely important or hard to replace. Anyway, after a few hours of searching, we returned. We didn't have any other money on us so the guy at the kayak shop was so nice to break us a deal when we came back. He was such a great guy and he felt bad for us so he only charged us all $20. The bill should have been $55 for all of us. What a nice guy! Oh, the one thing that was rough for us to lose in the backpack though was the keys to the hotel room. We were charged $65 to replace them because the key to the safe was on the chain as well and when that is lost they have to replace the safe as well. Oh well, we couldn't have left Costa Rica without an interesting story about somthing getting stolen. I am just so greatful that the Lord allowed it to happen in such a sneeky way. I much prefer this over armed robbery. We were sad for a day or two but there's nothing we can do about it and we are glad the Lord kept us safe. That night we went out and listened to a neat reggae band play out on a dock. It was nice to hear some classics and music in english:) The next day we returned to Costa Rica. Overall, it was a pretty good trip.
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