is today a....? what day is it?

i keep asking myself this question and thinking of the dude. the corner of this computer tells me it's wednesday, so there you go. we're in montezuma right now, living the dream. :) after some initial frustrations (a very long journey, a hotel very far from everything - including lights, someone's mom...) things started getting good. we're staying at our second beach side accomadations and we're at my favorite beach in all of costa rica. doesn't get much better.

as nice as it will be to see everyone next week, wouldn't it be better if you all came here to see me? no snow, i promise!

think about it.... :)

the old "christmas tan"

off to the beach bright and early tomorrow morning to get going on my christmas tan.

what?

you're not working on your christmas tan?

WHAT??!!

it's SNOWING???!!!

yeah, i'm gonna cry when i get home.... finished my new old job today, spent the afternoon at the staff party, drinking and singing karaoke. then we went to the nutcracker tonight, el cascanueces, pretty good. now i'm off to bed. getting picked up at 5am to get to the bus station. but i'll have sand between my toes by mid-afternoon!

the hard part is over

well, part of the hard part is over. even though school ended last week (my new school) the teachers all have to come in this week to finish up grades and talk to the other teachers about the students for the next year. so i've kind of been doing double duty this week. though i didn't have any grades to finish or anything, i had to go in a couple of days this week... which was pretty exhausting. (it's a lot of bus time to get there from my current apartment). but now i've got a curriculum map to edit, some books to peruse, and see ya in january.

just one more week of my old job - and it's the easy part. since the kids program finished last week, i have friday afternoon and saturday off this week and next. which is awesome. from here on out i have REAL weekends. so next week i have two classes with my one-to-one guy, and two lesson of revision for my ibm classes, then two lessons where they'll be taking their exam. easy-peasy.

of course the part of the hard part i still have to do is find a new place to live.... but i've got a good portion of january to sort that out.

in completely unrelated news, i get this newsletter from a website called boots 'n' all and one of the stories really made me laugh. so i thought i'd share it. it's about driving in india. i actually had this idea when i was there of doing like a guide to driving in india, in a funny way (which is surely not an original idea, but still). because let me tell you they are insane. but i never actually did it and i sort of forgot a lot.... this brought it all back. enjoy!

what are you? in 4th grade?

so my "test" turned out to be nothing like i was expecting, but still pretty difficult. actually it wasn't a test at all. at least not in the traditional sense. i went in and after waiting for over 30 minutes i went in to talk to the administrative woman who i had been speaking to on the phone. basically she just wanted to get to know me a little better, get a sense of what kind of person i am and stuff. the snag was that her english is not that good, and my spanish is not that good. i mean i can get by, but i can't do interview BS in spanish.

so the first part of the struggle was figuring out what the question actually was. "how your family?" (do you have brothers and sisters? where do they live? how is your relationship?) "how your career?" (where do you see yourself in 5 years?) etc. we actually had a really nice chat, even though i wasn't really sure what the questions were sometimes and then i was trying to answer in a way so that she would understand me. obviously not the ideal interview situation. the last thing she asked me to do was draw a picture of a person, any person (clearly some sort of psychological profile type test) and write 2 paragraphs about anything. (i decided to tell of my love for gallo pinto).

i could have sworn she told me she would call the next day and tell me the grade. and after a moment it occurred to me that she probably meant what grade i would be teaching. so i was pretty excited. the next morning i had my one on one class and then i hung around school for a little while so i wouldn't be on the bus when she called. well, she never called on wednesday. or thursday. then i was starting to get a little worried, but when i had spoken to the principal the week before she had told me that she would be making hiring decisions by the end of the next week.

friday i was running around like a crazy person all day, trying to sort out the end of year stuff for my current kids, and nearly forgot i was waiting for a call. but when i got out of my 3-6 class i had a voice message. rapid-fire spanish this is the pan-american school, looking for ann doremus, call at this number (which even my native spanish speaking friend had to listen to twice). well, obviously i tried to call right away, but being after 6 on a saturday, i knew i would have to wait until monday.

so we went to the beach this weekend. because we deserve it. and i got back just in time for my class, so i called the school from the beach this morning. i talked to the same lady again. she said something.... huh? como? you work pan-american school next year.

FABULOUS

she told me that she still had to speak with the principal about which grade she had decided for me and would call back in like 30 minutes. 4 hours later i called her back. 4th grade. and could i come to the school the next morning.... at 8am. blah. i mean i realize that when i'm in school i will have to be there before that. but for right now i live on the other side of the city and it takes me nearly 2 hours of buses and hoofing across downtown to get there.

so i think i'm going to watch another episode of alias and then it's bed-time. i'm exhausted. had a bit of an ordeal getting back from the beach today... we tried to get the 9:30 bus, but it was full. and the next bus wasn't until 12:10. and i'm supposed to be ready to go at the school by 4. it would have been a miracle if that had actually worked. so i ended up getting picked up in town somewhere and having the other teacher bring my books. so yeah.

yeah me! :)

i hate job searching....

... but i'm doing it. actually, i had started about a month ago (not sure if i mentioned this already). i found 4 schools that i was interested in and i sent them my resume and a cover letter. one of them told me straight away that they did not have any openings for the 2008 school year. two of them i never heard from at all. and one of them called my current employer, who was a little surprised to say the least. and so was i when they asked me about it. i tried to explain it away, blah blah blah, i want to eventually work in a school, more time with kids, some schools don't start until september (which is actually true, but almost all of them start in february - they do southern hemisphere school schedule here).

i mean who does that? calls your current employer for a reference? i thought there was sort of an unspoken thing about that.... but clearly not. so i sent an e-mail to them and to the other two schools i hadn't heard from saying my current employer will not give a reference until we agree on an end date for my contract (until i give my notice, which i hadn't done at that point) but here are two other people you CAN contact IN COSTA RICA.

after that i heard nothing. and things got a little crazy here. i had lots of stuff going on, i had my spanish exam (nivel inicial - which i won't get the results from for about 10 weeks), i was trying to resist the urge to strangle the panamanian in his sleep (he is possibly the most inconsiderate person i have ever met), etc., etc.

well, i finally decided i needed to get serious about the finding a job thing (man, i hate looking for jobs. and apartments for that matter, which i'll have to do soon as i find a job). so i found some more schools that i liked and i sent out my resumes and cover letters again. i decided to send another e-mail to the eager school, saying i've actually put in my notice and my school will now provide a reference, i'm still interested.

well two days later i get a call for an interview! so last friday i had an interview, which i think went pretty well. i spoke with the primary school principal and she had a couple of openings she was trying to fill. she thought i could teach 5th grade science because i had a bachelors of science (i tried to dissuade her on this idea as best i could - computers does not equal science. but i would do it if it was all they offered me.) but the other thing she had, which i told her i was most interested in, was 3rd or 4th grade language arts.

so she said i would have to come in and do some sort of test early this week (hopefully this is kind of like "are you smarter than a primary school student?" kind of stuff and not too much about teaching theory) so i'm still waiting for that call. and she will have made her decisions by the end of this week. which is great to know, but now i've been waiting all morning for my phone to ring to set up the time to do this test thing!

so fingers crossed everyone, this is a great school that i would love to work at!!!

possibly not a surprise...

but yesterday i quit my job. i had been planning to line up something else before i put in my notice, but since i'm supposed to give a bimester's notice (which is two months - but i can't give notice halfway through a bimester) it just wasn't going to be possible. i'm looking to teach in a bilingual high school next year, and they're not really hiring at this point. they still have another month of class and then they have almost 2 months off. so my last day at the instituto britanico will be december 14th. then i'll be hanging out at the beach for a week. and then coming home for a couple of weeks. hopefully by then i'll have a job lined up. that's the plan anyway.

in other news i just paid my first cell phone bill, which i had been waiting patiently for, since i wasn't really sure how much i was really using it (but it seemed like a lot). well, they don't really mail bills here - because they don't really mail anything (i mean my "address" is from this store, 100 meters south, 400 meters west....). so basically you get a text message that tells you it's time to pay your bill. and you either go to a supermarket or pharmacy (these are the places you pay your bills - everything, phone, internet, electricity, water...) or depending on your bank you can pay online. well i had a friend help me set up my online banking yesterday, because apparently my bank does online bill pay (all my utilities are included in my rent, so i don't ever deal with that). entered my phone number and my information came up. my bill was ¢4,545. a little less than $10. :P

and the last thing i have for today is a picture. of things that come in plastic packages. i was terribly amused by this when i first arrived, but really it's for the best here. because they don't really do recycling (at least not very much of it) it's probably better that they have things in plastic bags instead of bottles and jars - less garbage. so here we have: spaghetti sauce, salsa, sour cream, mayonnaise, and ketchup.

