Pura Vida, Mañana Mañana and other useful phrases...

My Exam

I have just completed my exam for basico 2 and I think I did ok. I will pass, this is just to let you know that we are not going to have regular email access but i will blog when i can.

Love you all and am buying a phone card so I can call you tonight my time or in the morning my time.

Love you all

Glen

Exam tomorrow

Hola,

We have put photos up and we have an exam tomorrow. I do not think I will pass, Fricking pronombres...

Love you all and wish me luck

New photos uploaded

As promised, we have FINALLY uploaded some new pictures onto this blog. I created the "Nicaragua" album which was when we kayaked to Nicaragua for a week in mid October. The other one with Whitewater Kayaking which was after that.

Anyway, better run! Big exam tomorrow!!
Julie I did not get that email, please resend it, we are anxious to know what happened!!

Love,
Sandra and Glen

Message to my family

Oops, forgot to say some stuff

1) The house sounds nice but i really feel like i am missing out on this hugely important step in your lives. This is sad for me.

2) I loved the photo of the Cat on your bed. I told you that she will rule your house despite any kind of determination that you have. I hope that she is not being too much of a hassel for you and you are enjoying having her around.

3) We have not received the package yet but we have a month to go before we start worrying. Hopefully it will come in the next week.

4) Sandra... are you really moving to port hedland? Why are you doing this? aside from the obvious chance to get a well paying job and closer to your friend and away from shithead. Please do not move before we get home.

5) I am super glad that you are enjoying the bikeriding. It is such a buzz. I can not tell you enough how much i miss riding my bike. I talk about it in class all the time (i do think that the reason for this is because it is the only spanish i know)

6) Thank you for commenting on the blog, it is great to hear from All of you and especially Matt (yes i like him better than you Sandra) Admittedly we have been super busy so missing you all has not been really strong but for the last few weeks, I have felt the pangs of homesickness.

7) To lina and Dario I hope every thing is going well and you still have the Rio seed in you minds, it would be unbeleivable to see you there.

8) if anyone else wants to meet me in Rio, that is fine as well. I will be the one in the budgie smugglers with a cocktail in my hand and my hot, I have an amazing beach body, Wife on my other.

Bye

The last week of school is here...eek!!! It is crazy how much I have learnt though, even if I think that it would take us at least two more years to even become naturally fluent in this language. It still takes me five minutes to get out a sentence, but I can understand most street signs and restaurant menus in Spanish, I can hold a basic conversation, and I can speak in the present and past tense. And even if that is the furthest that I get, I am pretty darn proud of that.

This last two weeks have been more intense with our teachers introducing new and painful concepts to the ones that are already hurting our brains. Our big exam is coming up on Friday, this is the make or break exam, this is worth about 25 per cent of our grade. Glen is getting super stressed over it, although I think he will be fine. I think he is amazing in how he is doing so far, considering that learning languages is really not his forte. If I had the opportunity to come back to Costa Rica, I would love to come back for four more months, live with Doña Anita and take the Intermediate and Advanced classes.

Next week, more adventure awaits us as we leave for Panama on Monday to start our Scuba diving phase. Everyone else is quite excited except for me. Well, I am in a way, but it is hard to explain. For a long time now, I have always found it difficult swimming in the ocean. I certainly still go in the water when I am at the beach to play, but as soon as my feet leave the bottom of the ocean, I am dog paddling frantically back to the safety of the sand. It will definitely be a challenge for me to overcome my fear and do a dive off a boat, not knowing what is lying below or around. Just waiting for me. Eek! We might even do a night dive if our instructor (who is Jim Rowe, the founder for CRROBS!) thinks we are ready. I am looking forward to seeing Panama however. We will be going to the Bocas del Toro Islands, which are supposed to be intensely beautiful. Another challenge will be camping for the whole 8 days that we are there, the mosquitoes, and also due to the water being in short supply, we are not going to be taking showers the whole time we are there! PONG!!

I am missing my family terribly this week, and really wish I can talk to them. We went to Jaco on the weekend and I saw the cutest necklace with tiny colourful turtles on it. I bought it for Kaitlyn because I think she would really like it. I am, however, borrowing it to wear for the next five months because I love it so much!! Thanks Kaitlyn!

