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.

Mini Reunion, Part 2

First thing's first: Happy Birthday (yesterday) Grandma!

Friday after I returned from the gym, the Brit picked me up and we made our way down to Manuel Antonio to meet up with Bill and Sam. What should have been a 2.5 hour drive turned into a 5 hour debacle that included: taking the super scenic route; purchasing lots of fruit we didn't need from a man who charged us far too much because we were clearly not locals; getting lost a couple times asking multiple people for directions because the Brit declared a map wasn't necessary prior to departure; taking an exit off the expressway that simply turned to a sketchy-looking dirt road instead of the well-marked town it appeared to be (much more hilarious than it sounds); and a suicidal rottweiler 5 minutes from our destination.

Miraculously, we made it to Manuel Antonio in one piece, although the same could not be said for the car, (Said suicidal dog got up and walked away. The car somehow managed to lose that fight. The dog was HUGE.) found the hostel and found Bill & Sam. We scooped up the boys from the closing bar and returned to the hostel to share some beers and Cuban cigars in celebration of Jonathan's birthday. We all then promptly gave up on any ideas we had had to meet up with some other travelers in town and passed out.

Saturday we got a late start and brunch turned into lunch. We ran into the girls (travel friends of B&S) who we were going to meet up with in town the night before. They reaffirmed our decision to lay low and not venture out into the sketchy-ness that is Quepos: one of the girls was fairly certain she got roofied (thanks to her friends, she was fine, but still...). Anyway... after lunch we moseyed into the actual park, saw a sloth, spiders & some pretty plants and then hit the beach for some swimming and sunshine. As we were getting ready to leave the beach there was an iguana trying to get some food. It got a little closer to Bill than I think he would have liked, but it was fun to watch the mini-dinosaur move around a bit.

We hopped in the car and started to make our way toward La Fortuna/Volcan Arenal. We stopped for a map and then to get gas on the way out of Manuel Antonio/Quepos. As we were leaving the gas station, a giant cable decided to scratch up the car, knock off the sideview mirror and rip out the atenna. No one was hurt, it was just... a little ridiculous. We kept on, but not before stopping to check out the giant crocodiles that live under the bridge at Rio Tarcoles. Pretty cool. From a distance, that is. I would not want to get any closer than we were and am even more baffled than I was before at the Crocodile Hunter's apparent insanity. Those things are no joke.

Bill acted as navigator (yay for free maps from Alamo Rental Car!) and directed us toward La Fortuna. Unfortunately, however, there was a crazy storm and the roads we were on had some blockage due to landslides so we decided we'd had enough of driving and headed back home to Heredia instead. We went out for some Peruvian food for the Brit's birthday dinner and met up with Jamie and her boyfriend who is also named Jonathan. Bill & the Brit were exhausted so they went to bed while Sam and I went out for a couple drinks/pool with Jamie and her Jonathan. Good times.

After taking care of some business Sunday morning (laundry and gluing the sideview mirror back on the car), the four of us and the British Jonathan's coworker Jose went out in search of lunch. What was supposed to be a short outing for a little food ended up an entire day of adventures. We ended up at Bar Calipso downtown Heredia for a little while before deciding to head up the mountain to check out the old abandoned church with the cork trees that Kerensa took me to once upon a time, where a friend of Jose's joined us (I think his name was Bernard? Bernal? yikes.). Once it started to get dark we came back down to Heredia. Long story short, we ended up back at my place (after a little drunk grocery shopping) playing Taboo and eating tamales in my room since my roommate had to wake up for work the next morning. Hilarity.

Monday morning B&S headed out to Tortuguero for some turtle watching (jealousy). I "went" to work. Wednesday morning I looked up B&S's flight info to find out what time they were leaving on Friday (as we all thought), only to realize they were supposed to be leaving Thursday instead. Yikes. They ended up having to bargain with some taxi drivers to drive them back here Wednesday night. I went out for some drinks to say goodbye to William and Mecia, who are leaving for the US indefinitely this weekend (sadness in my heart, I will miss them dearly). I arrived back at home shortly before Bill & Sam did, pobrecitos. Thankfully they made it here in time to get to their flights the next morning. Last night Kerensa and I went to Jamie's for dinner and, as per usual, it was amazing.

It was pretty great having Bill and Sam here these last couple weeks. They are great guys and lots of fun to have around. Not to mention Bill showed me how he had Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (one of my favorite video games of all time) on his phone, so I clearly went and bought it for mine. Best game ever. It really has been a fun couple weeks.
Can't wait for stateside adventures in 6 days!!

Mini Reunion, Part 1

One thing I really used to love a lot about my life is that I know people all over the world. Granted, most are in the US and not in random countries around the world, but still. This has recently become something I have come to hate: that while I love having people to visit in many different places, I so rarely get to see those people. I suppose the bright side to that is that it does make these rare visits all the more special.

This month I get to have a mini elementary school reunion in CR. Bill and Sam decided months ago to do a trip to CR and are currently in the country. They arrived on Friday and spent the day hanging out with me in my neck of the rain forest. We didn't do anything particularly exciting, but it was still pretty great to have company. We (they) exchanged/withdrew some money, cooked chicken tacos for dinner, and went out for a couple beers at one of the bars in Heredia with the Brit.

We called it a relatively early night (12:00) as Bill & Sam had to wake up to catch the 6:30am bus to Monteverde. Unfortunately, they left my house at 5am just to return a few hours later (8am) since the bus was sold out. Thankfully though, they managed to get seats on the 2:30pm bus. They were clearly exhausted from everything so they just napped until they left again to catch the later bus. After Monteverde they were planning on heading to Guanacaste to get some surfing in. I haven't heard from them, but I assume no news is good news. We are planning on meeting up this weekend - I have Saturday AND Sunday off. Amazing!

The rest of the weekend was pretty low key. Saturday night, the Brit (Jonathan) and I stopped by the Spanish tapas bar/restaurant for dinner and then made our way over to Kerensa's place for even more food - homemade chili. As per usual, Kerensa's cooking was fantastic, and I put on another 10 pounds. We spent the night watching music videos and movie trailers. Hilarious.

Sunday I worked til 3, and then the Brit and I ventured out for something a little different. He had a car for the weekend so we decided to drive out toward Santa Ana/Escazu in search of a restaurant he wanted to go to. We found one of the two he had in mind, and it took 2 hours and driving by a prison to get there, but still, we found one. Dinner was delicious, dessert was disappointing (worst $5 pie I've ever had... Baker's Square it was not).

Then we decided to try to see Captain America at the mall in Escazu. It was, being a Sunday, totally packed and the only seats would have been in the very front row. No thanks. We wandered back to the car to find it had a flat tire. After failing to be able to remove the flat tire in order to replace it with the spare, we took it over to the Texaco across the way. They, being professionals, changed the tire in less time than it took us to even find the jack (buried underneath a seat in the car instead of with everything else). It was pretty hilarious.

So far this week has consisted of me working 10 hours on Monday, 5 yesterday, 4 today, and 2 trips to the gym. I forgot my beloved water bottle at the gym yesterday and thought it was lost forever because they didn't have it when I called to check. However, it was there this afternoon when I went back and I almost jumped with joy. Is it sad that I was beyond excited that no one stole my Nalgene? Probably. Do I care? Nope, I'm just glad I have it back.

The Oliver Wendall Holmes School reunion continues this weekend, though I'm not quite sure where yet. Regardless, I'm pretty excited.

Other forthcoming stateside reunions I look forward to include trips home to Chicago and the weddings of some of my absolute favorite (Cheley and UVM) people in the world, which will, in turn, include some of my other absolute favorite (Cheley and UVM) people in the world as guests. I count my blessings.

Gluttony.

Aside from a teeeeeeeeny tiny earthquake, this past week was uneventful. This weekend, however, was a good time.

Friday was my only day off this week, so I made plans to meet up with Jamie for lunch since I hadn't seen her in a while (she's been sick/working a million hours a week). Two more people from Politecnico joined us - Becky and Robert, which was just lovely. We had pizza and gelato. It was a fantastic Italian-themed lunch with wonderful company.

Friday night I made my way over to Kerensa's place for dinner with her and Martin. She had been craving tacos for a while and decided to make some. Background info: Tico tacos are not tacos. They are deep-fried, like most things in this country, and they put ketchup on them. Sometimes they slightly resemble taquitos. Tasty, but not tacos. Kerensa's tacos, on the other hand, were magnificent. Chicken cooked in onion, garlic, tomato & some spices; cheese, lettuce, salsa, cilantro, and sour cream. DE-lish.

Saturday morning I woke and got to Skype with my mom and Lily. I have to say there is literally no better way to start your day than having Lily sing you the ABCs.

After I finished working Saturday early evening I made chocolate chip cheesecake. Then, half baked, Jonathan (the Brit) scooped me up in a cab and I relocated to Jamie's to finish baking the cheesecake and eat Jamie's cooking: chicken breasts stuffed with ham, basil & cheese; breaded and fried green beans; and home-roasted garlic (she literally roasted her own garlic) mashed potatoes. Drooling yet? Yeah, I could have kissed her. There are just no words.
We had cheesecake for dinner and, if I do say so myself, it was quite tasty.

I had leftovers for dinner tonight and it was spectacular. I still have an entire container full of green beans. YUM.