i never get to go anywhere...

so as promised i finally have a couple of pictures from panama. and one from puerto viejo (on the right). i actually hope to have some more from puerto viejo soon. i think i wrote about swimming out to this massive coral/rock thing, well, i'm waiting for those photos from a friend.

anyhow. these are some of the dolphins we saw (yeah, dolphins!) they were just sort of swimming around in this bay. it was pretty cool. i didn't really get many good pictures (most of them were just of water, or the tip of a fin) but this is one of the good ones. i think you can tell that they are dolphins and not sharks...


the other picture i have is of the place we had lunch at. i think bocas del toro is such a cool place. i mean, it's basically a set of islands, and everywhere has a dock, and all of the restaurants and bars and stuff have little docks and you can sit by the water... so after seeing dolphins, hanging at a beautiful island beach, and cruising around in a speed boat, we had lunch at this cool place. man, i love bocas.


not sure what my next plans are, still trying to work out work stuff... i'm hoping to get a new job next year working in a bilingual high school. of course the complication is that i need to give a "bimester" notice (that's a two month session here - it's kind of spanglish, not a real word in english) at my current job and that's by the end of next week. i've sent resumes to a few schools that i'm interested in, and i know one of them actually called my current school (which didn't go over that well with my boss - who does that? calls your current employer?) but i haven't heard anything else. the thing is, there's a high liklihood that i will get a job at another school. but it might not be until closer to the end of the school year (which is december here - they run on southern hemisphere school schedules for the most part). so do i put in my notice now so that i'm actually available for another job? or what? let's have some opinions please!!!!

trouble in paradise

well, i think paradise is a strong word for the rainy, dismal, capital city of costa rica at the moment... the "green" season (aka the rainy season) has really been doing it's thing the past week or so. kind of miserable. but that's not what i'm talking about....

so a while ago this panamanian guy moved into what i had previously thought to be a closet just off our kitchen. there was basically a single bed and a dresser in there and that's it. recently the guy living in my old room moved out. and i guess the landlord decided that the panamanian would move in there (they're friends or something - they know each other somehow, i can't quite figure it out). whatever.

there was a little incident the other week on one of my non-sleeping nights (normally i'm a champion sleeper, but every 4 months or so i have a night where i just can't - it catches up with me) where his "girlfriend" stayed over (i'm not really sure on the status of the relationship, but they do have a child together) and they were up all night - talking, listening to music, arguing, etc - all of which i can easily hear in my room. i was slightly annoyed, but i couldn't sleep anyway, so i didn't get too upset about it.

well. last night. a little before 5 in the morning he comes back - clearly from being out all night - with two friends. i was definitely sleeping this time. then they're talking and laughing... and i'm kind of thinking you've got to be kidding me. we have a massive living room *and* outdoor area - both of which are on the other side of the house. a few minutes later i hear our other roommate come out of his room and basically tell them to be quiet. so they were quieter, but like i said - i can hear everything. so they're still up and talking and listening to music - albeit much quieter. but still i have to bury my head under my pillows to get back to sleep.

anyway. this morning (okay, mid-morning) i get up and go out to the kitchen to make myself a cup of tea and something to eat. and i notice part of a wrapper of some sort sticking out of my cupboards. i open the door and there's my brand new bag of tortilla chips - nearly gone. i notice a fork on the counter covered with refried beans. and what do you know - they're gone too. in the fridge my new package of salsa is ripped open and half gone. (lots of things come in little plastic packages... it's hard to explain - i'll do a pictorial sometime) at this point i'm starting to get mad.

but being the pacifist that i am i don't go banging on his door to yell at him (plus he hardly speaks any english and i know that my spanish cannot convey anger). instead i get myself ready to go to school. i make a bilingual sign which i tape over the doors of my cupboard -
please don't eat my food!!
¡no coma por favor mi alimento!and i leave a post-it note on the panamanians door:
a las 4 o 5 en la mañana ¡callado por favor! puedo oír TODO
(at 4 or 5 in the morning please shut up! i can hear everything)
apparently it had the desired effect. when i got home from school tonight my landlord was in the living room (this is not weird, he lives upstairs and stops down sometimes) and he asked me if i was upset about last night. and i said, yeah, a little. he assured me that it wouldn't happen again, or the panamanian would be leaving, and that he was sorry. so we'll see how that goes... i kind of feel like i'm living in the real world house or something. anyway, just wanted to vent a little.

puerto viejo madness

so this weekend was columbus weekend here - and therefore we had today (monday) off. so what else could we possibly do on such an occasion? go to the beach, i guess. if we must. ;)

so we left right after classes for the bus station on saturday. which is when the first snag in our plan occured... carol had gone ahead to get the tickets sorted out and jasmine, laura, and i were going a little later. but when we arrived we found out that when carol arrived there were only 2 seats left on the bus we wanted, and she had to get 2 more for the next bus, which was 2 hours later. it seemed strange, because we had never had trouble before just showing up and getting tickets. but it wasn't a travesty, carol and i were going to go on the first bus and try to sort out accommodations for all of us when we got to puerto viejo.

the bus ride seemed to take forever (it's possible that it didn't, but it sure seemed like it). when we got to puerto viejo we headed straight for the place we stayed last time. but they were full. he said maybe check back in an hour or so, in case one of his reservations didn't show. so we headed off to check out some other places. well, each and every place we checked was full. in one place we ran into a guy (who became our best friend this weekend), juan, whose job it is to ride around on his bike and find rooms for people (apparently). so juan knows a place. there's a couple of dorm beds and a tent. so we go and have a look. well, it wasn't exactly outdoors, but it wasn't really indoors either. it was a covered patio with walls on three sides and inside there were some dorm beds and a tent on the floor in the middle with a mattress inside.

we were not really excited by the idea of staying there. so we sat for a while and the two other people we were with (in total there were 10 of us) went off to investigate other places. well, we were sitting and waiting and texting our friends saying maybe you should get off in cahuita and see if there are rooms there. after a while we're kind of starting to realize that there is truly no place to stay in puerto viejo. and two girls come strolling into the place and we jump and make the decision - we'll take it. the others luckily get some place a little bit farther out of town because a reservation didn't turn up. and we all have beds and have a great evening out.

the next morning our man juan tells us he knows a place that we can stay for sunday night that is a little bit nicer. so before breakfast we go there and have a look. we originally thought that maybe we would all be moving to a different place... but that turned out to be full as well. breakfast was a little bit of a fiasco as well. we found the faraway group sat down for breakfast and went in to join them. well, we're told that they are no longer taking orders. alright. so we find some other place and meet up with the rest of the team after.

we rented bikes. not my idea of a good time. but everyone was doing it... so that was a bit rough, since i'm pretty out of shape and the roads are for the most part dirt and filled with potholes making biking a slightly less pleasant experience. but we spent the day at a beautiful beach in punta uva, about 10k south of puerto viejo.

after the day at the beach we go back to our new room and have a really nice shower (i think i forgot to mention that the "shower" in our first place was basically a hose hanging from the ceiling... which did little more than trickle water on you - so this seemed luxurious. in fact the room seemed luxurious as well because it had PILLOWS. such luxury...) and then headed out for another fun night on the town.

breakfast the next day (today) turns out to be another fiasco... we run into part of our group sitting and waiting for breakfast. we're about to join them when the waitress informs them that there is no more gallo pinto - which i MUST have when i'm on vacation. (and didn't get to have the previous morning - after we had found a place to eat i asked if they had gallo pinto and was informed that this was "the carribean, not costa rica". what a snarky wench) so we go back to this other place we've eaten at before... but there are about 40 people in a big group just sitting down... so we decide to try somewhere else. we find a little soda, but sadly they are out of food. yes, out of food. we basically walked all over town and finally found a place with gallo pinto.

after breakfast we had just the morning at the beach before we needed to catch a bus. but sadly all the direct buses from puerto viejo to san jose were sold out (those million extra people really put a damper on our plans). so we end up having to get a ticket to limon and then to san jose. which is not terrible, but certainly a little less convenient. but overall i had a good time. i'm tan. pictures soon.

ps. happy birthday mom!! i love you!!

back with a fresh visa

for those of you who were concerned about me going to panama... i assure you it was not a scary place. (in fact it was pretty touristy- at least where i was). and that i'm back. photos and stories to follow.

