The End of Another Chapter

It's a weird feeling when you walk through the door of what was once your home for the past four months of your life. When I would go on little weekend trips, I started wishing I was in "my bed", in which this bed still was small and contained random creatures that lurked through the darkness of night. Apartment 3A on the campus of CDSG, next door to the most amazing neighbors ever was "home". I just feel empty and torn. I am so excited to go back to "normal life" and people that love me, but then again I've made great relationships here in Costs Rica, and I've done so many great things. It's a weird feeling to have a temporary family. You all know from the beginning that it is temporary, yet you still find a way to bond immensely.
So tonight I lay here, one last time in my bed, next to an empty bed that once belonged to Ashley, in an apartment that once was filled with our stuff, now packed up neatly in 2 suitcases. I shed a few tears saying final goodbyes and recalling wonderful memories. Then a red ant on steroids crawls across my headboard and I am brought back to wishing for a bug-free bed! I'm so sick of being bit while I try to sleep!
In a few hours I head back to normal life w/out a security guard singing outside my windows, speaking to me in rapid Spanish. I go back to a loving fiance that I'm excited to marry. I go back to a soft BIG bed that is not sticky and damp. My scarred legs can heal and my tan will fade. The memories may fade, but will never be forgotten. Thank you everyone in Costa Rica that touched my life!

xoxo
Jill

Arenal

This past weekend we visited Arenal. Arenal is an active "safe" volcano that erupts almost daily. It spits out rocks and gases all the time. Around the volcano is a beautiful man-made lake. It is higher in altitude so the weather was chilly. Ashley and I went zip lining through the rain forest canopy. I was extremely scared to go on the first high line, but it ended up being an amazing experience! We hiked up as close as we could to the base of the volcano, collecting a few volcanic rocks to take home. After our canopy tour, and walking along the hanging bridges, we had an amazing dinner and went to sit in the hot springs. It was so romantic. Sunday when we went home we stopped at Cafe Magnolia, and it was the best meal I have had in Costa Rica!

We are not taking anything for granted anymore. Only 2 more weeks left in this beautiful country. Then it is back home to the hustle and bustle of the United States. I don't think we realized how stressful it is going to be flying home on the busiest travel day in the US. It is going to be so weird to be back in the States.

Halloween and Torgugas!

This is the best Halloween I've ever had. Yet it was in Costa Rica with 90 degree weather, lots of sunshine, and carved watermelons instead of pumpkins.
Friday was the school Halloween party, and Ashley and I won Most Creative Costume. Suds and Shower. It was a blast. We made a fool of ourselves but it worked.

Saturday and Sunday I experienced the most amazing thing in my entire life. Mike, Kelsey, Tony and I took another adventure to Playa Ostional. It is a few hours away and we had to forge a few rivers to get there. Sea turtles are the most amazing creatures ever! They literally should be the national symbol for women. They are incredible examples of the strength females have. This type of turtle spends only a dozen of its years or so laying eggs, and she will lay about once a month during laying season. First she has to get her big booty up the shore using her 4 floppy flippers. (And most of them go WAY up onto the beach!) Then, do what looks like a breast stroke with her front flippers and digs a hole. She then proceeds to use her back flippers to dig down and scoop out a smaller but deeper hole to lay the eggs into. She then uses her back flippers and covers up the eggs, and while covering she rocks her body to 'pack' in the sand. After that, she rotates and uses flippers to smooth out the top sand and heads back to the ocean. I sat by a few during the process, and you can just hear them wheezing and taking deep breathes of exhaustion. Some take 5 min to get back into the water, while some take closer to 20 min.

Sitting under the millions of stars and next to this amazing creature made me really appreciate the things Mother Nature has given us. It's a shame only 1 out of 500 eggs will make it to adulthood. This creatures are soon extinct if we don't work to protect them. It doesn't help that there are hungry dogs and vultures picking off the exposed eggs.

It's Rainy Season?

It is supposed to be rainy season, but we have had much sun these past few weeks. I know it is important for Costa Rica to have these months full of rain, but I'm not complaining because my days spent on the beach are amazing. Being here for 3 months now still the effect of these beautiful beaches amazes me. The Pacific Ocean is amazingly beautiful. I saw my first dolphin on Monday chasing after a fish. I got my butt kicked by the giant waves at Grande and the powerful waves at Flamingo. Two of my swimming suits are now caked with Costa Rican sand.