I might have gained 15 pounds this weekend because I ate so well, but it was worth every bite. You should be jealous. I'm jealous of myself. Amazing food, genuinely wonderful company.

Thrilling.

My life lately has been less than exciting, but here are some fun updates:

1. We have a dryer! It's awesome. It is particularly helpful as it is now rainy season and nothing would ever dry if it weren't for our lovely dryer. It is also especially helpful with addressing my (slightly) irrational fear of bed bugs as I can now throw everything I own in and kill any potential bugs that have attached themselves to my belongings.

2. I am mildly allergic to the local beer. I get congested as soon as I start drinking it. As I have had a sinus cold this past week and a half (thank goodness for the neti pot), I decided to lay off the booze and give my sinuses a chance to clear out. I went out on Saturday night, however, and couldn't resist the liter-sized mugs at the bar and went to bed much worse than when I started the night.

3. I failed at making creme brulee. That s*** is hard to do well! I tried, but it just didn't turn out as wonderful as it should have. It didn't taste bad (how could it, it's just cream, eggs & sugar), the consistency just wasn't right. Oh well, I'll be trying to make some chocolate chip cheesecake next. Hopefully that'll turn out better.

4. Apparently Illinois signed the DREAM Act into effect today! Awesome. Super good news to start the week with. And my gay friends can get married in NY. Yay for civil rights.

That's all for now. Happy August! USA bound in exactly one month!

I saw Harry Potter on Monday. It was awesome.

And I sang Backstreet Boys to my students today. It was ridiculous.

That's all. :)

Life Changes

Okay, so I'm a slacker. I am sure that no one cares about the smaller details of my day to day life since my last post so I'll be focusing on the big things. If you have a problem with that & want to know more, Skype me once in a while. It's free.

1. I quit my job.

Long story short, I started to really hate working at Politecnico, as did half our English teaching staff. Unfortunately for the students, half the English teachers quit within 3 weeks of one another. If you would like details, I'm happy to provide them, but I figure that listing all the things that made me miserable on a public forum isn't the classiest thing I could do.

2. I got a new job.

Thursday I started working for OpenEnglish.com, and thus far, it's been absolutely fantastic. I don't have to beg for full-time hours, I can request time off without a problem, they pay on time, and best of all, I work in my pajamas. The beauty of working for this company is that I can work from any where, so my inevitable return to the US will be that much smoother. :)

3. In between #1 & #2, I got robbed.

I decided I'd never be able to forgive myself if I didn't take advantage of my unemployed time to go and check out the part of the country everyone and their mother says you have to see: Guanacaste. Playa Conchal is widely considered the most beautiful beach in CR, period - it is, but I have no proof. I was walking in the pouring rain from Conchal back to where I was staying in Brasilito and two grown men ran after me, my bag ripped open and they grabbed everything they could get their hands on and bolted, including my beautiful (professional) camera. I'm fine, they were definitely not interested in hurting me, thank goodness. Not hurt physically, just heartbroken.

The only positive thing that I can say about this experience is that I met some of the kindest people I have ever encountered in my life. A random woman offered to let me stay at her house until I figured out a way back home (they took all my money), and another random tourist gave me $50 out of his pocket and kept apologizing for not being able to do more for me. Despite there being a lot of horrible people in the world, I'd like to believe that there is an exponentially larger number of good people, who offer what little they have.

4. There was an earthquake.

Friday, May 13, there was yet another earthquake (number 3 since I've been here). It was fairly short - about a minute or so - but it was quite strong. Things were definitely shaking, but I don't think anyone was hurt.

5. I have spent a good amount of time with some really fantastic people.

The more I get to know those I've met here, the more I absolutely adore them. I know I say this a lot, but I really did hit the jackpot when it came to my roommate, her friends (who are now mine, too) and my coworkers. There has been lots of dinners, drinks, movies, soccer, and even a pajama birthday party. Yeah, that's right. Be jealous.

6. My brother got married.

Dave is now a married man and the Carr family couldn't be happier with having Sarah as a(n official) member. The ceremony was beautiful, the bride was even more gorgeous, and the reception was a blast. The house was sold so I stayed at my mom's and got to see my Dad's new (ballin) pad, and spent lots of time with my favorite niece. It was perfect.
Only negative: my trip was far too short. I am seriously looking forward to returning home again in September.

Heads up: I'll be in Colorado Sept. 1-6 & Chicago Sept. 6-15 (at least). Can't wait :)

Little Bit of Work and a Whole Lotta Fun

Again with the slacking. Sorry Grandpa!

My trip home was amazing. And seriously way way way too short.

I got back to CR Sunday early afternoon, and my wonderful roommate and her girlfriend picked me up at the airport after getting through immigration without any problems. I was exhausted so I ended up just hanging out in the apartment all Sunday night instead of doing anything. Good life choice.

Monday was back to business as usual, teaching in the morning in Heredia and in the evening in San Jose. Tuesday night after tutoring, I went out with Kerensa to meet Zach L., Jonathan and Robert for drinks. We all went to Pollo Sus Amigos by la UNA after discovering that the sushi/pizza (yes, that's correct) place we wanted to go to was closed. We then got scooped up by Jose Mario and Felix who drove us both home because they are just great people.

Thursday morning was my last class with my diplomado students, and it was fun. I gave them their grades and made them watch The Princess Bride because none of them had seen it. They were skeptical, but they enjoyed it (how could you not?). Thursday night I went to play soccer with Saray, Laura, Jose Mario, Felix, Alvaro, Walter and two of Alvaro's sisters. My knee is now killing me, but it was a fun time. My roommate has started calling me RoadRunner because I apparently run a crazy amount. After, Saray, Laura, Jose Mario and I went to have a drink at Nacho's before calling it a night.

Saturday after class I went home and Saray was cooking. Shortly after I got home, Jose Mario and Felix came over for lunch. We all ate and the three of them taught me some new Spanish phrases, most of which I won't be repeating here, haha. After our food digested a little, we went out to the front of the house and played some soccer. And by we played, I mean the three of them played around while I took pictures. Eventually they busted out the hose and soaked each other while I hid. Felix and I then took a little ride on their new scooter around the neighborhood. It was a great afternoon.
Later that evening I ventured over to Jamie's new apartment (she moved on Friday) where she had been cooking for hours. Jamie comes from a very Italian family and likes to cook. This means that she makes pasta sauce from scratch and it is to die for. She also made eggplant parmesan (from scratch) and mozzarella sticks (from a box - even she has her limits). Definitely one of the best meals I have eaten in this country/in life. Zach L., Jonathan and Sara B. came to join. We spent the night drinking and playing a little Wii and having a good time. I think my favorite moment of the night was when one of the boys asked Jamie what the base for her sauce was. They just about had a heart attack when she responded with, "tomatoes." Stellar.

Sunday morning I lazily slept in. Around noon Saray, Laura, Jose Mario and I went to meet Kerensa and her boyfriend Martin to head up the mountain for a picnic. We all squeezed into Laura's car and prepared ourselves for an afternoon of good eating and a little adventure. We parked the car up Monte de la Cruz and wandered in the direction of the waterfall nearby. It turns out the waterfall is a bit of a hike. It's not far at all, but it involves a little bit of adventurous downhill rock climbing. We all ended up a little dirty and tiny bit scratched, but the journey there and back was half the fun. We stayed at the waterfall taking pictures and hanging out for a little bit and then we headed back to meet Laura at the car. Not before eating Kerensa's amazing sandwiches though. They even had apple slices in them so it reminded me of Vermont and made my heart (and tastebuds) happy. So tasty.
We decided not to go back up the way we came as it would have been pretty difficult to get up some of the rocks we came down, but try the trail that went the opposite direction. Kerensa had been that way before, so we knew we were wandering into private property and would have to figure out a way out of some fenced-in land without getting caught. Though Kerensa wasn't too happy about our decision to take that path, we went anyway, climbing over a gate and some barbed wire on the way. Once we got up off the trail and onto the private property, Jose Mario and Saray decided to be sneaky and run from tree to tree hiding from anyone who might see us. It was definitely one of the funnier things I've seen in a while. They even rolled on the ground, somersault-ish style. At first we struggled to find a feasible way out but then we saw a drain that ran under the huge fence we needed to get to the other side of. At first I thought she was joking, but Saray climbed down to check it out, and it turned out to be perfect. So we all crawled, one by one, out a drain pipe. Thankfully it was clean and dry.
We went back to meet Laura at the car. We parked next to this awesome triangular cottage looking bar (I'm kicking myself for not having taken a picture), and we decided that we had earned ourselves a beer after our little trek. Inside there was an old school juke box (just for show), an old motorcycle and a few stuffed sloths. The ambiance was pretty stellar. While we were enjoying our beers, it started pouring. We decided instead of heading to the park to play soccer as we planned, we were going to go back to Jose Mario and Felix's place instead, to interrupt Fe from studying and finish our food there.

A little later that evening Saray, Laura, Jose Mario, Felix, Gary and I headed to La Avispa, their favorite gay bar/club downtown San Jose. Apparently Sundays are the best night of the week to go to this bar. I arrived with the guys, and Saray and Laur came to meet us there after stopping at Laura's place for a change of clothes. The club itself is beautiful - there's an upstairs where you can go for some food, to sit down or hang out by the balcony to watch the people dancing below. They played a super wide variety of music and we danced the night away. After we left the club, we stopped at McDonald's for some (gross) food before calling it a night.