beach binge

and finally an update! this "beach binge" as i've decided to call does seem pretty far in the past at this point... my tan has faded... there's no sand in the bottoms of my bags anymore... but here's what we did:


so like i said before there was a long weekend - perfect for beach going. then we decided it would be easy to maintain a tan just by spending a short weekend at the beach. and then some friends were going to my *favorite* beach. then it was a long weekend *again* (public holiday season in CR). so yeah. i have only a couple of pictures to share... i didn't end up taking all that many.


this tree was actually right on the beach in cahuita. i wasn't trekking in the woods to get this picture. i was standing directly under this tree. it was pretty cool. there were about 4 little monkeys crawling around, eating fruit, and dropping the pits on the tourists. luckily no one was injured in the taking of this photo.

the last picture i'll share is from montezuma. and yes, i've posted pictures of montezuma before. because i thought when i went there the first time that it was the best beach and the coolest town i had visited. and when we were going to go back i was a little worried that i might change my mind. that i just hadn't seen enough beaches yet. but no. it was just as amazing as i remember. and i still think it's my favorite.


so i might be off to panama next weekend. my visa is up, and though my director seems to think it won't be a big deal if i go a little over, i'd rather not risk it. so i'm trying to finagle some days off... hopefully.

vargas araya

so yeah, it's been a while since i've posted... but i do have some pictures of my new place in vargas araya. it's actually pretty massive - i share with two other american guys (and possibly some panamanian is moving into this little room which i was sure was a closet for a few weeks? but anyway...). in fact last week, on the day of the virgin of the angels - the patron saint of costa rica and a national non-working holiday for nearly everyone, we had a big roast dinner at my house with loads of people from work. which i don't have any photos of... but jasmine does... maybe another time...

so this is the kitchen - with a full size stove *and* a microwave. but no blender.

the living room slash dining room. sadly there is no sofa. so if all three of us want to watch tv (which though it looks to be about 100 years old, still works remarkably well) then one person gets the "comfy" chair (which only looks comfy, but isn't), one gets the uncomfortable chair, and the other gets one of the dining room chairs. not really designed for home theater. but there is free cable and a dvd player>

and finally our garden. it's a little over-run by palm-like plants, but there are some benches and the sounds of a rushing stream (it actually runs under the patio, but whatever).

so yeah. that's my place. no photos of my room because even though i've been here for a while it still is mostly "organized" into bags that i used to transport it all from my old place to this place. yeah. i haven't really unpacked everything.

so we're on a bit of a beach binge at the moment. went to cahuita two weekends ago because there was a long weekend. went jaco last weekend to maintain our tans. going to montezuma this weekend because some other people we know are going. going somewhere the weekend following because there's another long weekend. after that i'm definitely staying put for an entire weekend. i'm exhausted.

:P

the crater shirt

just a sort of interesting aside, something that just occurred to me recently. every time i go to a volcano i seem to be wearing the same hooded white shirt. exhibit A:


my first volcano ever - haleakala volcano on the island of maui in hawaii. after this we rode bikes down the road that led up to the crater - not my favorite thing i did in hawaii, but an experience none-the-less.

actually - i'm not sure if this counts, but the next volcano i *saw* was arenal volcano in costa rica. this happens to be an active volcano, so we didn't actually go to the crater, we just hiked around near the base of the volcano. which is why i've just decided to change the name of this post from "the volcano shirt" to "the crater shirt". i don't have any pictures of myself at this volcano, but i'm pretty certain i wasn't wearing the shirt.


after that i went to ometepe island in nicaragua, which is formed by two volcanoes. this is most definitely my least favorite volcano EVER (in my life-long experience of 4). not only was it a grueling, spirit-crushing hike to the crater. but when we actually got to the crater (which is now filled with water) it was so foggy that you couldn't even tell that you were there. i may look happy enough in this photo, but i was DEFINITELY not.


so i was a little leery of volcanoes after that (and rightfully so, i think). but i was persuaded to visit poas volcano, which is near to san jose. to reach the crater of this volcano i only had to sit on a bus for a couple of hours and walk about 15 minutes along a paved path. no problemo. it was actually kind of fun. aside from the whole sulfur smell... this volcano, while not ACTIVE active like arenal (no lava shooting out of it) is still sort of bubbling and spitting muck. apparently it still has the potential of erupting.

so yeah, volcanoes.

travel nightmares (part 2)

the return trip.

my flight back to costa rica last sunday was supposed to leave boston around 5:45pm and arrive in san jose around 11:30pm. i arrived at the airport in plenty of time, checked my bag, bought some more magazines (i brought back about 7 trashy celebrity magazines, like people, ok!, etc. - english mags are expensive here), and eventually made my way to the gate. i sat down with my book to wait for boarding to start.

as that time approached there was an announcement that there was going to be about a 30 minute delay due to some air traffic control issues in atlanta (my stopover destination). so i was a little worried at this point - my layover was only an hour and fifteen minutes - but i was pretty sure i could still make it. well. it turned out to be a little more than 30 minutes delay. by the time we actually took off we were an hour behind schedule.

so i try to enjoy my flight. but all that first class stuff on the way to boston kind of spoiled me... i was in the window seat (which i prefer), but the guy sitting in the middle has got all these business papers out and his laptop... he was certainly taking up more than his fair share of the space. plus there wasn't enough room for me to cross and uncross my legs easily. but i managed.

so as we arrive in the atlanta area we are told that due to air traffic control issues we are going to have to do the whole holding pattern, circling around thing for a while. people with connections are starting to get nervous, including me. but they make an announcement that since our delay is because of air traffic control issues that it's likely that connecting flights will be delayed as well. so i was kind of holding on to that hope, since i was supposed to be at work at noon on monday.

we finally touch down and of course it takes forever to get off the plane - even with people who didn't have connections staying in their seats. i rush up the ramp, and start scanning the connections board. and my flight is marked "departed". super. (i actually found out later that my flight had left a few minutes early - air traffic control.... right....). so i had kind of been expecting this... since when we actually landed was after the scheduled take off time for my connection.

so i'm off to the re-booking desk. of course there's a huge line because nearly everyone with a connection on our flight missed their connections. so at the back of the line there's this little machine that you scan your boarding pass and they can tell you if you've been re-booked on the next flight or whatever. and also it prints out any hotel vouchers that might exist. well, i got no info about my flight, but if i wanted to stay at the westin that night they had negotiated the low, low, special deal price of just $90. $90????!!!!! the woman mentioned that there was a huge info boards of hotels that were cheaper and closer to the airport just outside of security.

so i bypass the line (which is barely moving) and use one of the customer service phones. i probably waited nearly as long on hold as i would have in the line, but whatever. i eventually speak to an agent who tells me that the next flight to san jose doesn't leave until 10am and arrives in CR at noon. which is when i'm supposed to be at work. super. well, obviously that's not going to work out. but the good news was that since my checked bag and i both missed our connection, the bag would hang around at the airport until the next flight to its destination - which i would also be on. and the guy got me a business class seat. which was pretty exciting.

so with only a couple of things in my carry on bag i head out to the main terminal. after staring at the hotel board for a while and making a couple of calls to check on prices (it was one of those phones where you enter the number from the board and it just dials the hotel automatically) i decided to head for super 8, which had a free shuttle and internet. so i'm collected by the shuttle and whisked off to my hotel.

unfortunately the hotel isn't really near any thing that allows me to get food or anything else. but there are a couple of menus in the lobby and i end up ordering some pizza and chatting with some other random guests for a while. when my pizza arrived i went up to my room, crawled in bed, put a dvd in my new laptop (have i mentioned this? - so exciting, i love it.), and ate. before too much sleep it was time for me to head back to the airport. i had some free continental breakfast and we were off.

when i entered the terminal i was a little taken aback by the length of the lines... but being booked in business class (and seat 1A - which means that business class is the best class on this flight) i start looking for the first/business class short line - i know that i shouldn't be waiting in the lines with the "commoners" :P but even that line was outrageous. and then i realize that there's a whole other section of desks for international trips. so i start to wait in that line... because i really just wanted to speak to someone and make sure my bag was on this flight too. but then i went for the kiosks. i swiped my old boarding pass and lo and behold all my new flight info came up and that i already had 1 bag checked. awesome.

so without further ado, i make my way through security (there's actually a special, shorter security line for first and business class) get to my gate in plenty of time. i wait and read. and then we board. i'm offered a mimosa straight off the bat (ah... business class...). of course there was a little delay, mostly due to so many people having missed flights the day before, there was some confusion about luggage. but we eventually took off.

so i arrived in san jose around 12:45 - 13 hours later than i had planned on. i headed home and got a little nap in before trucking into school to see what was up. i did a couple of placement exams and then went back home, still exhausted.