This week I have been stressing out, and I think I am also experiencing tiny anxiety attacks. It is like getting surprise bouts of PMS that I am not due to have! Today I snapped at Glen because he was not giving me any suggestions on things to do, and thus not being enthusiastic or productive about our time left. I feel like I am turning a little bit obsessive at the moment, what with feeling the incredible urge to increase our "efficiency levels" since it is our last week at homestay! Poor Glen, he is really getting the brunt of this craziness. It is a little strange since I do not ever get like this at home, but somehow in Costa Rica, I just panic at the idea of not being able to truly experience everything that I possibly can before I leave this country. I am trying to relax a bit more, but it is hard because there is so much to do this week. I think it is just the fact that this month we are running off schedule, hence there is no timetable for us to follow.

We are heading into San Jose this week to try and vote for the Federal Election, but not really sure how. I think I need to call the Canadian Embassy since an Australian one does not exist here, and the Canadian one might have an alliance with ours? So confusing, but one thing I am grateful for which is NO PROPAGANDA ABOUT WHICH PARTY TO VOTE FOR!!

Nigel, thank you so much for the photo of Gypsy!! I loved it, and we spent at least two minutes in school making coo-coo noises at the computer screen. I am sure that everyone thought we had gone completely bonkers!!

We have not received your parcel yet, and am crossing my fingers everyday hoping! The mail run only goes once a week to the PO Box, so I am guessing that it should be here by next week!! Is there any way of tracking it on your end?

Sandra, thank you for your message - it is really cool to hear that things are going well for you and the boys. Good luck for Port Hedland, and although it is a little too far for our liking, I know it will be great for you there. Have you booked your test yet for your motorcycle license?

Anyway, take care, everybody!!

All my love

Sandra

Finally the last bit of October

Hola all,

This is about our final week of the water phase. I mentioned last blog about the kayaking phase in the Rio San Juan. The kayaking was a bit repetitive but the photos that we got and Hill upload soon are really pretty and tell the store a whole lot better than I can right now. What I did gloss over was the time we spent in Nicaragua. On our second last day of paddling we headed down the river to where it meets the Caribbean sea. I had built the Caribbean up in my mind to be better than it was, but where we were it was a debris strewn beach with black sand that was super hot and kind of murky green water. The temperature was awesome though. The river which was separated by a sand bar was at least 10 degrees cooler than the temperature of the Caribbean. We stopped off at a hostel in San Juan Del Norte and spent a couple of days there. The place was fairly non discript except for the fact that there were no streets and all footpaths were raised because when it rained, the whole place would flood. On the second day there we jumped into a blue lagoon and had a lot of fun in the water. It was everyones favorite activity especially because there was this floating contraption with tires chained to the outside of the floating thing. In and other (western) country this would never be allowed because of the fact that it would not pass any safety checks, but it was so much fun. You basically tried to climb up the tires to get to the top of the floating thing. If your foot got stuck, you were kind of screwed but it was fun all the same.

The next day we headed for a nine hour boat ride deeper into Nicaragua and went to an old Spanish Castillo or fort. This was the prettiest landscape that i have seen on this trip. Everything was old and kind of quaint as a riverside town. The best was to check it out is through the photos that we hill get on line. The last day after the Castillo was paddling 42 kms to a Nicaraguan visa checkpoint (complete with AK47s) and head on back to base.

The next day we had half a day to wash everything and get ready for the whitewater kayaking.

The first thing we did was try to get comfortable being upside down in the river and wait for rescue. It is a really easy concept but when you cant breath and you are in a kayak that is fitted to your body like a condom, and your nose is filling up with water that is going slowly into your sinuses and then into your brain, it is difficult to remain calm. On the first day we did not have nose plugs which make all the difference. Needless to say i did not fair to good on that day cos the water gave me a massive sinus headache. The next day armed with makeshift nose plugs, we all tried to learn how to roll. Rolling is a difficult action because everything is counterintuitive. For example you need to keep you head face down into the water so that you can utilise your hips when flipping the boat. That is hard to do when all you can think is I want to breath now... please... oh shit, no one will save me...HELP ME I DO NOT WANT TO DIE. We had three days of practice of rolling before they sent us down the rapids. By that stage, I had not perfected the roll totally but I was calm enough under the water to get rescued by the other Kayaks or to pull my skirt.

