Wade's new haircut

I finally convinced Wade to shave his beard for his interviews. He had a good time with various stages in between.... chops and a gotee from the 70s (before he was even born!)


Here's the final result. (You can see why his friends called him Babyface yesterday.)

Costa Rica part 4: Heredia y escuela

On Sunday morning, after Wade left, Stephanie, Erika and I met our driver from the school. He drove us to Heredia, a suburb of San Jose, and delivered us to our homestays. Erika and I were placed with a family of 2 parents, 3 girls, 4 dogs, and a parrot. Needless to say, there was always something going on at home. That afternoon we went to their grandparents house for lunch and then to the mall to buy shoes for the youngest daughter (at Payless!)

On Monday morning, we had orientation and took our placement tests. I was placed in a class with Stephanie, Mari (from Norway), and Scott, a teenager from Denver too. Erika was in a class with a 19 year old college student, who thought she was old. Class went from 8am to noon every day, with a 20 minute break. We practiced and learned a lot of Spanish.



That afternoon, we went to the Mercado with a group from school and took a walking tour of the area. On Wednesday night, we even went to go see Sex and the City-- the movie, with subtitles in Spanish. Each afternoon, we walked to lunch with Stephanie and tried out new restaurants while we did HOMEWORK! Then we would head to the internet cafe to keep in touch with friends and family.


Saturday, we spent our last day with Stephanie shopping and soaking up the last moments of our trip. We were sad to say goodbye, but it is very nice to be home!



Downtown








Take care of this park like your home









Refined people have beautiful parks









View near school




An edited version of some of our photos is available here.

The complete version of ALL of our photos is here.

Costa Rica part 3: La Playa

Many people go to Costa Rica to check out the volcanoes. Unfortunately, we only "passed" Arenal on the way from Monteverde to the Guanacaste coast. But, that simply means we'll have to go back soon.




When we arrived to Playa Brasilitos Wednesday afternoon, it was much warmer than Monteverde. We stayed within walking distance to Playa Conchal (shell beach.) The "sand" consisted of crushed shells. The water was clear. That night there was a large thunder and lightning storm.




The first night, we all stayed at Hotel Brasilitos. Wade and I had a room on the second level with a large deck for watching the ocean. Erika and Stephanie didn't like their room as much, so they moved to Hotel Nany, figuring we could enjoy the pool there too. We spent Thursday afternoon on the beach, enjoying the sun. As we returned later in the afternoon, the tide had risen very high and we were forced to wade through some parts until we could get to the road. The locals Wade talked to said it was very unusual, and there was a storm in the Pacific causing it. Wade got very brave and headed for the bar each night by himself. He tried Ceviche and enjoyed hanging out. I kept falling asleep because of the sun set so early, and then it was pitch black!



Friday was cloudy and it rained in the morning, so Wade and I decided to head to Erika and Stephanie's pool. Wade, Erika and I swam all afternoon. (The swim-up bar kept us rather content too.) It reminded me of summers in Gilbert, AZ when we lived in the pool, and as Erika put it, drank gallons of chlorine water.




Wade, Stephanie, and I had dinner together that evening. Unfortunately, Wade's cool lobster wasn't very tasty :(

Saturday morning Wade and I went for a lovely "walk along the beach" that turned into a death march because we had no water and little sunscreen. Stephanie and Erika went shopping, and then we piled onto the public bus for a 6 hour trip back to San Jose.

We were soooooooooooooo happy to see Douglas at Hotel Vesuvio again. It had seemed like ages since we had left on Sunday.

Wade got up at 3:30 Sunday morning to catch his flight home. We were sad to let him go....

Costa Rica part 2: Mountain Oasis

The four of us had two main goals for the "travel part" of our trip: 1) to do a canopy tour (better known as zip-lining) and 2) enjoy some relaxing beach time. So, Sunday morning we headed to Monteverde, known for its Cloud Forest. Stephanie had spent some time in Costa Rica before, and kept talking about Tico time (the custom of starting things a little bit late.) Well, that morning, the van to pick us up came EARLY! Like Stephanie was still in the shower and none of us had eaten, early. The driver was fairly patient and probably enjoyed watching all of us run around trying to check out and leave. We made a few more stops and finally headed out of town.

We had intended to take the public bus, but it left very early, and we heard it made a lot of stops. So, we decided to opt for tourist transport. The road from San Jose to the Puntarenas area was fine. However, the last hour and a half was a bumpy road, twisty and narrow road. I began to remember that I didn't like heights. (This was confirmed later!) Once we got to the top and entered Santa Elena/Monteverde, it was worth the trip! It's high up in the mountains and has gorgeous trees and views.

We didn't have reservations, but the guidebook suggested Hotel Arco Iris (rainbow). The woman at the desk said she had a small house for 4 with a kitchen, living room, and 2 bedrooms. We asked to see it, and agreed it would be worth the price. It was SWANKY! She told me we could put our bags in the room and then check in, in case it started to rain. She should have said "downpour!" As a native of Arizona, I am not accustomed to seeing that much rain... EVER! We were all hungry from our road trip so we braved the rain and headed into town. We ate at a cute restaurant called Morphos and watched the rain. Then we crossed the street to do some grocery shopping. Santa Elena is a pueblo so we enjoyed the contrast to the big city of San Jose.