When we were first talking about the picnic, Kerensa warned that there was no drinking allowed at the park we were going to go to. Jose Mario immediately responded with, "we don't need alcohol to have fun." This couldn't be more true of this group of people. They are genuinely some of the most outgoing, fun, friendly and welcoming people I have ever met - they rival Cheley people in the best way possible. Not once did I feel out of place, unincluded or remotely uncomfortable. If anything, the opposite is true - they seem to go out of their way to include me. Saray and Laura are in Colombia on vacation this week, and they want to have a movie night with me on Thursday. I honestly could not be more grateful to have met these people. They are the epitome of wonderful.

Even though Saray is in Colombia til Friday, I won't be alone in the house. Kerensa is coming to stay with me for a couple days so she can get a break from her dirty roommates. It'll be nice to see her a bit more than I normally would this week.

Jamie and I are contemplating doing another day trip to the beach Friday before our schedules change with the new semester next week. She is also talking about having another dinner soon - broccoli alfredo. I'm gonna need to get my butt back to the gym if she keeps feeding me like this.
:)

Update

I forgot to mention something about Jaco (though, I feel like I am bound to have some ridiculous experience at that beach any time I go because it is such a ridiculous place). After Jamie and I had lunch and got in a little bit of day drinking, we relocated to a slightly more shady (literally less sunny, not sketchy) part of the beach and were quickly approached by some guys. One by one they came up asking for the use of Jamie's lighter - because clearly not one of the four of them had a lighter but they all had cigarettes... riiiiight. After they had exhausted their lighter excuse, they (individually) repeatedly offered to go a buy us drinks or some food. One of them, desperately searching for a reason to talk to us, asked us to hold on to his passport and wallet while he went swimming, and offered to watch our stuff in return. It got more and more ridiculous the longer we were there.
I think my favorite one of the day was when one of them approached us offering to take us into the water. As the afternoon went on, the tide got stronger so we didn't go as far in. They decided this meant they needed to offer their services to help us go swimming. We got a 5 minute speech about how this one guy would be happy to be our guide in the water. Seriously. At least 5 entire minutes of us politely saying no thanks over and over and over. SO ridiculous. All in all, we were probably approached at least 12 times in 2 hours. Eventually they gave up and moved on and we headed back to Heredia for business as usual.

Tuesday night only one person came to tutoring for about an hour, so I got to head home early. I arrived home to find Saray cooking for Jose Mario, Felix and Gary. It was maybe the best way to end the day ever. I wish I’d taken a picture though, because it looked like our living room was an internet café. Everyone had their computers out and was comparing and sharing pictures from the Shakira concert.

Thursday night I met Jamie at Parque los Angeles in Heredia and we hopped the bus to Hooligan’s (bar/restaurant) to meet up with a bunch of the other Politecnico teachers for what turned out to be an absolutely ridiculous night. By the time Jamie and I arrived at 8:30/9:00, the majority of our friends and coworkers were well on their way to causing serious damage to their livers. We were at Hooligan’s for an hour or so when half the crew went home to be responsible and get some sleep before they had to work the next morning. Since the rest of us didn’t, we stayed for a bit longer. After a short while, we decided to give our wallets a break and head to Zach L.’s to hang out for a bit before deciding how to continue with the rest of the night.
At Zach’s was Jamie, new Jamie (who will be referred to as blonde-Jamie from now on), Pete, Luis from Politecnico, Luis from Costa Rica and two of Luis from CR’s friends whose names I can’t remember. There wasn’t a whole lot of diversity in the names as you can see.
After everyone finished all the alcohol at Zach’s place, we ventured out to downtown Heredia to another bar. I don’t remember the name of the first place we went to, but we didn’t even make it in the door before being turned away. There was some mention of the bar we were trying to go to having a vendetta against gringos, and the bouncer took one look at blonde haired, blue eyed Jamie and turned us away. Granted, at this point everyone had had a fair amount to drink, so I’m sure that wasn’t the only reason the nine of us were turned away. Instead, we walked up the street to the uber gringo-friendly Fiesta Casino. From what I understand, Fiesta looks exactly like any other casino – full of slot machines and no sign of natural light. We all ventured upstairs to the bar area and found ourselves a place to sit and I observed the belligerence that ensued. Finally, around 3-ish I decided I’d had enough and went home, already feeling hungover.

Friday I decided I was going to make crepes for my roommate and the guys. After napping away my pounding headache I headed to the local mini-super down the street and picked up fruit and eggs. Saray, Laura and Gary came home around 6 and we hung out and ate a little bit until Walter and Alvaro came to join us. Eventually Jose Mario and Felix came and brought a friend of theirs and her 3 year old son. We played a super long game of Uno, ate some crepes and had a super great time, as always. Oh. I also tried a “tico taco” for the first time, and it was amazing. Cheese, ham, beef, some salsa of some sort (and probably some other things I can’t remember right now) wrapped in a tortilla, fried and covered with lettuce and some other kind of salsa. Deeee-lish.

Saturday after class I went to Paseo de las Flores to meet up with Kerensa for lunch. While I was waiting for her, I ran into William and Mecia, and we decided to all have lunch together. The four of us went to RostiPollo, a slightly more upscale fast-ish food place that I’d probably call the Boston Market of Costa Rica. We shared a pitcher of beer, toasted to having a week off of work, and decided to have dinner together before we all went our separate ways for the break.

Later that evening I made my way over to William and Mecia’s place in San Joaquin. They live ridiculously close to me. I’m pretty sure if there was a direct route there, it would be a 5 minute walk. But, alas, there are no such things as direct routes in CR and it is a 20 trek by bus and foot. Shortly after I arrived, Kerensa and her boyfriend Martin came and Kerensa began making her infamous pizza from scratch. Mecia whipped up some guacamole and then she and her neighbor cooked up some shrimp. I, on the other hand, brought some store bought cookies and watched. We all drank some wine and ate incredibly delicious food and enjoyed each other’s company while listening to a wide array of amazing music (everything from Boyz II Men to Bob Marley). Great great night.

All in all this past week has been wonderful despite some ridiculousness at work that I won’t get into here. I couldn’t ask for more.

Just in case you were wondering, not only did I teach my beginner English students what the word “shenanigans” means, but they have started calling each other out on shenanigans when some of them inevitably goof off. It’s amazing. I’m pretty sure I can die happy.

I'll potentially write about the flight home yesterday and being home later this week. Hope everyone is doing well!

Good Times, Great People

I'm way behind.
Whoops. So sorry!

Dad came to visit and it was great. He got in Wednesday night and I met him after my night class to have some food and a couple beers. He rented and car and picked me up from Politecnico on Thursday. Color me impressed. Not only did he drive stick without stalling once, he managed to drive around the craziness that is Costa Rica and its highways.

Thursday night we drove up to La Fortuna to see the Arenal volcano. It was dark and rainy when we got in, so we didn't get to see the volcano until Friday morning. Instead, we had dinner, a couple beers and went to bed. Friday morning we got up and booked a tour. In the morning we did a zip line tour and in the afternoon/evening we did a "hike" (short walk) near the volcano and then went to the hot springs. That night we had dinner at a Peruvian place in town, and it was pretty great. La Fortuna is definitely worth the trip, though it was more expensive than I could have afforded on my own.

Saturday morning we tried to book a last second "canyoning" tour (canyoning is essentially repelling down waterfalls, supposed to be very cool), but given our time constraints we weren't able to go, and instead spent the entire day trying to get from La Fortuna to Manuel Antonio. Note about CR: roads are not well labeled in this country, if they are at all. While we didn't necessarily get ourselves lost (we knew where we were), we just couldn't find the turn(s) we were supposed to take. It was a long day of driving. Once we finally got to our hotel, we parked the car and didn't look at it again til the morning. Instead, we sat and drank and ate and watched college basketball. And by watch college basketball, I mean we watched our brackets go down the drain. At least I did.

Sunday morning we got up, had breakfast and went to the beach, where we sat and did absolutely nothing all day. It was fabulous. Manuel Antonio was just beautiful. We decided not to go into the park itself because we were feeling lazy. The beach just outside the park was lovely, and I hear the ones inside the park are even more so, so I will have to make it back there some day.

Monday we woke up, had breakfast and hit the road. We got back in what felt like record time (especially after Saturday's ridiculousness) and used the extra time to buy me some groceries. I had to work Monday night and Tuesday morning, but Tuesday afternoon Dad and I went to Britt Cafe to do their coffee tour. I think I liked the Doka Cafe tour better, because Britt had some stuff under construction so we couldn't see any of the machinery, only the coffee plants, really.

