I would tell you about the paring knife I accidentally put in a carry on bag really late the night before we left for reasons I still cannot understand. Maybe it’s because it was late and the knife was lost when I was packing the other ones and I was confused about which bags we were checking and which we were carrying, or maybe it was just because I was tired. It’s always fun to talk to the head TSA guy and the cop who’s on duty. “Do you always carry a knife with you?” “What’s your phone number? How can that be your number if as you said you’re moving?” Right. Well, I don’t have a cell, I couldn’t remember the work number here and so I just lied, gave them my home number and said that I left it on to retrieve messages, despite the fact that I knew full well they turned it off early. Even with the “restrictions” that the airlines have about numbers of bags, they let us on with a banjo, a guitar, a backpack, a small personal bag and a rolling suitcase. I love the little first class closet. They, for the most part, are happy to let you put your guitar in there (but not your banjo because it’ll fit above). ps. The heaviest bag was 49.4 pounds. Using the scale from the neighbors it had come in at 48 so I was pretty sure we were safe, but when that number popped up, I was psyched and proud simultaneously. Not much for humble around the insane packing job that I did.
I have to second what Jordan said about Leo. Even with one of my ears mostly non-functional his stories and chatting kept us in good spirits and energized about what we’re undertaking. He visits his parents a bunch down here so I’ll be excited if we can find a way to meet up.
Speaking of non-functional ears, my right ear canal has now swollen mostly closed. I thought it was a wax thing earlier, so I was using some drops we have from CVS. After talking with Susan, I wonder if maybe I was using with the wrong meds because they’re peroxide based and perhaps that just irritated the ear tissues. I’d love to talk to any of you with medical experience about what I should do besides arnica around the outside and advil pretty regularly. The swelling has gotten worse over the past two days and now I have to pull on my ear significantly to get the canal to open at all, which then causes it to hurt in a different way: most of the time the pain comes in waves, more waves after I’ve been moving around for at least a half hour building with intensity to a sharp constant pain, not really throbbing, not shooting. It made a lot of noise on the plane, and some while we were coming up the mountain. I expected that and it’s only the really loud pops that hurt, but they’re a surprise every time, which is a little hard to deal with. I can sleep when it’s hurting if I’ve taken advil, but walking around for long periods of time hurts, as does opening my mouth widely and smiling too much. There’s the problem because when you’re trying to show yourself as a friendly person, the smile is a widely used tool. Fortunately, I’ve got some time today and tomorrow to take extra naps and walk slowly.
Starting on Monday I’m on pretty much full time with a trip to San Jose to get papers sorted out and meet the rest of the new teachers. I’m pretty psyched about both of those things. As we were standing in the immigration line, I heard someone speak disparagingly about San Jose and I have to say I’ve only had good experiences there so far. Maybe I’ve just been lucky. We didn’t spend that much time there last time, and none so far, so I’m looking forward to understanding the capital a little better and maybe learning my way around a bit better.
Sunset’s happening. Pretty. It sure is nice to be living up high and have a consistent view of both the sunrise and the sunset for a change. Not quite as much sunrise as sunset, but I’m not arguing. And yes, for reference, I was up for the sunrise.
We have a request. We brought with us one picture showing device that has room for three
horizontal pictures. At the moment, the only one of you represented is Hilary. We would love it if you could send us a picture of you, oriented horizontally, and yes, it will need to be on paper instead of electronic because we don’t yet know if we have access to appropriate printers. I’d like to rotate our friends and family through the picture frames so we can always have you near. We do have some excellent fridge magnets with many of the local to Montague folks, but...
We're Here!!!!
Queridos Amigos… Estamos en paraíso, verdaderamente.
So much to say to you all.... Firstly, thank you thank you thank you on top of thank you to the people who helped with the frantic packing and cleaning: Kieran, Graham, Eli, Jane, Susan, Emma, Kai and Lucy and to the true saviors who helped above and beyond, we couldn’t have finished without: Kirsten, Hannah and Rachel. People cooked for us, washed a grimy closet, cleaned toilets, threw away an embarrassing amount of trash, took away things that are still usable but we no longer need, all with amazing good cheer that kept our spirits high. Thank you again and again. You know we’ll do the same for you when we return.