Monday, we had reservations at Selvatura, to do the canopy tour and suspended bridge walk. After we put on our gear (climbing harness, helmet and gloves), listened to the brief orientation, and signed a waiver releasing them from ANY liability, I realized this might be scarier than I thought. I don't like heights! Wade and Stephanie loved it immediately, and went alone. The first two lines Erika and I did with a "taxi" (guide). The third was the longest and I decided I wanted to go alone.

That was cool because you actually had enough time to "see" things, and I figured Wade wouldn't let me crash into a tree. (Most tourists do this for the adrenaline rush, not their love of nature.) On the last line, Erika went by herself too.

While Erika and I tried were busy gathering courage, Wade and Stephanie went on the Tarzan swing..... The suspended bridge walk really let you check out the canopy at a much slower pace. We liked that too. We had lunch and then headed back to town before the afternoon deluge.







Erika on the zip line









Couple overlooks canopy



Tuesday was my favorite day in Costa Rica. We made arrangements to have a guide take us through the Cloud Forest in search of the mysterious quetzal bird. This is the national bird of Guatemala, but they are endangered and apparently hard to spy. As the name suggests, cloud forests are usually cloudy (and rainy), but we had a very clear day that was relatively cool. They are different from rain forests because they are high in the mountains and don't have mosquitoes! Also, the light from the sun reaches through the canopy to the forest floor. It was awesome! We learned about a lot of plants and we were lucky to spot a female and a male quetzal (in addition to a wide variety of other birds)!!!! We ended the tour at the hummingbird "park" where we saw several different species. During the tour we met two other teachers who teach at an IB school in Mexico City who were staying at the same hotel. One was British, the other Mexican. We had pizza with them at Tremonti and then coffee and chocolate fondue at the Treehouse (literally a restaurant/hotel built around a tree!)

The rainy afternoons in the mountains allowed us to relax and enjoy our casita. It had an amazing porch just meant to sit on and watch the storm, sipping a cup of tea. But, we had to leave at some point. So on Wednesday we continued our journey to the beach on the Pacific side.

I can't wait to go back to our casita!

Costa Rica part 1: The adventure begins

On Thursday night/early Friday morning, Erika, Wade, Stephanie (another teacher) and I left Denver a little after midnight and arrived to San Jose, the capital, around 6:30am. Of course, this was perfect timing for morning rush hour. We finally arrived to the awesome Hotel Vesuvio. Our rooms weren't quite ready so we walked around a bit. We found an ATM to take out colones (the exchange rate right now is around 523 c to $1US-- imagine that math) and we had our first introduction to gallo pinto (amazing rice and bean dish) at Cafe Britt. We spent the rest of the afternoon napping and watching the local Denver station on their cable (very odd, but a pleasant surprise.) We explored some of the downtown parks, then decided to have a drink to welcome the weekend. Let's just say Sportsmen's Bar in San Jose isn't really like the one in Flagstaff. And, the guidebooks are correct: prostitution is alive and well in Costa Rica (it is also legal!) Wade must have made the other men jealous as he entered with two blondes and didn't have to do anything but by our ginger ales. Once we figured out what was going on, we paid the check and left. It was a strange introduction to the culture, to say the least....

We didn't have a game plan for Saturday, so we decided to take a tour to Tortuguero. Jungle Tom was quite a character, but very knowledgeable. We stopped and had breakfast along the way (gallo pinto again!) and learned about banana production and packaging at a planatation. That is serious manual labor in the HOT sun.




Finally, we made it to the canals where we had a boat tour of the park. We saw a lot of crocodiles, small turtles, Jesus lizards (that walk on water), numerous birds and monkeys. We took a small walk through the "jungle" to reach the beach where the large leatherbacks come to nest. Unfortunately, we were a bit early in the season for that....



The trip to Tortuguero was the only chance we had to see the Carribean side of the country. We returned late to the hotel and with Stephanie and Douglas' help, decided to head to Monteverde. (He works at the hotel and was so amazing!)

How many books?

How many books does one PhD need? Just ask Doctor Baker, who moved into her new digs this weekend. (She moved the books before Wade or I got to town, thank goodness!) She now has a guest bedroom, so visitors are welcome!

We actually flew to Tucson for our friend Jocelyn's wedding. I was a bridesmaid, which was a memorable experience.

Finals are right around the corner, and I can actually taste summer vacation!

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture

I was watching tv last night before I went to sleep. I stopped at an interview with Diane Sawyer and a university professor. He is a father of 3 small children who is very popular at Carnegie Mellon. He is also dying of cancer. He gave a speech entitled "Last Lecture." I have 0nly seen some of the clips, but I plan to watch it very soon. (There is a link at from his site.) His book, based on the lecture, was just released this week.

He is very thought-provoking and his outlook on life (and death) is amazing....

And I thought I was having a bad day!