why wouldn´t the light switch be IN the shower?

so this weekend, i decided to get away from getting away. i hopped on a bus and then i hopped on another bus and then i waited, drank some papaya juice and hopped on a 3rd bus. i decided to go to playa del coco because it is supposedly near some good snorkeling places. since it´s just me, i had to splurge on a room by myself and am paying $12 a night at this place right on the beach.

this is the beach i`m right on (playa del coco--obviously i didn`t take this picture).

but as you can see, there are many boats docked and so it doesn`t make for the best lounging beach. so i hiked a few miles (and saw monkeys along the way) down the coast to this beach (ocotal).

you can`t tell, but the sand was black. it was all glittery and soft. i didn`t realize that black sand even existed, but there you are. so there were still a lot of boats in this beach, but less people and that island in the background was chock full of interesting marine life. i finally was able to use my snorkel gear as i swam around the island around the reefs and such. it was very cool. i snorkeled, slept, read my book, swam, slept some more and then i hiked back to coco. after showering and enjoying the freedom of walking around naked in my room, i went out and splurged on amazing seafood. by splurged i mean spent $8 on a 9 oz yellow fin steak with all the fixins. then i had a blackberry shake and went back to the hotel and read and watched tv.

i`m thinking about renting a scooter next weekend and driving along the coast to the southern tip of the peninsula, but it all depends on the roads because this time of year they are often flooded. so worse comes to worse, i`ll just surf in between sessions of conference (that i can hopefully stream at the internet cafe).

the tides, they are a changing

so weird thing about going to bed at 8 every night. you wake up early. so i woke up early this morning and it was stinking gorgeous. there´s talk of a major storm headed this way, but the weather the past couple of days has been quite mild. so i walked along the beach to see if the surf place was open, but they had converted into a snorkel place for the day so i decided to go explore some tide pools that i´ve always wanted to check out, but never been around during low tide.

so i hopped over rocks and waded through some shallow pools and went around a bunch of outcroppings until i was completely alone. i found a smooth rock and set myself up. it would have been a perfect place to roll out the towel and take a nap, but i was afraid i´d wake up terribly sunburned and stranded by the incoming tide. as it turned out, i narrowly escaped both.

apparently the place i was at was set farther back into the rock and i was in a tiny little cove and couldn´t see the surrounding beach so i wasn´t aware of the tide coming in. i started to get really hot so i decided to take a shade break. on my way out i stopped to take some pictures of these crabs (that could jump and walked on water for short bursts--2 things i didn´t realize crabs did). as i was setting up my camera, a big wave came in and filled the pool up to my knees. ¨hmmm,¨ thought i. ¨i should probably get out of here.¨ so i did and it was in good time. i was never too worried because i was in the process of reintroducing my thighs to sunshine and they were still so luminously white that i´m sure they could have been seen from the moon and the slightest movement on my part would have sent the rescue teams in the right direction.

so i got to the school, rinsed the salt away and admired the new racoon-eye tan line i have (along with a collection of shifting backpack tan lines).

pura vida.

el tercer estornudo

yo estornudé muchas veces ayer, pero solamente dos fueron importante.

estornudo numero 1...mi profesor me bendijo con salud.

estornudo numero 2...mi profesor me bendijo con dinero.

...pero desafortunadamente, estornudo numero 3 vino unos minutos más tarde y me trayό más de salud.

por eso yo pensé:

¿por qué en mis estornudos también estoy soltera?

y después:

¿qué pasa si amor viniera más tarde? ¿por qué el amor necesita esperar para la salud y el dinero?

y después:

tal vez el amor no necesita esperar para estos. Porque vimos todo el tiempo el dinero antes de la salud o el amor sin el dinero.

pero, ¿qué es un estornudo?

es una manera del cuerpo para limpiarse.

entonces tal vez no es una jerarquía. tal vez es un proceso. y el amor viene después del todo porque usualmente se requiere la mayoría de limpieza. y cuando la limpieza está terminado, hay espacio para invitar y recibir el amor.

entonces es posible que yo tenga que estornudar más.

tengo que derrocar el miedo para el valor.

tengo que eliminar la preocupaciόn para la oportunidad.

