Sick day

Poor B has got the 24-hour (let's hope!) flu, so I'm wrapping up things here at the hotel and getting ready to move to our new place.  Since we're so close (it's less than 1 kilometer - or 0.6 miles - from the hotel to our apartment) and we're too cheap to pay for multiple cab rides, we've been moving our suitcases one by one over to the apartment, but each suitcase is about 50 lbs. and the apartment is at the top of three hills. Phew! I've been getting my workout this weekend moving! 


Before breakfast, I made a quick run to our new apartment to drop off another suitcase and some food and then headed over to the store to pick up some medicine and snacks for B.  Can I just say again how excited I am about our new place? I found so many cute little stores and restaurants and coffee shops nearby on my walk this morning; I can't wait to finish moving in!

Since B wasn't feeling good, I had breakfast alone this morning.  I can't believe we've already been here a month! It was nice to end our stay at the hotel the same way we started it: with La Nacion, cafe con leche and an amazing plato tipico for breakfast!

On my way home from the grocery store, I came across an early morning road race in the middle of downtown San Jose.

And they're off!

These are a few of my favorite things...part 2

The feria verde we discovered this morning near our apartment.

The children's marching band playing "Feliz Navidad" in October.

Samples of rum and coke at the grocery store at 11:30 a.m.

Brian peeking out from the front door of our new apartment.

The view from our kitchen into the little garden.

The garden outside our little yellow apartment.

Our living room.

Our new street!

Time to pack again

The easiest move of all! We just have to repack a few suitcases and away we go!

Today we're enjoying our last day here at the Clarion Hotel, packing, saying goodbye to some of the friends we've made here (adios Nathalia y Yasumi!) and getting ready to move to our new apartment! Praise God for working out all of the details, finding us a lovely place to live, and helping us to live peacefully in the midst of so much transition and change over the past few months.  We're really excited to get settled into our little yellow house.  (PS - I forgot to tell you that we've discovered a little feria verde (green market) called Feria Verde de Aranjuez right by our apartment and a park for B to run in!) 

B was hard at work saving the world in Starcraft while I started to pack.

This morning at breakfast, I was reading La Nacion, and there was a really interesting article about this world-famous dance hall called El Tobogán that is closing its doors on Sunday after 35 years! Apparently, the owner really hasn't given much of a reason for the closure, and a lot of the Ticos here are quite sad about it. So tonight, we're going to put on our dancing shoes and try not to look too ridiculous dancing with 1,500 (it's a huge dance hall!) Ticos doing salsa, merengue and cumbia.  


Tomorrow, we'll move our six suitcases over the apartment and take a few photos as well.  

We signed our lease!

It's finally official. We signed our lease tonight and got the keys; we move in this weekend!


Pictures to come soon...

Spanish lessons on Skype

I've been looking around for Spanish classes in San Jose, but most of the classes are offered for 3-4 hours a day for one month of intensive language classes. That would be great if I was down here drinking mojitos and sitting on the beach all day, but I still have to work! 


So, a colleague here recommended that I try Spanish lessons on Skype - great idea! I found a website called VerbalPlanet.com, and tonight I had my first lesson (the first one is free!) with an instructor from Buenos Aires. Right off the bat, I told her I was obsessed with the idea of traveling to Argentina to drink their wine and learn how to tango, and then she told me that she was surprised I was American because my accent was so good. Ha! I'm sure she's just being nice so I'll sign up to be her student, but I have a feeling we'll be friends =)


I've scheduled weekly lessons every week for the rest of the year in the hope that one day, I may actually be mistaken for a Tica on the phone! Fingers crossed.

Mmmm mmmm good

While we're loving our adventure here in Costa Rica, I think we've both grown a little weary of the kitchen-less lifestyle, eating cereal or PB&J for lunch and dinner most days.  It's all part of the experience, for sure, but we thought we'd treat ourselves to dinner out tonight! And it was SO worth it.

We went to this really cool, Moroccan-style restaurant just a few blocks away called Cafe Moro. We had an awesome ceviche appetizer with lime juice and then ordered the sea bass and lamb couscous. Yumm!

