mis amores!
So this is the first time i've had email in like a month for more than 2 minutes but i wanted to say hey! i couldn't possibly try to update you on everything, but its amazing. My dad came for a few days in nicaragua it was the BEST and i met these crazy south african backpackers (and like every other nationality) and partied up on the beach for a few days and stood up on short board! (surfing) and stayed up all night and went skinny dipping a ton and tried to steal a boat! and went scuba diving and saw sea turtles and barricudas and million other things. After break we went to this cloud forest called monteverde with no electricty and freeeeeeezing water and it was so much fun. My friends bday was up there and we managed to trek in (by the way everything had to be hiked in on our backs for the week since the station was inaccessible by car or truck!) rum and cookies and had a crazy party for her. The forest was incredible, clouds all over the place, just walking through them. This past week we've been on an island in Nicaragua called Ometepe which was basically a semiactive volcano with a biological station on it, so just us learning about fish mostly. There was this incredible waterfall that we all went under naked...there will be pictures i promise, and it was just incredible! Now we're in Nicaragua and heading down to CR tomorrow where I'll have email again, but that's a quick update. Miss you all TONS and see you in a few weeks!
<3 Stephi

Todo Bueno!

HEYYYY! I hope everyone is doing awesome, things down here are pretty tight, school's definately different but amazing. We've just finished up these really intense independent research projects where we made up and experiment, did it, analyzed everything, wrote 10 page papers and presented to a symposium in 6 days! kind of amazing, but a little crazy, especially the kids doing nighttime research! We are currently brewing jungle juice in our room...in the jungle...its a little silly but will be put to excellent use in a few days annnnnnnd i'm getting reallyr eally really excited to go on fall break next week in Nicaragua with my DADDY! and some of my friends. It should be incredible, SCUBA, volcanoes, and kayaking...o and a beach! haha it will be wonderful and I cannot wait. Alright, short update but message me with a phone number and I might be able to call with this Skype out thing...cheap calls to US phones...it could be fun! <3 hasta!

Jungle Time begins:

We left San jose monday morning after a bit of crazy wkend activity. Thursday was the last day of our Spanish class, which was a bit sad but totally awesome thanks to my final presentation on the Loch ness Monster...so necessary! and a then Friday was Rosh Hashana celebrated in Tico style with way too much wine, and some friends over my tica family's house! and of course a great deal of bread and honey! Saturday night was incredible, the bar that we've been meeting at every night was tended by yours truly and my friend Madison in exchange for free drinks and food all night! Sooo soooo fun! but unfortunately resulted in a highly illegal sleepover and maddy's...a girl...homestay family's home! We had to sneak out at 6 am, after about -2 hrs of sleep to make it on time to the interleague championship soccer game in Herredia! One of the craziest experiences I've ever had with a million people jumping up and down shouting punta(bitch) for two hours! We also had quite the experience getting there involving a bus trip from hell that prompted drinking before 10 am. Don't ask...

We left the next morning(after I went to an all night gay club called la abeja...the bee, with my friend Chris) for Cuerci, a mountain forest region that was incredible. Our guide Carlos was a real live mountain man with beard and dogs to boot! Amazing experience hiking and learning and just general jungle living...I was sad to go but on the bright side, the station we're at now is a bit warmer and has internet...tada! I'll try and post some pictures from Cuerci soon, but trust me it was more than words...hopefully this place will be fun too!

Talk to everyone soon, miss you all like crazy, please comment and help my homesick! <3

This ^ is from last post but now the pictures work!

The weekend of my life-

Thursday was the Dia de la independencia in Costa Rica so the night before there were incredible parades with hundreds of kids and paper laterns and drums that set off the car alarms and we all got caught in the middle! but so incredible! Thursday night we all went out salsa dancing until around 2 when we left to go to an afterparty at a reggee bar with the owner of a bar we always meet at! So funny!

The next morning alyssa and I went bungee jumping! Off a 260 ft bridge into the forest...it was one of the most incredible things I´ve ever done and you should all try it! After bungee jumping still a bit tipsy since we didn´t get in until 4...we did the natural thing and pregamed our four hour bus ride to the beach! In broad daylight drinking at 11 am...fantastic really.

The beach is another story entirely, the most beautiful I have ever seen with all sorts of monkeys and sloths and iguana all over the place! So much fun...and then slow dancing in the waves in a thunderstorm...swooooooooon. There were sloths in our tree and we swam and laid out all day, and I´ve bought some pablo neurda poetry to read along with the russian lit...and its beautiful!

Sunday night after we got back I went to see the orchestra but instead found a nicaraguen ballet that was sold out...but somehow managed to talk myself into a free box seat in the friends and family area! haha it was beautiful and I loved it! So that is pretty much what has been going on...there are more pictures on facebook if you´re into that sort of thing.

Hasta! <3!

Hola chicos!!

Alright its been awhile since I wrote but here goes...before I left La Selva we went white water rafting and had the most absolutely insane guide but the most incredible time and that night I did laundry for the first time! and went to a tiny bar and danced salse with the ticos in my knee high snake boots that we have to wear AT ALL TIMES! Basically ridiculous.
We came to San Jose the next day and I met my host family, who I love, and got to explore the city a litte...and I met a ton of great people my first day...including uno quien se llama Ricardo haha and will take me dancing! Its wonderful, we've been going out like crazy and our Spanish classes are really not like classes at all but more like field trips for a few hours then conversation. I played soccer a bit after school yesterday against 9 boys...which was a little funny and tonight we might head to the roller disco! Everything in the city is such a throwback its amazing...We've all also been taking salsa classes and break it down like whoa in the bars!
This weekend a bunch of us are heading to el volcano arenal for the weekend and it will be incredible, hopefully I'll have some great pictures for you guys next time of tonight and the weekend!

<3 Stephi

ps. I got a haircut which was funny since I didn't know the right words for anything!
pps. Happy birthday Hillarey! <3

Sooooo I'm here in Costa Rica! Things are fantastic, I never even imagined it would be this cool. We've already experienced so many amazing things in the rainforest and out...We spent the first night in San Jose and got a chance to go out and have a great time with some ticos and a little spice girl love and then headed down to La Selva, a nature preserve, and have been getting oriented to life in the jungle. We've seen pecuries (wild boars) and tons of howler monkeys and a too many face size insects and just a million other things. This is so my scene! I'll post some pictures as soon as I can, I already have some great ones of huge spiders. I also just found out that I can recieve mail so please send me some!!! The people on my trip are amazing, we all are getting along pretty well...we played our first soccer game today *ps I miss the BJ's good luck girls!!* and I'm leading a yoga class tonight obviously! I miss you all and I hope you check in soon because some outside contact would be awesome...the newsweeks in the library are all from 2002! Alright that's about all I have time for... pictures next time I promise and get working on a postcard!!

<3 Stephi

Stephanie Shumsky
Organizacion para estudios tropicales
PO Box 676'2050 San Pedro, Montes de oca
San Jose, Costa Rica. Central America

Almost Away!

Hey everybody...this is my first post and hopefully is enough to get you all to come back in a few days when I'm actually in Costa Rica. I'm crazy crazy excited and trying to pack up my life a little before I go. Summertime was amazing, I learned so much and went a million places and got to see tons of people and I really can't believe its over.

Please comment and check back soon so we can keep in touch, I'm not sure how much access to email I'll have but I'll do my best!

<3 Stephi

ps. I bought a return ticket finally...so I'm probably coming home!