Last week in C.R.

Well, I'm officially starting my last week here...lots of mixed feelings to say the least. But first, a quick Curri update -

1. Nick's favorite soda burned down. On Monday, the 15th, Mothers Day, the little soda and two other houses on the corner by the post office burned down. No one was hurt, thankfully, but there are just shells left of the houses....note that these were next to that other house that burned down earlier in the year (evidently because the owners were mixing up some drugs in the kitchen) Related incident? No one knows, but I doubt it's the fault of that lovely lady who cooks such great casados and gallo pinto.

2. Pasion de Gavilanes really is going to end in December. I almost don't want to watch it this week, knowing that I won't be seeing what happens to Juan, Oscar, and Franco...and without seeing the Franco-Sarita wedding (much less Juan & Norma) ...sigh...

Ok, back to those mixed feelings on leaving...

Saturday, Chris threw me a going away party...well, we didn't call it that, we just called it a party. I think it went smashingly....Lots people showed up to hang out, eat yucca balls, and dance salsa. It was Tomas the Canadian's last night in Costa Rica, so we celebrated for him too. I finally got to meet the famous and mysterious Paula. She's wonderful. Also, Cata and Emily stopped by on their way to Terra U., which made Chris deliriously happy because, as he pointed out 10 times, they were with us the night we first met! Those lucky lucky girls have until December when school ends (possibly longer, Cata?).

This week is filled with lasts... At some point I'll have to go to my last bagelmen's lunch, last meal at zucchero, last Pasion de Gavilanes episode, last trip to MultiPlaza, last cafecito with Yadi and Nora. You get the idea. Saturday Chris and his family are cooking me a goodbye dinner - his sister has even promised chicken lasagna. I'm really going to miss them. They've been so incredibly good to me; and abuelita is definitely irreplaceable. Not to mention Chris himself.

However, I am looking forward to going home. So much has been going on, and they're excited to see me in NJ (so I'm reminded whenever the fam calls to ensure that I am indeed going to get on the plane). I'll finally get to meet Gracie, the new pooch, who evidently now shakes paws. We'll see just how gorda Super the cat is (and how terrorized by Gracie!). I'll get to look through my closet at all my winter clothes (like Christmas without all the spending $). And I'll get to see my family!!!

I want some time in Cape May; I expect some lunches in Red Bank with mom and dad; I hope Abbey has a field hockey game while I'm home; and I'm looking forward to getting out to 'Nova for at least a day to catch up with profs, friends, and family.

So this may be the last post to my Costa Rica blog....I'll try to write one more, but no promises as I'm still functioning on tico time. But never fear, soon it'll be time to start up the England blog!!!

Hasta luego. Besos y abrazos.

New favorite blog

Skimming through the bbc news website, I came across this really neat blog project called Ethiopa Lives. 19 people in different areas of Ethiopa were given cameras to document their lives and their communities. It's beyond amazing...

Oh wait!!! Pasion update

Oh dear, sorry, Nick! I totally forgot to put up a Pasion de Gavilanes update.

Armando and Rosario: He tried to have her killed, then she tried to have him killed, then he sent the thugs (ie the ones who were supposed to kill Franco) to catch her again. He decided that he couldn't live without her, so they should kill each other. Under duress she shot him, then realized how much she loved him...he didn't rat on her to police, and then they had a tearful make up scene in the hosptial (is it me, or is Armando always crying about something?)

Ruth: Ruth discovered that she's not Raquelita's daughter. At which point she figures she doesn't have to put up with Raquelita's craziness and bossiness and leaves. She goes to stay at the Reyes' hacienda, where, little does she know, she's being watched over by her real mother (Eva). The brothers adopt Ruth as a sister...it helps that people keep mistaking her for their real (dead) sister Olivia and freaking out over seeing a ghost.

Juan/Norma/Dinora love triangle: Ok, so Dinora's schemes to keep Norma and Juan apart weren't working, so she did the next logical thing - she had him kidnapped by thugs (not Armando's thugs). He was tortured and beaten and then found by Ruth, who went expoloring Dinora's land to find Juan, after being warned in a dream by Juan's dead sister. Dinora came to rescue Ruth who was being 'mistreated' by the thugs (Dinora can't stand men who disrespect women), then decided to kill both Juan and Ruth. In the end, her thugs threw the two into a big hole in the desert but didn't shoot them as ordered (obviously! You can't kill Juan Reyes). Juan and Ruth escape, and have to survive the desert.

Sarita and Franco/ Jimena and Oscar: Their love stories have taken a back seat to the Juan and Ruth kidnapping issue. But Jimena seems less inclined to argue with Oscar.

Gabriella: Still as witchy as always. Still supporting Fernando over all her daughters, can see no wrong in him. He's still as awful as always, although he still hasn't told Gabriella about Sarita's dating Franco. The only question is when will these two get together?

Well, I think that's about it for now, Nick.

The funny part is, it's not nearly as dramatic or silly as Apuesta por un Amor that runs before it on channel 4

Enjoy!

I just hope it finishes up before I leave!

Pica gossip for Club Curri...

This has been stewing around in the back of my mind for a week or so, but I keep forgetting about it when I get to my computer...today I made a note for myself because I know some of you are anxious for any good gossip...especially related to the Pica - so this is for the Club Curri Crew.

So, it is now re-rumored (since it was rumored at first in January) that Marcos closed/sold/bailed out of the Pica because he was indeed losing money. Would that have anything to do with Kevin and Heiner running the show on a daily basis? I imagine he was losing $$ on Kevin's special potions...but maybe it's just that we didn't order enough french fries!

