Well here we are! finally. Sorry for taking so long to get up and running. My first attempt at editing the web page from an internet cafe failed miserably due mostly to the fact that I think the 30 computers were running online together using the same 28.8 modem. Which would basically be like a bunch of one legged sprinters tied together all trying to make it first to different finish lines.
Any way so we are now officially living on our own in Costa Rica. Our phone line at the moment still has an incoming international call block on it from when the apartment complex was an apart-hotel.
At least all of our neighbors are pretty cool. There are 5 apts in the building. 1- is William from South Carolina (or after our night out dancing on saturday he{s now known as Dirty South) 2- is Jessmine from Canada. then upstairs just above Dirty South is our apt. and then above Jessmine is a Tico couple.......... then theres the third floor. Nobody goes to the third floor. All we know is that there is a mean very old german lady who lives there. We haven{t seen her yet, and im not sure thats a bad thing. She doesnt complain about noise, so Ive heard. Im just afraid that if she never comes out and shes really old what happens if she falls or dies.
Anyway hope everything is going good with you all! I promise ill be writting more from now on. Chow!
Fri. Sept. 28, 2001
I always knew i could consider myself lazy but i didn't realize how much that would affect living on our own. Case and point, after being in our apt. for over and week now we have yet to hunt down the exact location the nearby launderymat and wash some clothes. I believer we're both getting dangerously low on clean chonies----> ( emily refused to use the work panties)
However i don't know that i blame our lack to do much on lazyness so much as being so stinking tired. Our resident poulterguiest has seen to that.
The strange sound i can pass off as sound from the the apartments open windows or street noise bouncing around the cement ceiling and walls but last night we can{t blame on anything mostly because it{s just not possible. After some rustling noise woke us both us one of the two lights on the wall above our beds was on. Ok, could have been a bad connection... A RAT creeping throught walls stepped on the bad internal wire compleating the circuit and allowing the light to work? I would have taken any of these......... unfortunatly the light fixture it's self works perfectly and i was witness to that bulb burning out the night we moved in. And after close and careful inspection of the bulb in the morning indeed showed with out doubt that very same bulb that had misteriously come on during the night was still burned out , not even working when put in other lamps around the house. AH yes, a true adventure!!!
Hmmm well i have a job interview on Sunday. An couple is looking for a native english speaker who can help the wife who's back is in very very bad shape. He works and she needs someone to do grocery shopping and help write emails and the such. It's part time and close by so we'll see how that goes! love ya all!!!!
Oct. 12, 2001
Well well well. I've been having a heck of a time trying to get our pictures online. I can't figure out if it's the way alot of the computers are set up or the internet connection or just the geocities server thats crummy. Anyway i'm posting all the pictures to my picture trail web site under 'costa rica adventure' so you should be able to go there and see them for now.
well em and I have been busy. I guess. we've been actually getting out of bed around 9 am (except for today when we woke up at like 11:30 because being sick comes and goes. last night was not a good night. ick!) But we went to a museum this week and saw some really wierdo photography. But at least we felt a little more 'cultural' than if we'd stayed at home all day.
Ok now the big news... tomorrow we're going to Limon. It's a pueblo on the caribbean side of the country, which I'm told you can't tell you're not in Jamaica. Anyway we're going to celebrate Carnival!!! yippeeee!! Only bad thing is that Shayla won't be here till november so we'll be going without her. HOWEVER!! there is another Carnival celabration on the pacific side in Puntarenas in Feb. which is supposed to be better even than the one in Limon. We'll see about that!
Well I'll write more later! take care!
Oct 23, 2001
I honestly had every intention of writing updates like everyother day. I guess like I've told some of you i'm just not sure how many times you want to read that we stayed home all day....again or slept in late....again or cleaned the house....again or spent the day flipping the channels between overdramatic soap operas, poorly dubbed american programs that never made it big in the states and old daffy duck and popeye cartoons that are dubbed just as badly. HOWEVER!!!! we have started the hunt for jobs and i guess the previous description of our days are pretty similar to what we'd be doing in the states if we didn't have jobs. HMMMM with all this extra time maybe i should start exercising. ....... maybe.....
