Oh la ti da and fiddle de de!!

Eileen and I at Cafe Milagro!!

Hello once again from sunny and HOT Costa Rica!  I know it has been a while since my last post, but I moved once more...into a tree house in the dirty Q (Quepos), and we don't have internet.  I am not at TEFL anymore, either, so it's a lot more difficult to update!!  Craziness!!

I am so so excited, because Karyn came to visit me!!!  Eileen's friend, Mary is also visiting!  We've already had a couple adventures that included 2 Collectivo bus rides to San Jose and back to pick Karyn and Mary up...my butt hasn't hurt that bad in a while!!!  

Sunset in Quepos!!!

We went to the beach, and we've been hangin out with all sorts down here!  I have a bit of a head cold, but I brought some allergy meds with me!  We had our first real rain since I've been down here!  The only other time it rained, it was five minutes, and only our shoulders got wet...it evaporated before it hit the ground!

Our cat, Gat...we couldn't decide between Gato and Cat...so Gat it was!!

I think these last 4 days are going to be fun, and jam packed!!  Today, we're takin a day away from the sun.  We're at Cafe Milagro...our fav. hangout...and then we're going to watch some soccer and head over to Barba Roja for sunset!  It's got one of the best views by far!!

Tomorrow, I think we're going to go snorkeling and sea kayaking out to the islands!!  We moved our National Park trip to later in the week, and at some point, we're going to check out the private beach!!

Two thumbs way way up for coconut-macademia nut encrusted chicken and fish!!  Mmmm...the papas fritas were a little disappointing!

The food the last few days has been delicious!!  We've been cookin at the house a lot!  The other day we made vegitarian marsala!!!  Mmmm!!!

It's baby monkey season in our yard!

So i guess it's peac out for now!!  Hopefully I'll get to update soon and have a fun story to tell!

Peace out!

MC

Dude, You Are All Up In My Pura Vida

So I realized that it had been quite a while since I updated this dealio...much to the chagrin of my parental units, I'm sure!!!  So here goes...

Life here is absolutely fabulous!!  I live in a place that has THE most beautiful sunsets. Normally I watch them on the beach, but the other night, I went out to Barba Roja for happy hour with Mollie, Brigid and Pat, and then out the next night with Peter, Emily, Rachael, and Jennie (above...Jennie took the picture).  They have the most AMAZING nachos.  So I know that Nachos are normally not the most exciting thing in the world, but these WERE!!  The chips are hand made fresh, and then the fixins come in a bowl all mixed together...with some special sauce that is PERFECTION!!  Ahhh... I could eat them all day...but that would be a bad idea...I would get very large!!  They come with beans, cheeeeese, jalapenos, chicken, some sort of sour creamy...and so much more!!!  Ahhh!!  Thinking of it makes me hungry now!!!!!!

I've been spending all my free time at the beach!!  I swear, I'm going to be in such good shape when I return, cause I have a routine now...I get up, go to the beach, and I swim the length of the beach to the big rock.  Then I either swim back or jog back (depending on time)...that's in the morning.  In the afternoon, I've taken now to walking the 2+K down to the beach, and then I go swimming and such with my amigos!!  Que faboo!!!  I'm also getting a rockin tan...though (and I get made fun of so badly) I SPF every hour or two, and I use 45-50 SPF when I do...So my tan has been a slow process!