tengo que expulsar indiferencia para la fe.

mientras tanto, por lo menos tengo mi salud.

tentative itinerary

because i have an unusual amount of spare time, i´ve been planning (yes, i said PLAN-ing) my post-school tour of central america. using my mad paint skills, i have created a map detailing the tour, past, present and future. (mom, you can keep this for future reference when you´re worried about me).

pink: this shows the route that i took with cristi, jen and christina. we landed in san jose, went on to la fortuna, saw the arenal volcano and toured the canopy in monteverde. christina and i then went on to playa samara where i currently rest my head at night (for several uninterrupted hours).
green: this shows the route that i will take either this weekend or the weekend after that. i want to go snorkeling at one of the beaches near playa del coco and check out the northern beaches.blue: shows the route that i´ll be taking after school is out. i´ll follow roughly this schedule (this is mainly for my mom and for those of you who are interested in which areas i can report on. i really don´t expect anyone else to care).

• sat, oct 13th: leave samara early morning. bus to nicoya, liberia, cross the nicaraguan border, spend the night in san juan del sur.
• sun, oct 14th: spend the day in san juan del sur. head to granada in the evening.
• mon, oct 15th: spend the day in granada. head back to costa rica in the evening.
• tue, oct 16th: travel to puntarenas and spend the night.
• wed, oct 17th: head to jaco in the morning and onto playa hermosa, spend the day and night at playa hermosa.
• thu, oct 18th: head to quepos in the afternoon and spend the night there.
• fri, oct 19th: play in quepos and manuel antonio.
• sat, oct 20th: head to dominical in the morning and stay there over night.
• sun, oct 21st: travel to golfito and spend the night. **if i get short on time, this will be the stop i skip.
  
• mon, oct 22nd: cross the panamanian border and spend the night in david.
• tue, oct 23rd: head up to bocas del toro and spend the night.
• wed, oct 24th: play in bocas in the day and cross back into costa rica in the evening on my way to cahuita (caribbean side).
• thu, oct 25th: play in cahuita in the day and head over to limon in the evening.
• fri, oct 26th: leave for san jose on the first bus out of limon, get on a plane and make it back to nyc by midnight.

so it´s tight, but it´s totally doable because, watch me do it.

that´s it. today i have classes. i´m going to start another book and i think i´m going to take some sort of ridiculous latin dance class with vancouver. should be interesting.

weekend

so first of all, here are some pics and vids that christina posted:

http://leaditout.blogspot.com/2007/09/costa-rica-in-pictures.html

friday after classes, i went out to lunch with this girl from vancouver who is in my class. then i took a long solitary walk along the beach, pulled up a log and read and ate peanuts. then i went home, read some more, ate dinner, read some more, watched law and order, wondered what exciting things other people were doing with their weekends and went to sleep.

saturday, i woke up and it was amazing and beautiful outside. i was going to go surfing, but then i remembered that vancouver and i are planning on going next week after class and i didn´t want to show up and try to earn my chops alongside the locals by myself. it`s always better to embarrass yourself with others. so i packed a few books and a lunch and i hiked 5 miles to the next beach down the coast. it was 5 miles of winding jungly road. it was gorgeous. there were iguanas and birds and crabs everywhere. i pulled up a log under a palm tree and read and listened to my ipod and wrote postcards (all of which will probably say the same thing as this blog entry). i was seriously the only person on the beach and i was sort of waiting for a pirate ship to sail up and start a bloody battle with the natives. instead, a big black dog showed up and was trying to play fetch with me with a coconut. i can`t throw very well so he wasn`t terribly amused and eventually pulled up some sand next to me. i headed home when it started pouring and by the time i got back, i was soaked. so i took a shower (there is no shower like a post-drenched, beach-day shower...wait, post-skiing showers are also choice) and read my book and ate dinner and read my book some more and watched law and order and went to sleep.

so last night i had this awesome dream. i dreamed that there was this group of dogs that instead of lifting their legs when they marked their territory, crossed their legs in a curtsy. this caused an uproar in the community because people felt like dogs shouldn´t be able to position themselves so because it is unnatural. i joined a group of people who were advocating for dogs to be able to mark their territory in such a manner because it was simply an expression of their individuality and was doing no harm to anyone. we ended up taking the case to court and i got to represent the dogs (even though i am not licensed or trained in law). i don`t know how it all ended up because right then (in real life) my wet shorts slipped off the laundry line above my head and woke me up. i`m sure it would have been historical.