Going down the rapids was a totally different experience than calm water. Again everything was counterintuitive, if you are going to hit a wall, lean towards the wall so you don{t flip. If you are going to hit a rock, lean towards it, calm water is not safe because it will tip you if you do not enter it with the corrects angle, etc etc etc.

Needless to say, we all tipped a bunch of times and everyone said that this was one of the scariest experiences of their lives. I have to agree, I was scared shittless most of the time. However, like all things, with practice it became less and less scary for me. I was the only one who felt this way though. The group could not get the fear out of their heads and this included Mitch. He is our rock when it comes to physicality. Nothing phases him physically but he was stressed out by kayaking in a huge way. He could do all the movements but it scared him to the point where he got a cold sore.

On the first day we also got to jump off a cliff that was at least 15 foot high, in our kayaks. It was the best feeling to do something so scary and hard core and land perfectly. We have some photos doing this on a smaller cliff that we will upload later.

The rest of the week was essentially doing bigger and bigger rapids. I got the roll down to the point where I flipped and righted my self without rescue. That was an amazing experience. Sandra hit her chin on a rock and needed stitches, she was the most hard core.

Speaking of Sandra, she was amazing in the water, she could roll herself almost every time and was braver than all when it came to attacking the river. There are moments when you look at your wife and get truly amazed at how fucking cool she really is.

Anyway, that is pretty much the month of October.

I am missing all my friends and family back home and i really want to try to give my parents a call. It hase been difficult but i am sure that i will succeed this weekend. Fingers crossed.

Love you all

Tica Life and me

I can´t believe that we´ve been in Costa Rica for close to three months now. It´s almost like I was bidding teary goodbyes at the airport, and then the next moment, I´m ordering empanadas at the cafeteria in Universidad Veritas like it´s the most normal thing in the world.

Considering that we are now halfway through November, it feels a little late to blog about our October activities. I feel that November is the month that I am really loving being in Costa Rica. Like, I can actually imagine myself living and working here for CRROBS (although the average $200 USD a month pay does not really appeal at all!). I love speaking Spanish and I would love the opportunity to live here and get fluent in this language. However, other pursuits are waiting and I´m not about to give those up either!

This is our second and final month at school, we´re now doing Basico Dos classes, which mean a lot more homework and absolutely brain-numbing new verbs (there are 15 tenses in Spanish, every one of them just as confusing as the other!). Being the sick masochist that I am, I am enjoying the challenge. I think I am getting really good at the reading and writing aspect of Spanish, but verbally, I have the language skills of a three year old. My latest phrase at the moment is:

¨Lo siento, mi espanol esta fuera de servicio hoy!¨

Meaning:

I´m sorry, my Spanish is not working today!

Apart from school, Glen and I are staying in a homestay for a month. It´s in an area quite close to University, called San Pedro, which essentially costs about $3 USD by taxi. Everything is so cheap here. A Corona only costs USD$2.50, the local beer Imperial costs less than a dollar. I´m ashamed to say that my ´we´re going backpacking so only the bare essentials´policy that I had when I first started are slowly inching its way out the window as my wardrobe is getting close to doubling. Oh dear!

Our family (or familia tica) are absolutely the loveliest people in the world. Anita, who is our mamatica, reminds me so much of my own mother sometimes. She´s warm, sociable, and always greets us with a big smile and an even bigger plate of food. She has two sons, Jossie who is thirteen, and Danny who is twenty one, who she both dotes on and vice versa. I love how that is the way here with most Costa Rican families. When we hiked to Piedras Blancas, we stayed with the Lopez family for 3 days, where Mama Lopez have had EIGHTEEN children. They range from 15 to 37, and Mama Lopez is only 57 years old or so. But they were so happy and content with each other and their simple life, it was really sweet.

So far, during the homestay, Glen and I have settled into a good weekly schedule which combines doing all the normal school duties, and some sightseeing on the side. Last week, we visited downtown San Jose and went to the Teatro Nacional. We´re going back next week to take photos and also try to get our visas for Brazil.

