A Rodeo is a Rodeo

This weekend started as one that would be very mellow and low-key and ended in the blink of an eye, with me having accomplished little more than I had on Thursday. But that's the glory of a lack of responsibilities here - I can do just about anything on a whim!


Friday after work, Miriam and I headed to the Cariari mall, needing to meet up with Marie. Me saying 'heading to the mall' makes it sound like it was a simple task, when it was anything but. Traffic was backed up so far and the buses were avoiding our bus stop at all costs, because it involved merging into the backed up lanes. So we sat and watch bus after bus pass us, and cab after cab refuse to pick us up, not wanting to deal with traffic. I may have frightened a few well-meaning tourists passing by on the way to their hotel, but I also figure I exposed them to the 'real Costa Rica'. They can thank me later. We finally got to the mall 45 minutes late, with Marie gone (not suprisingly!). Not knowing the name of her apartment building, Miriam and I got in a cab and played a bit of a guessing game as to what/where her apartment was. I was able to give a couple (not so helpful) landmarks, and thankfully we had a cabbie that knew his way around the area. Problem solved.

The whole reason we went to meet Marie is because she was moving back to the States the next day, so we wanted to send her off in the best way we knew - a rodeo. Yep, we put on our cowboy hats and spurs and sauntered into that area. Ok, no. We were clearly gringas in J. Crew and flip flops trying not to make a scene. And let me tell you, a rodeo is a rodeo anywhere you go! I quickly fell back into my county fair days in 4-H as we entered the grounds. I realized just how mid-west I was when I mentioned 4-H and Marie (Ms. California) gave me a blank look. Turns out, 4-H sounds like one WEIRD program when you try to explain it to someone who is oblivious to its purpose. I think I won her over when I told her I got a blue ribbon for my banana bread.

We got our greasy goodies and settled in for a rodeo show. And what a show it was. We clearly stuck out as the 'tres maria's' in the stands, getting shout outs from the microphone early on in the game.


Soon we were involved in shoe-throwing contests and introductions to the entire audience, later having the announcer tell the bull-ropers to 'do it for California! She's watching!' (referring to Marie).... we were invited to ride the horses in the arena after the show but quietly slipped out after watching all of the workers drinking beer the entire show. Their buzz certainly showed as their roping skills deteriorated as the night went on! As we walked out we were approached by a man on a horse, offering to let us get up and ride it for a bit. We felt better about that situation so we seized the chance and snapped our shots and headed out. We said our goodbyes to Marie... weird to have her going back to the States! But she moves to London at the end of April, so it's just a transition from one adventure to another.


On Friday, Leslie had asked me about going to the beach on Saturday. At the time I was so tired that I couldn't imagine getting up and doing the trekking and whatnot to go there, so I said no. But Leslie, being the adamant little lady she is, called me on Saturday morning to try convincing me one more time. This time, it worked. I was well-rested and realized that I will likely have a serious itch for the ocean the minute I'm back in Minnesota, so I got my butt out of bed and went with her.


It's SO nice now with the new highway, allowing us to get there in less than an hour. We spent the day there surfing, boogie boarding, eating gallo pinto and taking photos. It was a great day and the beach is WONDERFUL because it's pretty off the beaten path, so there are very few people there.


Around sunset we headed out, going to Moro's (Leslie's boyfriend) neighborhood for some amazing ice cream and sidewalk talk. Got back to San Jose around 10:00, exhausted from the surf and sun.

Sunday I woke up knowing I had to go running. I have a 10k that I'm doing in a couple weeks and have seriously been TERRIBLE about getting up in the mornings to go before work. I don't know what my deal is, but it's got to stop if I don't want to drop dead during the first mile. So I did that run (panting and sweating like a racehorse) and did a few other odds and ends before meeting up with Miriam for lunch at our new favorite restaurant, Te con Te. It is this adorable place that is the closest thing to a cafe/bistro that you will find in our area. And their Norwegian is to die for. That night was church, where I have been teaching Sunday School this past month. It's fun to do for short periods of time, but I'm not sure I could handle more than 1 consecutive month at a time. Those kids are a handful! I suppose we can consider it training for my future in teaching.

This week is a shorty, only 2 1/2 days! It's Holy Week which means in Costa Rica that a lot of businesses close for Thursday and Friday, if not the whole week. All the schools are off this week. This all means the beaches are PACKED, so Miriam and I are taking the higher road (ha) and heading to the mountains on Wednesday. I'm excited, since I haven't done a real weekend-long trip in quite a while. Ziplining, horseback riding and cheese touring are still to come.


