Our Backyard
The center of town
Monday, January 26, 2009
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Las dos llantas ponchadas
Sorry it has been quite awhile since we've written. We are getting settled in our life here, and it's slower than our lives have ever been. Tico time must be contagious. The excitement here this week is a bull riding festival in Santa Cruz, the biggest town in our area. For nine days they have our equivalent to the State Fair, just with 8 hours of bull riding every day, and it never really closes down. We saw people camping in the streets and others just passed out where they were last standing. Apparently every town in the area will have a similar festival over the next several months.
Slow as our time these days might be, it hasn't been without excitement. For example, we recently learned the word for flat tire (llanta ponchada). Then we learned it again, just two days later...when we were further away from our hometown than we had ever ventured. Fortunately we also learned how to ask for a tire repair shop, etc. So in the end, it all worked out and we discovered quite a bit as a result.
Spanish has been going well. Yesterday we drove to Liberia with some of our friends here and they only spoke spanish with us for about six hours. Though we're pretty sure they were talking to us at the pace they'd normally use for a four year old, our comprehension was good. We'll chalk that up as a victory for the good guys.
It looks like - after legally dividing the plots and acquiring the building permits - we'll hopefully get to start building the first development sometime early this summer. We'll keep you guys posted with photos of that for sure.
Make a snowman for us,
TeamWander
Slow as our time these days might be, it hasn't been without excitement. For example, we recently learned the word for flat tire (llanta ponchada). Then we learned it again, just two days later...when we were further away from our hometown than we had ever ventured. Fortunately we also learned how to ask for a tire repair shop, etc. So in the end, it all worked out and we discovered quite a bit as a result.
Spanish has been going well. Yesterday we drove to Liberia with some of our friends here and they only spoke spanish with us for about six hours. Though we're pretty sure they were talking to us at the pace they'd normally use for a four year old, our comprehension was good. We'll chalk that up as a victory for the good guys.
It looks like - after legally dividing the plots and acquiring the building permits - we'll hopefully get to start building the first development sometime early this summer. We'll keep you guys posted with photos of that for sure.
Make a snowman for us,
TeamWander
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
El Rey de karaoke
We survived the karaoke party with our boss....not only survived but actually had a great time and met some fantastic people. They all work at the resort close to where we work and most of them live where our office is. Miah had his first karaoke experience, a strong showing of "No Rain". We also tried to learn to dance, although our hips have no chance of keeping up with everyone else. There was one couple there who was American as well so we spent Sunday at their apartment watching football. We're not sure which was best 1) real football, 2) TV, or 3) AC, but minus the Chargers losing, it was a stupendous afternoon.
As far as our job goes, it looks like we will waiting for awhile. It is one of those "hurry up and wait" situations trying to get the necessary permits. Apparently knowing people in each of the offices is the way to get things done, but we're going to have to figure out a new way for now. We don't get much of an inkling that our Spanish is getting better (we still don't understand too much more than the grocery store conversation), but our English is definitely declining, so we're going to take that as a positive sign. Maybe we'll forget enough English that we're forced to talk in Spanish...
We did our best yesterday to start meeting the folks in our town. We played frisbee in the soccer field in the center of town and were a spectacle to say the least.
Lasssstly, we finally got a mailing address. It's to our office, but it's probably the most reliable address that we can give:
Hacienda Pinilla
Villas San Francisco
Casa 16
Santa Cruz, Guanacaste, Costa Rica
We would give you the other address, but we can't really remember it all, it had something to do with 200 meters on the road toward Paso Hondo from the main soccer field in the middle of Ventesiete de Abril. Good luck with that.
Love you guys!
TeamWander
As far as our job goes, it looks like we will waiting for awhile. It is one of those "hurry up and wait" situations trying to get the necessary permits. Apparently knowing people in each of the offices is the way to get things done, but we're going to have to figure out a new way for now. We don't get much of an inkling that our Spanish is getting better (we still don't understand too much more than the grocery store conversation), but our English is definitely declining, so we're going to take that as a positive sign. Maybe we'll forget enough English that we're forced to talk in Spanish...
We did our best yesterday to start meeting the folks in our town. We played frisbee in the soccer field in the center of town and were a spectacle to say the least.
Lasssstly, we finally got a mailing address. It's to our office, but it's probably the most reliable address that we can give:
Hacienda Pinilla
Villas San Francisco
Casa 16
Santa Cruz, Guanacaste, Costa Rica
We would give you the other address, but we can't really remember it all, it had something to do with 200 meters on the road toward Paso Hondo from the main soccer field in the middle of Ventesiete de Abril. Good luck with that.