Tuesday night we had dinner and hung out, went to bed early. Wednesday morning we had breakfast at the hotel and said goodbye. I'm really glad that I got some time off so I could actually spend time with my dad, he's great. I really have been blessed with amazing parents. They are incredibly kind, generous and pretty damn smart. I could go on, but this blog is supposed to be about me ;)
__

The rest of the week went by as per usual, until Saturday morning, when I managed to turn my alarm off in my sleep. For those of you know have ever tried to wake me up in the morning, you know that this is really not all that surprising. You would think that I would have learned to keep my alarm clock on the other side of the room and out of my immediate reach by now. I woke up and ran out the house, slammed the door behind me, and stopped short at the front gate. I had brilliantly left my keys on my bed on the other side of my locked front door. I was locked out of my apartment but inside the gate. Literally caged in. And late for work. Disaster.
After failing to be able to break in to my apartment makes me feel even safer), I was forced to call in reinforcements. Johanna, who is in charge of the high school program at Politecnico and basically does everything for everyone turned her car around while she was heading in the opposite direction of where I was supposed to be, and went to cover my class until I could get there. I then called my roommate who stayed in San Pedro (on the complete other side of San Jose) on Friday night to come let me out of the house. With nothing to do but wait, I sat down on our conveniently placed futon (it's outside since it's broken). I eventually made it to school, where my students just laughed at me. Not surprisingly, it happens to everyone here, so everyone (including my boss) was very understanding. I can guarantee I won't be running out of the house without my keys again. lol

Saturday night Kerensa and I went out to a Spanish tapas bar/restaurant called La Choza, across from the gym. It was fantastic. We shared some delicious tapas and wine and watched the inaugural soccer game between CR and China at the new national stadium on TV.

Sunday started out lazy, I watched some TV and laid around doing nothing until Saray got home from work. Shortly after that, all the boys (Jose Mario, Felix, Alvaro, Walter & Gary) came over for some coffee, and we spent the afternoon making empanadas - amazing. After stuffing our faces, we decided to go play soccer at a place nearby. We did a 3 on 3 game, switching up the teams anytime anyone needed a break. It was so so so much fun, we've decided to make it a regular thing. I know I've said it before, but I am so grateful that I stumbled upon these people. They are so welcoming and so much fun and I absolutely adore them. What a great Sunday.

The next Thursday night (March 31) after I subbed and Kerensa had her normal class, we went out for a couple drinks and some delicious garlic bread. Saturday after class Sara B. and I went out for lunch while waiting for Kerensa to meet up with us. We all went out with the intention of getting pedicures and manicures, but it didn't exactly go as we had planned. Sara got her manicure, but Kerensa and I got tired of waiting after a couple hours and we decided to go grab some food/drinks instead. Though the day didn't go as we anticipated, it was still nice to just sit and enjoy some good conversation with some great people.

Saturday night I met up with my coworker friend Jamie and a couple of her friends at Pollo Sus Amigos (yes, the bar is called Chicken Your Friends) in Heredia. Sara and her boyfriend came for a while, too. It ended up being a much later night that I had anticipated, especially given how tired I was from working so much that week, but it was a fun night. I hadn't hung out with Jamie before, and she and I had a great time joking and drinking. I'm definitely glad she was added to the Politecnico staff.

Sunday we (the same crew as the week before) all played soccer together and had a blast. It's really nice to be The next Thursday night (April 7) Jamie and I met up and went to Bar Cardero for a bit since we both have Fridays off this quarter. Friday night I stayed in and did some baking and cleaning, nothing major, but nice and relaxing. Saturday night after our classes Jamie and I went out for a couple drinks and some food.

Sunday we (Saray, Laura, Jose Mario, Felix, Gary, Walter, Alvaro, Jamie and I) went to the Shakira concert at the new stadium! We went down early to Felix's office, which is around the corner from the stadium, to have some birthday cake and hang out a little before the concert started. Instead of an opening act, Shakira had a DJ... who wasn't very good. We waited what felt like forever for Shakira to finally come on, and right after she started the electricity went haywire and there was no sound. Bless her heart, she and her band kept going til the end of the song before they left the stage so that someone could fix whatever the problem was.
We waited another 15-ish minutes before Shakira came back on. Overall, it was a super fun experience and I am so glad I went. Shakira is a great performer, and obviously loves singing and dancing for, and with, her fans (she brought some girls up on stage to dance with her). My only complaint, really, is that she wasn't on for all that long. She was on stage for about an hour and a half total, which is pretty disappointing for someone who has been making music for as long as she has, and therefore has more than enough music to fill a longer time slot. Regardless, it was a ton of fun, particularly because of the wonderful company, and cool to see the new stadium. Now if only I could get to a game there...

Monday (yesterday) we had a day off of work so Jamie and I headed to the beach for the day. Sadly, the only beach that you can really do in a day is Jaco, which we have both been to, and isn't exactly the nicest beach in this country. As you may remember, it is full of tourists and drugs and prostitutes and over-priced everything. However, it has a beach with sand and ocean and sunshine and is super easy to get to, so I'm not complaining. It was a really great day. We grabbed the 6:00am bus there and the 6:00pm bus back, got plenty of sunshine, good food, and got to play in the ocean and get a little tan. It was so nice to have a day off and get out of the city.

Okay, this entry has gone on for too long already. I'll write more again soon. In the meanwhile, I'm counting down the days til I get to go home (Chicago) for a week (4.5!). I hope I get to see those of you who will be around. Love and hugs.

Weekend

I love technology. It makes life so so much easier. Going without it makes you really appreciate how much easier life is with it.

Our washing machine is currently broken. As you may remember, our machine is separated into two compartments, neither one has a rinse cycle. The wash cycle is currently working, but the spin (dry) is not. Therefore, after washing all my clothes in the first compartment, I not only had to rinse each item by hand, but wring as much water out of it as well before hanging it on the line to dry. I'm tired. And I am looking forward to having an automatic, functioning washer and dryer again some day.

In other news, the Bank of America classes are starting on Tuesday. I will be teaching Wednesdays and Thursdays 12-3. I am currently feeling incredibly intimidated by this whole thing. I have only a vague idea of what I'm supposed to be teaching. As of right now I'm feeling like I'm in over my head. I'm sure it will be fine, it's just going to be an intense 6 weeks.

Thursday morning I taught, and then we went to Bank of America in the afternoon to meet with the managers there to talk to them and find out what they are expecting of us. Essentially they have "hired" a group of people to come work their call centers there, but their English isn't where it needs to be. Sooooo we are going to teach them for 27 hours a week for the next 6 weeks to get them from a B1 to a B2 level (the levels are according to the Common European Framework). I have only taught A1s and A2s, so this should be interesting.

Friday I went into work to help put together the books for the BoA class. I had originally intended to be there from 9am to maybe 2pm at the latest. I ended up staying until after 5. We weren't even done. There is still a lot of work that needs to be done for the class before it starts. Hopefully we can pull it together.
After work on Friday Sara, Kerensa and I went to this great little hole-in-the-wall Italian restaurant in downtown Heredia. I'm pretty sure it's just a restaurant in someone's backyard. Regardless, it's owned/operated by a couple Italians, so it's delicious. And reasonably priced.
After dinner Kerensa and I came back to my apartment to watch a couple episodes of Flight of the Conchords (thank you cousins Molly and Jim) and drink a little Flor de Cana before going to bed before Saturday morning class.

Saturday after class I went to the gym and ran into Luis who works the front desk at the San Jose campus for the night classes. He's pretty great. It looks like I may have another friend to work out with sometimes at the gym.
After a good run/workout I went to the furniture store that's in front of my bus stop to find out what their schedule was on Sunday. Because they are closed on Sundays, I ended up buying a bed right then. The mattress I bought was on sale and since I paid in cash they delivered to my apartment (and therefore gave me a ride home) for free. It was definitely a good deal. Not to mention they were super nice and helpful and weren't trying to rip me off being Gringa and all.

Somehow I managed to resist the urge to take a nap in my brand new bed and met up with Kerensa to head downtown San Jose to see Sonambulo instead. Sonambulo is a local CR jam band, with members from all over the place. Kerensa tells me their lead singer is Cuban, I think. Regardless, there was a art/culture/music festival going on all week in SJO, and Sonambulo was part of their Saturday night line up in Parque Nacional. This may have been the best people watching experience that I have had since coming to CR. The crowd was full of Costa Rican hippies. Meaning, the dancing was half hippie, half Latino salsa/bachata/etc., depending on what the band was playing. Hilarious. It was like UVM in Costa Rica. Loved it.

Kerensa, her new boyfriend Martin and I headed back to Heredia when the concert wound down. The guy who sat down next to me on the bus wore a Sox hat. Made my heart happy. It was nice to see an MLB hat that not only wasn't the Yankees, but a Chicago team as well. By the time I got home, I was exhausted, and super excited to sleep in my new big comfy bed.

Dad comes to visit on Wednesday! It's kind of a big deal. I'm real excited.

Just in case you were wondering, I did teach my students what a "gold digger" is yesterday. We also had to discuss why you shouldn't call someone "easy," but "easy-going." Ahhh the finer points of the English language.

Blushing.

So after class tonight I walked into the office to return the computer and everything and Johanna, the coordinator for the high school program/co-coordinator for the English program at Politecnico itself told me that one of my students came to class on Monday just to check out the program and wasn't sure that she was going to enroll.

Apparently after class on Monday she called Politecnico and told them that she was so happy with the class and especially with me as a teacher ("super bueniiiiiiissssssima" is what Johanna told me she said) that she is now enrolled and plans on telling everyone she knows to come to Politecnico.