sunday (today), i woke up at 6am, got ready, ate breakfast, stepped in fresh cow pie and got it all over my leg and caught a bus to nicoya where the nearest church is. it took about 80 minutes on the bus and then 20 minutes walking. nobody has addresses here so i didn´t know where it was, but i got off the bus and there was this little family walking down the street that looked like they could be going to a church. i just followed them. they weren´t lds, but 20 minutes later, they passed the church so it worked out ok. i got to give the closing prayer in sacrament meeting, the brach president said, so i could have the opportunity to practice my spanish. i think they were going to ask me to speak next week, but i`m probably going to be checking out a beach further north next weekend. so i`ll be somewhere else. anyway, so i just got back into samara and i think i`ll eat lunch and take a nap and do nothing (like i do everyday).

this is the beach

click here

I'm positive there's a better way to do that, but it's taking too long.

Also, here's one of jen and christina coming in after their final zipline over (not lying) the most beautiful scene imaginable.

click here

oh and here's my neighborhood. notice the river in the street. my house is the yellow one in the background in between the 2 houses in the foreground.

first

so i went surfing this afternoon and it was pretty awesome. i got up on my first wave and rode it all the way in. my instructor said that i did perfectly and so i was all excited and feeling confident about my ability to do this thing. then i quickly realized that it was a total fluke and my initial success had nothing whatsoever to do with my own skill.

pretty much the whole time i had to kneel down before standing up on the board. i was able to pop up a couple of times, but it was totally dependent on the stars. not only do i have a 4-inch vertical, but also i have really bad jumping aim. i didn´t ever think that was something that one needed. i could hold my own on the hop scotch board, but this was a little different. many times when i would try to pop up, i´d end up too far back on the board and the nose would shoot up. sometimes, i would completely miss the board all together (it takes real coordination for that) and i would jump directly off the board. one time, i missed the board, but my unusually large rump caught it. so instead of plunging into the water, i ended up sitting right down and riding the board in on my butt. i just tucked my knees up and held onto the rails.

it was still pretty magical though, the whole experience. i went in the late afternoon and there were probably about 10 others out (all of them instructors). the sun was setting. the sky was enormous and pink. the jungle was misty. the wind was perfect. the water temperature was perfect. it was pretty rad.

i was really lousy at recognizing the waves. my instructor would tell me to start paddling and as far as i could tell there was not a wave in sight. then magically one would appear from underneath me and carry me to the beach. he tried showing me what to look for, but i think i´ll just watch to see when everyone else starts paddling. so it was fun and then i got seasick and then i took a shower and sucked on sugarcane and watched the others surf with some of the locals. then just now on my way over the internet place, this little girl spit ocean water at me. it was very strange. i think she was trying to play.

the everyday

here´s the latest. I have like zero news because my life is not exciting. i do the same thing everyday. i go to classes. i walk on the beach. i eat tico food. i watch law and order or las noticias and i sleep. oh yeah, and i walk around in the rain. my efforts to come back tan have been thwarted by the clouds, but luckily those same clouds have kept things cooler and less buggier. the water in the beach is still warm and that´s really all that matters. i´ve already started to plan for my grand beach tour after i finish here in 3.5 weeks. i was originally wanting to go to panama as part of the excursion, but after some research nicaragua is cheaper and sounds more my speed. votes?

so that´s my story. i´m supposed to go surfing this afternoon and it looks likes it´s going to be in the rain. gavi, my instrtuctor, is kind of your stereotypical surfer-type--not like california dude type, but like ridiculously built, dark, sun-streaked and wavy long hair, copper skin, light blue eyes and total zen about him. he has a class that he teaches on wave theory. that´s next week´s lesson.

oh and mom, i´m in playa samara and the school is called intercultura language school. google them.

es todo.

i live on the beach now

Christina and I arrived at the beach early Sunday afternoon after driving through some pretty amazing scenery. We sat on the beach, sat under shelter while it rained and rained and rained. It was pretty awesome watching people surf while it was pouring.

