Rain

It rained on Friday. And I'm talking RAIN... not any of that Seattle stuff.. this is the real deal. Downpour of the torrential version. You don't really get much warning either, you feel two or three drops, and then the heavens open and if you're caught in it... well... you're going to take a little shower.

And I got caught in it, but luckily I thought I was going to the beach for the day and was wearing my swimsuit. :) I was on the bus when it started to rain, and the window a few seats ahead of me didn't have both parts of the window, so the rain was just coming in.... it was hilarious. The tropics. It just made me smile.

Saturday was to be spent at the beach again, and the clouds were out, but I know (thanks to many sunburns) that you still get sun even when its cloudy. So, I got up, got my beach gear, put on my sunscreen and headed to the beach. There were threats of rain... I think I felt a drop or two, but it cleared up after a bit, and was just gorgeous as usual. Amanda (21, Uof Florida) and I retired after a couple of hours to go get some food. We stopped in at the Marlin where a band was setting up to play.

A lot of the bands we've seen here are ex pats playing cover songs (lots of Audioslave, Stones, Jim Croche, and other poppy rock music) which isn't bad, but I rather like the tico songs. I've really gotten used to them and start to feel sort of jipped if I get the Stones or Jim again. So, anyway this group starts up and its like Latin pop music. So, I tell Amanda that it sounds like Jon Secada (which immediately dates me and I feel like an ass, but whatever) and when she asks me who that is I said "Its like the male latin version of Celine Dion." So, we joke around about how thank god its not another lame-o cover band with 8 different audioslaves songs when all of a sudden.... the Titanic song starts to be played by the latino pop band. Irony at its finest ladies and gentlemen... irony.

Don't worry we sang along. The sangria was fabulous at this place. :)

Sending you sunshine.

MK

Birthday balloons and cheeseburgers

Tristan's birthday was yesterday, he turned 25, so everyone got together up at the cabinas to help him celebrate. The English made some concoction that I wasn't going near... vodka, rum, cicique, and pineapple, orange, and I think they ended up putting some white wine in it as well... but the 40's of Imperial... they weren't very nice to me this morning. But, the party was fun. There are about 12 people that live at the cabinas from TEFL, and each night there is a social gathering by the pool. Last nights included lots of 80's music, pink balloons, and a dora the explorer happy birthday banner.

After the beginning stages, the lot of us went to the Tico club to dance... but not before I tripped over a chair and split open my toe. Of course I would. So, minor surgery commenced thanks to Andrew's first aid kit, and we were off. This is when I found out that the English call band aids Plasters. whatever.

The Tico club was fun, and I was going home at a decent hour.... until I found out it was 2:30... so... we left right then, got helped in getting a pirated cab from my new friend Hunter (who was pretty cute but WAY too skinny). The cab driver was 19. I'm ten years older than he is, but because he was so nice and let us stop off for some food (the chicken on a stick that Tiff wanted wasn't at the club) and we bought him a cheeseburger.

Life here isn't too hard.

I start teaching for real on Monday. Its slightly intimidating.. but, I'll get through. I'm off to the beach to even out my tan. Cheers!

Technology is awesome... if you can read what it's asking you.

I apologize for not being able to delete the multiple entries, but I can't find a word on the screen that looks like it would say "delete this.." so, bear with me.... language barriers.

So, to continue the story.

After I woke up and found out I'd been robbed... I cried. Naturally. Then went to the school and then the police station, then back to the place to collect our things. The detectives met us there and came up to look around to see if they could take fingerprints. Susan, one of our instructors, also came so that she could help with translation. See, I understand a lot, and can mime things back or use my limited vocab (which is growing by the day) but in a situation like this... I needed an interpreter.

Susan is discussing things with the manager/owner and Tiff and I are in our rooms trying to pack our things away. I start to get my clothes together, then realize... I have no backpack. So, not only did they take my electronics... they took my new backpack. So, that sent me over the edge and I couldn't stop crying.

Later, Tiff told me Susan and the manager/owner were discussing how 'safe' the place was. Susan was telling them anyone could get in there, that she didn't see how they thought no one could, and the woman was arguing saying she was the only one that could do it. As they were arguing, one of the detectives, got up on the railing, shimmied over to the part you could get in, and got in... point made. Nice job, Detective.