Pretty awesome feeling. :)

Productivity

Saturday night I met up with some people from work to celebrate on of our coworkers, Delie, leaving. Though I am sad to see her go - she is a wonderful person and teacher, full of great ideas and always willing to share - I am excited for her. She will definitely be missed. We met at a bar named Kbana in Heredia and had a few drinks and watched some amazing music videos from the 80s and early 90s - hilarious. It was a great night, complete with a ride home from my roommate and Jose Mario.

Sunday I was supposed to go to Cartago with Kerensa and her new boyfriend, but I overslept, tired from Saturday night. Instead I spent the day walking around, cleaning the apartment and grocery shopping. It's probably a good thing I didn't go. I was fairly productive and still have yet to catch that cold that everyone has here. Sleeping in does a body good.

Monday was back to business as usual, class in the morning, gym in the afternoon and class in San Jose at night. I have a new group for my SJO class. I'm reteaching the same lessons, which is awesome, but I have a big group (13-15 students) who seem like they are going to be a good group. I've definitely got some talkers and most of them seem to have a good base, which is a good sign. We also got money for cab fare from the SJO campus to our bus stops, which will save us some time/anxiety walking late at night.

Yesterday I had class in the morning, which started off slow, but it ended up alright after I had some coffee during the break. I love my Diplomado (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday morning group) class - they are really laid back and don't seem to care much when I'm not totally on top of my game. They bring a really good energy to the classroom and are generally good students. I decided not to go to the gym during my break in between class and tutoring at night in order to get some much needed grading and planning done. It was definitely a good decision as far as my classes go, but I feel like I'm a lazy bum when I don't work out. I'll get back to a normal work out schedule soon.

Last night was a bit of a mess at school. A bunch of new Instituto classes were starting, so I didn't have a room to have tutoring, and there were placement tests going on in the conference room which is the fall back location. Luckily, no one came for tutoring, but if this keeps happening they are going to cancel the session and I will be short 3 hours. Yikes. Here's hoping people show up next week!

Tonight I have class in San Jose again, and tomorrow afternoon (after my morning Diplomado class) we are heading to Bank of America to work out the details for the classes that are starting next week. They will be 6 hour classes, which is going to be brutal, but there is a possibility that we will break them up into two 3 hour blocks a couple days a week. We'll see.

My dad is coming to visit a week from today! I managed to find someone to cover my Saturday class (even though we are super understaffed) so he and I can actually do something outside of the city while he's here. Yay!

Furthermore, they are officially making me full time! The request has been put in, so I should be working full time within about a week.

I booked a flight home for my brother Dave's wedding in June. I somehow managed to find a flight for $380. Amazing. So far it's been a good day.

Moving and Skype and Such

We are all moved in!

The apartment is great, I'm super happy here already. It's so much nicer than the old place.

Thursday night I went and met up with Zach L. from work. He had a friend visiting for the week/end. After hanging out at their apartment for a little while, after getting the run down on why Zach is in love with Snookie from the Jersey Shore and Hugh Grant (because why wouldn't you be?), we went over to the Bulevar bar in downtown Heredia. Zach manages to make friends, meaning that he strikes up conversations with perfect strangers, everywhere he goes. While it isn't exactly the best way to remain anonymous as foreigners, it certainly makes for an entertaining evening.

Friday I accomplished almost nothing, aside from going to the gym and packing up the majority of my things. Okay, I guess that's slightly more productive than I thought, but it certainly didn't feel like it at the time.

Saturday morning I taught, and after class I ran home to help move. Saray, Laura, two movers and I moved everything from our apartment on the third floor in a relatively short amount of time. We got to the apartment and Jose Mario, Felix, Gary and Alvaro came to help move everything in to the new place, set it all up and help us clean. Seriously, have I mentioned how great these people are? Because they are just wonderful. Because of their help, the move was pretty easy considering how much stuff we have. Thankfully the rain held off until we had all of our stuff inside. We all hung out for a while and got all the big things situated. Saturday night I unpacked and worked on getting the apartment slightly more settled and crashed early.

Since then, life has been relatively uneventful. Sunday I ran some errands, most importantly figuring out the bus by my house (every 15 minutes until 10:30pm - awesome: no more taxis after class!). Monday I bought a bookcase in between my classes, Tuesday I renewed my gym membership, and Wednesday Kerensa and I went mattress shopping before I had to be at class for final oral exams. We found reasonably priced mattresses in downtown Heredia and then wandered around San Jose for a while. It was a great afternoon with one of my favorites. Our schedules are such that we haven't as much time to hang out recently, so it was great to spend Wednesday hang out with her.

Wednesday night after class I came home and got to skype with my mom [happy birthday Mom!]. This afternoon, after class and the gym, I came home and hung out with the dog (who so far is a sweetheart and super well-behaved), skyped with my dad who is coming to visit (!!!) and then my brother/Kelly/Lily. All in all a great couple of days.

I will take some pictures of the new place tomorrow and post them on Facebook, since I still can't seem to get the picture feature to work on the blog.

Happy Thursday: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nc9xq-TVyHI

Quick Update

Thursday night was uneventful, but Friday after subbing I met up with Heidi to go see Inception. There's a movie theater near the San Jose Politecnico campus that is doing Oscar week this week, showing a bunch of the movies nominated, and it only costs 1900 colones (less than $4) - it's one of the cheapest things to do in this country. Inception was crazy. I definitely enjoyed it and am glad I got to see it on a big screen. I particularly loved watching Joseph Gordon-Levitt float around the hallways of the hotel. Very cool. Friday night after I got home I went out to eat some Mexican food with Saray, Laura, Jose Mario & Felix. Good food, good people, good day.

Saturday night Saray, Laura, Kerensa and I went to Gary's apartment to celebrate Saray's birthday with Jose Mario, Felix, Walter and Alvaro (the latter two I met for the first time). It was great. Laura had to wake up to get to work at 5:00am Sunday morning so she and Saray left early, but Kerensa and I stayed and hung out with the boys for a while longer, and had a really wonderful time. I adore these people. My roommate and her friends are simply fantastic. I am so lucky.

Sunday morning(ish) Saray and I got up and went to the pool for a little while. I'm thinking of making it a habit. Maybe gym Sunday morning then pool. We'll see.

Yesterday I found out I got a raise! It's only another $0.50/hour, but still. Every little bit counts. Also, I get money for transportation for working nights in San Jose now. Things are starting to look good, as far as money goes.

We move this week/weekend. :) I'm super excited. Ready to be settled already.

Off to write some exams... miss and love you all.

This Last Week

So aside from the new apartment, there hasn't been too much going on recently. I have been going to the gym a good amount, so that's good... Kerensa joined today, so now I have someone to go with when our schedules allow, which won't be too often, but I'm excited nonetheless.

Tomorrow is my roommate's birthday, I have no idea what, if anything, we are doing. I would assume she has plans with her girlfriend, but who knows, she may want to have some friends over after.

On Friday (Feb. 12) Saray and I stayed in, but her friend Gary came over to have dinner and hang out for a while. He's lovely. Though I don't get to see all that much of them, Saray does know some really great people. Gary is working on getting a visa so he can go visit a friend in the US. It's pretty crappy, actually. In order for Costa Ricans to just travel to the US, they have to pay $100 just to schedule an appointment to try and get a tourist visa that they have to pay another $200+ for. Just to apply for a standard 90 day visa that you get when they stamp your passport at immigration in the airport. Aaaaaand you aren't even guaranteed to get the visa when you go in for the appointment. None of this includes the plane ticket with taxes and fees and such. I, on the other hand, can just pick up and go whenever I want. Ridic.

Saturday night Saray and I went to meet Kerensa after we had dinner to go to this bar/restaurant up in the mountain. The bar itself is awesome. It's off the main road so that as you're going there you are almost convinced that the taxi driver is taking you somewhere to kill you (thank goodness Kerensa had been there before to ease our nerves), but instead come to an awesome building. The bottom floor has a bar and the kitchen and a nice view, but the second/top floor has a bunch of tables and an even nicer view of the valley below. They were having Valentine's Day specials, so we took advantage of the low-priced drinks and sat together and enjoyed the view. We went home pretty early - it gets pretty cold up there, especially when it's about to start pouring again. I'm looking forward to going up there again with a camera.

Other than that, there hasn't been too much going on. Supposedly the Bank of America classes are starting in the next week or so. I'm not really looking forward to the actual work part of it, but I am pretty happy to be getting the hours for money purposes. We have a staff meeting tomorrow, so I assume those details will be discussed then...
I picked up a couple extra classes subbing this week, which will help with some of the new apartment expenses. Though, I have to say the class I'm subbing for is one of the worst behaved classes I've ever experienced. Somewhat surprising for college kids, honestly. Glad they aren't mine full time.

Tutorials started last week, and are both awful and fantastic. I have two hours on Monday mornings which are tough. The couple students that come to those hours (so far, at least) have some kind of learning disability/are special needs kids but none of us at Politecnico have the faintest idea what those needs may be. They are really nice kids, but very little sticks with them. On the complete opposite end of the spectrum are my 3-hour Tuesday night tutorials, which is actually "Conversation Club." Meaning, I have upper level students who come just to talk. So, the last couple weeks I spent almost the entire time asking them about Costa Rica. They explained the health care system, education system and much much more to me. I love it. I am learning so much from them. One of the students that came last night works for VolCafe coffee company and is going to bring me coffee next week. Rough life, right? ;)

Last night when I got home from work (after riding the bus with my old students who I love), there was a little gecko above my roommate's bedroom door. Pretty cute. He was gone by the time I got up for subbing this morning. [Blogger just doesn't want me to post pictures on here - any advice from those of you who've done so successfully?]