Marcos has gone bankrupt, or nearly. He sold his SUV for a Nissan something or other. He left his wife (or she left him?) and moved into an apartment (well, his location has always been unknown, so that's not that exciting...wait, wait....here's the exciting part!) WITH HEINER'S SISTER! Yes, Heiner's little sister (how little, we're not sure...younger than Heiner..but then again how old is he? Anyway, she's tiny and blond...so I'd say somewhere between 18 and 24, probably closer to 18) is now with Marcos. Very weird. Sort of disturbing. And excellent gossip.

Ok, that's it. Nothing else exciting is going on.

Happy weekend.

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...

Highlights of this week:

1. Abbey's here
2. Got an email from Steph today! I miss you, Steph (the church picture - stolen from Pat, my old Spanish class buddy - is in honor of you!)
3. Abbey's here and we bought earrings
4. Have eaten lots of bagels...yummy
5. Abbey's here and we're going to a volcano this weekend
6. Finished my UK visa application - they might even let me into the country
7. Am finally going to buy my new laptop...any day now
8. Am wearing HUGE hoop earrings that Abbey picked out...Good thing my little sister is so cool and fashion conscious.

Just when you thought it was safe...

I was here getting all worked up over the London bombs and the state of security in Europe and the United States as I am going to be heading back first to the New York area and then off to England (and, I might add, I was feeling fairly happy and safe and comfortable in Costa Rica), when Monday night (and early Tuesday morning) things got exciting (and sort of frightening).

First, there was a bomb scare in San Pedro, near the Samar bakery (yummy bakery by the way). Evidently, two men got out of a car and placed a box in the street, all while wearing latex gloves. Then they drove away.
So, the police closed down the intersection (right downtown, between Calle de Amargura and Jazz Cafe, but on the other side of the street).

Of course, I saw this reported on the 7 o'clock news and everyone seemed pretty worried. Me too. But it has yet to appear anywhere else - in the papers, other TV channels, etc. Of course, that may be because everyone was distracted by what happened later that night.

At around 2 am (according to Ashley who heard all the sirens), a fire started in the Calderon Guardia hospital. The fire ended up consuming parts of the 3, 4, and 5th floors. Some of the worst damage was on the 5th floor, where the blaze started in a storage area in the neuro-surgery section. It started on one side of the floor, just next to the ONLY exit, cutting off the stairwell for all the patients on the 5th floor. 18 people died, many unable to move because they were hooked up to respirators and other machines. Others saved themselves by tying sheets together and climbing out the windows. The fire affected the maternity ward, where many mother with newborns had to escape. For an article with map, etc see here.

Basically, all of the hospitals in Costa Rica are vulnerable. In the Calderon Guardia there were no emergency exit lights or signs, no fire alarm sounded, and the sprinklers on the 5th floor didn't work. This section of the building was erected in the 1940s, like many of the hospitals in the country. Even the most recently built ones aren't up to code. So much for Costa Rica's amazing healthcare system.

remiss in my duties

...I'm practicing my British English, though I am still speaking it with a Costa Rican accent.

As Nick, who called me this morning from the States so kindly pointed out, I really need to update! In the month since my last post, I've had a few more run-ins with the parrots, but they seem to have decided that it's not that much fun to wake me up now that I've decided that I kind of like them. Go figure.

First up, Justine and I were in Honduras a the beginning of June for the Fulbright student seminar. After our flight was cancelled and we spent almost 12 hours in the Juan Santamaria Airport here in Costa Rica (I still don't know why we didn't go home to nap for a bit), we made it to Honduras, where Embassy staff proceded to scare us out of our wits by telling us that if we wanted to go across the street to the Mall we should take a cab.

The whole conference was neat, we got to hear what all the other postgrad Fulbrighters are doing, of course almost half of them are working on doctoral dissertations, so their projects were a wee bit more organized and official than ours. No matter, ours were fun (Rachel O'Toole was right, I think the recent graduates had much more interesting and exciting projects...and we don't have to try to fit them into what some dissertation committee might want to see).

On the down side, the whole trip was to smart. I can't think of one normal conversation I had. Basically, there was an expert for everything we talked about - birds, trees, churches, unions, women, immigration, social spending, etc.

We visited a banana plantation. The same as usual, although because it was a Chiquita owned farm instead of independent contractor, it had amazing, but oh so amazing, labor conditions and environmental standards. The next day we went to Copan...way better than the last time I was there because we got to go into the tunnels. Also, we had abrief lecture by a super duper famous archeologist (former Fulbrighter, of course), who discovered some of the most important artifacts and temples in Copan.

Afterwards, we went to a bird sanctuary, called Macaw Mountain. Here, I learned to love the parrots that no longer torment me outside my window. We got to hold some of the more docile birds - a scarlet macaw and birds that looked suspiciously like my little neighbors. The scarlet macaw is huge (Mom, those are the huge birds we saw in Guanacaste!!!) and heavy and BEAUTIFUL!

Anyway, we got home to Costa Rica safely, after a litle heart pounding episode where we weren't sure we were going to make our flight from Honduras to El Salvador. But we did.

That was a Friday. Saturday Justine packed up and Sunday she flew out. The next Friday, Nick left. And now I live in a big (though not empty apartment). I say not empty because several colonies of ants have moved in with me. Yesterday, as I was throwing together some dinner (before going to watch the novela Pasion de Gavilanes at Chris' house..Nick, I'll give you an update next week) I noticed a thin black line running above my pantry, across my hallway wall, behind the bathroom sink. ANTS! I think they were moving the entire colony. Because evidently the wall inside my laundry room is not as inviting as behind the bathroom sink. Anyway, I cruelly sprayed them all, half-poisoning myself as well as them.

And really, that's the most exciting thing that's happened in a while. Everything else is just plain pura vida.