This week, Glen and I decided that we were going to bite the bullet, and stop talking about getting tattoos and just go get them already. Our next expedition is in two weeks time and now is the best time for us to get them so we can heal up in time. Soooooooooooo....Glen now has a killer snake tattoo on his shoulder (but not a violent or tough snake, it´s a nice snake, and I´m sporting a very girly line of flowers, leaves and a hummingbird on my lower back. I am planning to upload some pictures of our homestay and our tattoos later this week or earlier next week.

We´ve also been going to the gym every day and working out. It has been fantastic over the last 10 weeks watching our bodies change and buff up as we grow stronger and healthier. Glen is looking the best that I can remember, and I can actually make my biceps move up and down my arm!! Hehehe....so far, Glen has lost 10 kilos, and I have only lost 4 kilos. We have also gained a lot more muscle which is very new to us.

Anyway, we´re going out tonight to watch a movie in VIP seats (it only costs $4.50 for this, and $3.40 for normal seats. So cool considering we´re used to shelling out $15 back in Perth), then meeting a friend for dinner.

Right now, I think I´m really adapting well to tica life. Hére´s why:

1) I´m usually chronically late for most things. Now I can just shrug and say ´Pura vida!´ and people are happy

2) Í´m starting to enjoy rice and beans. Plus I can eat nachos until I explode.

3) I´ve tanned so much that I am now browner than most people.

4) I´m starting to even pronounce English words in a Spanish way. I find myself saying words like ´Por que´ (why), and ´No mas!´(no more!) instead of the English substitutes

5) My dress is slowly turning into the tica dress (lots of flesh, and high hemlines!)

6) Glen and I are getting into dance class, and we can now salsa rings around most gringos (I really enjoy that part!)

I´ll try to blog again soon, I need to make the most out of the readily available Internet access over the next ten days. I really miss my family, and the thing that does suck most is we don´t have phone access anymore which means we can´t call as frequently as we´d like. Plus with daylight savings for Perth, it makes the time differences a little harder.

But with that being said, I can´t stress enough how much it brightens our day to check our blog and find messages from family and friends.

We love you guys all very much, and wish so hard that you can all be here.

Take care,

Sandra

Crazy Things that we have done

We have done so much in the last week. I have gone to a volcano that was covered in cloud, I have had to get some surgery on my teeth ... Again and to top it all off, I got me a tattoo. Lots and lots of fun. At the same time we have been going to the gym and I am pulling weights that I have never pulled before. Sandra and I are enjoying the whole healthy body / losing weight thing.

It has been so hard trying to get time to fill in all the spaces of our trip while trying to study Espanol and keeping up with lots of activities. Sandra and I have been keeping as busy as possible cos I reckon that it is the best way to get the most of our trip.

We are starting to think about the end of our time in CR. After the next week, Sandra and I will be heading out to do the last parts of our OB course and then we are off on our own in the big bad worlds of South America.

When we first started the Academic section two months ago, we were told that we needed to keep a routine if we wanted to have a good transition into the life of this country. I have not felt at any point in time the fear that they said should happen. I love the adventure and I love the different lifestyle. For example, I needed to get some surgery on my mouth. From where I had the tooth removed, some bone decided to grow out of my gum. It hurt like hell so  OB took me to a pharmacia so that i could get some pain relief - they shoved a needle into my ass. On the next day (Sunday) they shoved another needle in my ass for more pain relief. On the Monday, I went to  the dentist and they gave me 4 needles and three stitches. They were so nice, they fit me an appointment in their lunch break. I have never had such support in Australia for tooth pain. I was surprised that they put me the chair during their lunch break and all they were concerned with was the fact that I had tooth pain. Adventure and Lifestyle.

Briefly, the kayaking phase of the course on the rio San Juan was fun but really hard. The river was a slow moving calm river and we paddled it to the Caribbean coast. We camped along the banks and watched for crocodiles. It was huck finn meets lake placid. I got to paddle with Sandra and we launched a lot of raids on the other groups boats including stealing the oars from another boat. I even earnt my first nickname that I like... Cap'n Glenerrgh. I think that it is very cool. We also went to Nicaragua during this phase and As a country, it is very beautiful. I would say that it is even more beautiful that CR.

