Saturday night we joined some friends at our favorite bar to watch the NFL play-offs. We were also celebrating a friend's birthday and realized that it was at his birthday party last year that we had met all of these people for the first time. It is amazing to think of how different our lives were in January 2009 than they are in 2010. It got us thinking and here are the top 10 things (in no particular order) we have learned after living in Costa Rica for one year...
1) Spanish! (though this is surely still a work in progress)
2) The ability to do nothing and enjoy it
3) A renewed appreciation for the beauty of nature
4) Importance of a simple life, less cluttered by "stuff"
5) How to bake bread
6) What extreme generosity really looks like
7) How to be successful as a married couple (also a work in progress ;-) )
8) How concrete construction works, at least Costa Rican style
9) A whole bunch of new hobbies
10) That sometimes clouds are nice
What's your list look like?
Team Wander
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Cambios
Happy New Year!! We hope everyone had a great Christmas holiday and a blast ringing in the New Year. It was certainly great to be back in the States for a couple of weeks to see family and friends, but our preparation for the cold was like running a mile to train for a marathon. 
The majority of our winter clothes are snugly packed away in storage, and not one week into our stay, we were greeted by 20 inches of snow. We successfully battled that storm out of DC, only to make it NC and be slammed by 2 or 3 inches of ice on top of that. As a result, we lost power and water on Christmas morning and did not get it back until Sunday. Thankfully we had a wood fireplace, so we spent two days huddled around a fire, making grilled cheese sandwiches over the flames, and playing games to pass the time. A memorable Christmas to say the least.
For New Year´s Eve, we made it back to Raleigh for a fantastic party. We have finally spent enough time out of Raleigh that it oddly no longer feels like home, but thankfully our friends are as amazing as ever.
To end a wonderful trip, Michelle took us to the Panthers vs. Saints game in Charlotte. We had never been to a Pro Football game before, and it was a blast. The fact that we couldn´t feel our fingers or toes did little to curb our enthusiasm for seeing football in person for the first time this year. Go Panthers! (They won by the way.)
Ninety degree heat welcomed us back to Costa Rica, and it took us a good day or two to readjust to our lives here. One of those days was spent celebrating Miah´s 28th birhtday(!) and another visitng the worksite to see how things had progressed while we were gone. Sadly, not as much happened on the houses as was promised (why this still surprises us, we´ll never know...). Our guarantee to have all finishing details complete in January is quickly becoming a dream of the past. Hopefully we can get everything wrapped up sooner rather than later though.
For all of you who donated clothes (or tried to, sorry we didn´t have time to cross paths with all of you!), the workers were extremely appreciative. The guys were crowded around the back of a pick-up truck with 100+ pounds of donated clothing from which to chose. Thanks again for your generosity.
Have fun watching the National Championship Game tonight!
Team Wander
The majority of our winter clothes are snugly packed away in storage, and not one week into our stay, we were greeted by 20 inches of snow. We successfully battled that storm out of DC, only to make it NC and be slammed by 2 or 3 inches of ice on top of that. As a result, we lost power and water on Christmas morning and did not get it back until Sunday. Thankfully we had a wood fireplace, so we spent two days huddled around a fire, making grilled cheese sandwiches over the flames, and playing games to pass the time. A memorable Christmas to say the least.For New Year´s Eve, we made it back to Raleigh for a fantastic party. We have finally spent enough time out of Raleigh that it oddly no longer feels like home, but thankfully our friends are as amazing as ever.
To end a wonderful trip, Michelle took us to the Panthers vs. Saints game in Charlotte. We had never been to a Pro Football game before, and it was a blast. The fact that we couldn´t feel our fingers or toes did little to curb our enthusiasm for seeing football in person for the first time this year. Go Panthers! (They won by the way.)Ninety degree heat welcomed us back to Costa Rica, and it took us a good day or two to readjust to our lives here. One of those days was spent celebrating Miah´s 28th birhtday(!) and another visitng the worksite to see how things had progressed while we were gone. Sadly, not as much happened on the houses as was promised (why this still surprises us, we´ll never know...). Our guarantee to have all finishing details complete in January is quickly becoming a dream of the past. Hopefully we can get everything wrapped up sooner rather than later though.
For all of you who donated clothes (or tried to, sorry we didn´t have time to cross paths with all of you!), the workers were extremely appreciative. The guys were crowded around the back of a pick-up truck with 100+ pounds of donated clothing from which to chose. Thanks again for your generosity.
Have fun watching the National Championship Game tonight!
Team Wander
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