I live in such a surfing community, but I have only been once!  Haha...I just love being IN the water too much, and swimming makes me happy...cause I don't take a beating...much.  Yesterday, the waves were double overhead, and coming in 9 wave sets...which was NUTS!!  I was so tired after swimming.  The currents were really tough, and I had to ride one out a ways the other day and swim back in.  I'm glad I can read the tides fairly well, and I've spotted several rip tides starting, and booked it away!  Safety First!!!
So this picture cracks me up.  Three of us look fine...but Eileen...haha...she was falling into us!!  Plus, so many people around us were smoking ciggies (or Fags, as Peter says...which always reminds me of the girl with the fire extinguisher at SOAR who beat me over the head with the telephone because a) I wouldn't let her use the phone to call her old boyfriend and b) I wouldn't give her her fags.)...but anyways...I love the puff of smoke above us non-smokers.  This picture was at the Johnny Dread (reggae) concert...Eileen, Priya, me, and cutie Chris had a blast....until we saw the guy that stole Eileen's camera, and there was almost a beat down.  Chris is my amigo from WV!!!  Funny that we had to travel 3000 miles away to meet each other!!  He cooked for me the other night, and made rice noodles with curry, coconut milk, chicken, and veggies!!
Carneval was this past weekend, so there was a big fiesta here in Quepos!!  Our friend, Jesse, was supposed to fight in the Boxing match, but his competator wouldn't fight him...he was scared!!!  So we took a pic with Jesse and his pink Lacoste shirt (Emily, Eileen, Jesse, me, and Priya).  The other fights were awesome, though.  There were even some girls who boxed.  One of them got hit in the throat!!!  She had to be taken to the ambulance!!!  They also had a bunch of carnival rides, like the swinging pirate ship, which I had not ridden in years!  

That's right...I live here!

Sunset and soccer on the beach at Playa Manuel Antonio!!

Dinner with Jennie, Phil, Jed, Me, Dave, and Richard at Agua Azul!

My "adopted" Costa Rican baby, Cederic in the Pacific Ocean!!

Market Day in Quepos!

I like markets!!

One more day til the weekend!!  All this teaching and lesson planning makes me pooped by the weekend, and I am looking forward to relaxing and swimming in the ocean!  The water always feels so good, because it's so bloody hot and humid all day!  There's no A/C, so we never get a break from the heat...but I'm acclimating well!  

I am about to go teach a lesson on Daily Eating Routines, using the simple past, and "did" questions with yes or no answers...wheee!  Then I'll hopefully make it down to the beach for the sunset and a little R&R!!!  

Gotta run!!

Lo siento, pero...que?

So hello once more from sunny Costa Rica!  It has been so long since I posted...lo siento parental units!

Costa Rica is becoming my home!  I love it here!  There are so many things I want to see and do, and I LOVE teaching these people!!   The students I have had have been so sweet and willing/ready to learn!  One of them told me the other day that it was the "most english she had learned from any class!"

It has been a busy week here at TEFL!  Lots of teaching, teaching prep, coloring, and paradigming...haha.  

I met a new friend, too.  He's from West-by-God-Virginia!!!  

I am about to go teach, and then it's off to the beach!!  I absolutely LOVE living here...it's going to have to be a regular thing!  Warm months in NC, cold months in CR!!  LOVE!

The Great Epi Pen Adventure...

Here I am being very zen about the whole thing atop a pre-Columbian sphere.

Ok... so as I have written before, my epi pens were broken on the flight over here.  My loving parents were so kind as to send me 2 new ones...however...in true Costa Rican, Pura Vida style... they are a bit... delayed in getting here. 

They came into the country on Friday, when they were supposed to.  However, they are now stuck in customs.  I have to fill out a ton of paperwork, and it just arrived today.  I have to send in a copy of my passport, some other proof of my person, and I have to translate the prescription/medication directions into Spanish... que bueno!  I am hoping that Omar will help me tomorrow... because my 2 years of Junior High Spanish really doesn't go that far.  In fact...at the Pharmacia I had to act it out...complete with a "zzzzzzz....ding" sound effect to suggest a bee flying and stinging me, and then the universal sign for choking to show I was dying.  This was quite amusing to my friends, but a little less so to the lady behind the counter who looked very confused.  Apparently boli(grafo) de Epinepherine doesn't translate.

At least I have one, and Eileen carries one...so I am not too worried.  Trying to stay calm!!

My "Roaming Gnome, Far From Home" by a coconut on the beach!

A couple more to remember...

So yay...finally got a picture to load...of course each one takes 2 hours if I am at school, where the internet is free, or I have to pay 100 colones every 10 minutes and it's pretty fast... I think it is worth it to have pictures on here!!

View from the plane!

