Days 4 and 5

Ahhh...Thursday. Our day to sleep in if we wanted to. A number of the students got up, though, to go surfing. They said that surfing was kinda tough because there weren't as many waves. This being 2 days removed from surfing, high tide wasn't until about 10 or 11, so it wasn't as easy. Others went shopping, went to the bank, hung out at school, or simply slept in. At 10 we met back at the school and divided up into 2 groups. One group learned salsa and merengue and the other group had cooking class where they made guacamole and patacones. Around 11 we switched and the cooking group made empanadas instead of guacamole and patacones. Watching them learn how to dance was the highlight of my day ;) Unfortunately, they all looked SOOO tired in cooking class, but they made it through and got to eat some awesome food. We then had a little extra time to eat lunch before our classes started up again at 1. After classes, many of us were tired and went back home to rest before supper. After supper we met back at school for a movie night. We got to watch some Pixar shorts, drink juice and soda, and eat popcorn. At 9:15 when the movie stopped working, they asked me if they were free to go home. As soon as I said yes, they bolted out of there, eager to get home and sleep. Friday was a gorgeous day. We went to school in the morning, had classes, took our final tests, and had some type of culture class. We then ran to eat before graduation, but some of us ended up being late. We had our graduation where we got our "diploma" and then had to say a few words about our time here. After graduation, we changed into our swimming and hiking gear and headed off to a lookout and then a hidden beach called Playa Izquierda. The hike was a bit rough as we literally were climbing up a small mountain, but the view was FANTASTIC! Thankfully we got to rest there for a bit before heading down to the beach. Once at the beach, we got to swim in the very rocky ocean and just relax after our semi-arduous hike. Thankfully, we did not take the same route home and had a fairly easy way back. Our hike took us past most of our houses, so most of us just stopped off there, but some went to the bank. After supper with our families, we went out to a bar/restaurant called Tabanuco's to have a drink and go dancing. Don't worry! They made us all virgin cocktails of the signature drink of the area - agua de sapo. It was very tasty. After hanging out for a bit (and not dancing), about half of the group asked one by one if they could go back home to sleep. The rest of the group went to the school for a bit and then came back around 10, hoping there would be more people there and dancing. Well, seeing as it was Reggae Night (unfortunately) there wasn't very danceable music, but the kids made it work. Even the chaperones were convinced to dance :) After a good 40 minutes or so of dancing, it was time to head back home to make it in time for curfew - JUST as the party was getting started...shucks :) Tomorrow we have ziplining (called here canopy) and some will surf, most will shop, and we all will hopefully enjoy our last day here in Samara :(