I love Costa Rica .. Pura Vida!

Sweet Waterfall

On Sunday Mike, Kelsey, Amanda and I went in search for some cool waterfalls. We drove a little ways outside Liberia to a volcano. We hiked a bit, walked upstream, and then proceeded to jump into the bottom of a beautiful waterfall! It defiantly was one of the greatest things I have ever witnessed in my life. After swimming in the cold river, we painted ourselves with volcanic mud and sat in hot springs. Mother Nature has created magnificent things on our planet. It was nice to get off campus and enjoy adult company.

I am doing well here in Costa Rica. We celebrated our half-way mark a few days ago. I have begun taking over full-time teaching, with a slight break on Tuesdays and Thursdays since Tom is teaching Social Studies those days in Spanish. Seeing that I don't speak too well of Spanish, that would not go well. Though, I am a few weeks into Spanish lessons, and I am doing pretty well if I say so myself.

First Field Trip

Thermo Mania - Guanacaste

Monday we went on our first field trip! I woke up not feeling well so it could have been better, but we still managed to have a good time. We went to Thermo Mania about 2 hours away. It is a place in the mountains that have pools that are heated by the dormant volcano. The kids loved it! We are doing an unit on ecosystems, and this was a good chance for students to observe a Costa Rican ecosystem (rainforest).

We were going to stop and hike to a waterfall, but it started raining and it wouldn't have been nice getting all muddy. So we went to the movie theater instead! Incorporate Spanish in our lesson. (The movie was completely in Spanish with out subtitles.) So I sat next to Tom so he could translate it for me. It was something called ... Last Wind Bender or something like that. LAME really. Too SciFi for me.

After movie, we went to McDonalds (AutoMac)! It was everything and more!!! I wish I had a picture of me eating my first french fry! They tasted the same! (THANK GOD!) That was the first fast food I had in 2 months, and I probably won't have anymore for another 2 months.

Slow Sunday

I have been battling stomach aches all day today, as well as a scratchy throat. These are the days I miss the comforts of home.
Ashley and I did get out of the house today to hit up Playa Grande. It was our first time, and it really was beautiful. (Minus the gloomy clouds and misty rain.) I was looking out at the water praying to see a whale emerge from the blue, but NOTHING.
When I game back home Kim was out (she's the marine biology teacher here at CDS and she and her husband have been living here for 7 years or so) and I asked her if I was correct or not about whales. I thought I recalled seeing on Discovery Channel about how whales migrate during winter. She said "CORRECT!" The Humpback whale actually is migrating now. The pregnant mothers are here now having babies, then the males will come shortly after, then the teenage whales not yet sexually mature to mate. Then by March they all go back up north to Alaskaian waters.
Cross your fingers that I will see a whale in the distance one of these days. They have already been spotted at Playa Flamingo (and I go there quite often).

Happy Independence Day Costa Rica!

Today was our Costa Rican Independence Day celebration at CDSG. It was really soooo much fun. It was wicked hot, but I had much more fun that I thought I would have. We had to create a booth/game of some sort for our student to play, and I was going to do tug-of-war, but last night I had an awesome idea to do arm wrestling instead. It was really a hit! My class got into it, and so did the students from another school. We even had a few teacher battles. It was awesome!

I will say, I pulled it off. I beat my strongest student AND Ms. Kristin! I underestimated my own strength. I wanted to verse Ashley, but she wouldn't go for it.

We have Wednesday off of school, so I think Ashley and I are going to go across the street to a wicked nice place where one of her nice parents lives and sit by the pool to enjoy the day off. Thursday/Friday are observation days .. wish us luck!

Dinner Party

My awesome student Camryn and her family threw a dinner party for the teachers tonight. (Seeing that we don't have a car, Tom came to pick Tony and I up.) Camryn and her family are from Georgia so I had high hopes that it was going to have great food!
Was I ever so right!!!!! Camryn's mom is an amazing cook to say the least! For starters we had some appetizers that were so good. Some awesome guacamole and olives. For the main course we had chicken wings and ribs! The ribs were basted in none other than Dreamland BBQ sauce! Gotta love Southerners! I think I ate my body weight in food tonight! (Did I mention that Camryn's mom made me Asian co slaw special order just for me!?) It was defiantly a little slice of home.