So, needless to say, I was a bit freaked. No worse for the wear, but definitely pissed that I have no camera to take pics with. This blog needs some pictures.

Tiff and I are now in the Cabinas with the rest of our classmates. It's a regular hang out every night. I think the cat finally got out of the bag that I'm 5 years older than I look, and it was pretty funny to see people's reactions, but everyone is super cool, and there are all kinds of age ranges.

I just got back from my first one-on-one lesson with Diana. We knew enough of each other's language to be able to ask "how do you say_____ in English/Spanish." I really like doing this. It has a great reward system, and Diana and I have fun together. Next week starts my classes that I'll be teaching, so I'm going to be busy this weekend making lesson plans and getting props and things together.

I would like to share this tidbit with you so that you know how amazing this new place is:

The sun is setting behind the trees that surround the cabinas. It's still really warm outside, around 75 degrees, and the old man who lives in the cabina below us is sitting by the pool listening to the radio play 'Daniel's Song' by Elton John. Sometimes you can hear him playing his violin during the day, which is really relaxing. Jose and Nubia's grandchildren are laughing about something and playing with their dad, who will manage the cabinas while Jose and Nubia go to San Jose next week.

Most of my classmates have gone to the beach straight after class to bob in the waves and watch the sun set, but I stayed behind so I could have some quiet time and get my lesson together for Diana tomorrow. It is slightly intimidating to think I'm going to be teaching someone English, but I guess that's what I'm learning for.

I sit quietly and watch from the upstairs portion of the cabinas, where my room is. Downstairs the old man starts humming along to the next song on the radio, an instrumental, and I realize it has been a week since I've had any music. I decide this is my lesson. I won't have the excuse of my Ipod, the safe barrier of my camera, or the comfort of merely observing. I'll have to take part, which is why I'm here, and I feel a sense of calm come over me. Now that I know why, I'll try my best to participate.

I kick my flip flops off, walk into my room and grab a beer from the fridge. Life's pretty good right now. It's a beautiful evening and we're going salsa dancing again, this time just across the street from the cabinas. It might be a late night, but class doesn't start until 9:30, so I'll have enough time to sleep in. I take a sip of my beer and smile, knowing I'm safe, I have my health, and I have nothing left for anyone to take... :)

Sorry if I didn't get the story out fast enough, and if I stressed anyone out about whether or not I'm safe. I'm safe now, and the worst is over... guess its better to get it out of the way, right?

Quepos part III, or it can only get better.

Monday morning. Day one of class. Tiff and I are a bit sleep deprived, since we were up until 3 am and then got up at 7:30 to make it to class by 8;30. We spoke with Eve, Susan, and Jason, who all seemed to think we were overreacting judging by thier reactions..."Its Central America... its all dodgy." (everyone here says dodgy) So, Tiff and I decide to just find our own accomodations, because we'd walked around all day the day before talking to locals, and finding people to rent from. All the people we talked to told us we were paying WAY too much ($400) for a two bedroom apartment.

So, we leave the office both feeling like they aren't taking us seriously. Both a little bummed and sort of pissed that everyone else gets great places to live and we get crack central. But, later on in the day, Jason came over to us to say "i've got REALLY good news." I told myself not to get excited. All our friends were asking us what that meant, and I was like.... who knows. They told us those other places were nice as well.

So, after class, Jason sits us down and tells us about our new accomodations. His friends have a place that they normally rent out for $1000 per week, but they will let us have it for $1000 a month. (more than we were paying before, but worth it if we are safe). We pull up to our old place, and Jason makes a comment "yeah, this is a really high crack area." Uhm... didn't you say this was safe... glad we're leaving.

We drive to the new place and pull into the driveway of the new place. Its a large white two story house right next to a Spanish Language school. It looks gorgeous! Apparently there is a large deck, which you can see from below. There is a cafeteria below (must be for the school) and it is set back from the street just a ways.