so yeah. that was my nightmare travel story... now that i've got that out of my system i promise not to be so whiney on my next post...

travel nightmares

so here's the part where i complain about traveling... actually, i generally enjoy traveling (and i'm talking about the actual transportation portions of traveling, not just the being other places, which i obviously enjoy a great deal) - i like the airport, i like flying, i like buses and trains, i love people watching. but my last trip home was sandwiched by two not-so-hot travel days. actually three - but let me explain.

so on the friday before i left i tried to check in for my flights online. it's generally easier and i kind of like knowing that i have a head start on the whole thing. well. the confusion was that my flight was the return portion of my reward flight. and the week before two of the three flights needed to be rescheduled due to a cancellation (though i actually recieved some bonus miles because of this, which was AWESOME on the part of northwest). so the flights were booked through northwest. but my first flight was on delta, because northwest doesn't fly to costa rica (but delta is a "partner" for miles). so when i tried to check in on the northwest site i couldn't, because you must choose a departure city, and san jose isn't on their list. so i tried to check in on the delta site, but of my three flights home, they only had the first one correct - theirs. (the other two flights were on northwest)

so after i panicked a little, i decided that i would just go to the airport in the morning and sort it out then. well. when i checked in they printed out a boarding pass for my flight out of costa rica and for one of the flights that i was no longer taking and nothing for the flight that would actually take me to boston. though they seemed to understand that my bag should go through to boston. i decided to try to sort all this out with the northwest agents in atlanta.

so i arrive in atlanta (after a lovely flight in FIRST CLASS - my first time ever!) and because we've arrived internationally we have to collect all of our luggage, go through customs, and then recheck everything to our final destination. before just blindly throwing my bag on the belt to be rechecked, i decided to talk to one of the customer service agents to sort out all the nonsense. well i was in concourse E, which happens to only contain delta agents. so i go chat to this woman anyway, to see if she can help.

well, her computer is showing that i'm still on my canceled flights. which i tell i her i am not. so she tries to call northwest, but is somehow unable to speak to a real person (in retrospect this woman was not really helpful in the least). so what she can do is check my bag out of the airport - like atlanta was my final destination. so i would have to go all the way out to the south terminal, collect my bag from baggage claim there and then i can go to the northwest check-in desk on the north terminal and sort everything out with them and THEN go back through security and to concourse D, where my flight was leaving from. in about 40 minutes.


there's a train which connects all these parts - atlanta is a BIG airport
so obviously my bag is not on the baggage carousel by the time i've gotten out there. and i wait for what seems like FOREVER for it. finally it shows up and i run over to the northwest desk (cut to the front of the line because i'm a FIRST CLASS customer) and the woman is like, "oh, it looks like you've already checked in for these flights". super. but now it's too late to check my big bag (which contains - GASP! - liquids larger than 3 oz.!) so i'm pissed, run over to security, which is not that long of a line, thankfully, and i start tearing through my bag to get the liquids out and squeeze them into my quart-sized ziploc - which now no longer closes. luckily i breeze through security with no hassles and then i'm back on the train for concourse E.

so i'm hustling to the gate and luckily there are still some people waiting in line to board. again, being first class i cut to the front, and get on pretty quickly. i plop down in my cushy, first class seat, and the flight attendant says to me:

"can i get you something to drink?"

yes you can.

okay, so that feels like plenty of complaining for today. if you can imagine, the trip back was worse.

safe and sound

so i'm here!


i did have a sort of hectic travel day, but since i was a first class passenger i got to cut to the front of lines and drink for free. so far the weather has been great here, sunny every day, no rain. i'm working on my tan (it's the rainy season in costa rica - i haven't been to the beach in forever) so yeah. i'm here. trying to see everyone and get all the things i've been missing (cheese, all-day sunshine, target, lotions and potions that i understand the use of).

piratas del caribe

so. my big plans for this weekend were to, in honor of my birthday, go to see the new pirates movie, go out for indian food, and maybe go dancing. who knew it would be such a project (well, i should have known, many things turn out to be a project here - such is costa rica, but i love it anyway).

so colleen and i head out around 1:30 for the 2 bus, 15 minute walk to this mall called the terra mall, which we had heard had really lovely, posh, rocking, reclining seats at the movie theatre. we were aiming for the 3 o'clock show. well. that didn't really work out. we were on possibly the slowest bus ever. so we arrived after the movie had already started. we thought maybe *maybe* we could get in before the actual film started (though i do really enjoy the previews). but the ticket guy told us that the show was sold out. our next option would be at 5 o'clock. which might have been okay, if we hadn't been planning on having dinner back in san jose. seeing the 5 o'clock would have put dinner at 8 or 9, and we were supposed to be meeting my friend jasmine.

so we decided to head back to downtown - to the mall san pedro and just see it there, in the non-posh, regular theater. well, naturally we missed the 4 o'clock show there. which was sold out. and again - the 7:20 show really cut into dinner. so i got my haircut (a mini-spanish adventure - i didn't have my vocabulary planned out ahead of time and there was a little confusion, but the girl spoke english. and another girl spent *seriously* about an hour drying and styling my hair. NEVER in my life has anyone spent that much time drying my hair. it was exhausting) and we went to meet jasmine for a drink before dinner.

well, that was the idea anyway. but there weren't really any non-old man bars near the restaurant. so we just went in, sat down, and had some drinks and appetizers for a while before we ordered dinner. the food was really nice, the waiters sang to me in japanese (i had a choice of chinese, thai, or japanese - it was an asian fusion restaurant). then we headed out with some world teach volunteers (my friend steve coordinates the program here) for some dancing. yeah! dancing! so we had a fabulous time dancing at this club called castro's until the wee hours. my merengue is improving tremendously (i didn't actually attempt any salsa).

so the plan was to see the movie on sunday instead. so i met jasmine at the mall at 3:20 to get in for the 4 o'clock. but of course, that didn't happen. instead we bought tickets for the 7:20 show and cruised around the mall for a little while. i bought a new pair of pants for work. we had some coffee and a snack. checked our e-mail. then we went up to get in line for our movie (we had seen some lines outside some other theatres earlier) around 7.

strangely there didn't seem to be many people waiting outside our theatre. until we were directed to the line - which ran nearly the entire length of the mall. so we waited. and waited. and waited. around quarter to 8 we finally got moving into the theatre. and of course there were no seats left that were together. so we sat across the aisle from each other. and the film FINALLY started at 8 o'clock. but it was worth it. :)

que triste! (an unfortunate weekend at the beach)

so the weekend at the beach didn't work out exactly like i had envisioned... jasmine and i caught our bus at 2 and were on our way. there was a little rain - but that's to be expected, rain in the afternoon is sort of how "winter" goes here. we met colleen at the bar/restaurant across from the bus station in quepos as planned. we had a drink and then headed over to manuel antonio to our hotel.

when we found our hotel (we took one wrong turn, but didn't get too lost) it was pretty nice. plenty of space, our own bathroom, as ceiling fan (instead of a floor fan which would have caused some trouble when deciding where to place it so that everyone got some breeze). there was a restaurant attached for no fuss breakfast. we cleaned up from a long day of bus journeying and headed out for dinner by the beach.

had some lovely food and a few drinks (nothing crazy). sat around and enjoyed being near the ocean (though we could see it - because it was so dark - or hear it - because there was loud music coming from a couple of the restaurants nearby). ahhh... the beach.

so the next morning we were up sort of early (around 8:30ish). got our swimsuits on and headed out for some breakfast before hitting the beach. saw a deer (which was kind of weird - not really something i associate with costa rica), a monkey, and a hummingbird while we ate. and as we were finishing it started raining. so new plan, we would drop of some of the beach stuff and head into quepos to get our bus tickets back to san jose on monday. which we did. and then we got the paper and sat in the bus station restaurant for a while, had some more coffee, and read.

tucked inside my tico times were a bunch of little fliers. some for apartments for rent. and a couple for a spa treatment package. interesting... so we decided that since we had gotten rained out of our beach plans, we should get a massage and mud wrap instead. (and did i mention it was jasmine's birthday?). and the spa was called "the raindrop spa". so appropriate. so i had possibly the best massage of my life (but to be fair, i've only had like 4 other massages ever, so it might not have been *that* fantastic) and then we headed back to our hotel to get ready for dinner.

we decided to go to a restaurant called barba roja, which is on the hill above the beach and has amazing views, for some happy hour drinks and a little snack. luckily it had finally stopped raining. (now that it was too late to go to the beach). so we enjoyed some mango margaritas, some nachos, and the view. then we went back into quepos (we seriously rode back and forth between quepos and manuel antonio at least a million times) for dinner at escalofrio, a cute little italian place with brick oven pizzas (so delicious). a couple more drinks at monchado's and then back to the hotel.

