I’m sitting here in the library’s study room, ditching my Physics lesson because I couldn’t bring myself to go to class. I truly don’t have the energy or the passion to go to that class anymore as if i ever had energy and passion for physics tbh and I thought that by coming to the library I would feel motivated to work on other big projects that I have, like my math IA and my Extended Essay.

However, I feel the TOTAL opposite

ITS MONDAY MORNING FOR GOD’S SAKE. HOW DO I FEEL THIS UNMOTIVATED ALREADY

I’ve never really used my blog as a personal diary but more of a travel diary. Why not give it a try though?

IB has consumed my entire life to the extent where I have no way out of it. It’s my second and final year thankfully and I can only hope for June 9th. The day that I will be completely free of IB and done with high school #graduation

But thinking of all the things that I have to get done BEFORE that day makes me want to cry.  It makes me feel as if  I’m never actually gonna get the outcomes that I want and that I’ll actually never graduate from IB.

let’s count how many times I can say IB in this post (5 already)

I’ve gotten to that point in stress levels in which I don’t care about anything anymore and I just chill and do nothing WHEN I SHOULD ACTUALLY BE DOING A LOT

For example, on Saturday I had a whole ton of work to do. But what did Adri Mendez decide to do? She went out for coffee for 6 hours with her friends. WHAT TYPE OF IB STUDENT DOES THAT

THE TYPE THATS GIVEN UP I TELL YOU

I’m truly mentally done with school. I seriously don’t want to do this anymore. But the only thing that is motivating me is that my parents pay a lot of money for me to be in this school and I don’t want to disappoint them.

I know my dad is really looking forward to having an IB daughter and for me to go to a good university so Imma try to keep going.

Does anyone else relate!? Have you gone through something similar in school? Lets cry together in the comments shall we?

With stress,

Adri.

total IB count: 7 

When I moved to Kenya, my cousins where still very young and small, now some of them are taller than me, with better fashion sense than me and one of them is in his junior year. LIKE WHAT I still see him as that little baby that I used to “look after” when I was two years old.
However, when I moved to Kenya I had a lot of friends here. I knew a lot of people, and I guess people knew who I was. Now… a year and a half later I have seen who are true friends who stick by you through thick and thin, I’ve seen who’s worth spending time with and who isn’t. And my friend count has gone dooooown a lot.
I think that always happens. When you move to a new place a lot of people are gonna text you for the first 2-3 months then they move on with their lives without you in it and they usually forget the exist.

Same happens to the person abroad, when I got to Kenya all I wanted was to come back home (Costa Rica) and be with my friends and family, but once I got adjusted to my lifestyle over there and made new friends there, I got over it.
Now that I am here I thank God for my life in Kenya, because it is very different than what it would be like if I had stayed here. Yes I am still in high school and I graduate until May while all my friend are in Uni already, but IB is a great course that I am lucky enough to take and these extra 2 years are worth it. I wouldn’t have made friends like the ones I have now (shout out to Vanessa, Khushali, Mehnaz and Lubka, you can count Louis in there as well ) and I wouldn’t have such amazing memories with them if I had stayed in Costa Rica.
Point of this blog is, I am really happy to be back here in Costa Rica and I love getting to spend time with the people that I care about. But to be honest, I love my life back in Kenya and I can’t wait to go back and finish the IB program even if it will kill me‍

We should all be glad to live the lives we do and have the opportunities that God has given us.

Love,

Adri

This amazing duo came to give a performance here in Nairobi along with national and international singers. One of those international singers, was my amazing sister Sofi.

As I have stated before, I am not a musician what so ever and I can’t harmonize for the life of me, but one thing I am good at i think is at taking pictures. I’m not saying I’m the  best, but little by little I’ve been learning how to use my Canon T6 better and better.

One of the pros of having a singing sister is that I get backstage passes to all of these cool events and I took some amazing if i do say so myself pictures at this event. So here is a little Photo Blog on this Mary Mary concert.

Hope you like the photos!

Love,

Adri

I’m not a musician what so ever (I’m serious, I can’t sing or play an instrument to save my life) but my older sister is greatly musically gifted and she got invited to these awards along with two extra entrances, so obviously I had to go.

To be honest, the only award ceremony that I had been to was when I got named Star Student of the Week back in year 5, and we can all guess that that was totally different Plus, I had never gotten to be on a red carpet. Except if you count the red rug we have in our TV room not kidding  So getting ready for this event and arriving with all the hype was an awesome experience.

