sorry i haven't updated this in awhile, i haven't felt like i've had a ton to write.
this weekend has been very low key, but very nice. we went out of town last weekend, and stayed in a town called arenal, at a bed and breakfast called the lucky bug. the owners of this b&b are from mt. shasta, so they just looooved pat, and we're so incredibly generous to us. they gave us each a night free there, so that we could bring back our parents when they visit! and they gave us all our meals for free, and let us kayak around in their lake, and we saw wild toucans!
we had planned on going to this festival called palmares this weekend (kind of like the costa rican version of the state fair), so we stayed in san jose. however, it turned out that traffic out to the festival was just horrendous, and we didn't have the energy for a ten hour drinking binge, so we've spent the weekend just hanging out. on friday night, we went over to our canadian friends' house, and had curry and a lot of wine. they live in a house with several other people-- french, americans, texans (a special category of american) and costa ricans. the conversation was in english, spanish and french, and it was really fun to meet new people.
on saturday morning, we got some coffee (at the most adorable little coffee shop i have ever seen) and then went to the farmers market, which i had been looking forward to all week. i was not disappointed. the produce in grocery stores leaves a lot to be desired, and this was just produce heaven. there were probably a hundred stands, of mangoes, pineapples, lettuce, cilantro, onions, strawberries, limes, avocadoes, pears, etc etc etc. it was BEAUTIFUL. so after walking around in a daze, we bought a little of everything and headed home-- after buying some fresh squeezed orange juice. we made guacamole and listened to music and for once the weather in san jose was gorgeous, and it finally hit me how incredibly lucky i am to be here, and what an amazing experience this is going to be. pat will vouch for me-- i was glowing for the rest of the day.
last night, we went to pat's boss' boyfriend's house, for the editor-in-chief's going away party. everyone ended up sitting around on beanbags singing while pat and the editor played guitar. pat is planning on buying a guitar here (you can get them specially made for pretty cheap, apparently) so i'm thinking about teaching myself a song or two (might as well do something with all the free time i have).
today, pat made me pancakes for breakfast and we played scrabble. i baked a chocolate-blackberry cake (yet to be sampled) and now we're sitting in bed, contemplating making dinner.
i'm sure none of this is that exciting to read about, but it was such a nice weekend for me, i wanted to share it with you guys. love you all!
1/25/09
1/14/09
a sausage exploded in my eye
that is not a line from a sick joke, i promise.
yesterday, i was thinking about writing a blog about how great life is going. i've been cooking great dinners, i got a job babysitting/ tutoring for a really nice (really wealthy) family with adorable children, and we get the food network, and there is zara here, and there is even betty crocker cake mix available to me in a grocery store only 4 blocks away. and there is toblerone. and frozen tacquitos. and... wait for it... THERE IS TACO BELL IN COSTA RICA. this place is like a disneyland, but better.
that is what i was going to tell you all yesterday. today, however, i would like to expose the pitfalls of this fairytale. last night, i was taking the bus home from escazu, the suburb where i now have a job babysitting, but freaked out and thought the bus was going the wrong way. so i got off the bus, but had no clue where i was. not even what street i was on, because in costa rica they do not believe in labeling the streets with those handy things called street signs. if you don't know where the hell you are, then too bad. so i got in a cab, and asked him to drop me off in moravia, my own little suburb. as soon as we got to a recognizable landmark, i asked him to stop. i handed him the only bill i had, a 10,000 colones note, for the 1,000 colones cab ride. kind of crappy of me, but i had no other options. this really pissed him off, and he pretty much threw the change at me. as i got out of the cab, the door shut loudly behind me. to be clear, i did not slam it-- i pushed it hard to make sure it was closed. seriously. at this, the cab driver became unhinged, and in a combination of spanish and english, screamed at me "fuck you, don't slam the fucking door, bitch." awesome. such a friendly country, really.
today, i tried to take the bus out to my babysitting job. i got on the bus, and asked the driver if it stopped at the coca cola station, which is the main transfer center for buses. he said yes, so i got on and paid my 50 cents. the bus proceeded to turn in the exact opposite direction of the coca cola station, so i asked the guy next to me if the bus was going there. no, it was not. the driver then seemed to say that he simply thought i wanted to know if the bus was going somewhere i could get a coca cola. right. some people on the bus thought this was hilarious. me, not so much. so the bus made a special stop for me, and i paid ten dollars for a cab out to escazu.