And, because I never get sick of them, the sunset while we were walking back from the beach on Saturday.

Spice Girls Hit The Cube

Well, it was bound to happen eventually. I knew my acting/lip syncing/video skills would come in handy and help me go big time. I'm not sure I ever thought it would be at this venue, better known as The Cubicle. I'm not sure I thought I'd find people in Costa Rica (and in my own department, nonetheless) who were as enthusiastic about lip syncing washed-up bands from the 90s. But alas, I did. And last Thursday, after several e-mails filled with lyrics, links and character assignments, we put it out there. While we can't compete with Lady Gaga's recent honor of having over 1 billion views on the internet, we're pretty certain Orpah and the Today Show will be calling any minute now.

I present to you, Spice Up The Office.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4ztDrSm-hY

Our boss (who is in Brazil right now) even re-posted the video to his facebook page. Can't complain with that stamp of approval!

Photo Calendar

Nothing too exciting to report this weekend. My friend Marie (who I've spent a good deal of time with while here in Costa Rica) is moving back to the States, so we had a "last hurrah" for her last night... involving shoveling a bug (no, not even a bug. More like a rodent) from a shower, a bottle of wine and an attempt at making tres leches. The jury is still out on how that turned out, because it's supposed to sit for a couple of days to reach its prime. Patience is a virtue, right?! 

Today I'm having a pretty lazy day, going to a coffee shop with Miriam and starting a project that I'm really excited about. I'm making a photo calendar, which was inspired by this:

How great is that?! It's a bunch of photos taken by a woman whose blog I read (you can find it here: http://littlebrownpen.blogspot.com/)... so I'm going to make a homemade one. Hers is available on her Etsy site, but I think it would be more personal if the photos were mine from different adventures. I'll let everyone know if it turns out. We'll see!

Hope everyone's weekend is going well... I think you Minnesotans are almost in full blown spring mode! Cheers. 

A1A, Beachfront Avenue

So every 3 months while I've been here, I've had to leave the country to renew my visa. Toursit visas only last for 90 days. After the first three months I went to Nicaragua. While mom and dad were here, we talked about the possibility of me travelling to Florida to visit my sister for my second visa leave. I can't imagine WHY they would be more comfortable having me in Florida for the weekend rather than somewhere in Panama...! I decided this could be a really great opportunity too, since I realize my money situation will be quite lacking for a while after my return to the States in June, so I'm not sure when else I would have been able to travel down to see Meg and where she's living while going to grad school at FAU. So the ticket was bought, and this past weekend I travelled north on a pleasant 2 1/2 hour direct flight to Fort Lauderdale.

I got in on Thursday evening, with TJ and Megan waiting for me at the airport. After heading back to their place in Boca Raton, we (ok ok, TJ) made a great dinner and headed to a hookah bar for a bit to catch up. It was a great, relaxing way to bring in the weekend! Friday Meg and Teej had work and school, leaving me to entertain myself for a few hours. This was just fine with me, because there was a bike in my posession and a coffee shop VERY close! One thing I had been missing dearly while in Costa Rica was my tendency to find myself at a coffee shop on Saturday mornings with a drink and newspaper in hand. That reunion was glorious! I even tried to workout after the coffee shop on a treadmill at the house. I quickly decided that being on vacation also meant laying on the futon would win over running in place. Laziness 1, Fitness 0.

That evening for dinner the three of us headed to a restaurant called Dada for some amazing food and mojitos. Can you say 12 flavors?! I got a real feel for who lives in this part of Florida, and lets just say it's not the same people that live in San Jose. After dinner, I was in for a surprise in the form of an introduction to the highway that Vanilla Ice brought so much attention to in his one and only hit... A1A, BEACHFRONT AVENUE! I'm pretty sure we fit the bill for who he was describing in that song. White wannabe rappers, right? Nighttime photos by a sign didn't work out so well. A later attempt during daylight ended much more successfully.

That evening we headed to a drag show at a bar called Lips... with Chocolata doing a mean version of Single Ladies and Charity hosting the event, it was bound to be a blowout.

Me being in town didn't mean Meg could take a break from schoolwork, so we spent a few hours each day going to a coffee shop and having a fancy drink, reading and wandering. This was more than acceptable in my book. TJ was able to do a little more tour guiding for me, bringing me to a nature center where we watched shark feedings and around shopping areas. On Saturday afternoon, the three of us went on a boat tour down the Inter Coastal, a great little treat thanks to mom and dad. These houses sure are something else - one had 6 kitchens. SIX. What do you need that for? Mind boggling. One climactic event on the trip was seeing a manatee pop up out of the water for a bit. Sadly (and I mean nearly shedding tears), Megan missed seeing it. Lucky for them, I managed to win a raffle for 2 free tickets for another tour. Better luck then, sista.