Okay. I'm exhausted, I'm going to bed. Miss and love you all.

!!

So Tuesday night after tutoring, Saray and I went to see 2 apartments, both in Mercedes Sur. The second one was not so nice and too expensive, but the first one we saw was awesome. We move in two weeks! It's a bit more expensive than where we are now, but it's bigger, cleaner, and most importantly, safer.

The place is pretty stellar, to be honest, and I'm super excited about it. It has two fairly big bedrooms, a nice size kitchen/living room area, a small backyard and a "garage" with room for two cars, complete with an electronic opener. I love it. It's a brand new house, built less than a year ago, so it's in perfect condition. It's in Mercedes Sur, which is a little bit further away from school so it will be a slightly longer commute, but the neighborhood is super safe and the bus stop is a block and a half from my new home.

Furthermore, it is close to where Saray's best friends Jose Mario and Felix live (these gentlemen also volunteered to help us move because they are that fantastic). We are both reallllllly excited and can't wait to move. I think it's going to be great. The people who are there now are moving out on the 20th, so we can move in on the 21st. However, given our work schedules, Saray and I won't be able to move until Friday the 25th.

The only downside is that we paid rent for the place we are at right now on the 1st, we paid the deposit for our new place yesterday, and we will be paying rent on the 21st, so our bank accounts are a little strained right now, but hopefully we will be able to settle in without a problem.

It's going to be an exciting rest of the month, I think, and I'm feeling better about it already.

Hope you are all staying warm. xoxo

Superbowl, etc.

I have no idea if I mentioned this before, but on Christmas day, my grandpa told me I needed to update my blog more often. What Grandpa says, goes. :)

The rest of Saturday was uneventful, apart from my downstairs neighbors holding a prayer session. That was interesting. There were a lot of Christmas carols sung.

Sunday I procrastinated the morning away and didn't make it to the gym as planned, but oh well. I met up with Kerensa, William and Mecia and we hopped the bus to our coworker Heidi's place to watch the Superbowl. Heidi lives in a great place in San Pedro. It was lots of fun, but it's a trek from Heredia. It was a fun night, despite the fact that they don't show the commercials down here. Good food, good people, decent game, all around good night.

Yesterday I taught and tutored in the morning, went to the gym and then taught at night. I taught two classes in one (my coworker Delie was having a rough couple of days to say the least, so we combined our classes to give her a break for the night). The class went fine, it was nice to have more than 5 students for a change haha

Found out today that the Bank of America classes will be starting in a couple weeks - they are going to have 36 hours/week for us, which is both exciting and intimidating. I will for sure be getting some of those hours, though they haven't exactly figured out how they are dividing it up among all of us. We are meeting next week to figure all that out. Pressure will be on for these classes. If they aren't happy with us, we'll lose them, and probably our jobs. Hopefully I will get this whole planning ahead of time thing down by then!

I have to run and get to school for tutoring, but Saray, Laura and I are going to look at an apartment after work tonight that would be ready for us to move in on the 21st. Here's hoping we like it/can afford it!

Hope everyone is doing well!

Random

My roommate is awesome.

This afternoon she made traditional Costa Rican empanadas. The dough is made with super ripe plantains and is filled with cheese. YUM.
She is currently making bread with the rest of the dough. Have I mentioned how great she is? Because she's super.

Last night I went to meet Kerensa and her roommate to celebrate Jackie's birthday at Cardero, the bar Kerensa and I went to on Tuesday. I arrived a little later than I meant to, but am glad I motivated myself to get there at all.
It was a great night, filled with loads of friendly people with one exception: the woman that lives across the street. She called the cops with a noise complaint. She lives across the street from a bar. What do you expect? It wasn't even noisy. She's just a cranky b-word.

Anyway, the cops came, and instead of shutting down the bar like the woman wanted, they gave parking tickets. I don't drive so I was completely unaware that these even existed here, as there is literally not one sign in this country (that I have seen) designating parking regulations. Turns out, parking tickets are either: a) 250,000 colones = $500 or b) 280,000 colones + they take your license plate = way more than $560. CRAZY. $500 is outrageous. NO one in this country makes that much money. This resulted in tears and most people walking out on their tab. In spite of everything, most people managed to keep positive attitudes and they continued the night at another bar. Kerensa and I, on the other hand, decided to be responsible and called it an early night because we both had to work at 8m this morning.

Happy Saturday!

January, pt. 2

So, Monday the 17th (eek I'm behind) started all of the 14 week classes - students who are working toward degrees of some sort so some level of English fluency is a requirement. (The classes that started the week before - Institute classes - are mostly adults who are taking English classes because they want to. Usually, these students are more motivated, but don't learn quite as quickly for whatever reason.) I was originally supposed to be starting 2 classes that week, but it turns out there weren't enough people enrolling in the night class that I was supposed to teach (as well as a few others) so the class was dropped. Translation: I am short 8 hours. Frustration.

Anyway, Monday started my Level 1 Diplomado class (students who are working toward the CR equivalent of an Associate's Degree). This 8-hr class meets 3 days a week: 2 hours on Monday and Thursday mornings and 4 hours on Tuesday mornings. Depending on the traffic, it sometimes sucks coming in to work for only two hours, but I do enjoy the length of the class, and think it's good for the students to have English three days a week rather than just two. Besides, planning for a two hour class is so much nicer than planning four hours. This group, so far, has been pretty great. They have a good positive energy to them despite the class being at 8am. I like teaching the beginner levels because you can play a lot more vocabulary games, but at the same time, I don't like it because I have to talk a lot more than I do with the more advanced levels.

The rest of the week went fine, I picked up some extra hours on Friday administering proficiency exams, where students try to take really ridiculously hard and impractical standardized tests to get out of taking certain level classes. Needless to say, only a few students pass these tests. It was a long, but super easy day.

Saturday (Jan. 22) night I met up with Kerensa and Jenny Sunshine (the fabulous hostess of the Rubik's Cube themed birthday party in December) for a couple drinks downtown San Jose. Thankfully, all three of us were utterly exhausted from the week's events, and Sunshine had to wake up bright and early to teach a yoga class the next morning, so after a couple drinks we called it a night pretty early. These two women are, simply put, just lovely. Such good company.

The next morning I woke up late, had brunch, and made my way over to Zach's apartment to watch the Bears game. After the first half, we relocated to a (fairly American) bar down the street to watch the rest of the Bears and then the Jets/Steelers game with a few other friends. What was originally going to be a fairly small group turned into a huge modge-podge of coworkers, roommates, significant others, random acquaintances, friends and family members. There ended up being close to 15 of us, and I had only met 3 or 4 before that day. Despite the Bears loss dashing an end to our Superbowl dreams (not to mention having to watch a Superbowl where I want both teams to lose), it was a great night. Good times, good company.

Monday got off to a rough start. After my class ended at 10am, I spent two hours creating a PowerPoint for my night class on a work computer. Just as I plugged my USB drive into the computer, it turned itself off. If this had been any other computer, it would have been fine. But since it was one from school, it automatically erases everything. I lost everything. I rushed home to re-make the thing only to have it not work when I was in class. It was brutal. I felt completely defeated... by PowerPoint of all things. I have always hated PowerPoint. I hate it even more now, but unfortunately have to use it for just about everything, especially since we are no longer allowed to make copies for our students. Yeah. Teachers can't make copies anymore, because we made too many the first two weeks of school. Instead, we have to have our students pay to pick up copies from the copier ("book store") at school. Apparently, this is just how it's done in CR. As a student you pay for your own copies. Makes sense, but I also think it makes more sense to budget copies in to their tuition in the first place. Like airlines with baggage. You'd think that would be covered in the initial cost, but nooooooo. Sorry, I'm done.

Anywayyyyy, the rest of the week went fine and I even got to sub for some extra hours (thank you Kerensa!) Thursday night (the 27th). On Friday, the 28th, I finally got off my lazy butt and started running again. I ran around my neighborhood on Friday and stumbled upon a track where I ran on Saturday as well. Saturday night was low-key: Kerensa and I got together at her place and watched a movie and went to bed pathetically, but blissfully, early. Sunday was a disaster, as you well know. Though a couple positives did come of it. It turns out that Saray and I both have been wanting to move for a little while now, but figured the other wouldn't be up for it. Sunday's debacle prompted a much needed conversation about moving to a safer area. We were hoping to get out of here right away, but since we just paid rent, we will be here for the rest of the month. Hopefully we will be able to find something and be out of here soon enough.

The other positive is that Monday (Jan. 31) after my morning class and before my evening class I broke down and joined a gym. While it is a little pricey with my current salary, it is well worth it for my safety and sanity. Among the numerous things I love about having a gym membership for the first time in my life: since I'm paying for it I'm way more motivated to work out; I'm not going to get jumped while running on a treadmill; and I don't get sexually harassed there, meaning that while I certainly get looked at, the guys at the gym keep their nasty comments to themselves. I'm hoping this is something I can keep doing.

