PSU takes on Costa Rica ... Part III

    On Wednesday afternoon we arrived at flamingo beach resort. A gorgeous resort with unlimited wifi and no bugs. We again were greeted with delicious strawberry banana smoothies and after we settled in and went to lunch we spent the rest of the day on the beach. It was a much needed break after non stop traveling and a great time for us to even out our soccer and rafting tan lines. It didn't take us long at the hotel to realize the Brockport women's soccer team was on the same trip as us. We could not believe it. We decided to get dressed up for dinner and after played ping pong, fuze ball and pool while we waited for the casino to open. We went to the casino and many of the girls walked away with at least five dollars, winning.
    The next morning we woke up and went zip lining. We had to split into two buses, one bus stopped and let the girls get out to pick some fruit, Jill bit into a mango and when she pulled away she saw a worm crawling through it. On my bus, Em and I serenaded everyone with some Train, Taylor Swift and Vanessa Carlton. Zip lining started off with playing with some caged monkeys. They held our hands like infants and graciously accepted the blades of grass we offered them. Brie went to pet one of the monkeys tails and he proceeded to slap her hand and growl at her, kind of like the French lady that didn't want Macee to pet the iguana. They were kind of feisty. Then, who I'm assuming was the head monkey, was mad about everyone else getting attention and turned around and mooned us, it was gross as well as hilarious. After we got suited up we did about ten different lines that were all different speeds and lengths. There was one line were everyone went down upside down and a few were people went superman style, which the guides called "super chica" for us. You wrap your legs backwards around the guide and fly down the line like super man. Shorty and I even did it with a dog on our backs. After two hours and so much fun we headed back to the hotel and got ready for our third game.
    The field was extremely buggy but nice and we ended up winning 6-0. Devin, Cassidy, M-Rod, Kristen, Cady (Katie Tatro) and Megan Colby all had goals and they picked Cady as MVP, go girl. Dinner was at nine that night so we all ate, showered and went to bed.
    Friday morning was one of the only mornings we got to sleep in, but nope, half of us were up at 530 to go on a morning stroll on the beach in hopes of seeing some dolphins, no such luck but it got the day going and we ate breakfast at 630 and with the sun already up we were all poolside by 7am. During the morning we put together a successful synchronized swimming routine and took a water aerobics class. After lunch we left for our catamaran boat tour, which was a giant boat with a huge deck to lay out on. There were two families from Arkansas who we introduced, again small world. (We also met a third family from Arkansas at dinner, weird) After an hour drive along the shore line we dropped anchor and had two hours to swim and snorkel. On the way back, I made best friends with mama Helen, our on boat drink mixer who made delicious fruit drinks the whole time. We also recruited the boat to join in in making a Harlem shake video. (A very hard idea to sell to people who have never heard of it) We watched the sunset and went back to the hotel for dinner.
    During dinner, a raccoon jumped right up on to the table and tried to take the food off of Schmitt's plate. We tried to give it a roll but figured, mmm betta not. After dinner we went to the hotel restaurant and watched the mens US vs. Costa Rica game. After dinner the restaurant had a salsa band playing and our tour guides, Sebastian and Emilio, gave us salsa lessons.
Saturday morning we woke up for breakfast and had the morning to lay by the pool before we left to go back to San Jose. Renee, Ashley Pagano, Schmitt, Kristen, Cady and I bought a banana boat ride and were taken out for about 20 minutes. Out of everything we did I am the sorest for that, my arms are dead. The ride back to San Jose was about four hours but it went by quick, we watched Pitch Perfect for the second time on the trip. We had dinner and after some of us went to explore the mall.       The mall food court was about 90% American fast food chains, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, McDonald's, Wendy's, you name it. The stores were nice and the girls bought a few things, bags and pants, mall things. The mall also had giant furry animals you could rent and ride around like motorcycles. I think they were primarily meant for children, but the cult (the sophomore class) rented them for a bit. After we spent the night hanging out, playing truth or dare, telling stories and telling personal ghost stories, Ashley and Hannah went outside after we went to bed and tried to scare everyone, rude. Poor grandma was so scared she had to call in reinforcements and made Em sleep with her.
    In the morning we pulled ourselves out of bed and got on the bus to go see a volcano. Kristy and Kelly Siry were super jazzed about going while the rest of us would have been happy sleeping in and packing. We decided were only in Costa Rica once, or as Cammey would say YOCO, so as a team we loaded the bus and went. It was actually pretty cool and I got a decent science lesson on how the crater had an acidic level of zero. We got back, packed and had a farewell lunch. We are now on the plane for our ten hour trek back to the burgh. At the airport we met another plattsburgh alumni, a girl from Columbia who graduated in '07, they are just everywhere. A five hour flight and five hour bus ride will get us back around 8am, personally I'm going to get some grids and get in bed, but some of the girls have class at nine, totally worth it. We take up the last six rows of the plane and everyone's trying to stay awake so we will sleep on the bus, sorry flight LR660. Also Ashley took over 800 pictures, so we'll have those for you as soon as possible.
   Now for my last little sappy blurb, this trip could not have gone more perfect. No one fought, complained, or whined. Even though a few of us were doing homework on every bus and Kelly's burn blisters were so bad they started oozing. Everyone got along, there was no drama and we wouldn't have changed a thing. We had the prefect amount of down time and busy time and I would not change one aspect of the trip. We would recommend this trip to any team. Special thanks to Bruce for giving us the OK for this once in a lifetime opportunity and Wiley and B-Mikes for setting the whole thing up.