So these are probably not funny for most people, but we have added to our list of travel quotes/chapter titles:

"There's no crying in TEFL" (Brigid)

"Leche legs" (Crazy short haired girl about Eileen)

Yesterday:

Peter: I think I have a little crush on conditionals.  We are in the texting phase.

...

Today:

Mark: Gerunds are the new wave.  Phrasal Verbs are so passe.

Me: So I guess we've moved out of the texting phase.

Peter: Yes, we've moved straight into heavy petting.

Emily:Why the **** is Alaska part of the US anyways?

Jennie: So we can see Russia from our house.

"It's always opposite day in the world of Mark."

OK...so here are just a few of the 400 pictures I have taken so far...so glad I bought that digital camera!!!  These are all from my travels to Boruca...

Rich, Chris, and Anna at the top of the waterfall.

More flowers for my wall of flower pictures.

The kitchen inside Omar's parents' home...with Abuelita (Omar's ma...his kids' grandmother), Henne and Omar's daughter, Agnes, dancing, and Magda.

Me and Nashalie in Oscar's home, playing a game.  It was much colder there at night and in the morning than it is here in Manuel Antonio!!

The view from the Sacred Road to Boruca.

A book...Boruca...lights out!!

So Jennie, one of my classmates, and I have decided that we are going to write a book about our adventures and misadventures here in Costa Rica.  Some of the chapter titles follow:

"Pobre Banana" (Playing with children in Boruca).

"Como esta su hamburgesa?"  (Nonsense phrases with Omar in the waterfall...and continuing onward).

"Grammar Snaps" (Fun with grammar??  or not).

"Next weed...week" (Can we speak english?  Do we need lessons?)

"I may have a little crush..." (on conditionals and modal verbs).

So we returned from Boruca last night, and I feel that I have been very out of touch the last few days.  We've been having power outages (some nation wide, some local... all bleeding hot) a lot (for hours at a time), as well as water outages, here in Manuel Antonio, so it was nice to go to Boruca in the mountains, where it is much cooler and less humid! 

The trip was AMAZING!!  It was so nice to not be in a classroom for a couple of days (Photos to come later).  We crammed 30 of us into two 15 passenger "vans" for 5-6 hours of no AC, bumpy roads, and a certain someone making OBNOXIOUS comments every five seconds...actually, it was quite nice.  We had two seats facing each other, so six of us were sitting in a circle, and we told many interesting stories.  

We stopped several times on the way there: 

Stop one: Dominical...for a very quick stretch and potty break.

Stop two: Parma Norte...at a Soda for lunch.

Stop three: At the sacred river on the reservation

Stop four: At a bar, for dance lessons and a couple of drinks

Stops five, six, and seven: on the sacred road, where you can see jaguars, "small people" (like the pigmys), and at the place of the wars with the Spanish conquistadors.

We got into town just as it was getting dark.  We met Omar's mother, father, brother, cousins...  He took us around to see the place where his father makes masks.  Then we went to his brother's house, where we saw pictures depicting different legends (man in the waterfall, man and jaguar, village with precolumbian stones).  We had a very banana centric dinner, but some tasty sides, at his mother's home: yucca, rice, tamales, beans, pork... 

We got to see "The Dance of the Devils," which was really neat!  Omar got the chief's permission, and he and his friends gave us a really good idea of what goes on in late December/early January.  It was AH-MAZING!

We stayed with host families around the village.  My host was named Oscar.  There were five of us in his house.  I shared a bed with a girl from COSI named Nikki, Eileen and Priya slept next door, and then Jason (also from COSI) in a small bedroom.  His family gave up their own beds for us...which made me feel really bad.  The little girl, Nashalie, who was about 4, kept coming into my room, putting her hand on my arm, and staring at me, her little fingers on her other hands stuck in her mouth...this went on every couple of hours.

At night, most people went out to the bar, but Jennie, Anna (from the Jan. class), and I sad around the fire with Omar's daughter, Agnes, and her friend Henni (short for Hennisee) were roasting bananas around the fire.  Their sticks kept catching on fire, and they would freak out, shake their sticks in the air, sent the bananas flying, and then would scream "pobre banana" or "pobre plantano."