I couldn't help myself...

I had to post these two videos.  They have nothing to do with Costa Rica, but it's Monday, right? We need a good laugh!


If you haven't heard of Zach Galifianakis and his FunnyOrDie.com videos, "Between Two Ferns," then watch this video first.  (If you have seen this before, then skip ahead to the next clip).

Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis: Ben Stiller from Between Two Ferns

Then, watch this video of WFAA-TV's Gordon Keith interviewing Zach about his latest movie earlier this week. It's a riff on Zach's "Between Two Ferns" bit, ad it's easily one of the funniest things I've seen this week:

Sunday Sunday Sunday

Today is a catch-up day for me after being gone for a week.


Doing laundry...



Going to the grocery store...

And just generally catching up on life around here. Back to work on Monday!

Casa Sweet Casa

After a week in the U.S. for some team meetings, I made it back to Costa Rica Saturday night...and my hubby  surprised me with a bottle of Riunite Raspberry (who knew they made raspberry wine?!) - it's so cheap but it's one of my favorite wines! - and some sweet little cakes from the AutoMercado that we just love. They have lemon merengue, dulce de leche and coconut. Yummmm. Good to be home here in Costa Rica!

Another good reason not to waste food...or drink

We've had a great week of team bonding, meetings, strategy, day-dreaming and just plain old hanging out together in the evenings. I am constantly reminded of just how much I love my job, love my team, and love where I work. Thanks be to God! I am so grateful.


Tonight, an unnamed colleague shared this poster with us, and I just had to share it with you; it's definitely worth the laugh =)

On the road again

I am back in the States this week for some work meetings, so I probably won't be blogging much until I get back down to San Jose.  However, in the meantime, I'll leave you with this question: B with hair or without hair?  

I like to call him "my little Ernest Hemingway:" a writer in a foreign country who likes to partake of fine liquors.  

¡Hasta semana próxima!

We found an apartment!

It was a tough decision - but we found an apartment in San Jose! We're finalizing the negotiations with the realtor in the next couple of weeks, and we'll move in at the end of this month.  


I'll post pictures soon, but it's very cute! It's a yellow adobe cottage right near downtown San Jose, and it has a garden! I'm already dreaming about early morning coffee dates with my Bible (I have a Spanish Bible from the office that I've been using to read and practice my Spanish) out in the garden.


Pictures soon!

Adventures in cooking

Well the game plan for dinner tonight was to try to cook pasta...without a kitchen or a stove.

Here's what we started with -- two orange plastic bowls, some cold water we ran through the hotel coffee pot to try to get it as close to boiling as possible, and a package of semi-instant "fettucine carbonara." (For those of you obsessed with this website, yes, I am using these quotes correctly. It's still not clear exactly what this so-called pasta really was).

10 minutes later, we had the following -- two orange plastic bowls, some hot water (though not nearly boiling), and a pile of wet, goopy pasta that was halfway-cooked.  *Gulp*

Bravely, we both lifted the spoon and fork we own (we don't have two of each so we share silverware) to our mouths and shoved in some of the mushy stuff.

Brian's face in this photo says it all.  It was NOT good.

So here's what we ended up with tonight for dinner -- a room service "hamburguesa angus" with french fries and a Coke Light, split in half.  Guess how much this cost us?

A. It doesn't matter how much it cost. Anything is better than the "fettucine carbonara."

B. Cheaper than an OSU student on Halloween.

C. Somewhere in between McDonald's and McCormick & Schmick's.

Well, if you guessed A, you're right! It was about 12,000 colones (roughly $22 when you add in tax and tip).

That's right, TWENTY-TWO DOLLARS for one hamburger with fries and a Coke. Yikes! But, I have to say, after trying to choke down a forkful of that "pasta," it was worth every.single.bite.

The search continues...

With two weeks under our belt - and two weeks to go until we have to leave the hotel - we're on the hunt for an apartment in San Jose. We looked at a few last Saturday and several more today and this evening.  We've seen a lot of great places and met some lovely people (I realized tonight how different San Jose is from some other cities we've lived in -- like NYC. Since when did "lovely" = realtors and landlords?).  


