back to work

Well, Abbey is back in NJ. And I'm back in the office. I'm probably more bummed about that than she is.

We had a fantastic time (at least I did and I hope she did)! Our first weekend, we had perfect weather for Puerto Viejo, where we drank lots of watermelon slushie drinks, nibbled on chicken nachos, and downed cinnamon oatmeal pancakes, french toast and other goodies. We roasted a bit while floating in the Caribbean...Did I mention the good weather? It didn't rain once (except for a random sprinkle Friday night) - which is nearly unheard of for the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica!

Our week was a little tougher - up early every morning to get to INTENSA and Abbey's Spanish class before 8. She's obviously a smarty-pants because she was in a class with 2 college students and she's only 14! We had lots of afternoon adventures, like getting stuck in the outlet mall during a torrential downpour, lunching at bagelmens, and buying lots of earrings! Unfortunately, then I finally got the gripe, a virus that's been going around down here...

Still, we managed to get to Arenal on Sunday with Marbella tours. We were on a huge red tour bus with 40 or so Puerto Ricans, who kindly repeated things in English for Abbey and told jokes the whole trip (ie very little nap time for us). we were nicknamed the hermanas guapas by our tour guide, a nickname that carried over to the bartenders at the swim up bar. We sipped our cold drinks and floated in the pool...but were frankly too lazy to swim over and try the water slide.

Yesterday, a national holiday celebrating the annexation of Guanecaste, Abbey headed home. We hung out in the Juan Santamaria Airport (named after a Guanecastecan hero) for a few hours, since once again I wasn't allowed to walk her to her gate. There was dancing, music, and free coffee...Now if only going to the airport were always that fun (and free coffee!)

Today, it's back to work (and there's lots of it). Things are finally winding down, but there's a lot to complete before the end of August...which probably means I should get back to work now...