Now, onto the stuff you want to know…
Costa Rica is amazing. Travel here was miraculously quite smooth, with the exception being that we couldn’t bring Toast. Most airlines won’t fly animals if it’s predicted to be over 85 degrees Fahrenheit in any of the places the plane is on the ground at the time it will be there. We might have to wait a long time until it is under 85 at noon in Miami. I miss her already, though I know she’s in good hands with Rye until then. There is another airline that shuttles animals around in climate controlled vans and therefore has no temperature limit, but they charge a million dollars for that service and don’t have a very direct route from Hartford to San Jose. We don’t have a million dollars. We sat in exit row seats on the first flight (always appreciated by my extra long legs) and on the second flight chatted with a super nice guy named Leo who is from Costa Rica but currently lives in Miami. He gave us all sorts of info that it is sometimes hard to ask people. Thanks Leo. We found Risë, the school’s assistant director and our ride to Monteverde, easily. The taxi that carried us up the mountain was a big van with a super nice driver named Walner. He spoke slowly so I could understand and drove very, very carefully, which is somewhat unusual around here. Roads are scary and taxi drivers are scarier. I felt very safe in his taxi. He’s also good at navigating the potholes and bumps on the dirt roads closer to our destination. Wow it’s bumpy. It was dark by 6:45 and as we drove higher there was more fog, but then we came out above it. Reinforcement that we are really in the cloud forest. He drove us right to the door of Emily House, the name of our home. I want to say this very loudly… It’s so beautiful!!!!!! One of the original settlement houses, it’s made entirely of wood with metal roofing and it’s huge for two people. There is even a single guest bed, so all you big talkers who say you’re going to visit better get your butts here. Some other day where there is less to say we’ll describe the house in detail with lots of photos. Summary, it feels like we’re living in a cabin in northern Wisconsin (we’re both from the Midwest, so that is our association) and it’s dreamy. Someone left us roast chicken with veggies and breakfast fixings so we’d have something to eat right away. This school where Annie is working is really going all out to make sure we feel welcome and have what we need to adjust to living abroad. We spent some time unpacking and then slept for many, many hours. It’s been a long time since I’ve slept well and the night before traveling we slept only one or two hours. I feel so much better today.
And today was also awesome. We’re almost done unpacking and finding places for everything. Then we called Risë again and she walked us around, showing us places, introducing us to people, taking us grocery shopping. Then she passed us off to Heather who has been here for two years and she took us to the fábrica (cheese factory), which is awesome. We bought a lot of cheese. Next, we went to look at the Escuela de los Amigos, where Annie will be teaching and Heather showed us around. It’s so beautiful. We checked out some books from the library, since we brought nothing to read. Then we walked home. It’s about a 20-25 minute walk to the school, mostly uphill, but not too steep. It feels a lot like living in rural Vermont, but people walk everywhere instead of drive and everyone is so friendly (except the tourists). I am going to have to be really friendly and chatty to make sure people here don’t think I’m a tourist. Already my Spanish is getting better and I can understand people when they speak at a slowish pace. Heather was talking to a teen who takes violin lessons from her and I understood everything. Heather also thinks I might be able to teach some lessons, since she does it reluctantly and there is high demand for violin here. I’ll probably be able to borrow a fiddle here, but I didn’t bring any of my music books, so I might be asking folks to send me stuff. When I teach music I like to require performance/service elements, which could be playing for contra/square/English country dancing, which all happens here, often accompanied by records! We’re planning to attend the square dance tonight, though we are mostly “contra snobs.” But we need to meet the dance community to stir up some interest in contra. I brought my tiny collection of dance calls in case I was ever “called” on to lead dances, but if anyone has any favorite dances, they should email them to me. (That is specifically a request for Alex and Rachel Nevitt by the way, though anyone is welcome to send me dances).
Okay, I think I might be caught up, obviously omitting some things because this is already so long and Annie hasn’t even had her say yet. Photos to come. Accidentally left the camera in the taxi and don’t have it back yet.
And we don’t have internet at home yet, so we have to walk to the Instituto, about 25 minutes, to blog or email. We’ll let you know when we get set up at home and if it is dial-up or high-speed. We do have a phone if anyone wants to bear the long distance charges for a quick call: 011-506-2645-5001.
So much to say to you all.... Firstly, thank you thank you thank you on top of thank you to the people who helped with the frantic packing and cleaning: Kieran, Graham, Eli, Jane, Susan, Emma, Kai and Lucy and to the true saviors who helped above and beyond, we couldn’t have finished without: Kirsten, Hannah and Rachel. People cooked for us, washed a grimy closet, cleaned toilets, threw away an embarrassing amount of trash, took away things that are still usable but we no longer need, all with amazing good cheer that kept our spirits high. Thank you again and again. You know we’ll do the same for you when we return.
