The reality that I will be returning to the States in less than a month and a half started to sink in today as I was registering for classes for Winter Quarter in Seattle. A couple of my friends here have decided to stay an extra semester, and the only things stopping me from cancelling my return ticket are my wonderful friends and family, and of course a lack of funds. BUT don't worry, I will still be arriving in California the 23rd of December and will make it up to Seattle by the 27th, just in time for New Years. With that said, I've been trying to make the most of my time here, so I'll fill you all in on some of my latest activities:Last Friday, after my test on all the thousands of variations of tenses of verbs that exist in Spanish, I left for Tortuguero, on the Carribean side of Costa Rica, with 7 of my friends. After a cramped bus with too few seats, a confusing taxi ride through roads that reminded me of The Labyrinth (unfortunately without David Bowie) and a water taxi down the river, we arrived at Cabinas Tortuguero, which was right off the main strip (a sand road) and in the middle of the peninsula, so equal distance to the river and the ocean.After exploring the town, which is about the size of my college campus, we found a small restaurant on the river to have dinner. However, as soon as we ordered the power went out, so our food selection was very limited, so we filled up mostly on beer. Walked down to the beach later by candlelight in hopes of seeing some sea turtles, but had to settle for brilliant stars above, lightning in the distance and phosphorescents lighting up the water.Saturday got up early to go eat breakfast at a small bakery on the water with tables right on the dock, then headed down to the beach, where we had to return to our cabinas for a couple hours in the afternoon to wait for the rain to pass before returning. Went on a walk along the beach, found sanddollars, sea shells, stray dogs, jellyfish and a runaway canoe, and then returned to the hatching of baby sea turtles which we helped direct towards the ocean. That night after dinner we made our way back to the beach, accidentaly wandering into someones backyard while trying to get there, and almost had a heartattack thinking I was going to be killed by their guard dog before I realized it was tied up. We were hoping to find some of the big turtles, but seeing as how the babies were already hatching I think we were a little late in the season to see any of the mammas coming in to lay their eggs. We found more babies though so I was more than sattisfied.Sunday woke up early to go canoeing down the river, where we found some alligators, monkeys and caymen (whose tail our guide thought was a brilliant idea to grab so we could get a better view, but i was a little terrified seeing as how there were 7 babies with it and thought it would kill us), and then returned to San Jose that evening.The next couple weeks are going to be really busy, seeing as I have 2 presentations and a final next Friday, and am trying to plan some more trips for the weekends. I'm going on a fieldtrip with my photography class this Saturday to an old abandoned insane asylum/childrens hospital/jail, which is haunted according to my neighbor Christine, and then Sunday am going to Cafe Britt which has tours of coffee fields and barista shows. The next weekend I am going down to Bocas del Toro, an island accross the border into Panama, which I hear has sunken pirate ships off the coast, so I'll try and find some treasure to bring home with me. When I return from there I will be in advanced II Spanish, and seeing as how I'm struggling in Advanced I, we'll see how the whole month of December goes. Ok, sorry that was a bit long. Love you all and miss you. Un beso. Ciao.