Bittersweet

While I am very excited to return home tomorrow, I am sad about leaving. Especially after last night.

My roommate, her (our) friends and Kerensa all plotted a surprise going away party for me. They even made a slideshow video of all the pictures we've taken over the last year. It was absolutely amazing.

I know that moving back is the right decision for me, but it's definitely not easy leaving these people behind.

I suppose that's a testament to my life here. Can't wait to come visit.

I Like Lists.

Here is a list of things I'm really excited about returning to next week. In no particular order.

1. My family. I love my family and genuinely enjoy spending time with them. Also, I have the cutest niece in the world. (This really is #1 in order of excitement.)

2. My friends. While I do know some wonderful people here, I also know lots of wonderful people in the US. I'm excited to be relatively closer to them.

3. Not feeling anxious every time I go outside.

4. Exercising outside. Really, exercising in general. I don't do it here since I don't feel safe outside and stopped paying to go to the gym.

5. Chicago. It really is an amazing city. With the best pizza in the world (#5.1).

6. Having an iPhone. It's stupid and completely unnecessary, but I can't help but love having a phone that does everything.

7. My family. Seriously. Cutest.Niece.Ever.

8. Salads. Eating (out) healthy here is expensive. Like, really expensive.

9. Libraries. I like to read. Enough said.

10. Groupon, LivingSocial, YouSwoop, Woot, etc. It's nice being able to get super discounts on things you want to do but otherwise wouldn't spend money on (photography classes, restaurants, beer-making classes, wine tastings...). You know. Fun things.

11. THANKSGIVING. Even though the history behind it is absolutely horrible and I know I should feel guilty but I can't help it. I love love love Thanksgiving and can't wait to eat turkey and mashed potatoes and watch football with my family.

12. Pub trivia. It's just good fun and I like trivia.

13. Not being allergic to all the beer in the country.

14. My family. They're pretty great.

15. Snowball. I'm looking forward to volunteering with that program again. It's a good one, and I get to work with great people.

16. Not having to pay (at the very least) $500 to go visit anyone I want to see.

17. Dairy products. They are crazzzzzy expensive here and just aren't even a tiny bit close to as good.

18. Rain. I will not miss it. It has not stopped raining for four days. Literally. There hasn't been sunshine. Though, it's not like I'm really excited about snow...

19. Pizza. Chicago (Giordano's) pizza is the best in the entire world. Period.

20. My family. Have I mentioned I'm excited to be back in the same county as them? Because I am.

Top 10 Things I'll Miss About CR

I figured I should reflect on some of the things I love and will miss about this country before I list off the thousand things I'm looking forward to going home to.


10. The Temperature: Aside from the constant rain (which I will not miss), it's almost always the perfect temperature here. Nice and warm (rarely too hot) during the day and delightfully cool at night.

9. In-Unit Laundry: I love having "free" laundry in my apartment. I'm not especially looking forward to having to pay for it again!

8. The Countryside: It's nice living just a few hours (drive/bus ride) away from some of the most beautiful beaches/cloud forests in the world. Though I didn't get to travel as much as I'd like (meaning, everyday of my life), I've seen some amazing things here.

7. Dish Soap: The little things. Dish soap comes in a tub and lasts forever. Good thing I bought two kilos of it to bring home with me.

6. La Feria: Being able to go to a farmer's market any week out of the year and get awesome fruits/veggies for cheap is pretty great.

5. Coffee. It's just so so so so so so good here.

4. Cheap Rent: I have an awesome/huuuge apartment here and pay a fraction of what I will pay for something similar in the US.

3. Fruit & Juice: Pineapple, mangoes, bananas, avocados, guanabana, cas... and all the other random ones that I can't remember the names of. It's so cheap and tastes SO much better here where it's locally grown.

2. My Roommate: Living with Saray has been absolutely wonderful. She is seriously one of the easiest/most wonderful people to live with in the world.

1. My Friends (clearly): I know some great people. They are friendly, kind, generous, and some are damn good cooks. Thank goodness for Skype, right? :)

September Fun

So the past couple weeks have been pretty great. Now that I have a set time limit I feel like I can really enjoy the rest of my time here and not feel so anxious all the time. It's a nice change.