We grabbed a quick bit of greasy food (think vaca here, people) before heading to a 'hybrid' dog store. In real people world, mixed dogs are mutts. In Boca Raton world, they're considered hybrids. Call them what you will, they were still adorable and needing a home. I was this close to bringing one home... but then oh what's that? They're 1600 DOLLARS?! Lady... this is a MUTT... do you realize that? Sorry pup, maybe you'd have better luck at the Humane Society. That night we decided to take a break from our non-stop ways and watch a movie back at their place.

Sunday began with our regular 'go to the coffee shop so Meg can be a student for a couple hours' routine. We went to a really nice area called Mizner Park, parked it at a Starbucks, and I wandered around the strips of stores for a while.

That afternoon we went to a place called Gumbo Limbo, where they have a lot of sea turtles and fish and lobsters and all sorts of other things that you wonder if they should be in the wild instead of this little tank. Hello, didn't we learn anything from the killer whale incident? I guess not all whales are like Willy. But it was a great time and here's a little astonishing tidbit of information I learned: a disposable diaper taked 450 years to disintegrate. Cloth diapers, people! That evening we went to a park near Meg and TJ's house to grill. Steaks for them, veggie burgers for me (not bad!) and some potatoes and cole slaw. Add a dash of Mad Libs for some old fashioned, immature humor. Just because we got older doesn't mean we grew up. It was a great evening and a GREAT weekend!

Monday morning I headed to the airport to fly back to San Jose. It was very hard - more than I expected! I decided it's probably a good thing I never went back to Minnesota during my time here, because if leaving Florida was as hard as it was, I can't imagine what leaving MN would have been like. But now I'm back, in the flow and ready for the next adventures that I'm planning! Stay tuned as you wish for my sporatic and rambling posts.

Locked and Loaded

Well, after some time of anxiety that I wasn't going to end up doing it, I finalized plans and made reservations yesterday. I'm going to be hiking Mt. Chirripo with a new volunteer here at Habitat, Miriam, who just came last Sunday. I was very pumped to quickly discover that she shares a love for all things outdoors and active! My adventure-filled weekends have been slowing down lately as I have become committed to activities with work, church and just filling my days with more activities here in San Jose.

I quickly got her on board with me to hike Chirripo. It is the highest point in Costa Rica, and the second highest in Central America. I mean it's no Everest, but for my first mountain hike... I'll take it. My original plan was to do it during Semana Santa, which is the week before Easter. We get Thursday and Friday off that week so it would have worked out perfectly (as its a 3 day journey). I knew we had to make reservations well in advance as you need to make a reservation at the place where you sleep up near the top of the mountain, but we were sadly informed that the next available time (besides this upcoming weekend) was April 22. So, without much choice, we decided we'd rather do it later than not do it at all. I'm jazzed that it's booked and we're set for a fun weekend of hiking and conquering... hopefully. Oh boy, that's going to be a steep and long hike... I better up the running amount and cut back on the peanut butter starting... tomorrow. Tonight calls for wine.... it's my obligation as Miriam's tour guide for the first couple days. Salud!

Week of Love

In honor of Valentine's Day, I thought I'd do a post about the things I love.

First, a newbie: my decision to become vegetarian.

After a few instances here in Latin America with the meat triggering some unwanted sights and smells, I decided to get educated. Knowledge is power, right? Or maybe I should have stuck with ignorance is bliss. Anyways, I did some reading and research and made my final decision this past weekend. For anyone sort of on the fence about becoming a vegetarian, may I recommend the book Skinny Bitch to really seal the deal on your decision. Go vegetables!

Second: my friend Hannah's baby, Ian.

He's 8 weeks old and the most ADORABLE baby! I've been able to play with him on a couple different occasions, and he is such a smiley hip baby! And, the thing I'm most jealous of, he'll be able to grow up bi-lingual. Why wasn't my elementary school an immersion school when I was there?!

Third: My work with Habitat for Humanity.