All in all it was a great evening. Good food, good people, good places!

Pura Vida Costa Rica!

Bike Ride Mania

So, Sam left today. He didn't have any takers for his bike so I bought it for a very sweet deal. It was sad to say goodbye to him, but it was his choice in the end.

After spending the morning and early afternoon in Tamarindo with Mike, Kelsey and Sam we headed home to take a bike ride with my new wheels. Mike and Kelsey bike the 20+ min ride to Flamingo quite often, so they said they would coach me through it. It was not bad at all ... until...... we decided to take the adventure road and see where it leads. Where did it take us you ask? Well.... straight up a mountain and then some! I literally did not think I could make it. Mr. and Mrs. Physical activity got up with some sweat dripping, but me ... that was another story; I was on verge of passing out! (I will say, the view from the top was amazing!)

Once we had our photo op, we headed DOWN the mountain's other side. I prayed to all the Heavens that I wouldn't slip and fall, since it had just previously rained. After what felt like a long time, we were finally on the dirt road by Flamingo. A nice jump in the pool made it all worth it!

Hmmmm.....what else can I tell you about today. (Thinking.....) OOO Omaha was happy to see me this morning and wagged that nice big tail of hers and knocked a glass off the table and totally cut my pinky toe open. It's all good...nice battle scar! (It really is not big, but it stung. I looked down and was like OMG my toe is bleeding.)

Sun, Surf and Super Cool Peeps

This weekend was The BOMB! We def were "M-F Bandits" driving through the hills of Costa Rica. The 5 of us and Omaha crammed in The Pathfinder. We started off in Samara, CR at a small beach town. The ocean smelled like dead fish, but it was sweet to get away and spend a day on the beach. There we hung out, had the best dinner since we've been here, played some games and went dancing.

The greatest thing ever happened...while playing Banana-Grams, all of a sudded a nice big coconut fell from the sky! (Actually fell from the giant coconut tree hosting 50+ coconuts.) But literally, just fell! Mike showed off his manly skills and pounded the nut open, and broke it open. How more fresh could you get? We played a game and ate fresh coconut right there! It was AMAZING!

We wanted to go to Tuti Fruity as advertised in the Costa Rican guide book, but the local waiter we had at dinner suggested we skip it and go further down the beach. It was quite lame at first, but nothing is lame with Mike and Kelsey. The 5 of us started the dance party up in that joint! It was hilarious! Here we were, these 5 Gringos chillin in this local hang out just dancing our booties off. It was def super funny. Ashley of course attracted a Tico...this time really tall. Those Tico's love them some Ashley.

The next day, we woke up and bought a pot! Finally!!!! (In Costa Rica there are these clay pots being sold everywhere, and Ashley and I both love them and think it would be something super awesome to have in our homes one day.) Since it is low season here, we knew we could get a good deal on them. At full price we would have gotten them for 13,000 col. but we got both for 10,000 col. Good deal if you ask me.

We drove to Nosara, CR after our shopping experience. Nosara is a yoga-surf town, with a lot of "white" American-like people. It was weird how many non-ticos we saw this weekend. Most people we ran into spoke some English. This beach is BEAUTIFUL! We only stayed here for about 2-3 hours. Had a smoothie and peaced out of there. We saw some awesome cattle on the way! LOL

Once closer to "home" we hear from the front seat, "whoa shit!" - coming from Mike our amazing driver. Cattle were stampeding down the road! Literally there were about a dozen or so cattle just running down the road. (Running is an over statement, but most def trotting!) But since other cars were not freaking out, why would we?! LOL we just pulled over and they went on with their merry way.

Once home, after a nice hot shower and finally clean, I cleaned our bathroom and made some homemade salsa. It's so nice cooking with more stuff now that I have money for groceries!

(See Facebook for more pictures!)

Thirsty Thursday

Thursday was a blast! It didn't start off that way, but it ended that way. Mike and Kelsey found this new bar/resturant owned by this old French couple. They liked it so much, they asked us to go back with them for singing and dancing. I don't know how much I can say about the topic. There is nothing I can say that will do it justice.