next morning jasmine was going to catch a bus back to san jose at 9:30 (she has an afternoon class) and colleen and i were going to hit the beach for an hour or so before i had to catch my bus at noon. we got up and it was kind of sunny. we had breakfast at the hotel restaurant. walked jasmine out to the bus stop. then it started to sprinkle. then it started to rain. ugh. so after a short walk on the actual beach we went back to the hotel, packed up and headed over to quepos to catch our bus.

we did have a cat at the liquor store sighting before our bus arrived, but it wasn't wearing a dress, and i'm not even sure it was the same cat. looked like a new cat. so maybe next time i'm in quepos they'll be letting it wear the other cat's dresses. and i can get a photo. i'm being 100% serious here.

new job and back to quepos

so. i know it's been forever since i've posted... but things are going well.

i've been at my new job now for a few weeks and i'm settling in nicely. my classes are good, it's taking a little time getting used to the new books and what kind of things i can do with the materials. but the students are nice. my classes are pretty small (between 4 and 11 students) and they're mostly pretty amusing.

i was observed yesterday by my boss... which was a little nerve-wracking (i don't like being judged...) so apparently i'm doing well except i need to work on my board organization, do more error correction, and circulate through the class more when they're working in small groups (he caught some of my students chatting in spanish, which i didn't notice - but to be fair this is my class of 11, and i'm only one person!)

i actually - technically - have saturdays off now. well, i was supposed to teach a kids class on saturday morning (which would have been my only kids class, and i wanted to teach kids. oh well). but on the first saturday of the new bimester at instituto britanico, it was the last saturday of the old bimester at centro cultural. which i had already told my new boss, so he was going to have someone cover my class for me. it was nick, one of the other new teachers, and apparently they loved him so much that now he is their regular teacher. and i have been moved to substitution duty. in theory that should mean that i have most saturdays off. but. my first saturday i get a call at 7 am (which i tried desparately to ignore, but they kept calling...) to come in and teach a class for someone. and then earlier this week i was informed that i would be covering a class for a teacher who had to go home for her brother's wedding today. well, i showed up, ready to go, got some coffee and headed to the classroom. and waited. for about an hour. none of the students showed up! so i corrected some papers i had and took off.

so now i have a little time to kill. i already bought myself a lovely pinto con huevos for breakfast. and i'm meeting jasmine (the other new teacher) at 1 and we're getting a bus to quepos to meet colleen for a couple of days at the beach. it's very exciting, i haven't been to the beach in forever (feels like - not since easter week in nicaragua!). also i'm hoping to catch a glimpse of the liquor store cat wearing her dress.

i'm currently trying to find a new place to live. colleen is leaving at the end of may and our place in rohrmoser (on the west side of the city) is pretty far from my new school (on the east side of the city). so a friend of a new co-worker is trying to help me find somewhere (he's a little strange, but he's teaching me how to salsa and merengue - which is so much fun!), and i've been e-mailing a girl from craig's list about sharing with her. so we'll see. i technically have my apartment until june 15th, so i have some time and plenty of people in san pedro (near school) who are willing to let me crash with them until i find something. no worries.

apagones

so it all started last thursday... well, sort of. we lost power breifly at home. but not for too long. we packed up and headed to school for our evening classes. i had just got going when our director came around and told us that there was no water in the building and that for health and legal reasons we had to cancel class. okay, fine. so the next night i go in, ready to teach the exact same lesson from the night before (this class meets on tuesday, thursday, and friday evenings). we get about 15 minutes into the class - and the lights go out. everyone goes home.

saturday morning classes go fine. it was my day to bring my class to the computer lab. normally we have them do boring grammar exercises... but this is an advanced class and we're talking about conspiracy theories in the lesson, so i have them researching other theories. we're sitting there and there all looking up stuff, and another teacher asks me what they're doing. then she tells me that some people have a conspiracy theory of sorts regarding the blackouts. the last time there were nationwide blackouts was right around the time there was some big political something or other going on. and they've recently announced that they're going to have a referendum on cafta (the central american free trade agreement - which is called tlc here - not sure on the exact translation). hmmm. curious.

so in the paper we read (okay, so colleen read, i listened to her translation) that there have been some problems with energy and water for a while. they haven't had much water, which has slowed down the hydroelectricity production, and we were renting some power from panama, but they recently decided to stop renting to us. and then something happened with the water (thursday) and some sort of transformer or whatever blew up.

so. they were going to ration power, have scheduled blackouts for a while. and then a couple of days later they announced that they weren't going to do that, that some transformer or whatever (electricity vocab is clearly not my specialty) had been repaired and they were planning to bring some other thingy online as well. and then yesterday they changed their minds *again*. the blackouts are back on. so last night the power was out when i got to school. i had one student who was coming in early to make up an exam - which he took sitting next to the window in the dimming daylight. and then at 6 o'clock when the lights were still off class was canceled. again.

so colleen bought the paper this afternoon, which had a schedule in it for the blackouts. and apparently our school is scheduled to be out from 5-8pm tonight. which means our class will be canceled AGAIN. normally having no class due to a blackout would be kind of fun (and it was the first time it happened - we went out for some beers and had a good time). but this is the last week of classes. so really the students are supposed to be taking exams and doing their final interviews. PLUS i start my *new* job on wednesday, so i can't be making up classes at my old job when i'm supposed to be doing my new job.

oof. so in other news, i did go to my new school yesterday for a little orientation. i also met another new teacher, named nick. there's supposed to be a third new teacher - jasmine - and they're throwing a little bbq for us on sunday. so i'm kind of excited. i'm happy that the teachers at my new school seem to be interested in getting to know the new teachers (unlike my current school, where most of the teachers are costa ricans and therefore don't experience the same sort of settling in issues that foreigners do).

oh yeah, so my new word for the week: apagones.

blackouts.

photo 2: mystery device contest

here's another photo that will maybe put the device in a little more context:

nicaragua wrap-up

so our first relaxing day on ometepe island we decided to go to this natural swimming hole called ojo de agua (new picture at right). we took the bus... despite my disdain at the whole island bus system. after paying a dollar and walking through a cow field (very carefully) we arrived at the place. the water was kind of a greenish-blue and a little chilly. clearly the focal point of the whole place was the rope swing. a stream of young local boys were swinging off it. we just watched for a while then decided to try it before sitting in the sun for a little bit.

WELL. it was pretty awesome. and after sitting in our chairs for a little while longer we decided that we should try to take some pictures using the rapid fire picture mode on my camera. i was endlessly amused by the whole ordeal and we went on the rope swing many times - while perfecting the method of the shooting mode. such a blast. i was smiling about it for the rest of the day.

the rest of the day we just kind of chilled for a while. we chatted with a few other travlers - sara, tom, and barbara - who we ended up hiking the volcano the next day with.

ah, the volcano hike... well, they said it would be an 8 hour hike - four up and four back - which i was a little concerned about, as i'm rather out of shape. and it certainly was 8 hours. at first it was fine. a challenging hike, to be sure. but after about two and half hours i stopped having fun. the trail was, well, not very trail like. we were basically hiking up a narrow ravine with water trickling down and ankle deep mud. it was incredibly rocky and quite steep. on top of all that - when we got to the top, where there was a crater lake (this is an extinct volcano - the other on the island is still active), it was so foggy/cloudy that you couldn't even really see across the lake.

so i was not really thrilled with the hike. and i could barely walk when i got down (for like 2 days afterwards as well) and i was coated in mud. *sigh*

the next day we left the island and headed up to managua where we were going to catch our bus back to costa rica in the morning. managua was, meh, a city, not all that different from san jose. we sprung for a room with AC, TV, and our own private bathroom. ah, luxury. saturday morning we got up bright and early and walked (yes, the other feature of our "luxury" hotel was that it was less than two blocks to the bus station) to the bus station. another long day on the bus (but again - rather luxurious compared to our other bus adventures in nicaragua) and this time only 2 and a half hours at the border - and no standing in the sun.

arriving back in costa rica kind of felt like coming home. i was half expecting to see someone at the bus station holding a sign for us (man, do i love signs at airports/bus stations!). so home again, home again.

when are there too many people on a bus?

answer: never. seriously. especially in nicaragua.

so after spending a lovely day and night in granada, cruising around granada (which i really liked) we got ready to head for the island of ometepe. we got ourselves together in the morning and made our way to the bus station. well, "station" is too strong a word. the buses for rivas left from the corner across the street from the gas station. no problem. however, due to a little confusion when trying to pay our bill at the hostel we arrived just in time to hop on the bus. all the seats were full and we had to stand and lean against the side of the seats. normally not a huge deal - but this was going to be an hour and half bus ride.