Limon was pretty cool actually. It was about 10blocks by five blocks of tents housing temporary bars, discoteques and snack stands. We arrived about 9:30 am on saturday and wandered aimlessly around the streets untill by some miracle of the Almighty we happend to take the 5correct 'wrong' turns and end up right smack dab in the middle of the action. We rented a couple hotel rooms at a place called Hotel Paraiso (paradise hotel) which actually turned out to be anything BUT paradise. Each closet size room consisted of two plastic covered matresses, two pillows with clean cases..........................oh...uh huh that's it. I was afraid to lose my balance and hit the walls with anyforce knowing they'd crumple like a piece of rotted through pressboard. ( which, coincidentally, i believe is what they were made of) IT'S AN ADVENTURE!!!!!! so we decided to go to the beach and we did. it was really pretty but hot and sticky and after splashing around in the warm caribbean waters we got out dried off and realized that the water was so salty that as it dried on our skin it left white crystals on the tiny little hairs on our arms, shoulders, face, legs, stomachs.... AND IT BURNED LIKE THE DEVIL!!!! But at least i can say i spent the day at a beach in the caribbean. Of course by doing so we missed the dancing and costumes of the parades which were the big reason we went to Limon in the first place. AHHHHHH............. IT'S AN ADVENTURE!!!!!! We spent the night walking from bar to bar (each place also had it's own dj and dance area) under the sea of tents and ended up at one place that eventually became the hot spot of the whole town i think! All in all it was an adventure.
Since then we've discovered a very cool little bar close to the apartment called Los Yos. It's sort of a surfer,grunge,hangout that's very similar to several places on campus in Eugene. They have all kinds of great live music and dj's throughout the week so maybe we'll have to frequent that place to get out once in a while......if we can tear ourselves away from Baywatch in spanish........
Sat. Oct 28, 2001
Well yesterday i spent almost an hour updating this web site....then the computer crashed. It stunk!! Right now Emily, Nela, Raul and I are in a place called 2x1 pizza. Why do they have computers for checking email with the fastest cable modem connection I've ever seen all for free??...I do not know. But they do. We're going to go watch a guy play guitar and sing so that should be fun.
We're not doing anything for Halloween I don't think. The other up coming holidays look much more promising in the way of celebrations but Halloween falls on a wed. so it'll be hard to find anything going on. Cripes.... I've never wanted to carve a pumpkin so bad in my whole life. Boo hoo! oh well I hope you all have a super time!!! love!
sat. nov17, 2001
This would be the fourth time I've done this update just to lose eveything by some wierd computer glitch or something! very very frustrating!!!!
Ok so since the last update it goes like this,,,,,,,
Halloween was cool. Spent several hours at the bar RIO being the only ones dressed up apart from the bartenders and feeling very out of place untill about 10 pm, among others, appeared Batman, Superman, A martian, People in pajamas, a hick, a belly dancer (beard mustache and all),the scary guy from SCREAM and one very dead Bin laden, compleate with bloody bullet hole through the chest and a noose around the neck. I have to say gringos know how to party. by the end of the night we had pretty much taken over and the party and dancing had moved out into the the wet rainy streets.
We haven't gone on any other trips yet but For emily and steven's birthdays we'll be heading to the beaches in Guanacaste (north pacific side) to celebrate for 3 or 4 days. Plus all kinds of ideas for white water rafting trips, coffee plantation tours, a visit to Tabacon natural hot springs resort located in the middle of the jungle at the foot of the ever active volcano Arenal.
Thanksgiving looks promising too. Our guest list has grown to about 10 people with a possible 4 or 5 more. That's alot of StoveTop!!! Yes, they do have stovetop. at least for Thanksgiving. Along with what ever else a gringo could ever want. But I'm not sure exactly how we're going to make that much food (and keep it warm) with out a microwave and only 2pots, 2sauce pans, and a cookie sheet. However it's the thought that counts and since most of the people coming have never had a thanksgiving dinner they won't know the difference! It won't be no annual Olson Clan Bingo Game but it will be an adventure!
Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!