What happened Sunday is certainly affecting me more than I would like. I am angry and generally more paranoid and scared all the time. I take taxis home in broad daylight because I am terrified of strange men, teenage boys in particular. This is an expensive habit. Especially since a number of the taxis I have taken in the past couple days have been less than honest in charging me. Not to mention the effect all this anxiety is having on my body. I'm exhausted. It will pass soon enough, I know. But I think I'm allowed to be a Negative Nancy for a couple days given the week I've had.

Despite my negativity, this week has been fine, and gone by rather quickly. Tuesday night Kerensa and I decided to go out after work to a bar a little north of the center of Heredia. Great place with a nice outdoor space. I started an extra five hours of tutorials this week, which is helping the paycheck situation. I am still waiting for more hours to come. Apparently Politecnico is getting a contract with Bank of America to teach their employees English, and this girl is supposed to be getting a class. Hooray. BoA came to Politecnico today and it looks like they are looking to start in the next couple weeks. I also was able to sub this morning for one of my coworkers who is off on her visa run. It was a nice, quick 2 hour class followed by some free lunch. Yay for money and free food.


On an interesting note: I have a deaf student in my Monday/Tuesday/Thursday morning class. I have never had a student with something as severe as a hearing-impairment, so it has been an interesting change for me as a teacher. He started last week. He doesn't get any sign support or anything like that and I clearly don't know how to sign a thing (though I would like to learn at some point...). Instead, he reads lips. Rather well, actually. He seems to be one of my better students, and so far it seems as though he is following along just fine. I think it helps that since I am a visual learner myself, I tend to use a lot of visual aids in my class. I go through white board markers like crazy. Anyway, so far it has been fine, and I am looking forward to see what kind of progress he makes throughout the term.

Yesterday I went to the gym after class and came home to Laura and Jose Mario hanging out in my apartment. Saray was still at work. Honestly, I could not have been more happy to have other people around. Then my downstairs neighbor and a couple of her friends from school decided they needed to practice their instruments (drums and a xylophone type thing) for a couple hours. SO obnoxious. My kids are never playing instruments. The rest of the night I spent baking chocolate chip cookies and hanging out with Saray, Laura, Jose Mario and Felix.

For those of you who don't know, my parents are amazing. Seriously. I have the best parents ever. Special thanks to them and everyone else who has sent me love in response to Sunday's events. You are all wonderful, and I could not be more grateful to have you in my life.

On a random note: At the gym today there was a guy with a skull tattoo on his leg. Inside of the skull where the brain would be was a fetus. Its umbilical cord was attached to the eye. Figure that one out.

January, part 1

Going home for the holidays was wonderful. I'm so glad I got to spend time with those of you that I did. And for those of you I still haven't seen in a while, let's fix that please.

I returned to CR Sunday January 9 around 10pm. My roommate, Saray, and her best friend Jose Mario came to get me from the airport. They are so great. I definitely hit the jackpot in the roommate situation.

Classes started right back up on Monday evening for me... in San Jose. Politecnico has a campus in downtown San Jose that focuses on curriculum in culinary arts, where I am teaching Monday and Wednesday nights from 6-9pm for at least 8 weeks. The "campus" is a beautiful renovated house with a few small classrooms and a lovely restaurant attached. Teachers get to eat for free at the restaurant, and it's delicious, though I have yet to take real advantage of it given that I mostly work in Heredia. Along with the food, there are a number of pros for working at the San Jose campus: I can take the train there, so my commute is super fast (30 minutes) getting there; the people I work with there are great (both the Politecnico staff and my fellow teachers); and my classes are tiny (I only have 7 people in this class).

The cons: I don't get out til 9pm, and San Jose is dangerous at that time of night; I don't always have access to technology and/or copies; it takes at least an hour to get home between walking to the bus, the bus ride itself and the taxi from downtown Heredia to my apartment; and my class is tiiiiiiiiiiny and super quiet.
Thankfully there are three of us who leave the SJO campus at the same time so that we all walk together for the majority of the walk. It tends to take about 15-20 minutes to walk from Politecnico to the closest bus to Heredia. I walk with Heidi and Delie for most of it, but I have to walk the last 4-5 blocks by myself. Thankfully we walk down the busiest street (pedestrian walkway) so there are lots of people, and often policemen, around to make the walk safe. Regardless, I'm not a big fan and am hoping that any future classes I teach in San Jose are during daylight hours only.

Thursday and Friday Kerensa and I decided to take advantage of the little time we had before the rest of our classes began the next week and get out of the city for the night. We took the 6am bus to Puerto Viejo on Thursday morning and got in at 10:30am. Yes, we took a 4.5 hour bus ride for just one night. It was long, but otherwise fine. Sadly the sun was hiding behind some clouds for the majority of the daylight we had while in Puerto Viejo, so we didn't really get to enjoy the beautiful beach as well as we would have liked, but it was lovely nonetheless. It started raining late in the afternoon while we were taking advantage of the hammocks at Rockin J's, where we stayed. Unfortunately it didn't really stop raining until after we left the next day, but it was alright.

We spent most of Thursday walking around, eating delicious food, and reading in the hammocks. The evening consisted of dinner and drinks at Rocking J's - they actually have pretty good food - and handing around with other travelers. We met a couple hilarious Canadians with whom we swapped stories until we passed out early in our tent. Kerensa and I woke up to catch the 9am bus back to San Jose/Heredia so Kerensa could go to work at 6pm that night. It was still raining when we got up on Friday, so there wasn't much incentive to staying much longer anyway. Rocking J's was pretty fabulous though, I would like to go back there again some time. The entire place is covered with mosaic artwork. Stellar. It was nice to get out of the city before all the other classes started on Monday.

We got back on Friday in time for Kerensa to make it to work (barely) that night. The next morning started my 8-week Saturday class. My Saturday class is the only class I am teaching (so far) that I have actually taught before, so I get to use a lot of my old lesson plans, thankfully. However, this class is absolutely huge. It turns out that Politecnico has so many people signed up for Saturday classes that we don't have enough space (or teachers) to accommodate them, so the class sizes for the Sat. classes are twice the size they are supposed to be. I have 21 students in this class. Now, in comparison to the 30-student classes I taught at OPRF, 21 is a great number. However, teaching 21 students who are used to having only 10 people in their class and who are at completely different proficiency levels is rough. For the most part they are a good group, but there are some students who are clearly struggling, and since I only have one four hour class with them, I can't do as much as I would like to be able to... This week is the midterm, however, so that should give me a better idea of what students are really in need of extra help.

Saturday after class, I met Kerensa and her roommate Jackie downtown San Jose to hop a bus to Palmares. Palmares is (1) a small town to the northwest of SJO, and (2) a 10 day long festival of music and general belligerence. Jackie, Kerensa and I arrived late afternoon on Saturday, and dropped our stuff off at the place we were staying. During the festival, the locals rent out their extra rooms and/or couches for ridiculously high prices, and we ended up at one of Jackie's coworker's cousin's places (I think) for $10/night. Kerensa and I shared a tiny single bed while Jackie slept on the world's smallest cot. Though, considering our alternative (taking the last bus back to San Jose and then sharing an expensive taxi to get back to Heredia) it was well worth it, even with the rooster crowing all night long.

Saturday night was the Calle 13 concert. They are a fabulous band from Puerto Rico. It was free. Beers were $2. Pretty awesome. There were, however, a ridiculous amount of people there. It was insane. At first we tried going in to the actual enclosed concert space - it took about twenty minutes to get just inside the barrier. There were so many people you could barely breathe, let alone move around. After less than five minutes, we decided we had had enough and managed to find a spot next to a tower with some breathing room. Much better. Apparently the three of us were really lucky because basically every other person we knew who went was robbed/pickpocketed. The three of us managed to hold on to everything we came with.

The concert was great, and afterward we ran into a few friends. First we saw Emerson (who I've hung out with before) & the group he was there with, and then we ran into our coworker Zach. Hilarious. The rest of the night we wandered around the festival and saw what there was to see, ate some churros and rode some rides. There is one, la Tagada, that is just ridiculous. I highly recommend looking up a video of it. It spins really fast and then bounces a whole bunch and you are guaranteed to walk away with bruises. I am still confused as to why we went on it. We also went through the haunted house, which was another hilarious adventure. Basically it is just a pitch-black maze where random people jump out at you with weapons they bang against the wall. It was a fun night.

The next day we woke up late, grabbed breakfast and headed back to the fairgrounds for some more music. The concert we went for on Sunday was Luis Enrique, who was pretty good. There were a lot less people though, so it was a bit more enjoyable in that regard. Lots of dancing and day drinking. Elvis Crespo came on later, but we had left by then since all three of us had to work the next morning. So, after the Luis Enrique concert, we grabbed our stuff and hopped the bus back to SJO & Heredia. All in all it was a great way to spend the first week back in Costa Rica. Good people and good fun, despite the bad sunburn. :)

Lesson Learned

Note to self: never run by yourself with your iPhone (which here is just my iPod) here again.

The past couple days I have been trying to get myself back in to the swing of running again. This afternoon I went out for the third day in a row of running around a track just up the street from my apartment. It's not exactly hidden, but it's not out in the open for everyone to openly gawk at and harass me. Today there were some other people around, so I wasn't totally alone.