We just went for a beer and a drink. Kelsey and Ashley sang a good old BSB song amazingly! Then, the ticos couldn't get enough, and decided that Mike and Kelsey should not be the only ones on the dance floor. Ashley's new husband totally air raped her on the dance floor. The best hip thrusting I have seen in my entire life! We will def. go back to Bar 2000!

Salud!

Getting into the Routine

Well, the second week of school is about half way through. The days fly by, the evenings drag. It kinda sucks being here without a car, but it forces us to walk our fat butts around! Last weekend we celebrated Ashley's "golden birthday" and that chica had a great time! Fri, Sat, Sun, Mon, Tues celebration! I wish I was that lucky on my birthday!!!!!

My students are starting to ask me more questions, and come to me some instead of just Tom. It feels good to be like a "real teacher". I'm more comfortable everyday. Lesson planning sucks, but I'll get over it.

We have like a 2-3 hour break everyday and, today at lunch Ash and I laid out for 45 min. It was funny, we ate lunch in our bathingsuits and sat in the sun. Where in the states (besides Cali and Hawaii) can you lay out on your lunch break?! It was great! I'm loving it here more and more everyday!

Happy Birthday Ashley!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ASHLEY-JEAN!

This weekend has been one of the most fun weekends ever! Tom and Caralee had a pool party to celebrate Ash's 22nd birthday here in Costa Rica! First of all, to celebrate your birthday in another country is awesome...to celebrate with these people here is even more awesome! Friday, my students sang Ashley "happy birthday" and made her a card. We both got packages from our loved ones back home, which also helped out the sparce cabinets in our apartment. We went over to Mike and Kelsey's to play a new game called "liars dice" which is a lot like "bullshit". It's really fun, and I'm sure we'll play again soon. Afterward, they took us over to Tom's house to start the party. Caralee made so much great food! (and Jello shots!). Afterward, we took a dip in the pool, even though it didn't stop raining once! It rained from after school until like 2am! Ashley, Tony and I all spent the night in the casita.

When we woke up, we all piled into the car and went surfing. (Well Ashley and Tony tried to surf, I stayed on baby duty with Ellie.) We spent a few hours at the beach, then the rest of the afternoon at the pool. A whole day of sun! It really felt great since it rains all the time here! Once Brody and Brooklyn came home from their friends house, we went to watch the sunset at Playa Flamingo with the Hauns (director and his wife). Everyone piling in a 5 seater suv is so much fun! hahahaha It's legal to ride in the trunk here. Today, we're going to go to church with Sarah then to the beach again! Whoo hoo!!! Oh crap...then I have to write plans for this week's math lessons! BOO!

This pool party was a definate awesome way to end the first week of school. The only bummer is that the 2nd week of school means MORE WORK to do!

New Day, New Meal

Well the first week of school is coming to an end. It feels like we've been here longer than 2 weeks, it's weird. These people here we work with are awesome, and it feels like we've known them much longer than 2 weeks!

Ashley and I are adapting to being super poor, and living off of the food we have in our small cubbard. Yesterday we made some rice and beans...but it was not too good. Today we were like "throw this in it!" Ashley decided to throw the rest of the cheese, salsa, and hot dogs in it, which def added flavor! It turned out to be a bit soupy, but hey it was GOOD! And now we have our own "chili con Costa Rica"!
(It looks like puke with eyeballs, but it's great!)

First Day of School and the Day Before

So Sunday was a blast. One of the most fun days I think we've had here in Costa Rica. First we went to church with the Haun family. It was really a great service with a wonderful message about the Lord's Prayer. Afterward we had lunch and chilled at the classrooms with our teachers to finish up classrooms.

Around 7:00pm our ride came to pick us up to go to dinner. Tom had these 4 guys staying with him from Utah visiting and they picked us three up to go to dinner while Tom and Caralee got their kids to bed. Afterward we had a few drinks around their pool. Good times. We're getting excited for the pool party Caralee and Tom are having for Ashley's birthday next weekend!

Today was the first day of school! It was a little boring, just getting to know you stuff and policy procedure stuff. LAME! With only 7-8 kids in our class it's pretty easy to know everyone's names. At lunch I went home to eat lunch. It rocks having a 2 hour break! (I do only live 3 min. from my classroom). About halfway between my classroom and my apt. there was this LIVING tarantula. That's a check on the list! But, I got a lot of stuff done, but have yet to write a lesson plan!