not a terrible ordeal overall. but we kept stopping and picking up more people. and more people. every once in a while someone would get off - but mostly we were just picking up more people. finally at one point the bus is kind of pulled over and the guy is shouting "rivas!" and waving us toward the back of the bus. so we jump out the back grade school bus emergency drill style and there´s a taxi driver waiting to take us to the port.

then we get on the ferry, which will take us to ometepe. again crowded, but not that bad. what did worry me was how interested everyone was with the life jackets. like grabbing one off the rack and holding it with them in their seats... so after an hour of sitting on a metal seat i was ready to get off the boat.

we get on the island and talk to these people at a hotel which the book says can make a reservation at this place near the beach. so after that's squared away we wait for the bus. it finally pulls up to the bus stop and we hop on a take a seat. and then we wait. and wait. for the next ferry to come in. at which point tons more people get on the bus. and finally we take off. the bus is pretty packed, but we keep picking up more people. lots of people.

it takes us nearly two hours to get to where were going. which is a bit surprising because it's not a very big island. but all the stopping takes a while. and then when we are a little farther away from the main town the quality of roads deteriorates rapidly. so not only are we going about 10 miles an hour the whole time and stopping to pick up more and more people, we are also dodging pot holes and swerving all over the road to avoid livestock.

by the time we get to our hotel i am so ready to get off of the bus. our room turns out to be fine, with a shared bath and a view of one of the volcanoes out the window. we take a little walk along the beach to santo domingo for dinner. and then a longish (about 25 minutes - even though the book claims it should be about a kilometer away) walk back home. we decide the next day will be for some relaxing and exploring. more later.

fronterra extravaganza

so we woke up at the crack - no wait - well before the crack - of dawn this morning to get ready to leave for nicaragua. 3:15am. i actually felt surprisingly awake - but seriously, it's more like the middle of the night than the morning. we got ready, made some pb&j's and called our taxi. got to the bus station ¢4,000 poorer - even though normally this would have cost like ¢2,000. but it was the middle of the night. and for some reason our taxi driver came from another town. but whatever.

we got on our bus, which was well air-conditioned, and settled in. well, since it was the middle of the night (okay, well 5am i guess is the early morning) it wasn't actually hot. at all. so we spent the first part of our journey with goosebumps trying to get a little more sleep.

eventually we seemed to arrive somewhere. everyone got off the bus and got in line to get our "leaving costa rica" stamp. well. this line rivaled the line for space mountain on the busiest day at disney. it snaked back and forth through a dirt parking lot with no sun. we stood in this line for over 2 hours. sometimes there seemed to be regular movement. but other times it would just stop. for like 20 minutes. at one point we got excited that we might actually get the the shady portion of the line just before entering the building. but no. we were just out of reach and the line stopped for like a half an hour.

eventually we got through, having ruined all my careful tanning on the patio in the process. we found our bus and got back on. the driver collected all of our passports and $8. this was for the "entering nicaragua" portion of the border crossing.

so while we wait, colleen decides she's going to use the bathroom on the bus. she goes, but then comes back pretty quickly. apparently there was a big crap in the toilet. so we're waiting and the driver goes to the back - seems someone has told him about the poo - and berates the back of the bus - los banos son solamente para liquidas!!! the bathroom is only for liquids! then he gets off the bus and moments later comes back. carrying a big stick.

the nicaragua portion of the border crossing goes much easier. the bus driver gets all the passports stamped. all we have to do is get our bags out from under the bus and stand in a short line to talk to the customs guy. you show him your form and then you press a button connected to a modified stop light with only two options. red - you go inside to have your bags searched - or green - back to the bus. luckily colleen and i both get green.

getting all the luggage back on the bus ends up being a bit of a project as well. but we do discover that the bus can drop us off in granada instead of taking us all the way to managua where we would have to get *another* bus to granada. we arrive in granada at about 5pm. a very long day, for sure. all in all the whole border crossing extravaganza tooks us about four and a half hours. aye dios mio!.

but now we're here. we've had some dinner. some beers. we have a place to stay. free internet. and we don't have to work for a whole week!!

new and soon to be one and only

so i have a new job. and when i start this new job, it will be my one and only job. and i'm guaranteed 24 hours a week (and that's full time for english teachers in costa rica). i will no longer be looking for second jobs like it is my job. so that's exciting. more exciting is that i will be seeing an increase in salary. instead of making a measly $5.50 an hour i will now be raking it in at the incredible rate of $6.00 an hour!!! i'll also get a foreign hire stipend of ¢84,000 a month - which rocks and i'll get two hours of free spanish classes every week.

so things are looking good. luckily this new school is running on the same bimester schedule as my current school - so i can finish out my term here (instead of leaving in the middle) and then start my new school straight away. they're also going to get me a work visa. which is a good thing. though i do kind of like the idea of *needing* to go on a mini-vacation every three months to renew my visa. but whatever.

the only bad thing is that colleen is leaving at the end of this bimester. she had always planned to go back to the states this summer for some weddings and to make a little money. but now it's looking like she won't come back in the fall. so i've got to find either a new roommate or a new place to live. that'll be a spanish adventure, for sure.

next week is semana santa - holy week - which means there are no classes. and since i need to get my visa renewed, colleen and i are heading to nicaragua for the week. we have a 10 hour bus journey this sunday, and then we are spending a couple of nights in granada. after that we are heading to the island of ometepe in lake nicaragua. the island is formed by two volcanoes. there was actually an article about it in the paper two weeks ago, and it looks pretty spectacular. we'll spend 3 nights there, do some hikes, see some ancient petroglyphs, and hang at the beach a little. i'm looking forward to it.

i'm not sure how internet connected this island is going to be, but i'll post a full report when i get back, and hopefully some pictures. oh - and also the answer to the mystery device contest. which no one won, by the way. :P

a first time for everything...

so when i woke up on tuesday morning there was no power. i didn't actually realize it at first. the sun shines directly into the bathroom in the morning, and lights a lot of the apartment. it wasn't until i tried to put on the kettle for a cup of tea (we have an electric range) that i realized i wasn't just sleepy/stupid - the stove wasn't turning on. but whatever, not a huge deal. this is costa rica. the power goes out from time to time. i made a hot tap water cup of tea and got on with my morning.

by the time i left for work around 4pm the power was *still* out. that concerned me a little.

when colleen and i arrived home at 10:30pm and the lights were on in the hall and at our neighbors' - we were relieved. however, when we walked into our apartment the lights were STILL not working. then i started getting annoyed. we donned our headlights and grabbed what we could from the fridge - a little cold pasta, some leftover rice. we decided it was too late to call rita, our landlady.

so first thing in the morning colleen called her, and she sprung into action (she is actually very helpful). I, of course, was still sleeping at this time. Rita stopped by about mid-morning and we had a little chat. or maybe chat is too strong of a word. she talked and i mostly understood. i did manage to explain that we had *never* received any sort of electricity bill (the people downstairs are supposed to distribute them when they come). so she seemed to think that it was because of an unpaid bill.

so colleen gets home and we go out for lunch, since we've eaten all the cooked food in the house already. needless to say i was feeling a little annoyed. first of all with mail in general. seriously, important bills like electricity and telephone are just tucked into the gate or something. no envelopes, and there are no mailboxes. and in theory we could just go to the supermarket and pay the bills - but that only works if we have an old bill to present, so they know the account number (they don't really do mail, so sending checks doesn't work. you have to go to a supermarket or pharmacy and pay in cash.). so we couldn't exactly do that either.

i had to go to work, but colleen was going to be home and try to figure things out with rita. by the time i got home, the power was back. hurrah! cooking! hot water! rotting veggies and dairy products! so it turns out that our bill had not been paid for 4 consecutive months. last year. and obviously recently as well - since we never received a bill. but there you have it - i had my electricity turned off. though it wasn't really my fault. just an interesting life experience.

estoy enferma

i'm sick. blah. with a cold, of all things! i've been sneezing up a storm, trying to keep after my runny nose, and hoping that i don't lose my voice. i keep thinking about going to the pharmacy and trying to get some medicine. but instead i'm rationing out the dayquil caplets that i brought with and sleeping (sort of) with tissues on my pillow. yuck. also, it comes and goes. i can't quite figure out why or where, but every so often i'll realize that i'm breathing just fine through my nose. or that i haven't sneezed in a long time. so far all i can figure is that it's worse when i'm trying to sleep!