While making my 5th lap around, three young boys (no older than 15) who had been sitting on the side breaking tree branches and hollering such priceless lines as "hola guapa" at me were finally leaving, but not before they tried to rob me of my iPhone.

I've always wondered how I would respond if someone attacked me, as I have been so fortunate in my life that up to today it had never happened before. I always wondered, because the truth is you never know until it actually happens and adrenaline kicks in.

Apparently I am a fighter. I kick and punch and scream at the top of my lungs. So loudly that even with my mouth covered you hear me across an overgrown soccer field. Thankfully, the only thing the boys succeeded in getting was a kick to the nuts.

The boys gave up after about 30 seconds, when the people running on the other side of the track started yelling and coming to my defense. The only reason they didn't get what they were going for was because my iPhone was in one of these under my shirt. Thanks Mom. However, the only thing I'll be using it for now is holding my keys and inhaler while exercising in broad daylight.

I did leave my inhaler there, but my lovely roommate Saray went back with me to find it. She thinks I'm brave... I think I'm lucky (not to mention stupid). I knew the boys didn't have any weapons on them because I made note of them while I was running. But they were young, relatively weak, and unorganized. The littlest one, who must have been 5 foot nothing, started running away as soon as I started fighting back. The other two just failed and ran when people started responded to my screaming.

I ended up on the ground, thankfully unhurt, and I walked (ran, actually) away with everything I had when I got there. So really I'm okay. Just shaken up and pretty angry. Both with myself for thinking I'd be fine running around by myself with my iPhone and with those boys for thinking they could get away with hurting someone.

Time to start looking in to joining a gym, I guess.

I'll post about the other (happy) things that I've been up to since I got back later. Just felt the need to write this one out while I'm still angry.

Love you all.

December

My last couple weeks in CR before I went back to Chicago for the holidays went by in a super fast blur.

The day after I got back from Bocas (Dec. 2), Kerensa, Sara B. and I went for dinner at this fabulous vegan Asian restaurant. I forget what I had, but it was good. That was the third time I had been to that restaurant, the second time I'd eaten there. They have great tea, and delicious dumplings. Also, the owner is super nice and gives you cookies. After dinner, Kerensa and I walked around in search of churros for her, but failed to find any. It's probably a good thing though, we all know I don't need any more junk food than I already eat :)

Friday, it was back to business as usual. After class ended at 9:30pm, I just went home to bed before my 8am class on Saturday. Saturday night, however, Kerensa and I decided we needed a night out on the town together and went to check out some of the bars in Heredia. While we were enjoying the balcony space at one bar, we spotted our coworker, Zach L. on the street. He came up to join us for a little bit before he went home. Our running in to him was just a reminder that Heredia (really Costa Rica, in general) is really not very large.
We were getting close to calling it an early night when a couch-surfer friend of Kerensa's called us about going to a going away party in downtown San Jose. These lovely people came to pick us up and brought us to a fabulous hole-in-the-wall bar in barrio California. [Barrio California is an awesome looking section of SJO that is covered with beautiful graffiti.] The bar itself was full of some fun people, and a hilarious group of Costa Rican hipsters dancing their hearts out. Kerensa and I ended up making friends with a very tall blond boy from the states living in southern CR. At the end of the night, we couldn't remember his name quite right so we affectionately named him "Blondie." After hours of silly dancing to great music, we raced (literally) to catch the last bus back to Heredia, and then waited for cabs together while drunken fools stumbled out of the casino down the street. Small world: my cab driver that night lives down the street from me. Very nice man.
All in all it was a fun night, full of silly dancing and new friends.

The following Monday, Dec. 6, Kerensa and I got together at her place to make dinner together. And by make dinner together, I mean she cooked while I washed dishes. Personally, I think I got the good end of that deal. Especially since she taught me how to make patacones (fried green plantanes) and she made amazing black bean soup. Sadly, we couldn't locate any good avocado to accompany it, but it was tasty nonetheless. After eating, we took a little stroll around her neighborhood to help the digestion, and came back to some yummy Coca-Cola cake. Kerensa is not only a wonderful person, but she can cook AND bake. She's quite the package. Gentlemen, get in line.
Then, our friends Emerson and Esteban came to pick us up to take a trip up the mountain. Sadly, it was a bit cold and rainy, but it was a beautiful view nonetheless, complete with a cork tree. Neat. When we had had enough of the mountain, we went back into San Rafael and checked out a local bar with a juke box machine that also played music videos. If you haven't seen the 'California Love' and 'U Can't Touch This' music videos recently, do yourself a favor and watch them now. Amazing. Yet another great night with my Kerensa.

The rest of the week flew by pretty uneventfully until Saturday night, when Kerensa, her roommate Jackie, Emerson and I went to a couch surfer friend's birthday party in Los Yoses, just down the street from where I stayed where I first arrived in CR. Like any great party, it had an awesome theme: Rubik's Cube. Translation: You arrive wearing clothes and accessories of many different colors and switch with people throughout the night in hopes of ending the evening dressed in all one color. Brilliant. Not only is it hilarious and fun, it's a great way to break the ice, regardless of what language you're speaking. Super fun night.

Kerensa and I stayed the night in Los Yoses and met up with the majority of our coworkers in La Uruca bright and early the next morning. The man that owns Politecnico, Don William, invited all the teachers to come out to his property in Guanacaste - Rancho Humo - for the day as a company Christmas party. Guanacaste is a 4 hour bus ride from San Jose, but we teachers passed the time with mimosas and some early 90's hip hop. Why yes, it was only 10am when we arrived at Rancho Humo and were greeted with crates of Imperial (beer) and watermelon. Right away we all knew it was going to be a great day.
After everyone had had a beer or two, we were escorted on to a giant (12+ people) golf cart (thankfully the technology teachers were assigned the double-decker), and given a tour of the accessible part of the 2700 acre reserve, with beer, of course. Our tour was conducted in Spanish, which was good for those of us that speak Spanish, but probably a little frustrating for those that don't. The tour was beautiful and fun, complete with monkeys and lots of birds, including the endangered Jabiru Stork.
After the tour we were treated to lunch - amazing food - and then we got on a boat to do another tour before we met the bus back along the way home. The boat took us down the river (I forget the name), past the Bird Island where we were able to see thousands of birds and even some alligators. We met the bus and headed back home that same day. I got home happy, exhausted and filthy, around 8:30.

My last week in CR before the holiday break went by super fast, and was full of good times/adventures with Kerensa.
The 13th Kerensa and I headed downtown to the Contemporary Art Museum because it was free on Mondays. We met up with our friend "Blondie" for some tasty dinner at a restaurant called Cafe Mundo and then hopped the train (yes, that is correct, there is A train here in CR that goes from downtown SJO to Heredia) back to Heredia.

Tuesday night, Kerensa and I got together for another night of delicious Kerensa cooking chili (I wash the dishes in return for her fabulous culinary skills - I am totally getting the awesome end of this deal).

Wednesday, the 15th, Kerensa and I went downtown to this small, hidden bar Steinvorth. It was stellar. They have delicious food and even beer that comes from other countries. They have Duvell. Amazing. After we had had enough of the Alice in Wonderland inspired art exhibit and a couple drinks we headed back home.

Thursday morning(ish), Kerensa and I met up to head downtown SJO to have some tasty Lebanese lunch at a restaurant called Lubnan. SO delicious. We then wandered the city for the rest of the afternoon in search of Christmas presents. While it wasn't exactly the most eventful day ever, it was a really nice way to spend our day off. Just walking around and checking out the city. We later hopped the train to come back and make some tasty risotto for dinner.

Friday night, after a disastrous day at work finding out that we were not actually going to get paid again til after the holidays (so much for properly budgeting our spending), Kerensa and I decided to stay in, drink some wine, watch a movie and eat some of her tasty beer bread. Seriously, this woman is amazing in the kitchen.

Saturday was my last class of the year, just exams and giving out grades - pretty easy day. That night, my roommate Saray and I went downtown Heredia to check out the Festival de la Luz: the Christmas parade that is far too huge in San Jose the week before, and the perfect size in Heredia. It was obnoxiously cold (a whopping 55ish degrees, I'm a wuss, I know) so after a couple hours of watching all the kids go by playing their instruments and dancing, we headed back home before the lines for the taxis got too long. It was fun to see, and particularly great because I could actually see over people's heads as I am fairly tall in this country, haha.

The next morning, Saray and I went to the pool to meet up with a few of her absolutely lovely friends. Kerensa eventually came to join us, and we spent the day hanging out in the sunshine and having chicken fights in the pool. Spectacular. Then we headed to the bar across the street to eat some chifrijo and watch the championship soccer match between Heredia and Alajuela. Sadly, Heredia did not end up winning, but we put up a good fight and it was a fun experience nonetheless. It was, quite possibly, the absolute perfect way to spend my last day in CR before heading back to Chicago's horrible winter.

The next post will be more current (finally!), but before then, I just want to comment on my coworkers. Kerensa went to college with a girl I went to jr. high and high school with; my other coworker Zach went to high school with a few people I went to Cheley (camp) with; and another coworker Evan went to high school with a friend of mine from UVM (college). While I do believe that the world really is a lot smaller than we sometimes think, I also believe that this is where I'm supposed to be right now. It's been great so far, and I have a feeling it is just going to keep getting better for a while. :)


ps, happy birthday Kate!!