Power went out after school, so Tony went out in search for the Monkies! He did find them at last, and we got some pictures, but not too good. Ashley and I took a nap to pass the time. When we awoke it was time to eat, but yet NO power. Jeff (the director) invited us to go eat with him, so of course we jumped on the free ride. It gets dark so early here, so you can't really walk to get dinner. When we got back, POWER WAS ON! I painted my toes and uploaded some photos.

Maybe tomorrow I'll get my spelling lessons written...doubt it if we're going to the beach with Willy and his dorm kids.

Pre Planning

Well, it has been a few days since I blogged last. Once I got to the school I was not feeling my best. Willie did some stuff to my hand and arm and determined that it was something I ate. Which I figured that much, but after staff were talking about this disease that misquotes carry. BUT I'm all good. Just a tinge of a headache still, but ready to start working.

I'm really excited to begin the year, I'll be helping out in the 5th grade classroom with Tom. He's a 2nd year teacher, who seems super cool. We'll have a hole 7 kids in our class, so I shouldn't have to worry about 1-on-1 time with my students. I'll be helping out after school with clubs and such if needed, as well as perfoming duties like all the other staff.

So, another wonderful tip we learned today was to bang the bed before you get in it. Why you ask? Oh that's because SCORPIANS tend to find them selves in your covers and/or clothes. So along with the lovely butterflies, monkies, white squirrels we have here, we have to keep an eye out for scorpians, taranchulas, snakes, centipeids, and many other creatures that find themselves into our home sweet home!

Hotel Flamingo

Hola!
We arrived a little later than we wanted yesterday at Hotel Flamingo. We were greeted with cool towels and a pinapple smoothie. LOVELY Welcome!

This morning I awoke shortly after 6am (which again is OK because the sun rises around 5am!)
I woke up, walked out of my room to go check out the beach. Ashley joined me, and we met this lovely woman walking her three dogs. She was actually from America, GEORGIA even! She has lived here for 10 years now. Her and her husband started this church just down the road from our school, so we will be hittin that up on Sundays! She was telling us all about our school and how beautiful the property is. I really do believe people are brought into your life for a reason, and this was a prime example of God's work.

Today contained a lot of sunshine and pool/beach time which was much needed. When the clouds rolled in Ashley and I got a couples massage to complete our relationship as friends. Especially when we got into the hot tub sans bathingsuits! hahaha we were the only ones in the spa so it was all good!

Her and I went looking for Tony, but he was no where in sight. Later did we find out that he was battling the huge waves of this beautiful ocean! I can't believe this will be our "home" for the next few months. This is amazing!

Country Day School in the morning! This week will consist of a lot of meetings and getting our classes set up for students to arrive Aug. 16th.

Check out Facebook for more photos!

Day 2 - Day of Rest

Hola!
Today was our day to rest and gather ourselves from our rough couple of days. We slept in (if you want to call it that, the sun rises about 5:00am!) So I was up about 6:30, but fell back asleep until 7:45am. Had a great Costa Rican breakfast. Fresh fruit, coffee, eggs and beans and rice. Yum!

It was sunny out for once, so we laid out by the pool for a little bit. The pool was freezing so only Tony went in. Afterward, showers and the walk to lunch. The same little place we walked to yesterday, but today we were equipted with the Spanish dictonary! Prepared we were, except we got lost, and had to go back and get the map to get there. HAHA

Took a nap after our commute back. The kids were getting off school so traffic was bad. We dodged a good amount of cars, but made it back and took a nap and talked to family.

I miss you all and can't wait to get to the beach tomorrow!

Costa Rica Day 1

How many signs does God have to give us to prove to us that we shouldn't have come to San Jose!? Well shit...one too many! Geeze! So what started off as a good morning, meeting some funny guys in the airport, and a fun, easy flight over here, we thought we were going to have a good day. Oh boy did we think wrong. Poor Ashley almost doesn't get let into the country because she didn't have an exit flight out of the country. (Which we later found out that it is because Europeans are at large down here, and they are trying to cut down on them flying over here and staying.) We were seperated for nearly an hour, and I prayed that Tony was still waiting for us. You don't realize how much we take for granted our means of quick communication in the States.

