Wednesday, April 23, 2008
We got our stuff
We got our stuff which means that soon enough I will post some pictures of our house...We haven't seen our things since we left Malawi so it was a bit like Christmas. However, there were several things that I was like, "Why in the world did I ship this thing halfway around the world?" The #1 thing on that list is homemade beef jerky that we bought from a friend in Malawi in June 2007. It was wrapped in newspaper and put in a ziploc freezer bag. Gross.
Festival Imperial
So on Sunday it really hit me how different Malawi and Costa Rica are...we went to an outdoor concert called Festival Imperial. Over Saturday and Sunday five major groups played (okay, so it depends on your definition of "major" but let's just say groups people have heard of...) including Smashing Pumpkins and Incubus on Saturday and Seal, Enrique Iglesias, and Duran Duran on Sunday. We went on Sunday with a friend and got $20 for the lawn. We watched Seal from the lawn and then decided that for Enrique we would try to sneak up a little closer...which we did and essentially got to about row 30ish...you could totally see him and I have to admit he was quite attractive in person! Also, of the three groups we saw perform on Sunday, he was by far the best with a crowd - the crowd loved him but when he finished performing the crowd didn't really applaud much which meant that he didn't come out for an encore! Maybe that's not a thing here? I'm going to have to look into that...it was even obvious that Enrique Iglesias didn't sing his most famous song (Hero) because he was waiting for the encore...weird.
Anyway, the reason that I know this is very different from Malawi is that in Malawi I never even went to a movie, let alone a live performance of anyone I've ever seen before. I did go to a concert once of a Hugh Masekela (clearly no one knows who he is...South Africa jazz guy) and like everyone we knew went because there was nothing else to do. He was really good though...(no worries getting up close there...there was no security to sneak through!)
Anyway, the reason that I know this is very different from Malawi is that in Malawi I never even went to a movie, let alone a live performance of anyone I've ever seen before. I did go to a concert once of a Hugh Masekela (clearly no one knows who he is...South Africa jazz guy) and like everyone we knew went because there was nothing else to do. He was really good though...(no worries getting up close there...there was no security to sneak through!)
Friday, April 18, 2008
We've arrived
It has taken me longer than I expected to put this post up. We've been in Costa Rica for a little over two weeks now and our internet was set up in week one so I'm not sure what has been taking so long.
We're in our house which is great except for the absence of a yard - no grass, no nothing. We have three bedrooms, office, two and a half baths...we certainly don't need any more room. We've received our stuff that was shipped from Washington which is most of our clothes, our TV, and a few other essentials. Our stuff from Malawi is supposed to come next week. We've set up internet at home and are slowly but surely working on getting me a cell phone...we'll see how that goes. No car yet...hopefully at the beginning of May - that is driving me crazy.
Anyways, I won't bore you with the details but I'll tell you about a couple of cool things we've done since we've been here and one funny story.
First of all, we've adopted our own Costa Rican host family. I'm not sure if they know that they've been adopted, but they they have. We met them in a friend of a friend kind of situation. Their son is married to Tyler's mom's college roomate's daughter. Get it? Anyway, they (mom, dad, son and daughter around our age) are incredibly kind and include us in all kinds of stuff that they do. The mother runs a non-profit that helps communities provide small loans to their members. Because of this she travels all around the country visiting communities. She has invited us to go along with her to one of the sites this week and and we are really looking forward to it.
This past weekend was a three day weekend so we took advantage of an extra day off and did a typical Costa Rica tourist thing. It was a combo trip to a volcano, coffee plantation, waterfalls/nature reserve, and a safari boat trip down a river. It was a great opportunity to get out of the city and see what's around San Jose and do a little research about fun stuff to do when we have guests. We saw toucans in real life which really blew my mind and a sloth hanging from and electric wire. Here are a couple of pictures.
And finally, for the funny story...we were out to dinner with some friends the other night and Tyler had to go to the bathroom. He went inside and walked into the door marked "M." When he walked inside he saw a woman that looked at him a little funny. He thought to himself, "What's her problem and why is she in the men's bathroom? Oh well...I have to go so..." And he went into a stall. He stayed there for a while to do his business if you know what I mean. He washed his hands and walked out of the bathroom. It was then that he noticed that the other bathroom was marked with an "H." Hmmm...M is for men in English, but in Spanish it's for "mujeres" or women. H is for "hombres" or men. Whoops...
More another time...
We're in our house which is great except for the absence of a yard - no grass, no nothing. We have three bedrooms, office, two and a half baths...we certainly don't need any more room. We've received our stuff that was shipped from Washington which is most of our clothes, our TV, and a few other essentials. Our stuff from Malawi is supposed to come next week. We've set up internet at home and are slowly but surely working on getting me a cell phone...we'll see how that goes. No car yet...hopefully at the beginning of May - that is driving me crazy.
Anyways, I won't bore you with the details but I'll tell you about a couple of cool things we've done since we've been here and one funny story.
First of all, we've adopted our own Costa Rican host family. I'm not sure if they know that they've been adopted, but they they have. We met them in a friend of a friend kind of situation. Their son is married to Tyler's mom's college roomate's daughter. Get it? Anyway, they (mom, dad, son and daughter around our age) are incredibly kind and include us in all kinds of stuff that they do. The mother runs a non-profit that helps communities provide small loans to their members. Because of this she travels all around the country visiting communities. She has invited us to go along with her to one of the sites this week and and we are really looking forward to it.
This past weekend was a three day weekend so we took advantage of an extra day off and did a typical Costa Rica tourist thing. It was a combo trip to a volcano, coffee plantation, waterfalls/nature reserve, and a safari boat trip down a river. It was a great opportunity to get out of the city and see what's around San Jose and do a little research about fun stuff to do when we have guests. We saw toucans in real life which really blew my mind and a sloth hanging from and electric wire. Here are a couple of pictures.
And finally, for the funny story...we were out to dinner with some friends the other night and Tyler had to go to the bathroom. He went inside and walked into the door marked "M." When he walked inside he saw a woman that looked at him a little funny. He thought to himself, "What's her problem and why is she in the men's bathroom? Oh well...I have to go so..." And he went into a stall. He stayed there for a while to do his business if you know what I mean. He washed his hands and walked out of the bathroom. It was then that he noticed that the other bathroom was marked with an "H." Hmmm...M is for men in English, but in Spanish it's for "mujeres" or women. H is for "hombres" or men. Whoops...
More another time...
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