When in Costa Rica...

...you must post on your blog. There is plenty of interesting stuff I could tell you about my last couple of weeks when I was still at home and working as an event manager for senior graduation parties. There´s plenty I could tell you about finishing up my old job of 2 and a half years and adjusting to life after Ryther. There´s plenty I could tell you about being macked on by this guy who....no, I won´t tell you about that... but there is plenty I could tell you that is not in any way related to being in Costa Rica.


But that wouldn´t be very fun now would it.

Look at the cool new characters I can make with my spanish keyboard: ¨¿Ñ`Ç

And I can say little and sometimes pointless things in Spanish, like siempre...and fuera...

But for my 2nd day here and having no background in Spanish I´m pretty proud of myself. Jerred and Morgan (my peace corps friends whom I am visiting here) and their host mom Matilde and I all played spoons last night. She speaks no english other than ¨oh my god!" but it´s been fun trying to pick up on conversation based on context, and Jerred and Morgan especially are fantastic translators.

In a lot of ways the community feels like a cross between Tepic (the Mexican city my family visited through our church years ago) and Babine (the Canadian first nations village I lived in for two months during college). We are not without conveniences and live only a short busride from a bigger city, but don´t have hot water, paved roads, or cable. Everyone so far has been very friendly and don´t stare too much at the new gringo girl in the neighborhood :)

Let´s end with a story: Yesterday afternoon we decided to take naps since it had been a long day (I flew in at 5am and the bus ride to San Isidro was three hours). I woke up to the sound of small animals under my bed. Too terrified to move or risk putting my feet on the floor where they could be chewed off, I sat paralyzed for what felt like 5min but was probably only 30 seconds. I turned on the light and whatever was under the bed growled and stilled, but gathering my courage I peeked over the side close to the wall and saw the back of the cat with something black under its paws. The door was shut but there´s a window to the kitchen that is only covered by a sheet, so ¨Mi nina¨ (cat in spanish- thought you would like that, Paul) must have snuck in that way.

Feeling calmer now that I knew she had it under control, I waited until all sounds of crunching ceased and she walked calmly out from under the bed, looked at me as if expecting a ¨Way to go!¨ and meowed three times. I let her out of my room then and chanced a peek under the bed to see only a pile of mussed up feathers, the bird carcass now presumably being in the cat´s stomach. I can´t remember the last time I had such an exciting nap.

I love it when my parents are on vacation

The assumption is probably that I love it because I get to host wild and crazy shindigs and abuse the trust my parents have given me by messing with their stuff and shirking all responsibilities. Now before any of you rebels get overly excited, those are not the reasons why I love it when my parents are on vacation. I've never actually hosted a wild and crazy shindig, with or without my parents' attendance, and I am more likely to get upset about my parents' stuff getting messed with then they are.

The real reason why I love it when they are not around for a week or two (as much as I love you guys), is for the control. The house is mine. It's quiet when I want to read; I can cook whatever I want without being asked to make enough for everyone; I don't have to watch ball games with my dad or fill my mom in on the first half of the movie she missed and now is interested in watching. And I get to clean. I get to clean and the things I clean actually stay clean... except when Christina and Eric are around, but that's hit or miss, and they (eventually) clean up after themselves.

I can't wait to have my own house, that's what it comes down to. But for now, the benefits of getting to hang out with my parents as adults (which I will remember far better than knowing them as a kid) and not having to pay rent, far outweigh the trials of having to share.

I could totally live here, so cute!