We meet the owners, and the first thing they say to us is "No Parties!" and then walk us up to the second floor, which is flanked on both sides of the house by the same set of stairs. Once we open the front door, we realize there are no windows and no doors, besides the front door. Its open, much like a treehouse. It's absolutely gorgeous, but how exactly is this safer?? Someone could just get right in. When we expressed our concern... one of the owners said "No one can get in. Well, I can, but no one else."

Uhm.... RED FLAG. The bedrooms are separated by a wall, but the doors are merely curtains that sheild you from the living room, which is what I thought the large deck was when we first pulled up. Basically, its completely open. After everyone leaves, we laugh and talk about how nice it is, but it seems pretty open, so I wonder what that is.

We unpack and sleep there that night (after staying up yet again until 2am because we felt weird) and the next day told everyone in class about our weird nice open house. There's no walls, we kept telling people, and everyone had a really hard time figuring it out.

After class, Josie came over to see our place, and she even said the same thing... how exactly is this safer? But, we got our stuff, went to dinner, then went to this place called Bamboo Jam, because they have salsa dancing every Tuesday. Here, we ran into the annoying old american men, one of which promptly grabbed me and started flinging me around the VERY small dance floor, annoying all the Ticos and in the process making me feel and look like an idiot.

At the end of the night we met Justin and Chris, both local ticos, but very nice. They even said we were paying too much, but that Justin would show us a place the next day that is right across the street from where he lives and he knows two other girls who live next door. Its a duplex but it has everything...even cable. (TV?!?!?!?!)

So, we stay out til around 2, come home to our house without walls, and stay up a little later because now we know this place isnt safe, that we weren't overreacting, and that we needed to leave that place TOMORROW.

I wake up at 7 the next morning without the aid of my phone, which must have dropped off the ledge next to my bed. I thought I'd put it on ring so that I could hear it, but I could have had a couple too many and JUST THOUGHT I did it. So, I look under my bed, no phone. I look in my purse, right next to where my phone was, and its not there either.

Then, I look under the bed again. no phone. What the hell did I do with it last night.??? Did I bring it to the bathroom?? No. So, I look in my purse again. No phone. WAIT. No camera. No Ipod. No Cash. omgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomg!!!!!

I run to Tiff's room and wake her up becasue her alarm hasn't gone off. "Tiff, where's your stuff??" She's groggy so it takes her a minute, but she looks in her bag and says its all here. So, I run back to my room and look for my credit card. I hid it in my bag with the tampons, so it was still there. Who ever has taken all my electronics has also found the cords that go with them, as well as looked through my costume jewelry bag. They didin't take anything, so .... I still have my Express specials.

We pack our stuff and march to the school to tell them we want out and we want out now. I'm not going to class until I get into a new place, and I better not have to pay for it. This is absolutely unacceptable. So, Tiff and I go to the police station and file a report. The Detective wants to come up and take fingerprints (a formality and just for show apparently for tourists) and when they get to the house, the women who own it have already talked to Jason who has told them what happened.

Susan came with us to translate becasue my Spanish, while good enough to get by, was not good enough at this point and I was slightly histerical. As the day went on I was more and more aware that someone was in my room from 3am to 7am while I was sleeping. Had I been awake, this could be a very different story. The women were visibly upset and we couldn't tell if they were mad at us or if they were mad in general, but they were trying to figure out if we told anyone or had boys back with us or something....



back to class... tis the life of a student. more later.

Quepos, Part II - aka...you've got to be kidding.

Sunday in Quepos. The sun is high, the sun is hot, and I'm in summer gear! At noon we get to go pick up our keys to our Garden apartment, and I get to meet my roommates! So, we pack up our things get a quick bite to eat and show up at the school. Carrie has a hotel (?... we've got a cute apartment with a garden and she gets a hotel with a kitchen... pshaw! Garden all the way!) and we share a cab to make a stop to get my keys, where I meet Tiff.

Tiff is English (from Devon) and is apparently my roomie. She's totally good looking and has an English accent... and she surfs. Great... and I thought losing 5 lbs before I left would be enough. But, we get our keys and we're off to our accomodations. We drop Carrie off and continue up the hill to right next to this lavanderia (laundry). It looks shady, but then so does everywhere else. It is Central America.