The award show in itself was awesome, the performances were really good and the acceptance speeches were sometimes funny, sometimes emotional. Getting to see the reaction on the winners’ faces made me really proud of them even if I didn’t know who they were. But thankfully one of the Gospel singers that I know, Mercy Masika, won Female Artist of the Year, so I got to be really proud and happy and loud for her

I seriously can’t wait for next year’s awards. I will definitely do everything I can to get an entrance I leave you with a gallery of the pictures of that day June 1st 2017. Don’t forget to follow me on instagram at adri_mendezm for more cool picture

Love,

Adri

Learn about other cultures

As a Costa Rican I’m very proud of my culture, of our food, our language, all of it. But when I started traveling and living in new cultures I became interested in learning more about them.

How do you say hello in Greek? How influential are the Greek gods for the people? Which are the best landmarks to see in Cyprus? What do they stand for?

How many tribes does Kenya have? What are their main differences? What are the best Kenyan dishes? Why is there such a huge population of Indians in Nairobi?

All of that (and more) are things I’ve learned while living abroad and as a human, I like feeling smart then I meet people who know a lot more than me and it makes me feel dumb

New opportunities. Enhances your CV

The Telegraph  UK states that living abroad can give you a competitive edge in a tough job market, it can help you get into better universities and get better jobs.

As I am a junior in high school my focus goes into getting into a good university & by the fact that I am an international student, it already gives me a heads up. Schools usually prefer to have more international students so they can be “diverse” and I obviously use that for my advantage.

If you are past the university stage then getting holiday jobs or even normal jobs can help open doors in the work place for you because being able to adapt to changes, work with different people, and speak different languages is something companies really like.

If you are looking for an excuse to move abroad, a job is the perfect excuse ! Check out Search Jobs Abroad by going on their website to put yourself out on the market and to search for new opportunities for you life

Click here! : https://www.searchjobsabroad.com/

All the stories you will be able to tell

The time I hiked up Ngong Hills, the many times we’ve gone on Safaris, the story when my family and I went to France but didn’t go up the Eiffel Tower, and coming soon… the time I flew across the world on my own for the first time stay tuned

YOU WILL ALWAYS HAVE SOMETHING TO TALK ABOUT (seriously)

My favorite part of living abroad is that I get to experience so many new things with the people I meet and the places I go and when I go back home to Costa Rica or meet someone new I get to share those experiences with them.

Those are my top 3 reasons for moving abroad! Hope you guys enjoyed them comment if you have any other reasons.

Love,

Adri

*This post is a collab by Search Jobs Abroad

Learn more about them here: https://www.searchjobsabroad.com/

1. BINOCULARS

My family and I have these really good expensive and useful binoculars that have come in handy the times we have been on Safaris but this time we left them in our car instead of taking them with us on the safari car. It didn’t make our trip worse but it could have made seeing far away animals easier. Not all animals are found on the side of the road so having binoculars with you will help you see those that you can’t get to.

2. SWEATERS/WINDBREAKER

The best time to go on a game drive is the early morning and because of that the temperatures are not the hottest and it’s quite chilly. This morning we started our drive at around 7:30 am and the mix of the chilly weather and the great amounts of wind flowing into our vehicle made us shiver like crazy. And guess who didn’t bring a sweater with them!!! None of my family did tbh So I would recommend you take a sweater or windbreaker with you on your next Safari trip.

3. SNACKS & WATER

When you’ve been driving for 4 hours looking at deer and zebras running around, it makes you quite hungry. And if you’re like me, you will get dehydrated quickly. Take some light snacks and fruits with you and even if you don’t want to stop at the picnic sites you can eat it in your car while seeing some buffalo eat grass. My family and I do usually take quite a lot of food tbh. Just please don’t feed the animals.

4. WET WIPES

Even if you don’t have little kids traveling with you buying some wet wipes will help you in so many ways. While you are on a Safari drive all the dust will come into your car and you will find yourself dirty like never before. I don’t know about you but I don’t like feeling dirty all the time, so wet wipes will come in handy when you need to clean your hands or even your face. I even used wet wipes to clean of some of the dust from my bag. It was a black bag and now it looks brown who cares that it was my school bag anyways

5. SUNGLASSES/EYE DROPS

I bet you already thought of taking sunglasses to your safari trip (if you hadn’t… you’re welcome) but eye drops are a very important thing that I saw a need of in my first safari trip. In whatever type of car you are doing your game drive in you will get a lot of wind and dust in your face. The sunglasses will shield your eyes from the dust and sun and the eye drops will make your eyes hydrated since your eyes will be receiving so much wind onto them. If you wear contact lenses you know the struggle of dried eyes. If you don’t know that struggle then trust me, you’ll need eye drops.

