Josh and I have had an awesome couple of weeks celebrating with gringos and Ticos alike. We did have classes on Thanksgiving Day (I was so bummed to have to miss the Thanksgiving Day Parade and the Dog Show!) but we got together with a group of friends that evening and had a fairly traditional Thanksgiving meal. Then on Saturday Josh and I cooked another Thanksgiving meal for our Tica family so that they could share that experience with us. It was delicious! We had chicken instead of turkey (the turkeys here cost $72 a piece!), but otherwise we had what a lot of you probably had on Thanksgiving - mashed potatoes, corn casserole, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, bread, salad and pumpkin pie. It was a lot of fun and our family really enjoyed and appreciated it.
Yesterday marked our being in Costa Rica for 7 months and we have 2 weeks left. It's definitely hard to believe. We took our "final exams" last Friday and found out today that we both did very well. The exam is more like a final evaluation and includes a 30 minute oral exam and a 2.5 hour written exam. It was very challenging but we are thrilled with our grades and how much we have progressed since we arrived here.
We will continue to have classes through next Thursday and then we will graduate from ILE on Friday and hop on a plane to good old NC on Sunday, December 12th. We cannot wait to see family, friends and of course pets :). We both know that the goodbyes that we say here will be incredibly difficult. The bonds formed here are so strong and I know a lot of tears will be shed, but we have the hope of seeing each other again - if not in this life then in heaven before our King!
We can't wait to see you all in a few weeks!!
Love and God Bless,
Stephanie and Josh
P.S. Here are some pics from the past couple of weeks:
A game of touch football with friends - and that's AMERICAN football, not soccer!
Josh and I cooking up some American traditions (doesn't Josh look cute in his apron?!)
Our Tica family after a wonderful Thanksgiving meal
Thanksgiving Day meal with friends
A friend of ours (6'10") with a Kuna Indian from Panama. God created us in all shapes and sizes!