Now, onto the stuff you want to know…
Costa Rica is amazing. Travel here was miraculously quite smooth, with the exception being that we couldn’t bring Toast. Most airlines won’t fly animals if it’s predicted to be over 85 degrees Fahrenheit in any of the places the plane is on the ground at the time it will be there. We might have to wait a long time until it is under 85 at noon in Miami. I miss her already, though I know she’s in good hands with Rye until then. There is another airline that shuttles animals around in climate controlled vans and therefore has no temperature limit, but they charge a million dollars for that service and don’t have a very direct route from Hartford to San Jose. We don’t have a million dollars. We sat in exit row seats on the first flight (always appreciated by my extra long legs) and on the second flight chatted with a super nice guy named Leo who is from Costa Rica but currently lives in Miami. He gave us all sorts of info that it is sometimes hard to ask people. Thanks Leo. We found Risë, the school’s assistant director and our ride to Monteverde, easily. The taxi that carried us up the mountain was a big van with a super nice driver named Walner. He spoke slowly so I could understand and drove very, very carefully, which is somewhat unusual around here. Roads are scary and taxi drivers are scarier. I felt very safe in his taxi. He’s also good at navigating the potholes and bumps on the dirt roads closer to our destination. Wow it’s bumpy. It was dark by 6:45 and as we drove higher there was more fog, but then we came out above it. Reinforcement that we are really in the cloud forest. He drove us right to the door of Emily House, the name of our home. I want to say this very loudly… It’s so beautiful!!!!!! One of the original settlement houses, it’s made entirely of wood with metal roofing and it’s huge for two people. There is even a single guest bed, so all you big talkers who say you’re going to visit better get your butts here. Some other day where there is less to say we’ll describe the house in detail with lots of photos. Summary, it feels like we’re living in a cabin in northern Wisconsin (we’re both from the Midwest, so that is our association) and it’s dreamy. Someone left us roast chicken with veggies and breakfast fixings so we’d have something to eat right away. This school where Annie is working is really going all out to make sure we feel welcome and have what we need to adjust to living abroad. We spent some time unpacking and then slept for many, many hours. It’s been a long time since I’ve slept well and the night before traveling we slept only one or two hours. I feel so much better today.
And today was also awesome. We’re almost done unpacking and finding places for everything. Then we called Risë again and she walked us around, showing us places, introducing us to people, taking us grocery shopping. Then she passed us off to Heather who has been here for two years and she took us to the fábrica (cheese factory), which is awesome. We bought a lot of cheese. Next, we went to look at the Escuela de los Amigos, where Annie will be teaching and Heather showed us around. It’s so beautiful. We checked out some books from the library, since we brought nothing to read. Then we walked home. It’s about a 20-25 minute walk to the school, mostly uphill, but not too steep. It feels a lot like living in rural Vermont, but people walk everywhere instead of drive and everyone is so friendly (except the tourists). I am going to have to be really friendly and chatty to make sure people here don’t think I’m a tourist. Already my Spanish is getting better and I can understand people when they speak at a slowish pace. Heather was talking to a teen who takes violin lessons from her and I understood everything. Heather also thinks I might be able to teach some lessons, since she does it reluctantly and there is high demand for violin here. I’ll probably be able to borrow a fiddle here, but I didn’t bring any of my music books, so I might be asking folks to send me stuff. When I teach music I like to require performance/service elements, which could be playing for contra/square/English country dancing, which all happens here, often accompanied by records! We’re planning to attend the square dance tonight, though we are mostly “contra snobs.” But we need to meet the dance community to stir up some interest in contra. I brought my tiny collection of dance calls in case I was ever “called” on to lead dances, but if anyone has any favorite dances, they should email them to me. (That is specifically a request for Alex and Rachel Nevitt by the way, though anyone is welcome to send me dances).
Okay, I think I might be caught up, obviously omitting some things because this is already so long and Annie hasn’t even had her say yet. Photos to come. Accidentally left the camera in the taxi and don’t have it back yet.
And we don’t have internet at home yet, so we have to walk to the Instituto, about 25 minutes, to blog or email. We’ll let you know when we get set up at home and if it is dial-up or high-speed. We do have a phone if anyone wants to bear the long distance charges for a quick call: 011-506-2645-5001.
Not procrastinating, taking a break from heavy moving
Here is the stuff that Annie built. I just put the shelf in the bathroom and maybe it'll get painted. It's got four shelves and when we get back we'll trim it out with tile and pretty wood. jordan finished painting all of the trim, etc. on the shed. The roof doesn't leak anymore (fingers crossed). The bikes are hung. Now I'm loading it full of stuff. Oh the joys are unending.