Tiff seems pretty cool, and we're joking around and laughing about where we're staying. There are steep stairs that lead down to a gate, then another set of stairs to another gate, then some cinder blocks to get us to our brightly colored apartments. They look alright, one is bright orange, and the other is just plain white. My key fits into the apartment that is bright orange. When I open the door, I'm looking at the bed to the right (double) as well as a double mattress on the floor. The bed has someone's things on it already, and the 'kitchen' consists of a sink and a glass.

I back out of the door, and turn around to see Tiff coming down the stairs. First words out of her mouth are "I don't have a mattress, " to which I reply, "Well, I have two, but I think there is someone in here already because there is someone's stuff inthere... " We both start nervous laughter...like. I can't believe we're paying $350 for this.

Enter Monty. Monty is the owner of the apartments, who tells us the story about all the people living in this complex... apparently there are 20 people split between 4 homes but one of the homes has three people, one home one person who is only there every other month, and the rest live between the two. We all share access to the compound. He also proceeds to tell us he's going to install our "kitchen" on Tuesday when he gets paid... which will be a mini fridge. The downstairs apartment doesn' t have a working fan (this would be my place) and the upstairs apartment doesn't have a light... but you can use the light from the bathroom to put some light in there.

I think within 10 minutes we were in the school office telling them...no way. But, Jason, our head guy, was gone til Monday, so we stayed there one night... and we stayed up til 3 because we were nervous, especially since our keys didn't even work in the padlocks on the gates. We then ran into Darlene and Amanda, who took us to their place... Papaya House. Its absolutely adorable... bright orange, big gate on the front, huge sitting area, kitchen, dining room, and 4 bedrooms. And they are paying the same amount as us. No way.

Quepos, Part I

I woke up at Hostel Pangea early the next morning after having a couple beers with Carrie, this Norweigen couple who were working at a Zoo in San Jose for three months, and Adrienne - the nicest guy from Hostel Pangea. Sitting by the pool and feeling the sun on my face was such an amazing feeling. I'm really here! I've made it!

My first hostel experience wasn't bad. Our dorm mates weren't loud or obnoxious at all, in fact I think they were all in bed (with one exception who came in around 4) and were still sleeping when we left. Carrie and I met up with Darlene and Amanda, two other girls from our course who were also at Pangea, and headed off to the San Jose bus terminal... once there, we were all trying to figure out when the directo bus from San Jose to Quepos left, but at the same time being solicited by taxi drivers to take us to Quepos for $100. We took the cab ride, which was only a few hours, and even got to see some crocodiles on the way.

I'm really glad we took the cab because the roads here remind me of a cross between Chuckanut drive and the switchback portion of the road up to Baker, with tour busses on them and everyone driving about 60mph...We would get behind busses and end up watching as their tires would barely hang onto the side of the road as they negotiated a turn while trying to avoid hitting any oncoming traffic. Its a trip...

Once in Quepos, Carrie and I find a hotel to stay at since the Wide Mouth Frog was full. Darlene and Amanda went straight to their accomodations - the Papaya house. I think we walked around a bit, got acquainted with the little town, and then went to sleep. I wanted to go to the beach in Manual Antonio the next day.

We spent the day at the beach on Saturday, and after meeting a bunch of ticos in the bar, ran into Darlene and Amanda, who made friends with the American men (older of course... there to sportfish and hit on women) who ended up scaring the Ticos away... I didn't get burned... so... yippee!!!

The beaches here are great. The water a constant 70 degrees, and the sunsets absolutely gorgeous. After sunset on Saturday, we saw a sloth climbing across a phone wire, so I ran out to take a picture... or 7. :) Super cool.

Enter Sunday. Here's where the story begins.

So much sun, so little time.

I woke up at 6:00 this morning and the sun was already up. It was around 80 degrees and there was a slight breeze, which has been a change from any other day. It's pretty hot here most of the time, and I'm happy that there is air conditioning (for once!) in our school.