Some extra ones…

6. Sunscreen

7. Camera

8. Hand Sanitizer

9. Charging power bank

Those are my top 5+4 essentials for the best safari trip ever! I hope you guys enjoyed reading this and found it useful.

Do you have any safari essentials of your own? Write them down below!

Have a great day/night everyone. Love,

Adri M.

Nakuru is at a 3 hour drive from Nairobi (with little traffic that is) and is home to one of the best National Parks in the country, the Lake Nakuru National Park.

This is our second time coming to this city and going to a Safari here because we have come to love this city a lot. The first time we came was about a year ago and we stayed at a hotel called Midland in the heart of the city, it was a great place to stay, with good food and awesome rooms. Totally recommend.

This time we didn’t stay at a hotel, we were hosted by an amazing family, who are friend of ours, who took the 5 of us (my parents, my sisters and I) and made us feel at home.

We left our house in Nairobi at around 10 am on a Friday and we stopped at a place called Sunbird Lodge for lunch. Sunbird is an hour away from Nakuru, in a place called Gilgil and if you are looking for great food with a great view, go to Sunbird. Their cabins are also amazing and they are so calm (This is no ad, I just really like the place). That afternoon we arrived in Nakuru and had dinner with the amazing family that hosted us.

On Saturday morning at 5:30 my alarm rang and I had to wake up and get ready for a loooong day. We had breakfast, got ready and left for an awesome Safari day. We saw rhinos for the first time and a lot of other animals we had seen before but never cease to amaze us. I will be posting a photo blog on this Safari soon, so stay tuned. After a loooong morning of Safari we went to have lunch at none other than KFC. Not my favorite but what can you do.

After meeting up with our host family and going home to freshen up we went to dinner to a placed called Hotel Cathay. Great food, good prices, even live music. If you are ever in Nakuru, you should go here. I recommend the amazing tasting steak. 

Sunday was Resurrection Sunday for us Christians and we spend it at a local church where my big sister and I got the chance to do a singing and dancing presentation (respectively cuz I don’t sing at all). We were there all morning and even had lunch there with the pastors. We had to come back to Nairobi that evening but before, we went to Java House to have some coffee with out host family. We said our goodbyes and we embarked on our 3 hour journey back home. (Tip: don’t drink a cappuccino right before you are going to do a 3 hour drive, you’ll be howling for a bathroom by the first 30 mins)

We got back home safely and with amazing memories we will never forget. I cannot begin to express how awesome this weekend was in every aspect. Our host family was awesome, the Safari was awesome, the food was awesome. Nakuru is awesome!

I’m really glad I got to spend some time over there. Hope you guys enjoyed reading about my trip to Nakuru!

Love,

Adri

I went to the Nakuru National Park (like a month and a half ago but deal with me) for the second time  and I loved it just like the first time. I want to share with all of you these really beautiful pictures that I took there, which I can’t post on my instagram because they don’t go with my theme anymore…. A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do to keep her feed on fleak

Hope you like them! What is your favorite wild safari animal? Mine is totally the baboon

Love,

Adri

Today I bring to you guys my top 5 tips about being an expat and living abroad that I have used in the last few years of living outside of my beautiful Costa Rica. If you are a first time expat or an experienced one, I hope you find this useful!

1. Learn the basics of the language:

I’m not the best example of this tip because honestly, I’ve lived in Kenya for a year and a half now and I can’t hold a solid conversation in Swahili (sorry Kenya). However, when you know how to say the basics like hello, goodbye, how are you?, I don’t speak Swahili, and stuff like that, life does become easier.

Here is a story: my sister has to learn Swahili songs for church since she is in the worship team and when she went to the Masai Market look it up to buy souvenirs she started singing to the sellers in Swahili while my mom was trying to bargain for a few necklaces that she wanted and the guys gave her the discount! JUST FOR SINGING IN THEIR LANGUAGE #PRO 

2. Immerse yourself with the locals:

I’m a strong believer that if you want to experience another culture, you have to know the people.

This might be pretty hard for a lot of expats here in Kenya, but I know it’s easy in other countries. Just by walking downtown and seeing how people act can help you understand the culture better, however, in Kenya (if you are a white person) it’s recommended NOT to go to town. It’s dangerous.

Thankfully I’ve gotten the chance to be in an all Kenyans church and even if I might feel like an outsider sometimes… I LOVE IT. Here is another story. I’m Costa Rican and we learn to drink coffee since the day we are born figuratively and tea is not that big over there. I drank tea from time to time but just plain ol’ green tea without sugar or anything I’m weird like that but one day (at church) I was introduced to the amazingness that is Kenyan tea, with milk and sugar. I would have never tasted that unless I was immersed with the locals. And now, I have been blessed for life with the greatness of Kenyan Tea. #Blessed

I’ve even gotten to be part of African dance presentations with my dance team, isn’t that awesome!!