so i am in the first week of our new bimester at school. and i'm only teaching at one school right now, my first one. my second second job kind of fell through for the moment... they only hire people with work visas, and they can only get people work visas if they are full time, and i could only work part time for them this bimester because i already said i would work here at centro part time. but next bimester i think i will have a new job and possibly be on my way to having a work visa! very exciting.

for now, with no visa, colleen and i are planning our border run for semana santa (holy week - the week leading up to easter) since we have no classes that week. we are looking to go to nicaragua, visit some beaches and whatever. should be good. i might even get paid half time for it! so that's all that's news for now.

where i live

a few photos from our apartment... finally.

this is our street. it's very quiet. there's a bus stop. not very exciting. but there you have it.

our living room. we've actually moved the furniture around a little bit. the one restriction is where the cable comes in for the television, so we're limited as to where we can put the giant hutch/cabinet thing on which the tv rests. so this is what we've settled on for now.

here is our little kitchen. it has a microwave, which is more than we had in our place in quepos. it's not really set up that great either... i have a tendency to hit my head on the cabinets when i'm at the sink. and once i got a big bruise on my hip from hitting the counter when i stood up from crouching in front of the fridge.

a room so small it can really only contain my bed. oh well. it's comfy, but the window opens out onto the stairs outside the apartment and i can hear everything that goes on in the apartment across the way. everything. and there's a big closet. what more could a girl need...

ah, the patio. the most exciting part of the whole place. the plants really make it a lot nicer. this is where i do most of my tanning - between the hours of 10:30 and 12:30. it's also nice to sit out there and get a little natural light even when there isn't direct sun. it's our only source of natural light in the apartment.

mystery device contest

so here is a photo of a very common item in many costa rican homes. think you know what it is? submit your guess in a comment.

spanish adventures - waxing is fun

so "spanish adventures" is the term that colleen came up with for something we do pretty frequently here. basically it's when you go out somewhere to accomplish some task that at home would seem easy and straightforward, but with the different language and culture becomes, well, an adventure. opening a bank account was an adventure. getting something at the pharmacy is an adventure. and yesterday i had a fabulous spanish adventure.

so living somewhere warm where i'm constantly wearing capris, skirts, and my bathing suit it seemed like a good idea to get my legs waxed. so i had that done before i left for costa rica. well, it was time for that to happen again, and so began my adventure. i had seen this sign in front of a salon that my bus drives by everyday that said (among other things) depilacion. which got me thinking. that nair cream stuff - that's called delapilatory cream or something, right? so that's kind of close, maybe they do waxing at this salon.

well, i tried to do some online research as to what the actual phrase might be in spanish (it's always best to know a few key words in any spanish adventure). what i came up with was hace encerar de la pierna? do you do leg waxing? so after procrastinating a little (because my spanish is crap, the adventures always require a little more guts for me than they do for colleen, who speaks pretty well) i set off to the salon. as i approached i saw there were a couple people inside and the gate was open. i walked by. about a block later, i turned back and headed in with my prepared speech: perdona mi espanol! pero, hace encerar de la pierna? (excuse my spanish! but, do you do leg waxing?) the woman replied no. blah blah solamente cabezas blah blah. (only heads - como se dice "blah blah" en espanol?). oh. okay. i had kind of suspected that this might happen. so i said: sabe donde...? (do you know where...?). well, she went on a bit of a run here, but what i got out of it was: derecho... carreterra... dos ceintos... a la derecha... estetica... (straight... the main road... 2 blocks... to or on the right... estetica...) so being the yes person that i am i'm going si, si, esta bien, gracias and off i go.

so up to the main road, i turn right, and i walk, looking for esteticas - which i've seen signs for before. so i walk and walk. about 4 blocks and no estetica. so i start thinking that maybe she had said to go left and it was *on* the right after two blocks. so i turn back and sure enough i eventually come across an estetica. i walk by. and then i walk back, examine the sign out front telling about all their services. i ring the buzzer and a boy comes out, lets me in and asks what service i want. i try to explain leg waxing - using some gestures - and he speaks a little english and understands. so he gets his dad, who also speaks a little english, and he tells me that yes, they do that, i would have to wait 30 minutes or so. no problem, my only other plan for the afternoon was to go to the supermarket. but then comes my favorite part - i ask cuanto cuesta? how much? he wasn't sure, so he had to call his wife. well, she tells him it's....

cinco mil.

5,000 colones. 10 US dollars. what???!!!! i try to act cool. okay, that's fine. inside i feel a little guilty, like i'm stealing. so i sit and attempt to read glamour magazine in spanish. and the dad tells the boy to show me some of the before and after pictures from the services they offer. so he's showing me all these pictures of peoples noses, and wrinkles, and butts... i'm not really sure why and i'm kind of wondering if i've signed myself up for something more than a leg waxing. but after i pretend to care how they've improved these womens butts for a little while he leaves me to struggle through the magazine. eventually the wife/mother shows up, and she speaks even better english. so she is the one that tells me what i should really be saying when i want a leg waxing - depilacion.

so eventually my lady shows up - liliana - and does a pretty good job (although i had a bit more wax residue on my legs than i usually have after a wax at home). so she is trying to learn some english and me a little spanish, so we sort of chat, and she gives me her phone number for next time. and at $10 a pop, i think i'll be a pretty loyal customer. sometimes it's pretty cheap to be a woman in costa rica. and sometimes spanish adventures are fun.

i might get paid maybe someday...

so today i managed to successfully open a bank account. so i might actually get paid someday maybe. which would be exciting. although i have to admit there were two very important things that made my bank adventure successful: a letter from the school i work at that said "please open an account for ann so we can pay her" and the lessons learned from colleen when she opened her account 2 weeks ago. so i went in all prepared with my passport, my letter, and an electric bill to prove my address. i also knew that when she asked me solterra o casada? that i am solterra (single). *and* the most important thing - when she started babbling on about lunes and las dos en la tarde that was when i can come back to pick up my atm card (monday after 2pm). so good things. a successful spanish adventure.

so i am attempting to be more employed. i went to this language institute last saturday to say i was living in san jose and could i leave my resume. well to my surprise the girl asked if i wanted to speak with the director now. well sure. so i chatted with this guy for like an hour about the school and their system and what-not. he asked me to come back on wednesday from 11 to 1 for "training" - though i kind of got the idea it would also partly be like an audition.

so i went on wednesday and there was about 5 other people there too. a few ticos and an american boy. so we all kind of got the demo of how they run their classes and stuff. and then we were all asked to do a little demo of the system in the language we intended to teach (so there was some spanish, some english, and one girl was even going to teach portugeuse). so i was pretty good, i have taught before and i'm not afraid to look a little silly in front of other people, especially not strangers.

BUT. after we ran 30 minutes over the 2 hours (because this one annoying girl was being super nit-picky about some grammar thing - but they were talking in spanish and i actually kind of understood most of what they were saying - yeah me!) i still didn't know if i had a job. and how much i might be paid if i did have a job. they asked me to come back next wednesday for another training session, to talk some more about what they do in the more advanced classes. *sigh* so i'm going, but part of me is a little annoyed - i mean i feel like i'm jumping through all these hoops and they won't even tell me if i'm going to be hired and how much i would get paid. so i can't help but wonder if this is all a waste of my time.

other than that, not much else is going on. i had to conduct midterm interviews this week in my classes (which no one actually told me how to do). basically i was just supposed to ask them a couple of questions and make notes on how they speak in their responses. so i guess it went okay. but i still generally feel like i don't know what i'm doing. i'm grading writing assignments and giving interveiws and conducting classes whatever way i feel like. i know this place has lots of systems in place and ways of doing things.... but no one seems that interested in letting me know what those ways are. so i guess they can just deal with my crappy execution of stuff until they take the time to tell me other wise.

so colleen is kind of excited to do something for the super bowl this weekend (it is this weekend, right?). not that either of us care about football at all. but we just thought it might be fun to hang around with other people and watch something in english. does anyone know what channel the super bowl is on? or what time it's on? i'm sure we'll figure it out...

hebrew day school

so i found this ad in the tico times (which is the english language newspaper for costa rica) for a teacher at an american school in rohmorser (this is the neighborhood i live in). so i e-mail my resume and later the same day the woman e-mails me back that yes, she is still looking for a teacher. so i call her, we play a little phone tag, and yesterday morning we actually spoke. she asked me if i could meet with her at 2pm that afternoon and i said yes.

it turns out that this is not just an american school, it's a hebrew school. in fact it's a school that one of the instructors in my TEFL course mentioned. but i haven't been scared off, it's not like i'm teaching in hebrew or about judaism - i'd be teaching language arts, math and science. plus the pay is supposed to be pretty good and i would only have to work monday through friday, 8am-3:30pm.