During this entire 6 month period, I've always known that the work I was doing would be something that I was happy to be doing. I knew volunteering abroad was something that I just had to do before starting any sort of a career, and once I made that happen I knew this was something I would always look back on positively. After the earthquake in Haiti, this increased triple fold. My job, and the work of Habitat for Humanity, all of a sudden became that much more necessary. As my office oversees the work of all Habitat offices in Latin America and the Caribbean, we were working directly with Haiti. As my boss and other co-workers have gone to Haiti post-earthquake, my sense of purpose for this organization only grows.

Fourth: the beach.

My gosh, every time I am at the beach during sunset I have to remind myself how lucky I am to be here and how gorgeous it seriously is. In Australia, over time, I started to really lose my appreciation for the beach since we were so close and had constant access to it. I made sure that in Costa Rica, I didn't start to lose my appreciation again. The circumstances are a little different as it takes more effort to get to the beach here (but now that the new freeway is opened, we can cut our driving time in half! Woo hoo!) and I only get there around once a month or so. However, I am constantly remembering that the closest I'll get to an ocean once back in Minnesota is looking out onto Lake Superior. Oh how looks can be deceiving! I love all things beach. Especially my first stellar surf lesson: check it out! (ha)

So, these are a few of my favorite things this February. And all of you of course (are any of you out there anymore after my lack of posts?) Peace Love and Surf

After a Looooong Absence....

I am back! Please excuse my lack of updates (has it seriously been a month and a half??)... what a busy time these last weeks have been. Between Christmas, friends visiting and my parents coming down, I was certainly keeping myself running around. We'll back up a few weeks...

The Christmas season came and went, not suprisingly, without a flake of snow. The green country around me took away the feeling that it was December, despite the amount of Christmas tunes I was pumping out and the Christmas trees in every building and house. On Christmas Eve I went to the church service in the evening, which brought back all the familiarities of Christmas. Inside, where you couldn't tell if it's 75 or 5 degrees, we had a candlelight service with traditional songs and a comfortable warmth of everyone in the holiday spirit. I was housesitting during the holidays, so I went back to their house in Santa Ana for an evening of pajamas, Its a Wonderful Life, wine and chocolates. Although I'm typically a stickler for tradition, this was a great way to spend Christmas Eve as well. Christmas day I spent the day relaxing and watching a huge rain storm rather than the snow storm that was currently hitting Minnesota. In the evening, I headed over to a church family's house for dinner and fireworks... boy do those Costa Ricans love their fireworks! It was a great evening- if I couldn't be with my own family on Christmas, this was certainly a wonderful alternative.

The next day, Saturday, my friends Gwen and Deena came to visit! After much stressing about their flight being delayed due to all the snow coming into Minnesota, they ended up arriving just as scheduled and not a moment too soon. I was so excited to see them and have a week of adventures ahead of me. We started the week off with a bang, going bungee jumping from a 265 foot bridge. Mom and dad were NOT informed of this decision ahead of time, as I knew it would lead to much unnecessary stressing. Better to let them know AFTER I had already survived... and show them the video on their visit. The next day was off to Poas Volcano, which I had already seen but it is one of the more accessible volcanoes in Costa Rica. A quick bus ride away and we were able to walk around and see the crater, a lake and the trails that lead around the park. It was a pretty nice day, we were lucky to have been able to see everything! You never know with the clouds. On Tuesday we headed out to the Caribbean coast for some beach time. First we hit Cahuita for a couple days, checking out the national park there. It's a very quiet, mellow beach. We managed to get robbed by some monkeys in the park... they got Gwen's wallet but we managed to get it back thanks to a helpful stranger and some bartering with pretzels. But those monkeys aggressive! Lesson learned. The next day, New Years Eve day, we headed to another beach just a few miles from Cahuita, called Puerto Viejo. It was a much more 'happening' beach, so we thought that would be fun for New Years. It was indeed! A lot of fancy drinks and new foods were tried, and at midnight we brought in the new decade with fireworks on the beach. A great way to ring in 2010! The next day, sadly, we headed back to San Jose because Gwen and Deena were flying back to Minnesota on the 2nd. It was a busy busy week with a couple great friends, but as soon as they were gone, my parents were on their way!