On the topic of the most amazing party ever!
We just got some pictures from Chris, well, got in that they're on the web now. This is where you should go to see the pictures. It was pretty much the best talent show I've ever seen. The first act was from 59 Taylor Hill Road. It had some ingenious elements: the olders playing the youngers and the youngers playing us for starters. The costume elements and the props w
ere spot on. Also, the story clearly pulled from real life experience and was funny while not making fun. All in all, an excellent theatrical performance. Pictures include evidence of improv flute from Kiwi, drumming from Chad, fiddle playing and song leading from Efan, a song in Chinese from Christine, lovely banjo playing from Joe (not Chad), a magic trick from Devon, and of course the kicker for me, my favorite song in pretty much the entire universe from Eli, jordan and Emmy. Other performances included for the first time ever before a large audience, the mosquito, cricket and snail by Zoe and Rye, an awesome improv clog by Lea complete with orange slice eating, two dance moments from Raey, weird mouth music from Carol, piano playing downstairs by Claudia,
a poem recitation from Tom, and of course Emmy steering us smoothly through the evening as our cruise director. All of us singing together with Efan leading the way was nothing short of amazing. I know full well that all of the performances don't come close to representing the amount of talent there was in the room, so don't be misled by this post. Alex didn't bring his accordion, Goodwin didn't show us how to tie any special knots, and no one gave extensive powerpoint presentations on their favorite
thing to do when no one is looking. I am eternally grateful to jordan for having this genius idea and roping Raey, Hannah and Emmy in to make it happen. Golly. It was just amazing. If you weren't there, I can truly say that you were missed.
My Turn
Well, Annie's been doing so much posting that I figure it's my turn. We're entering the last week (TV).jpg)
before we go and it's getting very real as I say goodbye to people I know I won't see again for a few years. I had breakfast with my librarian mentor this morning and analyzed my career history and future. Together we came up with a few things I can do to make sure I'm not sabotaging my career by going to Costa Rica for a while. I'm going to do some writing while I'm there, since so many of my favorite librarians are writers. Well, actually, how would I know about the other ones, since they don't write. And I guess I have some things to say about working in libraries and with teens. My mentor said she's never known me to not have something to say, which is funny because my excuse for not writing is that I have nothing to say. Guess I'll have to rethink that. :)
Our Costa Rica paperwork is finally done. That's a big relief, since that was the stuff we didn't have much control over. Now we just have to finish some projects and pack and clean the house. Yuck. I hate this part. And I have to decide how many teeshirts I'm allowed and how many pairs of socks and should I bring one hat or two? It's hard to know how wacky I can be with my clothing and still be seen as professional and helpful, so I'm going the more conservative route. No chicken hat.
We also finally have homes for kitties, which is a HUGE relief, since their plans kept falling through. Ingrid will go two houses down with a neighbor. Truck is going to someone we don't know, but found us through a friend. He'll have a 4 month old kitten to bat around. Toast seems a little anxious about all the chaos in the house and us being so busy, but she has no idea how awesome it will be to live in the jungle. Just call her jungle dog.
(TV).jpg)
before we go and it's getting very real as I say goodbye to people I know I won't see again for a few years. I had breakfast with my librarian mentor this morning and analyzed my career history and future. Together we came up with a few things I can do to make sure I'm not sabotaging my career by going to Costa Rica for a while. I'm going to do some writing while I'm there, since so many of my favorite librarians are writers. Well, actually, how would I know about the other ones, since they don't write. And I guess I have some things to say about working in libraries and with teens. My mentor said she's never known me to not have something to say, which is funny because my excuse for not writing is that I have nothing to say. Guess I'll have to rethink that. :)Our Costa Rica paperwork is finally done. That's a big relief, since that was the stuff we didn't have much control over. Now we just have to finish some projects and pack and clean the house. Yuck. I hate this part. And I have to decide how many teeshirts I'm allowed and how many pairs of socks and should I bring one hat or two? It's hard to know how wacky I can be with my clothing and still be seen as professional and helpful, so I'm going the more conservative route. No chicken hat.
We also finally have homes for kitties, which is a HUGE relief, since their plans kept falling through. Ingrid will go two houses down with a neighbor. Truck is going to someone we don't know, but found us through a friend. He'll have a 4 month old kitten to bat around. Toast seems a little anxious about all the chaos in the house and us being so busy, but she has no idea how awesome it will be to live in the jungle. Just call her jungle dog.
random links
First, I do appreciate woot.com. That should be said. I borrowed all of these links from their linking blog.
