For the month of February, I was unable to write due to a few fun excursions I took part in. My younger brothers’ school was taking a field trip into the mountains to a Christian camp, and I joined them as a volunteer. I received 72 hours of volunteer hours for the trip, where my duties were to help keep the children in order and assist them in their daily tasks (getting dressed, brushing teeth, cutting their meat…). At first, when my parents told me that they were going to make me go on the trip, I was livid. I didn’t want to go spend my weekend with a bunch of elementary school children, away from cellular and internet access. What teenager would? However, I am glad I went on the trip because it opened up a lot of opportunity for me to work as a Student Teacher part-time for the 6th-7th grade writing class in the school.
In honor of Spring Break/The Holy Week, my brothers’ Karate belt exam was held in Playa Hermosa, which is on the beach. My family and I all spent the weekend at the beach, watching the practices and the exam. It was a good bonding trip for the Sensei and the students because they were all constantly together, partaking in workouts and other activities. The practices took place on Saturday around 5:30 am until 7:30 on the beach and then again in the afternoon. The exam was in the evening on Saturday, where each group of belts were to test their knowledge on what all they have learned in their classes. For the most part, everyone succeeded in proving themselves.
After we left Playa Hermosa on Sunday morning, we were able to drive to Jaco to go surfing for the day. My brother and I got surf lessons, as we do every time we go. We were able to practice on bigger waves, and that was quite an adventure in itself. There was one wave in particular- I swear, I felt like I was flying for a second. The drop was much larger than I had become accustomed to. Of course, it was extremely scary at first because I was not used to dropping so far, but in the half a second, I went from completely scared to excited and overjoyed. It was like a rush of adrenaline all at once, and I was able to ride the wave to shore, completely in control. I cannot wait to return to the beach and go surfing again!
-Raquel Brown