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.