We are now off to get our laundry and head on out to a shopping centre to meet some friends for dinner, and go to the gym, and do our homework and i think their might be some moutain climbing involved.

Lots of love to every one. I am really hoping that we get to call you soon

Glen

Surfing part two

Hola all,

From Jaco we went to a turtle farm where we were to do volunteer work in protecting turtles from people who steal the eggs. In Costa Rica, it is believed that the egg of a turtle will give you a lot of stamina in the bedroom. They have a cool poster with a turtle holding a pill of Viagra and saying No Toque mis huevos. Basically they are saying take Viagra for stamina, my eggs just don’t cut it.

When we got there, we set up camp and got organized into turtle patrol groups. What would happen is that we walk the beach, look out for turtles who have laid or are laying a nest and raid it. We would then plant the eggs in a purpose built farm so that the eggs are protected. When they hatch we sent the turtles off to the beach so that they can return with out some of the problems that they encounter.

Patrol was really hard because you have to walk on a debris strewn beach, with no light, hunting for eggs, looking out for poachers and looking out for Crocodiles that happened to also live in the area and were feeding. All of this was also to be done with out insect repellent so that both mosquito’s and Sand fleas could attack every limb that was not covered. Oh and it was raining as well. Sandra and I had an absolute ball.

After that adventure, we went back to Manuel Antonio for a little bit more surfing (me boogie boarding) and then we packed up and left for Tres Rios.

My general conclusion about surfing is that it is too hard for me and I prefer to boogie board – I am happy with that place and I am not a cop out despite what you might think. I am not… honestly… un porquito.

I have attached a new album of the surf phase photos, hope you enjoy. I will write tomorrow about the rest of the other phases after class. Sandra and I are going to go into San Jose tomorrow and have Dinner in a Restaurant. We have not done this in ages and are looking forward to it. Our Tica Madre who we are living with at the moment is awesome and cooks really well but we want to have linen, cutlery, waiters, and a wanky menu.

Love to all.

Our Surf Phase part one

The surfing phase.

We finished our Exam for Basico uno and headed on to base camp. This was on the 28th of September. We had Friday as a free night where we just chilled.

I think it was when Chelsea decided to create some more Drama by deciding that she was going to leave and spend the rest of her life with the Tico that she had just met 3 weekends before. I do not think that at this stage anyone in the group were too sad to see her leave. In fact we all shut the hell up just in case she changed her mind. She left on the Saturday and since then the group has performed better and we are all happier. Not really a surprise but I wanted to just mention it.

Anyway, we met our new instructor for the Surf Phase, Carlos, who was tico mixed with typical surfer. Cool, tranquilo and impossible well coordinated. We all picked out our boards and headed off to Manuel Antonio, a beach where OB started. OB had a house over at MA with air-conditioning and a pool. We were in luxury. We headed to the beach on the Sunday and started our surfing adventure. From the get go I sucked at surfing. To “pop up” you have to lie on the board, wait for a wave, balance, paddle, push up, whip your foot under and crouch and then stand. All of which needs to be done in the space of 5 seconds.

The beach at MA was a nice beach but the sand was black, white and grey. So far none of the beaches that we have been to have been nicer than Aussie beaches, Cott, Scabs and Back beach all kick ass over the beaches that I have seen. Esperance has almost no competition so far. The water however is so warm, not so clean but really warm. The waves were pretty cool though. There was a nice learner beach break at MA and that gave us lots of opportunity to body-board and boogie board. We spent a few days here, waking up, surfing, going home, chilling and then surfing again.

We left MA and headed out to what we were told is a really nice campsite with a really nice beach that gave better and bigger waves. When we got there, the campsite was no longer in use. We had to set up camp in tents next to a pile of rubbish, in an overgrown with weeds backyard and we had access to showers with no light. In addition to that, Sandra and I had been promised our own tent but that got changed as well. I was not a happy camper. The beach also sucked cause you were surfing with tree trunks that got washed in through the rivers that fed into the ocean. It was my worst day on the surfing phase. Had everything been what we were told it would have been fine but it sucked.

Well write soon but we gotta head off in to town.