3. Find a community of your own

Now, immersing yourself into the local community is a really good idea BUT as an expat you will need help from people of your own culture to adapt to this new country. ALWAYS, and I mean ALWAYS look for a community of where you come from.

In my case it’s Latin America, and thankfully all Latin American countries have a lot in common so we mix with a lot of the Latinos here in Kenya. There is a huge Latino community here and they always have different events where you can go meet people from your same culture. I bet that happens all around the world as well.

I totally advice you to look for people of your own because they will understand what you are going through on A WHOLE DIFFERENT LEVEL. For example (another story) in Latin America we love our maize flour and we use it practically every day. Here in Kenya, you can’t get it in any supermarket and the Latino people in Kenya told us that they had looked everywhere and didn’t find it and the nearest place to get it was… DUBAI. So every so often when my mom’s friends go to Dubai or back to Costa Rica, they bring us a packet of Maseca. THEY UNDERSTAND HOW MUCH WE ALL LOVE MASECA something that a European probably wouldn’t understand.

4. Be ready to get homesick

Ahhh, Homesickness… You think you will be immune to it but in reality, it will always haunt you. I’m not kidding!! HANDS UP IF YOU’VE EVER BEEN HOMESICK! (I raise both)

When I moved to Kenya I thought I was mentally prepared to leave my family, friends and amazing life that I had there. I thought I wasn’t going to care AS much since I had already moved before.

HAAAAAA JOKES ON ME. I spend a whole year being homesick AND I STILL AM. I haven’t gone back to Costa Rica since I got here and I really want to go back, it’s the only thing I really want right now.

Every time is  different and every experience is different. Even if you ARE DYING to leave your country and want to experience something totally new, homesickness will always happen to you. You like it or not. Even if you are extremely happy in your new place, there will always be a part of you that misses your old life (if anyone hasn’t gone through homesickness, please show me your ways)

5. Minimize your stuff

I think the biggest mistake a lot of first time expats do (we sure did it) is to take EVERYTHING YOU OWN to a new country.

When we moved to Cyprus, we spend MONTHS ON END packing all our stuff, and we did the same thing when we moved back to CR. But we TOTALLY saw the difference of taking everything you own and taking what you truly need to a new country.

When we came to Kenya, we arrived with only our clothes in our luggage and on a boat came only the necessary. well “necessary”. I only send things like big winter coats that I never use because I live in freaking Kenya, my book collection this is one of the most important things for me okay bed sheets for no reason apparently since we had to buy new ones here and a few other things. The rest of our stuff we started buying here. Yes, it’s costly to fill a whole house with new things, but you don’t have to do it all at once. I just recently got a book stand for my collection because there were things like sofas and beds that were the most important.

The point is… travel light. You don’t need the birthday card your mom gave you for your 3rd birthday okay? Just take a picture of it and save it in your laptop!

Well everyone, those were my top 5 tips for living abroad! I hope you enjoyed them (and that you enjoyed my stories). Comment down below if you have more tips that we all should know!

Love,

Adri

When I was in Bangkok (in December) I was so motivated to keep writing this year and bring my Pinterest followers up (I did get it up to 2 thousand followers btw) and when I came back home I had so many ideas to do but no time at all.

In January I started Term 2 of my first year in the IB program and it has been HECTIC. I’m glad time flew past and now I don’t feel like I endured 3 months of pure IB pain. But I did. Apart from tests and homework, we had projects and essays to do. And because I’m an art student I also have process portfolios to make and sculptures to build.

I actually worked on a project that really made my heart pound. I project I am really proud of. It’s called “The Door To Reality” and it was an unconventional way to portray the way that social media has made us think that we should care more about the superficial aspects of life than the real problems going on in the world.

Here is my final art project for this term:

#WHEREAREOURPRIORITIES

Apart from school, I’ve been working very closely with my church’s dance team DWAP. They have really become like my family to me  since I joined them in October 2016 and I enjoy every moment that I get to dance with them.

Recently we did an amazing medley with the church’s choir in which I got to have a couple of solos and a duet with a dear friend of mine Nungo. We are getting to do this presentation AGAIN tomorrow and I’m really excited.

Here are a few pictures from then:

I’m also working on very interesting projects that I will soon bring to you guys. And a lot more blog posts are coming your way, so stay tuned!

Love,

Adri