However, for those of you who live in big cities, you might want to close your eyes for the next part. It will kill you.


Drum roll, please.....


Most of the places we've looked at are 2-3 bedrooms, 1-2 baths for about $700 or so a month. Ok, if you haven't felt the aching pain of handing over a rent check for thousands of dollars to a landlord in a major city on the East or West Coast (does Chicago count?) then this probably won't be that shocking to you. But to us, it's SO cheap compared to what we've had to pay in the past! Zing!


We're hoping to make a decision in the next few days; keep your fingers crossed for us!

Update to "Like a true pioneer woman..."

A brief update on our adventures in DIY laundering for those of you so bold to try at home (or hotel):


24 hours later....

• Some, not all, but some of the clothes are still pretty wet. 
• The, ahem, "underthings" are totally dry.
• The socks are totally wet.
• All other clothes (shorts, running shirts, etc.) are somewhere between "this-is-going-to-take-27-more-days-to-dry" and "why-is-this-called-dry-fit-if-it's-still-damp?"

All in all, not too bad for our first try. Note: some of the "dry" things are dry but have a very faint musty smell. 


Second note: if you want to have a lot of fun, Google "vintage laundry" and click "images." Here are a few of my favorites for this evening:

Major husband points tonight!

B got some major "husband points" tonight for coming with me to see a modern dance performance at the Teatro de Danza.  We'd heard from a friend that CENAC (Center for Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritage) had great performing arts events that were really inexpensive, so we thought it'd be fun to check it out!  The concert ended up being about 1 1/2 hours -- and it was just $5 each! Great deal and totally worth it.


Tonight, Costa Rica's Compañía Nacional de Danza performed, and it was really interesting! Very athletic, somewhat obscure, but an interesting experience nonetheless. Thanks, BB!

We were a little late so we found seats in the back row, but the view was still great! 

Coreografía: "Mujeres" de Graciela Henríquez, Foto: Carlos Jinesta  

Like a true pioneer woman...

I know some of you enjoy reading the Pioneer Woman blog as much as I do, and today, I felt like I was one step closer to becoming a true pioneer woman myself! Why, you ask? Well, in the absence of a laundry machine or a laundromat anywhere near the hotel (and because we're WAY too cheap to have the hotel to our laundry at $1-3 per piece!), Brian and I decided we'd try to handwash our clothes in the bathtub. 

For those of you who find yourselves stuck in a hotel without any clean underwear left (TMI?) or just longing for simpler times when you could scald yourself with hot water and soak your hands in abrasive laundry detergent while trying to get out the grime of two weeks' worth of wear and tear on your clothes (how did women DO it back then??), then here's our step-by-step lesson, complete with photos, for all of you true pioneering spirits out there.

Step 1: Buy your favorite laundry detergent. 



Step 2: Make sure the bathtub you are using is clean. Turn the water on hot, hot, hot and, as the water is filling up in the tub, pour in the amount of detergent you'll need for your load(s) of laundry. For a medium-sized load, the tub should be about halfway full. Make sure you don't have too much water, or during the "agitate cycle," (see Step 5 and 6), you'll end up with more water OUTSIDE of the tub than inside!

Step 3: Using your hands, mix the soap and water together until the soap is completely dissolved.




Step 4: Add your clothes and let them soak for 15 - 20 minutes.





Step 5: Ideally, you'd use one of these. If you don't have one of those, do what we did. Using your hands, your feet, or we've even heard of using a (clean!) toilet plunger, put the clothes through an "agitate cycle" for about 5 minutes. 











Note: Channel your inner Italian (or Lucy and Ethel) here and pretend you're mashing grapes to make wine. Subnote: hot water is really uncomfortable on bare feet. Youch!

Step 6: Drain the dirty water. Fill the bathtub up again and repeat Step 5. Repeat as many times as needed until clothes appear to be clean. We recommend 2-3 "agitate cycles."