All of the kids were SO FREAKING CUTE!!  We colored together a lot.  Nashalie and I played a "touch my toes" game, and she wrapped a sheet around her and pretended to be a ghost.

In the morning we had a breakfast of rice, fried yucca, and fried corn and cheese.  We then headed out to the markets, where they told us how they dyed their yarns by hand, carved and painted masks, and other faboo handicrafts.  We all bought a few from them to help support their local economy.  They are an amazing people!  I may come back and teach english for them, and in return, I would get to study painting and weaving with them for a month or so!!!!!!

After our craft extravaganza, we hiked (in flippers) down to a BEAUTIFUL waterfall!  We went swimming, ate watermelon (one named Chloe, that Ana and Meg had bought on our drive up), and climbed around on the rocks.  The first waterfall was short enough to jump off of, and the second fell about 120 feet below us!!  There were amazing views from the top!!

By the time we returned to Omar's family home, it was already 3 in the afternoon.  We had a short snack of...you guessed it...bananas and rice...crammed back into our clown cars, and headed back home to Manuel Antonio.

We stopped again at the same Soda we went to on the ride up.  I had the vegie rice and a hearts of palm salad...with a mango and pineapple smoothy to top it off...bueno!!!  Of course, our van broke down...something with the transmission is what I got from my broken spanish...so we had to wait for a while.

Oooh.  Gotta run back to class.

If It's Not One Thing...It's Another...

I am finding that absolutely nothing comes easy here.  

Yesterday, I spoke to one of the girls at the hostel about moving into a private room or apartment at the hostel.  Rich, who is one of my classmates, and I figured that if we could share living quarters, it would be the same price as being in the dorms.  The girl showed us to a cabin, and pointed to 2 rooms.  We were totally stoked at this discovery, and I asked her how much??  She told me 15 for each!  I was excited until...once we were paying...she told me no, not 15, but 50 together.  We asked her if they could cut us a deal, since we were staying for so long, and she said she would have to ask her boss.  We had already decided on this, and figured if not, we could move back to the dorm the next day.  I just really wanted a good night's sleep.  

Well...

As I said...nothing comes that easy...

We went off to the beach with Emily, who is from Wales, and Jennie, who is from New York.  After a relaxing time at the beach, we headed back, stopping to pick up some groceries at the Supermarcado.  Rounding the corner of our cabin, we were surprised to see a group of four people standing in the kitchen.  

Hmmm...

Well, we asked if they were staying there, too, and they said, "Yes."  

Hmmm...

We went back up to the front desk and inquired why our room was occupied, and they said that we were paying to share the CABIN with 2 other people...therefore leaving 4 people with 2 beds.  We talked to Conrad and Linda, the owners, about our situation, and they said they couldn't do anything about it tonight, but that they would get us an extra bed...we'd only have to pay 17 a night, and we'd have a private apartment with 2 bedrooms starting on the 13th...

Of course, this left us with last night... and we had to hunker down together on the queen sized bed.  It was less awkward than I expected, because both of us were good about sticking to our respective sides.  I woke up with an arm and a leg off the bed.  Haha.  Can't wait to have my own tonight!!

Another issue was the Great Epi Pen Adventure!

I am allergic to bees, and on one of my flights down, my epi pens got broken.  

This morning, I was chased around by about seven of them.

No bueno. 

So yesterday, I went to the Pharmacia to get a new one.  I asked if she had any epi pens, and she looked at me like I was crazy.  They don't call it Epinephrine here.  I tried a couple of times in Spanish, and she offered me all sorts of cremes and medicines.  Finally, I pantomimed a bee flying, stinging me, and me choking and dying.  She got excited, and apparently understood.  I asked her to see the ampules (no auto injectors for me) and syringes.  She tried to give me a shot for hay fever.  I said no.  I finally found a box that said epinephrine on it, and bought 2.  Of course, when I opened it, it was miss packaged and was actually just a normal allergy shot.

Sheesh.

So I talked with an instructor, who is a native speaker, and he is going to call over for me and either go with me to pick it up, or send me the correct direction.