to top off my last 24 hours, i had planned a wonderful, rachael ray inspired dinner with sausages braised in red wine. i now realize she probably didn't have spicy chorizo in mind, which was the only sausage available at the mega-super (our favorite grocery store). not only did it taste like crap, one sausage completely exploded while it was cooking, covering my face, my sweatshirt, and the entire kitchen in greasy, burning hot red wine. "damn you, rachael ray," was pretty much all i could say (once i stopped screaming).
you win some, you lose some, right? i think if i head back to mega super for some brownie mix, i'll call today a draw.
yesterday, i was thinking about writing a blog about how great life is going. i've been cooking great dinners, i got a job babysitting/ tutoring for a really nice (really wealthy) family with adorable children, and we get the food network, and there is zara here, and there is even betty crocker cake mix available to me in a grocery store only 4 blocks away. and there is toblerone. and frozen tacquitos. and... wait for it... THERE IS TACO BELL IN COSTA RICA. this place is like a disneyland, but better.
that is what i was going to tell you all yesterday. today, however, i would like to expose the pitfalls of this fairytale. last night, i was taking the bus home from escazu, the suburb where i now have a job babysitting, but freaked out and thought the bus was going the wrong way. so i got off the bus, but had no clue where i was. not even what street i was on, because in costa rica they do not believe in labeling the streets with those handy things called street signs. if you don't know where the hell you are, then too bad. so i got in a cab, and asked him to drop me off in moravia, my own little suburb. as soon as we got to a recognizable landmark, i asked him to stop. i handed him the only bill i had, a 10,000 colones note, for the 1,000 colones cab ride. kind of crappy of me, but i had no other options. this really pissed him off, and he pretty much threw the change at me. as i got out of the cab, the door shut loudly behind me. to be clear, i did not slam it-- i pushed it hard to make sure it was closed. seriously. at this, the cab driver became unhinged, and in a combination of spanish and english, screamed at me "fuck you, don't slam the fucking door, bitch." awesome. such a friendly country, really.
today, i tried to take the bus out to my babysitting job. i got on the bus, and asked the driver if it stopped at the coca cola station, which is the main transfer center for buses. he said yes, so i got on and paid my 50 cents. the bus proceeded to turn in the exact opposite direction of the coca cola station, so i asked the guy next to me if the bus was going there. no, it was not. the driver then seemed to say that he simply thought i wanted to know if the bus was going somewhere i could get a coca cola. right. some people on the bus thought this was hilarious. me, not so much. so the bus made a special stop for me, and i paid ten dollars for a cab out to escazu.
to top off my last 24 hours, i had planned a wonderful, rachael ray inspired dinner with sausages braised in red wine. i now realize she probably didn't have spicy chorizo in mind, which was the only sausage available at the mega-super (our favorite grocery store). not only did it taste like crap, one sausage completely exploded while it was cooking, covering my face, my sweatshirt, and the entire kitchen in greasy, burning hot red wine. "damn you, rachael ray," was pretty much all i could say (once i stopped screaming).
you win some, you lose some, right? i think if i head back to mega super for some brownie mix, i'll call today a draw.
1/12/09
don't want to be an american idiot
this weekend, pat and i took the bus from san jose to quepos, where we spent the night in a dumpy hotel and then went to manuel antonio which is a national park on the pacific coast, about 15 minutes away from quepos. the bus ride from san jose was not as long as we had expected (about 3 hours) and was pretty pleasant for me, because i got the last seat on the bus. costa rica strangely has its act together when it comes to buses, and most people make reservations for the bus several days in advance. pat and i did not figure this out, so pat spent most of the ride to manuel antonio on the floor in the back of the bus. when a seat finally opened up, we got to sit next to each other. this turned out to be not so good. we were listening to our ipods, and i looked out the window, where we were passing a palm tree forest. i had no idea these existed, and practically screamed at pat, "IS THAT A PALM TREE FOREST?!?!" he gave me a look of death, and replied, "you're shouting. actually shouting." the rest of the bus was dead silent. great. i spent the rest of the bus ride wanting to melt into my seat.
the rest of the weekend passed without too much going wrong. the beach was gorgeous (although it took us awhile to find it) and we had an amazing dinner at a place called "la barba roja" which means "the red beard." pat was loving it. we also saw some live music, and enjoyed some very girly tropical drinks. we spent the night in a 14 bed dorm in a hostel, which was good because it was only $10 a night, but bad because people were coming and going all night, making sleep almost impossible. we napped on the beach the next day, long enough for pat to get a sunburn.