Second, I've been talking about how spas should have a treatment where fish exfoliate your skin because it feels so cool. You can have your free exfoliation many places along the sawmill river, or apparently you can go to a spa in DC for fishy exfoliation like you can get in Turkey and other Asian countries. http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/homestyle/07/21/fish.pedicure.ap/index.html and there's a picture at cuteoverload.com
Finally, I really liked these pictures and think some of my teacher friends might use them to inspire some arty learning, since I'm not sure how I'll use them next year in my math teaching capacity. http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/ecology/30-most-incredible-abstract-satellite-images-of-earth
Second, I've been talking about how spas should have a treatment where fish exfoliate your skin because it feels so cool. You can have your free exfoliation many places along the sawmill river, or apparently you can go to a spa in DC for fishy exfoliation like you can get in Turkey and other Asian countries. http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/homestyle/07/21/fish.pedicure.ap/index.html and there's a picture at cuteoverload.com
Finally, I really liked these pictures and think some of my teacher friends might use them to inspire some arty learning, since I'm not sure how I'll use them next year in my math teaching capacity. http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/ecology/30-most-incredible-abstract-satellite-images-of-earth
I am the queen of the almost done project
In the last couple of days I've gotten the little bathroom toilet removed and most of the rest of the flooring put in. There's a 2 inch gap at the back of the room and frankly, that can wait until after we get back from Costa Rica now that I've taken out and re-set the toilet. That was an adventure. I've almost finished priming the entire shed. I only have to do the window frames to be totally primed which means today I'll do that and then hopefully get started on painting the entire thing. Oh, and I have to put the doorstops in and get the door to a place where it can open more easily. Hanging doors is way harder than you think it's going to be. Unless you think it's hard. I can only think of one project that I haven't even started. Everything else is almost done. And if that doesn't make you breathe easier, I don't know what will. Then again, I still am worried about not being able to "finish" everything before we leave...
Shed Photos
Here are those shed photos Annie was too lazy to post. Intentionally, but somewhat awkwardly, the shed is more attractive than our house. 
Not much we can do about that, but we'll paint the house a pretty red color when we get back from Costa Rica.
The Shed, etc.
I've finally gotten almost all of the shed ready for the big move of everything into it. I still have to put the door stops on the door frame, and I've only just started priming everything, but it does feel quite good to be almost there. now if it could just cool off a bit so I can work for a longer period without practically dying, that'd be great. So there. I'll put up some pics once I get it painted, probably. Unless jor takes some and posts them herself.
cars, etc.
So, we looked at the IRS information about donating cars and it's less of a good thing than it used to be. That means that we're selling the 98 white subaru legacy wagon too. It's got stuff wrong with it visually that doesn't really affect how it runs, and about 150k miles on it. Only one owner - jordan - and she took pretty good care of it. Let us know if you know of anyone...
Otherwise, today we figured out that with our upcoming brief trip to Burlington, we weren't likely to have enough time to send our Coris back to Boston to get certified before we sent them to New York to get authenticated by the Costa Rican consulate and get them back before we left. And that meant an impromptu trip to Boston. The good news is that it only took 15 minutes once we got there and we were lucky with parking in the center of Boston because I could stay in the car in our illegal spot that wasn't double parking. And the other good news is that since we were feeling so good about how well it went that we wandered in the North End for a while and brought back cannoli for people (including me). I do love me some cannoli.
Random musing: when you're living in tight quarters, tenement style, do you have a good relationship with the persons on the other end of your clothesline? Do you share or do you each have one that connects on the other's domicile? This is what we wondered about while wandering. I do rather like wandering.
Otherwise, today we figured out that with our upcoming brief trip to Burlington, we weren't likely to have enough time to send our Coris back to Boston to get certified before we sent them to New York to get authenticated by the Costa Rican consulate and get them back before we left. And that meant an impromptu trip to Boston. The good news is that it only took 15 minutes once we got there and we were lucky with parking in the center of Boston because I could stay in the car in our illegal spot that wasn't double parking. And the other good news is that since we were feeling so good about how well it went that we wandered in the North End for a while and brought back cannoli for people (including me). I do love me some cannoli.
Random musing: when you're living in tight quarters, tenement style, do you have a good relationship with the persons on the other end of your clothesline? Do you share or do you each have one that connects on the other's domicile? This is what we wondered about while wandering. I do rather like wandering.