After a few days to catch up on sleep and work, my parents arrived on Thursday the 7th. They had just come from spending a week in Florida with my sister, so they were being quite the little travelers! But they handled it like pro's. They didn't get much time to rest inbetween trips, as we were off to the Pacific beach bright and early on Friday morning. I decided to save a few bucks and show them the 'real' Costa Rica, we would take the public bus to the beach we were heading to, Manuel Antonio. Somewhere between San Jose and the beach, my backpack managed to get stolen. I suppose it could partially be blamed on me, as I was too trusting and left it on the bus during a bathroom break. Another lesson learned! The bus was hot, packed, and long... to get off and realize all I had was the clothes on my back was not thrilling. But we had a great time despite the rocky start, starting with a tour of the national park there. It was great to take the tour, as we wouldn't have come out half as informed as we were with the guide. All sorts of plants and wildlife for us to see! That night we pulled together an outfit for me to wear and watched the sunset at the beach, followed by a great dinner overlooking the ocean. The next day we got up and headed to the beach. Little did I know that this was mom AND dad's first time in the ocean - what a big moment! I felt like a mother watching from the shore as her children play in the waves. We were planning to head back to San Jose that day at noon, but after a lying bus driver and missed bus, we found ourselves sitting at the bus station until 2. I had vowed that I would not be taking another public bus during mom and dad's visit.

Thankfully, this turned out to be the case. The next morning we were thrilled to find that a Gray Line shuttle would be able to pick us up to bring us to Arenal Volcano. This seemed to make all the difference as I was truely able to set into vacation mode. When we got there we were delighted to find that our resort was adorable and the hot springs were just asking us to come in and unwind. Although it was raining and cloudy so we couldn't see the peak of the volcano, we still tried to make the best of it by using the hot springs and exploring where we could. We took a hike with a guide around part of the base of the volcano, learning the history of it and its major erruptions. We explored the lava paths and, when standing at the top, felt like we could get blown down at any minute. We were thankful to have gone on an early tour and been able to have a lot of the area to ourselves because of the rain. And nothing warms you up after a cold, rainy hike better than....you guessed it, hot springs. A decision to later check out a trail and where it lead resulted in us slipping and sliding down a steep, muddy trail leading straight to a river. Mom was afraid of grabbing onto a vine and finding out it was a snake, while I was just picturing my camera falling into the dark abyss that loomed below. Luckily, we made it down without any incidents and were happy to find a beautiful waterfall and a much more user-friendly trail going back up. Dry clothes warmed us up as we hopped back on the shuttle to return to San Jose.

Tuesday was a work day, as I felt bad leaving the office for so many days. Hmmm, I wonder if I picked up that gene from anyone in my family... :) I brought them along to the office with me in the morning to show them where I work. That evening we headed over to Patricia's for a wonderful dinner and conversation. Well, it seemed the conversation was more of 'mom and dad talk to Patricia, I translate it to Patricia, she says something in spanish, I translate it back'... but I was really happy for them to get to know my host parents and see how I live day to day.

Wednesday it was back into travel mode. As I have mentioned before in my blog, my old pastor from St. Cloud and his wife, Stacey and Flora, are now living in San Jose. They are good friends with my parents, so we went to visit their farm that they recently bought. It's a really big piece of land that they have a lot of exciting plans for. They also have an adorable nearly-1-year-old, Julian, who is a joy to play with - I miss taking care of kiddos! We ate lunch at a great mountain top restaurant before heading back to San Jose. That afternoon and evening was all about naps and just 'being.'

Thursday... our last day! We had arranged to take a tour of Britt's, which is a huge coffee producer in Costa Rica. We got picked up and went out to the farm where there was a very entertaining presentation about the coffee process, from bean to bag. It was certainly not your typical tour, as they were more of 'actors' than tour guides. Mom and dad are stocked up on coffee now, as they could have some shipped back to Minnesota - that should make for some great mornings! We headed back to San Jose that afternoon and got dropped off downtown so we could take a tour of the National Theatre and the gold museum. Both were really interesting - the theatre is GORGEOUS, and the museum told the history and meaning behind Costa Rican money... it couldn't have been a complete trip for mom without a museum stop! We had a great dinner over at Stacey and Flora's before heading back to the hotel for one last night to pack everything up and get to bed early... they had to leave for the airport at 4 am! It was such a GREAT trip, and fully packed. I miss them lots but am so glad they were able to take a trip to come see where I am living and what I am doing!

So, that is my past month and a half in a nutshell. Eh, might not have been in a nutshell... I've never been good at keeping things short. On a shorter note, this morning I faceplanted into cement when I was on a run. I blame it on the terribly uneven concrete that covers the sidewalks here and the equally uneven roads. A few knicks and bruises on my hands and knees, but thankfully was able to just get up and say 'esta bien' to a concerned-looking motorcyclist parked near me. My self esteem was hurt more than any part of my body. Better watch more carefully next time.

Pictures to come soon, and promises to write more often from now on.