PSU takes on Costa Rica...Part II

    We left San Carlos this morning and we are now on our way to Flamingo beach which is about a four hour bus trip. When we arrived at the hotel on Monday we were greeted with tropical drinks in the lobby and then were escorted to lunch in the sun room which had an amazing view of the volcano. The food in San Carlos was a bit more American in that they had pasta with tomato sauce and bacon, thank goodness. We also got a special surprise in finding a plattsburgh alumni at the restaurant, Doreen Carr graduated in 85 and was thrilled to run into us. Such a small world.
    After lunch we walked to our rooms which happened to be our own little frat house with an unbelievable view of the volcano, and our own dog, sushi. After we settled in we went to the hotel pool which was accompanied but natural hot springs from the heat of the volcano. We spent the rest of the night at Baldi spa and water park, a gorgeous park with hot springs and water slides. The slides were extremely fast we made it into a game gathering at the bottom and guessing who was coming down based on their screams. We moved from hot pool to hot pool with our 20 person pack and basically cleared out whichever pool we ventured into. We had dinner at the resort where Ashley Pagano and Megan Colby took full advantage of the dessert bar and by that I mean at least two full plates of desserts.
    Tuesday morning we woke up to a foggy morning and headed to our next activity, white water rafting. For some reason, very few of us felt the urge to put on sun screen and emerged from the boats with bright red thighs and arms, poor Kelly Siry is blistering as we speak. On the way to rafting we stopped at an iguana park. Luckily for us, an Iguana had climbed out of the tree and onto the trail for us to take pictures with. B-mikes dad was walking around tickling everyone with leaves, which caused a few screams and laughs. Macee and Jill witnessed an iguana take a thirty foot fall from a tree onto the bank of the river, poor little guy was alright but the girls were traumatized. Right before we left, Macee and I wanted to try our luck petting the iguana on the trail, but Macee was in for a different surprise when a little French lady came up and whipped her in the butt with her rolled up tshirt yelling, "NO NO NO" and waving her finger violently. I guess she didn't want her to touch it. In typically Wiley fashion, she gave the lady a non smoking speech and tried to touch the iguana before making a run for the bus.
    The rafting itself was so much fun. The two hour expedition took us down a bunch of level four rapids and included a break for fresh fruit and cliff jumping. The guides spoke very little English but did a wonderful job keeping us safe and amused. Two of the guides collected different kinds of leaves and put them in the rafters helmets creating horns and antennas. Then, when we got back to the bus, Jill found some selfies Wiley and shorty secretly had taken on Jill's phone..#selfienation.
    Then, last night we played our second game. It was a night game which we hadn't played in a long time and we won 3-1. After the San Carlos women's team scored in the first half, we came together in the second half and Kristie Pageau, Kristen Averill and Devin Mcmahon all scored. After the game, the ball boys came up to Ashley and wanted to help hand out our water bottles, so with her usefully Spanish knowledge, she read the names off the bottles and in Spanish said the girls numbers and the boys ran over to deliver them. It was adorable.
    Now, I hate complaining about anything on this amazing trip, but we could not get out of this hotel fast enough. We understand that we were in the rainforest of Costa Rica, but a room full of lizards, ants, spiders, and beetles was too much for these Plattsburgh city girls to take. Now, we are not proud if this, but Schmitt and I were sitting in our room yesterday and found some poop on Maddie's pillow, obviously it had to be Maddies (recall her being pooped on during the Geneseo game) naturally we panicked because we knew she freaked out. So I gave her one of mine and we didn't mention it to anyone, until now. I should also mention we found a lizard in the room later that night, so it was probably that. And a special shout out to Brina ,who had the time of her life identifying each different species of bugs in our rooms.
    Keep checking back for more posts!