we didn't go into the actual national park (the $7 entrance fee was too much for the poverty plan) but plan on returning, because pat really wants to see a sloth. he kept getting excited about lumps in trees when we were walking to the beach, which we thought were sloths but were actually weird tree growths. you can also go on tours of the mangroves, where there are crocodiles and monkeys and god knows what, so when we sack up and pay to get into the park, i'll let you all know how it goes.
the rest of the weekend passed without too much going wrong. the beach was gorgeous (although it took us awhile to find it) and we had an amazing dinner at a place called "la barba roja" which means "the red beard." pat was loving it. we also saw some live music, and enjoyed some very girly tropical drinks. we spent the night in a 14 bed dorm in a hostel, which was good because it was only $10 a night, but bad because people were coming and going all night, making sleep almost impossible. we napped on the beach the next day, long enough for pat to get a sunburn.
we didn't go into the actual national park (the $7 entrance fee was too much for the poverty plan) but plan on returning, because pat really wants to see a sloth. he kept getting excited about lumps in trees when we were walking to the beach, which we thought were sloths but were actually weird tree growths. you can also go on tours of the mangroves, where there are crocodiles and monkeys and god knows what, so when we sack up and pay to get into the park, i'll let you all know how it goes.
1/8/09
at the request of ms. kenner...
This is our dining nook. Please observe the bar (on the left) and the hideous doily that i cannot figure out how to remove from the light. To the right is a little patio with flowers and some sort of fruit tree. I haven't yet been on the patio, because there are spiderwebs on the doors. Pat's mission is to remove them.
We have our very own banana tree. very tropical of us, don't you think?
there is a beautiful little courtyard with a ton of flowers and the perfect amount of sun for tanning in the morning. taryn, don't worry, i'm wearing sunscreen. below is our house! the flowers are outside our bedroom window.
1/7/09
coming clean
first of all, this blog was set up with spanish directions, so i have no clue what is actually going on. hopefully it will work and i will be able to keep everyone updated on life in costa rica. don't expect anything witty or of actual importance-- go to pat's blog for that. i expect this will mostly detail the (mis)adventures of my day to day life, starting with yesterday...
we moved into our apartment yesterday. it's adorable, in a little barrio outside of san jose called moravia. there are two other apartments in our complex, so we have four other americans as our neighbors. they are young, seem really nice, and are all teachers. one girl, caitlyn, is from the 916-- further evidence that we are actually everywhere. i am incredibly happy to be out of our hostel. the guy that worked there got a little too friendly, and offered to adjust the hot water for me while i was showering. excuse me, senor? so i had to skip showering for awhile. last night in the new apartment i thought i would finally be able to clean myself without complications. naturally this did not work out. the shower head overheated, sparked and filled the whole bathroom with smoke, so i spent several hours sitting in the bedroom (with wet, not-shampooed hair) while the landlord and two electricians stood in the shower and shouted in spanish.
we then went to dinner at a chinese restaurant, where i ordered "pollo y arroz con salsa curry." i would not recommend ordering thai food in a chinese restaurant in costa rica. it comes out tasting like fish. this forced us to brace the grocery store (so domestic) where we succeeded in buying cultured milk instead of regular milk. we thought this meant we were being extra cautious about health, but it actually meant that pat poured milk resembling yogurt onto his cheerios this morning.
so far today i have been tanning and reading, and finally, i showered. eventually i will be venturing out to buy some milk. pretty exciting, i know.
we moved into our apartment yesterday. it's adorable, in a little barrio outside of san jose called moravia. there are two other apartments in our complex, so we have four other americans as our neighbors. they are young, seem really nice, and are all teachers. one girl, caitlyn, is from the 916-- further evidence that we are actually everywhere. i am incredibly happy to be out of our hostel. the guy that worked there got a little too friendly, and offered to adjust the hot water for me while i was showering. excuse me, senor? so i had to skip showering for awhile. last night in the new apartment i thought i would finally be able to clean myself without complications. naturally this did not work out. the shower head overheated, sparked and filled the whole bathroom with smoke, so i spent several hours sitting in the bedroom (with wet, not-shampooed hair) while the landlord and two electricians stood in the shower and shouted in spanish.
we then went to dinner at a chinese restaurant, where i ordered "pollo y arroz con salsa curry." i would not recommend ordering thai food in a chinese restaurant in costa rica. it comes out tasting like fish. this forced us to brace the grocery store (so domestic) where we succeeded in buying cultured milk instead of regular milk. we thought this meant we were being extra cautious about health, but it actually meant that pat poured milk resembling yogurt onto his cheerios this morning.
so far today i have been tanning and reading, and finally, i showered. eventually i will be venturing out to buy some milk. pretty exciting, i know.
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