I haven't done any traveling. Instead, I've been hanging around Heredia spending time with my friends here. I've had a couple dinners with the Brit, Jamie & her boyfriend Jonathan, Kerensa & her boyfriend Martin. As per usual, Jamie and Kerensa's cooking has been spectacular.

My birthday was last week, and it was pretty nice. On the actual day (Wednesday) I worked and went out to dinner with the Brit for some sushi. Excellent. The weekend we were going to have a party at our place, but Saray's mom & brother came to stay and take care of her after ankle surgery the week before, so we decided to change our plans.
Instead, Saray ended up staying in Saturday night because of her ankle, but Kerensa, Martin, Jose Mario, Felix, Glori, Walter, Alvaro, Sara (from Politecnico) and her boyfriend Jorge and I all went to a bar close by - Albino's. It's got a great (covered) outdoor area and then karaoke inside. I finally got to hear Felix sing karaoke: he's amazing, it was totally worth the wait.
Kerensa baked me peanut butter cookies and chocolate mousse (omg yummy), Sara gave me a I <3 Costa Rica t-shirt (so sweet) and the guys brought me a cake at the bar and had the entire bar sing me happy birthday. Complete with a couple shots of free tequila, it was a really great birthday.

Such great people.

On Wednesday, I met the Brit and we headed out to Escazu to catch The Rise of the Planet of the Apes. It was actually quite good. You should see it. It made me want to visit the Redwoods out in California even more than I already had.

Last night I went with the Brit to Bar Cholo's, the Spanish tapas bar, and had a couple drinks with him and Jose. Jose's moving to the Cayman Islands for work next month & invited me and (the Brit) Jonathan to come. May have to pay him a visit...

I posted my stuff on CraigsList to hopefully sell within the next week or so. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Chi-town bound in 11 days :)

Decisions.

Home was wonderful. So much so that I've decided to end my time here and go home early. I had originally intended on returning to the US in December, but I've decided since I have a wedding to go to October 22, I'm going to return then (on the 18th).

Before you ask, I'm perfectly fine. Everything is great. I have just realized that I am feeling pretty done here. I have done what I came to do. I came here with nothing and no one and I made it work. I am confident that if I wanted to, I absolutely could stick it out and stay longer. The reality is, however, I just don't really want to anymore. I am ready to return to the USA to be closer to people I love.

I think what really did it for me was that I just don't feel safe here. I am constantly looking over my shoulder and worried about who is going to come out of no where and attack me. While I realize that the US is no safer than CR, at least I'm not a target there. I am probably less likely to be attacked in the US given that I don't stick out like a sore thumb. Here, I can't blend in. No matter how good my Spanish is and how well I know the country, I will never look like I belong here. A tall, very white girl with huge green eyes will never look Tica.

I am truly sad to be leaving the friends I have made here. In particular, my roommate is one of the kindest most generous people I've ever met, and I couldn't have asked for a better person to live with. Whoever lives with her next is one lucky kid. I know I've gushed about her and her friends, but honestly nothing I write could do justice to what great and welcoming people they are. I have been so lu I have to say, I am really excited to be home for Halloween and especially Thanksgiving.

Yay Amurica.

What I've been up to since being back is coming in the next post.

just what i needed.

This is what one of my (beginner) students said on my evaluation after a particularly difficult class last night:


"katie c thanks for being so patient with us students, you're an excellent teacher, very pretty, so I hope you are always with us,by people like you is that we are inspired to work harder to learn"


Not being able to work with students face to face doesn't always make me feel like I'm making a difference all the time, so this was a nice reminder.

Pretty impressive for a beginner student, right?

i lovermont.

This weekend in CR wasn't nearly as eventful as in the US (read: the east coast). Thankfully we have been spared attack via hurricane down here... just average rainy season days. While I could sit here and talk about how lucky I am to have gotten Jamie's cooking twice in one week (Saturday night I went over for dinner again), I have to ask that the few of you who actually read this send your thoughts/prayers for those who were devastated by Irene over the weekend.

While I'm sad to see all the damage it's caused across east coast, my heart literally aches for Vermont right now. The state that I called home for four wonderful years, and still hold very near and dear to my heart, is struggling. If you haven't seen, click on the link, search for some videos on YouTube...

I know times are tough and most people can't spare much, but there are people who literally just lost everything. Any little bit helps.