yes i am the highly suggestible type

so last night as i was preparing to cook myself some mini-cheese quesadillas in the hostel kitchen the guy from the front desk came out and said those magic words i've been waiting to hear "your luggage is here". so fabulous. so now i have all my stuff - and an extra toiletries that i bought before the bag showed up. plus the mini-cheese quesadillas were fabulous and then we all watched LOTR the two towers.

this morning i slept late (sort of - at least i wasn't waking up all through the night trying to make sure i didn't miss my morning bus like i did the night before) and then went out in search of some breakfast. i was pretty proud of myself - i ordered and conversed with the waitress *all in spanish*. here's our conversation:

chica: que quiere?
me: gallo pinto con huevos (this is rice and beans with eggs - a typical tico breakfast)
chica: huevos revueltos o fritos?
me: revueltos (i looked this up before i went to the restaurant - it means scrambled). y un cafe
chica: con leche?
me: si.

coffee with milk!!?? you might be asking incredulously. i drink black coffee if you didn't know. and yes i am the highly suggestible type. in fact when i was in san jose my first night i had an empanada and a coffee from this little diner next to my hotel. and after she poured my coffee she got me a spoon, opened the sugar jar, and put the spoon in. so i dutifully scooped some sugar into my coffee and stirred.

when my food came i put some of the hot sauce that was on the table on my eggs. i don't know why. it's not something i normally do. it might have been because the side of the jar said (in english) "keep away from the hands of small children". i thought that was pretty amusing.

i went down to the beach and wandered through the market (but didn't buy anything) and then i sat by the water for a while. i don't know if i've mentioned, but the weather is FABULOUS. it's warm and it hasn't rained at all today (this is the tail end of the rainy season). this afternoon i went on a mission to find my apartment where i'll be staying during the course. tonight i'm thinking about making nachos.

turbulence

turbulence has been a pretty major component of my trip so far... the flight from atlanta to san jose was probably one of the bumpiest i've ever been on. i don't know if it has to do with flying over the carribean or if it just happened to be a bumpy day. and then today my shuttle bus from san jose to quepos was majorly turbulent. and i've made it here safely, despite the scary, scary bridges we drove over on the way.

however, my luggage is still not here.... the man in the office said that they called earlier... but he is presently trying to find the message. hopefully it's good news. if not i'm going to have to go out for some toiletries tonight.

it seems much warmer in quepos - which is nice, since i was a little chilly and unhappy in my room in san jose last night. and we're close to the beach, which is always nice. the hostel i'm at is nice. when the shuttle guy dropped me off there was a sign on the gate that said "warning, big dog" or something, but when i came in the gate there he was.... passed out in the middle of the walkway. and now that he's been awake, he is so not warning worthy. plus there's a couple of other dogs about and a nice big courtyard area.

not sure what is in store for tomorrow, but the day after i'll be moving into my apartment for the course - so it'll be nice to sort of set up shop in one place instead of staying in the dorms... more tomorrow.

getting there (is not fun at all)

so i'm here. and it's been a very VERY long day for me. probably because i decided it would be better to not go to bed at all than it would be to go to sleep sometime around midnight and then wake up at 3:30 in the morning. so after a relaxing evening of watching tv and lounging with my cat we took off for the airport around 4am.

i was there in plenty of time (2 hours early? please, i can't really think of when i've ever needed that much time). i wandered around with my dad until it seemed like the right time to get into the security line. i mangaged to time it quite well and had just enough time to get through security, walk the long, long way to my gate, rest for a few minutes and board the plane.

our flight was practically empty - which was great. so i stretched out and got a little shut-eye. however. we got into atlanta nearly a half an hour late - which really cut into my 45 minute layover. so i had to do a little early morning jogging and barely made my plane - and the flight attendants informed me and the other 4 late-comers that they might have left already if there hadn't been a problem with the smoke alarms.

so late to atlanta, late to san jose. and then i waited and waited and waited for my bag to be dumped out onto the baggage claim belt. and i waited some more. then there was an announcement for passengers who had arrived by way of boston and atlanta should go to the desk. our luggage had not arrived. *sigh*

so thanks to a lovely tourist info desk girl i managed to contact my interbus company (which was supposed to collect me at the airport and then take me to the spot i would get my bus to quepos), explain what had happened, get some information on the place i was going to stay in quepos, and re-book me for tomorrow morning's bus to quepos.

so for tonight i'm still in san jose. at some random hotel reccomended by the interbus people. hoping i can find some dinner without having to try to hard. and then laying on my bed and watching some spanish tv.

hopefully tomorrow i will be a little happier and nearer to the beach!!!!

quepos, costa rica

thought i'd just post a little about the town i'll be in - at least for my initial training - quepos. from let's go costa rica 2003 (yes, a very old version, which i bought used and cheap since the new version will come out just after i arrive and there was no point in buying a full priced version that will be out of date in a month):

"three and a half hours south of san jose, the city of quepos is one of the central pacific's most well-trodden destinations, not so much because it has anything of real interest to see, but rather for its proximity to tourist-magnet parque nacional manual antonio and the dozens of tour operators who run adventure trips into the raging rivers and wild mountain terrain just outside town."

so a quiet town near (expensive, i hear) adventure travel. mostly i'm hoping to come back at christmas time with a tan and to be a slightly better surfer. oh yeah, and be certified to teach english as a second language. :) i'm very excited about my trip and if i manage to meet some people half as cool as the people i met teaching in japan, then it should be a great time.

in 48 hours from now i should have actually touched down in costa rica to begin my adventure. buen viaje!

hang loose redux

i've long since recovered from the frustration of losing my post at the shipboard internet center... and i'm not really 100% sure of what i was planning on saying anymore. so instead i'll just post a few more pictures from hawaii as a reminder to "just hang loose".


towards the end of the cruise there was a shift change for some of the crew. and we finally got a cabin steward who knew how to make towel animals. which of course is one of the more amusing things about cruises. we also got a bunny. but out of a 7 day cruise, 2 towel animals does not an extra tip earn.


the zipline in kauai was probably one of the cooler things i've done in my life. here's meg en route across the zipline. the guy in the blue shirt works for the zipline company. but he was once a mere vacationer who never went home and found this job. he's my hero. plus he's from nashua and says he would like to open a zip course in north conway someday. i'm so there. :)


on the last day of the cruise we did some "scenic cruising" past the napali coast on kauai. which was amazing and beautiful. and perhaps due to the proximity of the bar to our viewing spot on deck i took about 100 pictures that all look relatively the same. but none-the-less it was cool.


the sunset on waikiki beach. sadly it's never really an *amazing* sunset in hawaii because as the air gets cooler the clouds pretty much always move in or something. so no crystal clear sunset, but still really nice.

hawaii is definitely somewhere i could see myself being happy for a while. it's beautiful, warm, there aren't any of those bad things that i hate, and the people are nice. but alas - i'm off to costa rica in less than 2 weeks. hopefully i have a similar reaction... and hopefully my spanish improves.