Love you guys!
TeamWander
Friday, January 9, 2009
La Primera Semana
We survived our first week here. All in all, it has gone extremely well, although it has been extremely frustrating at times as well. The people we work with are amazing; they have been so friendly and helpful to us which has made a huge difference. The small town we live in is a completely different world than the coast where we work. The closest town on the beach is Tamarindo, which is aptly refered to as "gringo town". There are more tourists there than Ticos and prices are referred to in American dollars. Not so much our style, but at least there is a regular grocery store there where we can get food that is otherwise not seen in Costa Rica. The contrast between the tourist areas and the rest of the region is striking - oxcarts, horses, and cattle are not uncommon to see wandering around our town. However, there's no internet or cable, and apparently phone lines are hard to come by as well.
Life is certainly different down here...the attitudes, the sense of time, the pastimes, everything. Everyday we get stuck on our way to work by construction (today we counted 30+ dumptrucks lined up in a row who just dumped gravel as we tried to squeeze past - less than 2 feet away). Yesterday they just had everyone turn around and take a detour through a couple of villages and eventually through a river to get back on the regular road. A river?!? We were greatly amused and thankfully our tiny car made it through.
As far as food stories go, not much to report yet. Our fridge and oven are broken so we've been eating whatever we can make in the microwave this week. We did go out for pizza with our
coworker and her boyfriend which was delicious. Seems like we will have a diet full of rice, beans, and meat though and of course, lots of mango juice.
Tonight we're headed to a suprise party for someone we haven't met yet (que surpresa! - complete with karaoke) with our boss, so more stories to come....
Miss you,
Team Wander
P.S. The earthquake hit farther south so we did not feel anything. Thanks for your concern!
Life is certainly different down here...the attitudes, the sense of time, the pastimes, everything. Everyday we get stuck on our way to work by construction (today we counted 30+ dumptrucks lined up in a row who just dumped gravel as we tried to squeeze past - less than 2 feet away). Yesterday they just had everyone turn around and take a detour through a couple of villages and eventually through a river to get back on the regular road. A river?!? We were greatly amused and thankfully our tiny car made it through.
As far as food stories go, not much to report yet. Our fridge and oven are broken so we've been eating whatever we can make in the microwave this week. We did go out for pizza with our
coworker and her boyfriend which was delicious. Seems like we will have a diet full of rice, beans, and meat though and of course, lots of mango juice.
Tonight we're headed to a suprise party for someone we haven't met yet (que surpresa! - complete with karaoke) with our boss, so more stories to come....
Miss you,
Team Wander
P.S. The earthquake hit farther south so we did not feel anything. Thanks for your concern!
Monday, January 5, 2009
Estamos aqui
Day three in costa rica begins to the tune of about 88 degrees fahrenheit in our bedroom. at 8 am. this is pretty similar to day two, and since day one only really began at 5 pm when the airport officials had finally (after an hour and a half of battling and towing the plane around the tarmac) discouraged the bees surrounding our plane and consented to let us off we don't have an 8 am data point. It's amazing here - not amazing good , not amazing bad. Full of potential, but full of difficulties. Ask us what we think two years from now.
The town that we live in, vientesiete de abril, is a tiny village of mostly dirt roads, one church, two 'super-markets', an elementary school and a soccer field smack in the middle. There is also a pub that hopefully may allow us to open up the lines of communication with the locals over a cerveza or two. Yesterday, we went for a walk through town and within a mile found ourselves on the other side, headed out in to the fields surrounding town.
The first few days have been a vacillation between exciting and quiet, including, but not limited to: being stopped by the costa rican police at a checkpoint only to find the registration on the car we have here expired two years ago (it was only as a result of our stumbling spanish and stupid smiles that we got off without a fine); removing the current residents of the house (countless giant jumping spiders, two dead frogs, and one scorpion) less the lizards, who we have decided to keep on hand on account of their voracious apetite; meeting most of the residents of the town in an effort to find out who had our key; trying to figure out why none of the outlets in the kitchen work, trying to get the water to work again after trying to figure out why none of the outlets in the kitchen work; realization of the true meaning of manana (for the first of many times); holding 6 hours of self taught spanish lessons; watching 2 hours of the first season of 'how I met your mother'; reading 450 some-odd cumulative pages of fiction, and celebrating one three month anniversary.
