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!