I checked in with my family. They are pretty adorable. The twins are your typical giggly, chubby-cheeked busy-bodies and the 10-year-old is very polite and seems mature for his age. I'm waiting for the awkwardness of me being new to wear off before he tries to beat me up or something. There are cows and horses that roam around in the neighborhood and they have a green parrot in the back that squawks in Spanish all day. Roosters wake up at around 4am. Frogs croak all night. Monkeys howl and the surf surges. That is my lullaby and wake up call.

I had my first day of classes today and it went really well. There are 2 other people in my class and we're all at the same level. It felt good to study and take notes and it was kind of satisfying to do homework (I'm a geek, I know). It's also nice to have everything be immediately applicable. Of course, when I forgot how to say "twenty" that was kind of demoralizing, but I felt better when I could coherently discuss the problems of the indigenous peoples of Latin America.

So this place is amazingly beautiful and amazingly small. The population is supposed to be 3,000, but I really think that unless you're counting the cows, it's a generous estimate. So that's that.

Here are some pictures. I took some pretty lame ones, but everyone else took better ones and I'll get my hands on them sooner or later and then they will be here.

This is us in the rain forest. It is raining.

This is us eating dinner at a restaurant. It is raining.

***Nevermind. Slow connection. This entry sucks.

This is us waiting for the independence day parade where a giant dog almost ate me. Later on a bus, this guy was like, "Wow, did you see that big dog? It almost kissed you!" It's a small town.

ugh. i give up. i'm not posting any more pictures today. this connection is ridiculous.

yes, i´m begging

so it would be really nice if the only message in my inbox in 3 days weren´t a message from my mother warning me not to drown in the riptide. a little word would be fabulous. how are you? what are you doing? what great things have made you laugh today? how much do you miss me? (yes, indulge my vanity--it doesn´t take much). also, i can still receive all the texts you care to send my way. do you like how i´m this pathetic after 3 days. try me after 6 weeks...

these things made me laugh a lot

--Jen turns around clearly distraught after viewing herself in the mirror. She had given herself a quick glance and was startled that there was some sort of large object attached to her chest. Turns out it was her breasts.
--We were in the ranaria getting led around by Ramon, the frog guide. Christina says, ¨I have a question. Why is it so dark?¨Ramon, the frog guide, answers, ¨It´s night.¨Indeed, it was. He´s SO smart.

yesterday was my half birthday

This is how I celebrated:

We woke up early in the morning in La Fortuna and hiked around the rain forest at the base of a volcano. It was really rainy and really foresty (go figure). Then we went to these amazing hot springs and we pretty much had the place to ourselves.

My new favorite sensory experience: lying submerged in hot, steaming water and listening to a nearby waterfall while cool rain falls on my face and then drifting off to sleep (don´t worry, mom. It was shallow, I was in no danger of drowning).

Then we hopped in a jeep, hopped on a boat and hopped in a van for a fabulously dizzying ride up to Monte Verde.

Another favorite sensory experience: floating by mountains covered in jungle and listening to my fireworks playlist.

We got into Monteverde and went to a ranario where all of us developed crushes on Ramon, the frog guide. Cristi appreciated his ability to discuss scientific subjects in perfect English. Jen was particularly impressed with his ability to discuss frog reproduction without giggling. Christina just wanted him for his body. Me...I´m a sucker for accents.

So this morning, we´re celebrating the national holiday in town. A parade should be rolling by here any minute. Then we´re going to go swing from some trees and tour the canopy. After that, we´re probably going to head to the reserve and hike around in the rain some more. Tonight, we going on a night hike. Then tomorrow, the teachers are off to NYC and Christina and I are off to the beach.

I´ll post pictures as soon as I can find a computer with a USB port.

hemos llegado

yep, we´re here. we´re safe and we´re looking for food. probably going to go dancing tonight. who knows_ $%&/()= those were all of my attempts to make a question mark.

The Great Escape

This is where I'm going to be for the next 6 weeks.


Before I go (in 6 days), I have much to take care of and I'm not looking forward to it. Ug. Fortunately after that, I'll be living on the beach. I already don't want to come back.