Most mornings I've been waking up around 8, walking down the hill to Quepos from the Cabinas de Pedro Miguel; my hotel, and eating at a soda (diner) before school starts at 9:30. We get out of class at around 4:40, and the sun will go down around 5:45. We don't get much time in the sun during the week, so I'm going to start getting up earlier to sit by the pool before class.

The family that owns the Cabinas has breakfast out by the pool every morning. There are about 9 or 10 people in their family, and the children feed the monos, or monkeys, bananas in the morning. On Sunday there were about 25 monkeys running around on the roofs of the cabinas and jumping in the trees.

It's my first time away from home abroad on my own, and I've had quite the experience. A lot of the preparation time before coming was centered around how many gb of music I could fit on my Ipod that I got a week prior to leaving, how many gigs of memory could fit on my computer and how to store the pics while I was away. We also found out my dad is sick, and I wanted to be in contact with the family at all times, so it was decided that I would bring my cell phone for days that I was traveling and didn't have access to email. Most everything else was secondary (ie, I was already saving money for six months prior to pay bills and things, so the time I am in Costa Rica is to be spent stress free) and the school already contacted me about my accommodations -- the yellow apartment with the beautiful garden outside.

My departure day was the day it snowed, again, in Seattle, and I was worried the plane wasn't going to take off in time, meaning I'd miss my connection in Phoenix and then I wouldn't get here. But, everything went as planned, and we took off on time. It even happened that one of a friend of Susan's was on the plane with me, going to Costa Rica to get married! What a cool coincidence. Congratulations again Bree and CJ!

I get to the airport in Phoenix for my two hour layover, and sit near the gate to San Jose. Waiting, sans book, which I ended up purchasing a stupid cheesy super easy read and listening to my Ipod. I had to hand choose all the songs on my ipod because I have too much music and a very eclectic taste, but the end result was great.
I'm gearing up with everyone else to stand around the gate around the time the flight was to leave, and I'm wondering where the 'blonde girl who is about 5'3'' from Oregon' is ... we were supposed to try and find each other prior to the flight to San Jose, but I don't see her, unless she's the annying one who won't stop talking about yoga to the guy next to her... when the gate attendant announces that the flight to San Jose CALIFORNIA will be leaving approximately 20 minutes behind schedule. My flight to San Jose COSTA RICA was leaving in approximately 5 minutes from the other side of the terminal... so I run to the other side just in time to check in and see them closing the doors to the plane. Shit.

But, I made it on the plane. The woman I sat next to was teaching me about Colones - the currency for Costa Rica - and I was on my way! Once at the airport in San Jose Costa Rica, I found Carrie, and we were on our way to find the hostel bus to Hostel Pangea.

In the directions from the hostel about waiting for the shuttle to the hostel from the airport, they specifically tell you that you are not to believe the taxi drivers when they try to tell you the bus from the hostel has left you, so imagine our suprise when after finding the man who is holding the pangea sign, he shuffles us into a truck with Adrienne.

Adrienne told us earlier that he works at the hostel, as he's drinking a beer and smoking a cig. He proceeds to apologize to us for being drunk, but there is a once a year festival going on in San Jose right now called Palmares. I read about Palmares before coming, so I knew slightly what it was. He kept asking Carrie and I if we wanted to come back to party with them... we said no. Then, the guy with the hostel sign puts us -- and our luggage -- in an Isusu trooper with 5 ticos and Adrienne... all of whom are drinking, except the driver. Carrie and I, who've known each other for about 3 minutes, are smushed up against one side of the car; me on Carrie's lap. Apparently, they are our ride to the hostel, but not before we pick up another guy on the side of the highway, who piles in with us. .. yes, that's right.. 8 people in a trooper. Nice tight squeeze.

At this point I'm thinking all kinds of crazy thoughts... you name the idea, I've thought it... most of them involve any elder figure in my life telling me "I told you not to ride with strangers.. and in a strange country!!!" "You're going to get yourself seriously hurt..." Imagine my horror, when our destination ends at a sliding metal door with no sign, and only a few honks to open it. Slavery here I come. Shit.

On the other side of the door was this adorable pool (just like the one in the pictures) and some other people standing around upstairs having beers. This was the hostel. I've arrived....no worse for wear.