The house is incredible, even if slightly buggy. We can understand why there may have been a little disagreement as to whether or not it was too nice to be a model habitat house for the area. We're going to try to figure out how to post our grand tour video on either youtube or facebook so everyone can have a look. For the next little while though, it appears that internet access will be minimal, so please send us your love, though if we don't respond quickly, please don't take it as a slight.
This will be an incredible adventure - difficult, but incredible. For those of you who plan to come visit, prepare yourself as your arrival will increase the caucasian population of vientesiete from two to three. Enjoy the cold weather back home, at least half of team wander is madly envious of you.
Adios,
TeamWander
P.S. We don't have much internet access these days, so please make comments and send us emails anyway - but don't be sad if we don't respond immediately.
The town that we live in, vientesiete de abril, is a tiny village of mostly dirt roads, one church, two 'super-markets', an elementary school and a soccer field smack in the middle. There is also a pub that hopefully may allow us to open up the lines of communication with the locals over a cerveza or two. Yesterday, we went for a walk through town and within a mile found ourselves on the other side, headed out in to the fields surrounding town.
The first few days have been a vacillation between exciting and quiet, including, but not limited to: being stopped by the costa rican police at a checkpoint only to find the registration on the car we have here expired two years ago (it was only as a result of our stumbling spanish and stupid smiles that we got off without a fine); removing the current residents of the house (countless giant jumping spiders, two dead frogs, and one scorpion) less the lizards, who we have decided to keep on hand on account of their voracious apetite; meeting most of the residents of the town in an effort to find out who had our key; trying to figure out why none of the outlets in the kitchen work, trying to get the water to work again after trying to figure out why none of the outlets in the kitchen work; realization of the true meaning of manana (for the first of many times); holding 6 hours of self taught spanish lessons; watching 2 hours of the first season of 'how I met your mother'; reading 450 some-odd cumulative pages of fiction, and celebrating one three month anniversary.
The house is incredible, even if slightly buggy. We can understand why there may have been a little disagreement as to whether or not it was too nice to be a model habitat house for the area. We're going to try to figure out how to post our grand tour video on either youtube or facebook so everyone can have a look. For the next little while though, it appears that internet access will be minimal, so please send us your love, though if we don't respond quickly, please don't take it as a slight.
This will be an incredible adventure - difficult, but incredible. For those of you who plan to come visit, prepare yourself as your arrival will increase the caucasian population of vientesiete from two to three. Enjoy the cold weather back home, at least half of team wander is madly envious of you.
Adios,
TeamWander
P.S. We don't have much internet access these days, so please make comments and send us emails anyway - but don't be sad if we don't respond immediately.
Thursday, January 1, 2009
In the US
We hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a very Happy New Year. We certainly did, three times over, as we rushed around trying to fit in as much time, with as many family members as possible. Although we weren't abroad for that long of a time, it is always interesting to return to the US and realize just how different it is from the rest of the world. First things first, we hopped in a personal car and drove to Ohio. No more trains, buses, boats, or any other form of public transportation, we could be where we wanted to be, when we wanted to be, and were once again in control of our own destiny. Great in some respects, but certainly more selfish and less appealing in others. It was even more shocking to return to gas prices that were less than half of what we had seen when we left and almost comical in comparison to the countries we'd left when thinking about the cost in comparison to the total cost of living. Our first food stop was a Cracker Barrel in West Virginia, a slight deviation in demographic than we'd been accustomed to lately. We were craving cheese, biscuits, and other such foods that we had missed while in Asia. It was quite a challenge (though one we valiantly overcame) to eat the pile of food given to us, since by Thai standards it was two meals or more. The greatest shock of all was the weather shift from 90 degrees to 19 degrees, unfortunately we did not get to see snow. Returning to a land of public toilets and toilet paper has been great though.
It was wonderful to ring in the new year here with such amazing friends, and will be tough to transplant our lives to a new country. We're so thankful to have all of your love and support though and we have an open invitation for anyone who would like to come visit. We'll miss you tons; please keep us posted on your lives as well since we'll do our best to continue our updates through this blog.
Happy New Year, do something great with it,
Team Wander
It was wonderful to ring in the new year here with such amazing friends, and will be tough to transplant our lives to a new country. We're so thankful to have all of your love and support though and we have an open invitation for anyone who would like to come visit. We'll miss you tons; please keep us posted on your lives as well since we'll do our best to continue our updates through this blog.
Happy New Year, do something great with it,
Team Wander
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