FLASHBACK: SEPTEMBER 2005
I came home one Saturday after a yucky day of work. Demanding customers, frustrating staff - the whole kit and caboodle. Add another hour of commute time on Perth's finest metro transport system on top of that, and I was not a happy gringo at the time!
Glen sat sprawled on our living room floor, with his laptop open in front of him. He was grinning ear to ear, and positively giddy with excitement. Like a schoolgirl. In plaits, and a tutu. Sorry, I digress...
"Sweetie, take a look at this!" he literally grabbed my shoulders and thrust me in front of the screen.
COSTA RICA RAINFOREST OUTWARD BOUND SCHOOL
"Wha...?" I tried to speak before he interrupted me.
"I want to do this!" He announced proudly. My angry, tired self melted a little. He really didn't deserve to have me, Miss Crankypants crashing into the living room and raining all over his nice, colourful parade with balloons, and bells, and whistles. And a tutu. Oops, it's a slippery slope into digression again, isn't it?
Bit of FYI: Outward Bound was developed by a guy named Kurt Hahn, who over 60 years ago, introduced a program incorporating five core principles of Challenge and Adventure, Compassion and Service, Social and Environmental Responsibility, Character Development and Learning Through Experience. In simple language, it's a course set to challenge you mentally and physically, so if you were say, dropped in the middle of a jungle, mountain, quicksand, or patch of cactus, you would be technically equipped with the skills to survive. Glen has embarked on two OB courses back when he was a teenager, and have always remembered it to be great experiences in his life.
In other words, he's already been to hell and back before, got mild dysentery, climbed a few mountains, ate fake protein out of a can, lost a quarter of his body weight, and survived. And now he wants to do it again - with me, trudging behind him!
Anyway, the course he was looking at is the Spanish Immersion Adventure. This four month course combines intensive Spanish language classes from Universidad Veritas, and expeditions into the Costa Rican rainforest, and Nicaraguan and Panaman jungles.
"Let's do this!!" He exclaimed.
We looked at the course fee. $11,995. US Dollars. MADRE MIA!! (See, I'm speaking La Espanol already) That's not even considering how much flights, taxes, travel insurance and all the little nitty bitties would cost on top of that.
Nevertheless, my love was determined, and his childlike...oops I mean his adult, manly, almost beastlike enthusiasm was starting to catch on.
We set a 5 year plan of attack. We named it "Sandra and Glen's Action Adventure Plan!" (A plan isn't a good plan if it doesn't have at least two good buzz words).
Over the next two years, we set out planning how we would finance the trip, when we would go, how long we would go for.
However, 2010 seemed like a reaaaaally long way away.
I mean, 2010. That's double digits technically. It's a new decade!! I would be 29, and Glen would be....*GASP* 32!
So in June last year, we simultaneously agreed that Operation Action Crazy Fun Wacko Whoopee-doo Adventure would be moved up to.....August 2007.
So here we are now. In the final stages, just two and half months before we officially execute Operation Action Super Wicked Cool What-The-Hell-Have-We-Signed-Up-For Adventure. I can't even begin to list all the things we have to do before we go. There's vaccinations, physical training, organising our house rental, packing, buying equipment, finding a good travel agent (where? OH HERE I AM. IT'S MEEEE!!), and so on.
Without sounding extremely corny, I think planning this trip has already made Glen and I closer as a couple. We've spent more time and money on it than our wedding, had endless Saturdays trawling through travel brochures and Lonely Planet guides, and sat in my store after work hours rebooking and cancelling new flight itineraries. This trip has become our pseudo-baby. We've paid so much attention to it, shaped it as it has bloomed from a 4 month jaunt to an 8 month trip-of-a-lifetime, fed it (it eats money, mostly) and talked about it to death to our friends and families so much so that hay bales roll by every time the words 'Costa Rica' is mentioned.
So I figure that's why we've had to create this blog. It will be our spewing ground, where we shall spew forth our travel plans, thoughts, well wishes for our trip, anxieties, and eventually, the actual day-to-day happenings of our mad journey.
We have 82 more sleeps to go. I can't friggin' wait!