Ahh yes, the trials and tribulations of living in a country where you don't speak the language fluently.

Cha-ching.

96° in the Shade...it's HOT!!!

So here I am once more...Manuel Antonio and Quepos. Now that the traveling is finished, I can settle in here, and find my bearings. A lot of stress has lifted. I didn't sleep much last night...a combination of the loud city noises and the worry about the traveling day ahead kept me up.

I left the hotel at 7am...no breakfast, because the breakfast room wasn't serving yet. I hopped a cab to the Tobias Bolano International Airport, and the driver tried to take me to the Juan Santamaria International Airport. He was upset, when I told him half a minute into our drive in broken Spanish that he was going the wrong way...how I knew this, I have no idea.

When I got to the airport, they couldn't find my flight reservation, so I had to wait around for 30 minutes. I met a couple of people from California, Wisconsin, and Massachusettes. Finally, I went back to check, and they had magically found me in the system. Well then there was the whole bag check deal. I had to pay 25 to check a second bag, and then my carryon weighed 16 pounds, and you can only take 10, so they made me put my computer in the checked luggage with my big camera, and stuck a fragile lable on it. Well, at this point, I was not impressed, and I finally got to go up to the cafeteria to get breakfast...well this included a package of 3 graham cracker (and a cookie that I had saved from the flight over). At least there was water.

We finally got to board the flight, and as we are leaving, they tell us that there was too much weight, so they would have to bring the luggage on the 2pm cargo flight. Well of course, I would be in class then. So we get on, and we're squished, because there are these fat old American men (who probably put us over the weight limit), me, and three awesome people from Laguna Beach. (I sat with them). I took video of the take off, but I am in an internet cafe, so I'll have to post it later, along with the pictures. It was not as bad as I had thought. There were a couple of moments when I thought we might fall out of the sky, but we landed safely in Quepos, and I shared a taxi with my new OC friends (which cut the cost from $14 to $4 for me...yay).

Of course, I had to be that one person who came in late. The class is AMAZING! Lots of really cool people from all over: the US, Canada, England, Wales, and Poland! We get to take lessons in Boruka, so we know what it feels like to learn a completely foreign language. There are only 13 native speakers, and 11 in a group who are trying to bring it back...and then us TEFL students...haha, we probably sound like idiots!! But the language is really cool. We are going on a field trip this weekend to Boruka to do a homestay on the Indian reservation there with Omar, one of our teachers. We get to learn weaving and mask carving, and participate in a ritual bonfire and see the dance of the devils...oooh!

I did get my luggage back, but I had to pay another 14 dollars to catch a taxi from the school to the airport and then to Vista Serena. I am in a room with some person I have yet to meet, and the locker has no lock...something I need to find ASAP. Oh, and they don't take credit card, so I have to pay a few days in advance...this is going to be crazy...I didn't come with too much cash!

I am very excited, and a little nervous still, but I am having fun!
I need to run to the grocery store before it gets dark!

Oh...I forgot one...

Late sunset from my room in San Jose!  

I forgot about the lady with the dogs.  I met a couple here at the hotel.  They used to live in Atlanta, but they moved to Costa Rica, and they own a farm.  The man was normal looking, very nice.  The woman was CRAZY!  Short spikey grey hair...zebra print EVERYTHING...and a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel that she got mad at me for petting...like I'm dirty or something.  Haha...nuts!

Peace out...again!

Pura Vida

Buenas tardes from sunny San Jose, Costa Rica!!!  It has been quite the journey to get here, but I am here, safe and sound...though very hungry, and very thirsty!!  A little white poodle is here, keeping me company as I type...she followed me from downstairs, and is now sitting in my room, staring at me...strange...I don't like poodles...they're funny looking.  

Anyway...

So I left home this morning when it was still dark and cold...Pop's took me to the airport...thank God Mama made eggs and leftovers, cause it lasted me a good while.

The flight from Atlanta to Charlotte was rather uneventful, though I was stuck next to this guy with bad BO (though he tried to mask it with some even more aweful cheap cologne).  It was a completely full flight, and they made me check my carry-on backpack...which had my neck pillow and big camera in it...I was way worried for a while, but everything made it in one piece!!