PSU takes on Costa Rica..Part I

    So Costa Rica so far has been incredible. We just left the children's center and we are on the bus on our way to San Carlos to sit in volcano hot springs and check into our second hotel.
    The weather here is gorgeous, 80s and breezy. We got to JFK at 130am on Saturday morning and after Macee flirted her way through customs we took naps on the airport floor until our 6am flight. Mostly everyone slept on the flight until breakfast came around and we had French toast with hot strawberry jelly and yogurt. We spent the rest of the day at the pool where Hannah got a little Costa Rican boyfriend named Becket. The seven year old blonde heart throb repeatedly brought her flowers for her hair, a man after my own heart. We had practice that night and the field was something out of a postcard. For dinner we ate a pool side buffet, each meal has a different tropical fruit juice and our server Minor is there to get us anything else we need and teach us some Spanish. The food is so good, we were all banking on bad food so we would stay skinny throughout the trip, unfortunately, I'm pretty sure we've all put on five pounds since Friday.
    Yesterday we went shopping in the city, we toured historical San Jose and went shopping at a flea market where our bargaining skills were tested. A very burnt Ashley Pagano made up for her lack of sun screen with her bargaining skills. Even Katie Tatro scored a whole hammock for $10, and had not stopped talking about how she is going to get it home. While in the city, there was a marathon going on and we cheered as loud as we could, only to get cheered back at. People here love us Americans, especially blonde ones. That's probably why Ashley Mckenelley, Macee and Brie Mustapich all scored shirts and medals off the runners backs, literally, still drenched in sweat. That night we played our first game vs. Codea Alajuela, a over twenty San Jose club team. They spoke basically all Spanish, as well as the refs which was interesting in itself. Schmitt learned the phrase mas atras, which means move the ball back and she yelled it continuously from the net. Cassidy Clavet got a goal off of corner from Melissa Rodriguez in the first half, then other team came back and got two goals in the second half. It was a great game and after we got together and translated some thoughtful words to each other. After the game we went to the hotel casino and tried to win some money. Renee walked away with $20 and Amanda walked away with $9.
    This morning we went to a children's center and had the time of our lives playing with under privileged children. Regardless of the language barrier, the children had as much fun as we did and loved playing with our cameras. Cassidy tried to steal a little girl and cried when they took her back to the classroom, I said just steal here and Ashley Pagano said, "shh they told us not to say that." We were all so touched that along with the numerous donations of coloring cooks, diapers, and toys we brought with us, we all chose to donate some money and actually gave them $436 to the children's center. Nothing can get us down right now.
    I should also mention our additions to the trip. B-mikes brought his ten year old daughter Brina (who is full of youthful energy and a much needed ball girl) and his father Ray. Wiley brought her daughter Baily and her best friends Slammer and Shorty. I'm working on getting the story behind those names. We also have our lovely tour guides Amilo and Sebastian. Jill is getting the whole trip on her old fashion camcorder so well have lots of footage when we get back. Make sure you follow our twitter to get more up to date information about the trip and what we are up to!