Hi everyone! I'm at the end of my second week in Tamarindo now and I'm loving every minute of it. School is great although this week has been hard because the lessons are so intense and you learn so much in just one day, you have to do alot of study in your own time to keep up...it's hard to get back into the routine of self discipline and homework! Our teacher this week was Columbian and didn't speak a word of English which made things alot more difficult too, alot of miming and prancing round the classroom went on!

When we aren't in lessons everyones normally at the beach and surfing is huge here...im having a lesson with some guy called Pedro in the next couple of weeks, yes me, the girl who is teriffied of waves but if I don't give it a go I'll regret it so watch this space for if I love it or hate it!

Our house is great, really like a student house and I share a room with a Swiss girl called Isabel who is here for the same amount of time so we've become good friends. Loads of students have left school today so on Monday there will be about 12 new people joining. It's quite sad coz you meet some lovely people but most only stay for a couple of weeks, me and Isabel are the hardcore ones!

Tamarindo is really small, you can walk round it in about an hour! It just has one road, which is actually more like a dirt track that runs through the middle! There are loads of animals around, iguanas, monkeys that live in the trees at school, racoons that live outside our house, geckos that live in the house, turtles on the beach, we even saw some whales in the distance the other day, and not forgetting Dino and Gris, the resident dogs at my house Casa El Mar!

The school organise loads of activities during the week, like bonfires on the beach, BBQs, we even had two Costa Rican women come to our house the other day for a cooking lesson! Yes I helped out and no I didn't ruin it! I have photos to prove it! Last night me and Bree, an Australian girl from my class went on a trip to a protected beach to see the Leatherback turtles laying their eggs. We had to go in the middle of the night coz the turtles don't like light, and we luckily saw one digging a huge hole and then laying its eggs. Also when we were walking along the beach, we spotted 2 baby turtles about 5cms long making their way into the sea. Then we looked behind and saw about 60 babys that had just hatched!! We were so lucky to see them because they were Ridley turtles which don't even normally hatch on that beach!

The clubs and bars here are really good, lots of reggae music and dancing on the beach! Everyone goes out nearly every night, it's like being at uni, not good considering I've had morning classes so far that start at 8am!

So I've managed to upload a couple of photos that my friend emailed me from her camera. I'm waiting for my new bank card to arrive in the post and then I can buy a new camera to upload more pics so you don't forget what I look like!

Anyway, must go and catch some rays on the beach, sorry to rub it!! I heard it's been snowing in England! Missing everyone lots, please keep me updated with your lives!

Lots of love from me xx