Since we got off late from Atlanta, my layover was non-existant...I had 20 minutes to run across the airport, document check, and board...though my rush was somewhat unnecissary, because we left 2 hours later that we were supposed to...apparently the back door wouldn't stay closed...Mr.J (who I'll get to later) made a joke that "Doors are Us" was coming to fix it...And they took 2 hours...it was funnier when he said it.  I thought about taking the free ticket and a later flight, cause it was offered to me, arriving here at 11 tonight, but I opted out, because I wanted to arrive in the daylight....though it is 6:30 now, and still bright outside!!!  The sun will be setting soon.  

Back to the flight: At first, I was supposed to be in row 4, but there was a really really really old lady (my 2 years of middle school spanish tell me that she was 96), and her grandson wanted to sit with her, because she was nervous about flying.  I was glad to make the switch, and it meant that I got to sit by the window (over the wing, but a window, nonetheless), and I met a neat couple, the Johnsons, who were visiting relatives.  Mr. J was a photographer, and Mrs. J, a schoolteacher, who had come down many years ago to teach english in Costa Rica.  They were really fun!  

One thing we all kept joking about (though it really was no laughing matter) was the fact that we had paid all this money for the flight, but there was no movie/in-flight entertainment (the stewardess said that it wasn't worth the money to them, cause people brought their own earphones), and we had to pay for EVERYTHING!!!  A bottle of H2O was 2 bucks, a can of coke, 2 bucks...if you wanted coffee or tea, 1 dollar, with free refills, but on tea, you had to save your tea bag, cause they wouldn't give you another unless you paid another dollar.  Then, they had a choice of a Reuben Sandwich (7 dollars), Cobb Salad (7 dollars) or a "snack box," which consisted of assorted crackers, some canned chicken, and some pudding (5 dollars)...I went with the Reuben...which came with about 5 chips in a baggie and a cookie that i saved for hard times, since I didn't know when my next meal would be.  I also paid 15 to check my first bag (and talked my way out of paying for the second...not my fault they overbook things).

So I figured when I got to the airport I could buy a bottle of water after customs, but alas, there was no store for such...only whiskey...which i didn't think would solve any of my problems.  

My flight from San Jose to Quepos for today was cancelled, so I had to find a place to stay, and will be flying out tomorrow morning, getting into Quepos at 9:30ish.  So tonight, I am staying in San Jose.  I went to the taxi stand and bought a prepay ticket...which is a couple of bucks more expensive, but the taxi's are reliable...and not sketch.  Costa Rica is just as beautiful as I remember.  The hotel that pops found for me is faboo...very nice!!  Casa Roland.  I have my own room and bathroom.  There are some cute little kids playing in the courtyard below.  I can understand about half of what they say.  Driving here, we passed a park, where there were people flying kites and horseback riding.  

The hotel owner (Roland??) is very nice!  He told me I reminded him of his daughter. 

Whew... Crisis avoided... I found water.  The lady at the front desk gave me a bottle for free, and I bought one from her as well...I'm not sure of San Jose city water, so I'll stick to bottled til i get to Manuel Antonio.  She also pointed me in the direction of food.  I got some Costa Rican take-out: Sopa Azteca (which is amazing tortilla soup), and a mushroom quesadilla...very tasty.  I topped it off with a Coca Cola, and I'm about to go hit the hay.  I had a good time talking to the two ladies up at the front desk.  They are both my age...and they both have kids!!  One of them is 25 and has a 2 year old and a 4 month old.  The other is 31 and has a 13, 11, 9, and 7 year old!!  They gave me the hook up.  One of them made me a bowl of fruit while I was chatting with them: mango, papaya, and pinapple!

It's only 8:30 here, but it's 9:30 my time, and I've been up and moving since 5:30 am!!  I'm beat!

I am most nervous about my flight tomorrow.  Getting out of San Jose, you have to go straight up and over the mountains (which are large, in charge, and very windy...turbulence prone)...and our plane is very small.  I will take pictures!!

Peace Out from SJO!!