Then, we forget to exchange our money, we had to go back in a NO EXIT door and exchange it finally. Then to take an expensive taxi ride to our Hotel. The hotel is nice though. We walked to a nice little place to eat in the pouring rain, and then hung out at the hotel. Adri came and took us to dinner, Which was so nice of her. BUT of course our bad luck had to follow us. Her car and a "moto" (dirt bike type motorcycle) collided. NOT GOOD. Nothing major, but possibly a broken leg. They drive sooooo crazy here, it's insaine!

Thankfully, Adri knew someone at the accident, and her boyfriend's aunt took us to our hotel, which was oddly right down the road from her house! She was soooo nice and gave us some pointers. Thank God for nice people...that speak perfect English. But, we are safe and sound in our Hotel, and we're not planning on going anywhere tomorrow! We just want to sleep and catch up on rest and eat a good breakfast. I just want to go to Guanacaste and sit on the beach!

Day 1 of Our Travels

Well, so today was the first day that Ashley and I traveled together. Our flight was scheduled to take off from ATL at 7:00am. Yea, we got to the airport at 6:05am! It was a bit tight, but then slow ass grandpa working the check in counter checking our 3 bags took another 20-30 minutes! So, thank God that there was not back up at security. We were the last ones on our plane. When we got up to the counter they were like "are you Jillian and Ashley?" YES! Got on the plane, but apparently our luggage didn't move as fast as we did through that damn terminal ... when we got to Orlando, we went bathroom and went down to get our bags, but no bags were on the belt.

PANIC! Not really, since we were late, most likely they were going to be on the next flight. So, Brandon my lovely friend picked us up, we went out to breakfast and paid his speeding ticket. After our out-and-abouts, we got the call that indeed our baggage was waiting for us! Brandon being bold as he is, asked if there was anything they could do since we paid all this money and had to go out of our way for our bags, and they did end up giving us $50 Airtran credit. (Brandon rocks, since I don't have the balls to do that unless I'm fuming!)

So now we're chillin at Brandon's apartment watching Beauty and the Beast, waiting until we can go check into the lovely WDW Saratoga Springs resort Scott booked us tonight. Probably going to take a nap (since we're running on NO sleep) then showering and going to dinner and then Ashley can enjoy come nice Disney fireworks!

THEN... Costa Rica in the AM! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Bratty Kids

I'm telling you, goodness I don't think I can handle anymore braty kids! I only spent about 3 hours at work and I encountered about 5 real just nasty kids. It amazes me how mean kids can be to one another. This little girl, oooo I could have smacked her. The looks she gave me and the two other sweet little girls. Then, I guess it's just boys, but the constant kicking, hitting, pushing. But then there is the sweet little kids that really make you just love kids. But honestly parents, open your eyes and disciplin your children! Don't let them talk to you or other people the way they do!

(This post may not make sense, it was just me blurbing stuff out)

First Published Though:

Alright, so usually these thoughts hit me while at work or driving. I thought about starting a blog just to get out my random thoughts that pop into my head, but then declined myself about that idea. BUT since I'm going to Costa Rica soon and people will want to know what is going one while I'm so far away, I thought "why not start blogging now?!" So here I am!

Warning: Some thoughts may be a bit harsh and rude, but hey! It's my brain, I can't help it!

So I was sitting in the infant room at work yesterday. Just me and this little baby, alone with my thoughts. I work in a child center and just recently we had a few boys start. This is a dominate woman work force, so introducing a few teenage boys was a good break from the drama that follows a group of women. BUT little did I know how much different it is to work with boys. It's funny because yes I may not be that much older than these 17-yr old male co-workers, BUT a senior in High School mentality is different than an almost college graduate mind frame. It reminded me of those years I worked at the pool while in High School. All the flirting, talking and smiling. I watched this boy try to work his magic with the cute girl at the desk. Then the thought popped into my head! "It is amazing how much changes in only 5 years!" In guys mostly. That not too long ago, I was that girl all smiley and flirty, twirling my hair. Now it's more like "I have this damn job to pay for gas and a phone bill! When can I clock out?!"
Is it annoying or heartening to work with these teenagers?

(Happy Birthday Niff!)