Step 7: Ring out the clothes and attempt to hang them anywhere in your hotel room where you have space. I recommend the smell-the-armpits-of-your-husband's-shirts method to see if you've gotten them clean.

Learning the importance of "compartir-ing"

On Friday, we had devotions at the office and heard a small lesson from one of the visiting staffers with World Vision Bolivia on Luke 24 (Lucas 24). We learned about the importance of "compartir-ing" (sorry for the Spanglish!) - sharing our lives with each other in real and meaningful ways, even when we're tired, uninterested, etc.  During the lesson, she pointed out that in Luke 24:29 - 35 we see that it was after the two men took the time to invite Jesus into their home, eat dinner together, and stay the night, that they discovered he was really the Son of God.  


We experienced "compartir" firsthand this weekend in the kindness of our friends inviting us out to dinner on Friday night...then other friends asking us to join them for church at Vida Abundante on Saturday night and coffee afterwards at this cute new coffee shop called "Tuesto"...and then another colleague's wife helping us look for apartments on Saturday afternoon. We have felt so cared for and blessed this weekend!


compartir

v t compartir [kompaɾ'tiɾ]

1 distribuir alguien parte de sus posesiones (To give someone something that belongs to you)

compartir caramelos

2 usar, tener o realizar algo en común (To use, to have or to realize you have something in common)

compartir el baño

3 tener la misma opinión, actitud o estado de ánimo (To have the same opinion or same state of mind)

No comparto lo que dices.

Cheers!

San Jose is pretty crowded, and I don't really like city running that much. So, one of the creative ways that I've figured out how to get some exercise every day is through ExerciseTV.  They have FREE workout videos that you can do from your home...or hotel room. And they're great! 


Of course I didn't want to pack 8 lb. weights in my already-overloaded suitcases when we moved down here, so this morning, when I needed some dumbbells for my workout, Brian and I got a little, um, creative.  (Yes, that is a bottle of Smirnoff caipiriña mix from the local AutoMercado in my left hand and a bottle of water from the hotel in my right hand.  A little something for before the workout -- and a little something for after. ¡Salud!)

Oh what a night!

Our second weekend here has already started off with some great memories! I blogged earlier this week about how I had been feeling a little frustrated with my Spanish and how, when you don't always understand everything going on around you, it can be difficult to get to know people.  Then, I explained how incredible my new colleagues have been, patient and gracious with my developing language skills.

Well yesterday, I walked into the office and was asking one of my colleagues how hard it would be to get up to this restaurant, Baalbek Bar and Grille, that had been recommended to us from one of the waitresses at the hotel restaurant.  He said that the 30-minute cab ride would probably be $25 or more (at least 12,000 colones) and asked if we'd like to hang out with him and his wife that night! YES, please.

So instead of heading to Baalbek (still on our list for another weekend!), we headed up the mountain in the north to Club Campestre El Castillo, this private, members-only club, in the mountains outside of San Jose.  Through a friend of his, Pablo (my colleague) was able to get us passes for the night.  It was incredible!  It's in San Rafael de Heredia, and it was, as people had cautioned, surprisingly cooler just a few miles up the mountain.  The cool weather, the slight breeze, and the views from the outside of the restaurant where we sat all made for an absolutely stunning experience with our new friends, Pablo and Carla!

We had wine, chifrijo, and tres leches cake and enjoyed getting to know each other (talking in a mix of Spanish and English so Brian could keep up!).

Chifrjo: a tasty mix of rice, beans, tomatoes, spices, and chicharrónes (small pieces of fried pork)

¡The tres leches cake we had last night at Club Campestre el Castillo was increíble!

Saturday, another colleague invited us to go to church with him and his family in Coronado.  Excited to visit another church and see a new part of the city today!

PS - We had our first experience of a Costa Rican earthquake last night; not too bad! We were sitting in the car, waiting to get into the country club, and the car started rocking! When we came home, I saw that it was a 5.9 quake. Our Tico friends laughed when I told them I was a little nervous about the earthquakes here; they say it's all part of life and it's not really anything to be too concerned about. ¡Pura vida!