i was a little early just like she asked me to be - because she had another appointment a half an hour after mine. but i waited over 45 minutes for her to show up (15 minutes early, she showed up 30 minutes late).

then i actually started talking with her... she asked me about discipline and i said that i felt i could be strict when neccesary, that children need boundries (which was the right answer) but she went off on how sometimes you hear kids saying things they shouldn't and you might want to just pretend you didn't hear, but you have a responsibility to do something about it... and then she was on about the right and wrong way to do things: hold a pencil, write certain letters, etc. for about 5 minutes. oh yes, and then my favorite part - how teachers are supposed to look. traditional. the dress code is slightly different for the non-hebrew teachers (hebrew women are supposed to cover their collarbones, elbows and knees). shirts should be crewneck. elbows don't have to be covered - but the sleeve should go to nearly the elbow, no short sleeves. no pants. skirts and dresses only. and of course they must cover the knee (and she went off on how when she was growing up her mother always told her that they had to cover the knee even when you sit down, that was the real test). and you can wear open toed shoes, but only if you wear panty hose. because it's not right for teachers to be showing their painted toenails and whatnot. no visible tattoos (pretty standard). no more than one earring in each ear (because if you start letting more, then next it's nose rings and....)

so i was completely inappropriately dressed for this interview. i was wearing open toed shoes - and no panty hose (i don't even own any because i HATE them), capris, my yin-yang was sticking out, my shirt was too low cut (and really, it's not, it's just a v-neck, and cleavage is not really a problem i have), and i was wearing too many earrings.

despite all this she still seemed like she might want to hire me (she's pretty desparate - school starts on the first of february). but i don't want the job anymore. this woman is insane. and a complete control freak about the teacher image. and holding pencils. and really she hardly asked me a thing about myself. plus she's under the delusion that if she e-mailed my references on friday afternoon that they would get back to her by saturday evening. clearly she's delusional.

and obviously i'm not taking the job. i'm in town now to print out some more copies of my resume and drop them at a couple of language schools. but for now i remain under-employed.

at one week in...

so i'm at a little over one week in right now, and i thought i should post a little update on how things are going.

so i am actually teaching a little bit right now. on tuesday last week (after i went into the school and they told me they didn't have any classes for me since the bimester already started) the director called and asked me if i wanted to take half of a monday/wednesday class because the current class had too many students. so i took it. i was a little freaked about teaching for 3 hours (though it's actually only 2 1/2 with the breaks) so i went in on tuesday night to watch someone's class. which was actually very reassuring. i got my books are started planning my first lesson.

then on wednesday morning the director called again - did i want to take a class on tuesday and thursdy nights? so i took that one too. so now i teach two classes - which meet twice a week - on monday through thursday nights. it's kind of fun. the students are nice. but there is tons TONS of paperwork... i have to fill out ongoing assesment sheets, grade writing assignments, schedule exams, sign this, and fill out that... it's a little much. and i'm still trying to get everything set up so that i can get paid (but not until february 15th - it's a 15th/30th kind of place)

in the meantime i'm not really doing a whole lot. partly because there's not a whole lot to do that i know how to find. i've been working on my tan - on our patio (and i use that word loosely - it's a room with no ceiling and 15 foot concret walls all around in the center of a block of buildings). and trying to figure everything out. i don't have to teach for the rest of this week, because there's some sort of conference thing that all the teachers (except me and colleen) are going to this week. so my big goal is to find some more hours at a different place. and to find a bar near our house. and maybe get a plant for our concrete bunker patio.

i am going to try to upload a couple of photos of our apartment maybe later this week.

palmares

so i'm back in costa rica. had a very long day of traveling on saturday... because i used my frequent flier miles to get here, i had the crappiest schedule. i flew out of boston at 9am heading for detroit. i had an hour and a half layover there. then i flew to atlanta. where i had a THREE and a half hour layover. then i was finally on my way to san jose at about 6:45pm. we arrived at about quarter to ten and i was SO PLEASED that when i got out to the luggage carousel, my bag was already making it's way around.

so i had already arranged for this transport service to pick me up at the airport (not only is it easy, but it's cheaper than a taxi) and take me to the hostel i thought i would be staying at. but i had an e-mail from my friend colleen earlier that week saying that she had found us an apartment. it was too late to change my destination (and i think they will only take you to hotels) so i went to the hostel and immediately asked the guy to call me a taxi. i gave colleens directions to the driver and he took me to my apartment. :)

we live in a small apartment building, there are maybe 6-8 other apartments. there's a big living room, a decent kitchen, a patio (which is in the center of the block, so has no view, but does get sun and maybe we'll put a plant or something out there), a bathroom with real hot water (not the costa rican favorite - the thing that heats the water as it comes out of the shower head), and our two bedrooms. pretty nice.

so we slept kind of late sunday, then went out for breakfast and some exploring. had my gallo pinto con heuvos, which was so good (and much better than my own attempt at home). did a little grocery shopping. then colleen called a friend from work about this festival type thing that was going on. so it turned out that we had to cut our exploring short and go home and get some stuff together to head out to san ramon to go to this festival.

so the festival is not far from san ramon, in a town called palmares. it's hard to explain... it's kind like a state fair, but not. i mean, there are some carnival rides, lots of greasy food, little shopping stalls, apparently there was a horse parade last week. but along with those things there are also a number of bars/discos/clubs built on the site. massive places, with multiple levels. i think during the days there are also concerts.

so we got there late afternoon. we wandered around, went on a couple of rides. i had some thing the name of which i can't remember, but it was a hot corn tortilla smeared with sour cream, very yummy. then we chose a bar with a reasonable cover charge and started dancing. there was also a stage inside. sometimes there were just dancers on the stage. there was also a guy who had his body painted like a leopard dancing around with a black light and a giant infaltable ball. and another guy painted silver and wearing wings with a disco ball and flames shooting out from his wrists. very strange stuff. but the dancing was fun. :)

so we stayed in san ramon with colleen's friend (steven, who also works at the same place she does) and got up early this morning to catch a bus back to san jose. needless to say i'm a little exhausted, i've had a pretty intense weekend. and now i'm trying to get my bearings... i'm still looking for a job. there was the possibility that i could get a job where colleen is working, but i arrived later than she had wanted and so they had to shuffle and assign the classes with the teachers they had. not a big deal. so i'll be job searching and learning to navigate the city this week.

anyhow. i'm here now. write me e-mails!

the other beaches (more photos)

so here are a bunch of photos from the beaches we traveled through and to after the course ended. (when in theory i should have been looking for a job).

somehow this is the only picture i have of our house in quepos... i thought about taking some pictures when we first moved in, but never did. this is me the morning of our departure from quepos, still dressed from the night before, packing my bag and preparing to run to the bus station.

our first beach destination: montezuma. the building you can see (yes, the one right on the beach) is the hostel we stayed at. downstairs there was a restaurant and upstairs were the rooms. there was also a balcony area where we could sit and stare out at the ocean. before we found out that we could light fires on the beach.

this is the waterfall we hiked out to see in montezuma. hike is maybe too strong of a word... there was a short path and then we were pretty much walking along the edge of this river/stream and climbing all over the rocks. eventually we came to this waterfall - which was beautiful and spent some time there diving off the rocks into the pool and just kind of chilling.

here we all are, camped out on the beach in front of our fire one night. this was before we had the brilliant idea to dig out these little recliner shapes in the sand and cover them with the sarongs. we also had progressively bigger fires. as you do.

it may not look like much, but this was our super great snorkeling spot at playa ocotal. there was one beach (play ocotal) and another nearby beach (the name of which escapes me now) and between them was this rocky bit sort of jutting out into the ocean. there was this little sort of sheltered area where we got in. we saw a blowfish, some other crazy fish i don't know the names of, some stingrays... all very cool.

our last beach destination. since we didn't really spend that much time lying on the beach while we were at playa del coco (we were snorkeling and tooling around on the scooter), i spent a good deal of time in tamarindo trying to top off my tan. and here is one of the fabulous sunsets that finished off a day at the beach.

so very soon i'll be headed back to costa rica. though i'll be living in san jose and might not be able to get to the beach as often as last time, i'm still looking forward to it. i know everyone's been saying how mild the winter has been here in the northeast, but i've been freezing since i got back. in fact i'm shivering as i type. looking forward to more temperate climates. i may put up one more set of photos before i go... the couple days in the mountains and the volcano. but we'll see how the rest of my to do list goes...