costarica3

Feb.16, 2002
   Wow! It's really amazing how fast time flies. Well, the biggest bit of news, of course, is the new house! Two floors, three bedrooms, one and a half bathrooms, washer and drier, full size kitchen, fully furnished. We even have a little yard. It has a really nice old sound system (by old I mean it has a radio, record player and 8-track) The neighborhood is really nice. Mostly upperclass and a lot of United Nations Embassy workers. We have 24hour a day guards and the neighborhood is gated and guarded at night.
Emily and Shayla are working at the investment telemarketing company. I lost my patience (and my mind) working there so I decided to quit and try to go full time with my teaching. It looks like I have my first class next week with a full load of classes to follow within the next two weeks. That should at least be more fun.
PS. New pictures will be up in a couple of days!

Feb. 22, 2002
Hey everyone! Things of course are going well here. We got a new puppy last week!! I don't know why. I didn't know it was possible for anything to poo that much! Plus she still has a bladder problem and loses it when she gets excited or scared. And she chews EVERYTHING! Luckly our furniture is so incredibly old and ugly even our landlord suggested we let her use it to help with the teething process.
Em and Shayla are doing well. Still working at the telemarketing place BUT I think they're able to handle it a little better now. I get to start a full time schedule with the teaching next week.
   Well tax time is here again! Luckily I think we all have money coming back! That will be such a blessing for the bank account. Especially because we want to start going on more adventures very soon. Speaking of adventures! Next weekend we will be taking a trip to a place in the mountainous jungles of Northern Costa Rica. It's a place often used as rehab because of its tranquility and beauty. It'll start with a 3-4 hour horse back ride and then a hike upriver to the Diamond Waterfalls. From there we have to either rock climb UP from the bottom or rock repell down from the top to reach the cave behind the waterfall where the getaway is located. Sounds pretty exciting and tropical to us!!!!! We'll let you know how that goes!
PS. A few new pics are up. More are comming very very soon!!!

May 30, 2002
I know, I said I would keep up the web site better and I haven't. But we've been so busy (busy...lazy whatever) At any rate it's difficult to keep up with e-mail and everything without being close to an internet cafe. Since February so much has changed. Emily and Shayla quit the telemarketing place, and bummed around the house for a couple of weeks. My bedroom along with much the rest of the house became infested with cockroaches which we thought the landlord should have taken care of but he didn't ever come around for anything except rent. We didn't have water to take a shower between the hours of 8:30am and 6pm everyday so that was a real big deal and the apartment had a very negative energy. So we moved. It was a tough decision about what to do because Shayla feels a very stong pull to go to San Isidro and help with a new school and the tourism to the waterfalls and caves there. You really can't believe this place. Do you remember the opening shot of Jurassic Park? That breathtaking waterfall and rainforest? Well that was filmed in costa rica and this area is very similar to that. It just takes your breath away and you can't comprehend what you're seeing much less that you're actually there standing right in the middle of it all. (See photos from our cave camping and repelling adventure by clicking on the photos link on the home page)
Emily and I began looking for a new place because we really needed to get out of that house and Shayla was pretty sure she was moving to San Isidro. We gave our dog to the neighbor and We finally found a place in the northeast hills of San Jose called Concepcion de 3 Rios. Its so beautiful there and for the first time we're totally surrounded by Ticos. It's pretty far from my work about 2 hours to get from the house to work after waiting for the bus and the stinking traffic but It's like a vacation everytime I go home.
    Yesterday the cable guys came. Yippee!!! So now we have cable. At first we thought we didn't need it but then realized we watch tv non-stop all day anyway so why not get some channels we actually enjoy?
Plus it will be nice for when my mom comes to visit in October!!! She's not exactly a world traveller so this is very exciting for us. Imagine listening to my stupid stories about Costa Rica for the last 6 years and then finally getting the chance to see it all in real life. I'm so excited.
    Shayla went to get her plane ticket today. She's going back to visit for a month or so. She'll be back though. She better be! We're here and plus she's leaving all her stuff so she better come back!
   Anyway things are rollin along and I SWEAR the updates come much more often from now on!

June13,2002
    Well Shayla left for the states. She'll be gone for 7 weeks and then come back to visit, get the rest of her things and hopefully her mom will come with her and they can do some traveling. Speaking of moms visiting... My mom bought her plane ticket the other day! She'll be here the 10th of Oct! We're so excited we can hardly wait! Emily started working her classes last week so now were both 'T
   Well Costa Rica is officially out of the World Cup. It was really dissapointing. Fernando and I went to Tavarua to watch the game with about 300 other people all packed into the same bar. It was alot of fun. To begin they had drunk girls get on the bar and try to dance sexy for prizes so we called them fat and threw things, that was actually about as fun as the game. After Brazil made thier 3rd goal we decided to fight our way out to sit at one of the little sodas to get something to eat and finish watching the game sitting down. I didn't feel so great because I forgot I can't drink alcohol with the medication I'm taking to help avoid infection where I had my wisdom tooth removed last week. Yes, having teeth ripped out of your head in ANY country is no fun. Now I only have 3 more to go. wakkala!
     I think this saturday Fernando and I are going to Planet Mall (the discotech on the top floors of the Mall San Pedro) There will be a group of techno drummers (I don't have any idea exactly what that is either) from Denmark performing, and DJs from CR and Belgium for a foam party rave. It sounds very cool. Father's day is on sunday. Its not the same in the States is it? wow, I better check that out and make sure!
   I right now am wearing tight dress pants and nice shirt and high heels. I know! Don't have a heart attack"!!!! I can't believe it either! But I kind of have to wear nice stuff for work. Plus going to the gym, I've been losing weight and it really doesn't look that horrible. Except for the fact its tight dress pants a nice shirt and high heels. My feet have so many blisters I think after today I'm going to seriously have to wear tennis shoes to work. There honestly are no more nice shoes I own that haven't already rubbed blisters all over my feet. But never fear, I give my jeans and t-shirts plenty of use after work and weekends.