Trabajando en Costa Rica... (working in Costa Rica for all you Gringos)

I absolutely LOVE Costa Rica! Today was my first day at work in Flamingo at Century 21. I met my boss, Pennye, and she is the nicest lady ever. After talking to her and Spencer about what I am going to be doing for their company (which will include lots of cool advertising projects), I went out to explore beautiful Flamingo. I think that this is going to be a great opportunity for me to do something creative and have something really interesting to put on my resumé. My boss asked me if I was a good writer, and I said yes, so tomorrow she is going to take me around to a few properties so I can write out a few good descriptions of them. Exciting! What a tough life, right? Walking around the some of the nicest homes in Playa Grande with my boss taking pictures.... I'll try not to work too hard.... :)

The girls and I have enjoyed our time here so far. With Sarah running nearly every day and Gabby working (a little too hard), and me just hanging out, life is pretty good. We have met a few people here, so we now have a consistent crowd of people to hang out with, which is always fun. Mostly we are all just kicking back and enjoying life, living up the summer where we all get to live in Costa Rica... just waiting until the real world comes crashing back upon us and we have to go do real work again.... ::shudder:: scary thought.

The girls, Miguel and me at Monkey bar

Evan, Miguel and Me at the condo

My parents and my Nana are coming into town tonight! They will be visiting until Monday, and I couldn't be more excited to share the Pura Vida lifestyle with them. I think they will love it!! Our beach is gorgeous and our pool is excellent as well. Even better is watching the sunset out on the beach every night. Life is so tranquil here, I don't think I'll ever want to leave.

Hopefully the rest of this week will include trips to all the best restaurants in town to show my parents how good the food actually is here (it's amazing), along with a bit of work, homework, laying out in the sun, catching a few waves at the beach, and just enjoying life. Don't forget that when all of you are reading about my life, I want to hear about your lives as well.... :)

Jobs and Thunderstorms

Every day I wake up here and I just feel more and more that it’s some sort of dream; that I couldn’t actually be here. There are so many things that I absolutely adore about Costa Rica. For instance, tonight while Sarah was making all of us dinner, I ran down to the supermercado to get some things to drink. I went to the counter and the man working asked me how I was doing, I said fine, then asked him how he was doing. He merely replied, “Pura Vida,” with a smile. I just smiled back. There was no need for any other words. “Pura Vida” is the phrase used down here, which translated literally means, “pure life.” I think this phrase more than any other reflects the attitude of the people down here. They just live day by day. I love it. I walked around town today looking for a job and one of the first places I went into, there was this man from South Africa talking on the phone. He motioned for me to sit down and we talked for a bit, I told him I was looking for a job, and after writing down my information and giving me his card, he told me that he had no openings in his office, but to sit and wait for a second. Once he got off the phone, he began calling all these other real estate offices where he knew people and asking them if they needed any help. There was no reason why he needed to do that – it was simply one person helping another. He then drove me over to another office where I talked to the owners and they said that if I e-mailed them my resume they would send it out to all the offices in Tamarindo to see if anyone needed any help. It was such a simple gesture, and yet, it will probably make a huge difference to me. It’s amazing how people here just take the time to help each other out in the little ways that they can. I absolutely love it. Today I got an e-mail from a lady at Century21, and I'm meeting with her on Tuesday to discuss my first project. So exciting!
Almost every night we can watch the lightning storm in the distance out across the ocean. The other night some friends and I walked out to the beach and just sat there watching the lightning make different colors in the sky. It’s probably one of the coolest things I have ever seen. I almost feel as if there’s something magical about this place. I haven’t figured it out, but I know when the time comes, I won’t want to come back to the states.

Buses are Fun

I have finally arrived in paradise as of three days ago, and it is wonderful. Watching the sunset on the beach, waking up to the beautiful sun every morning, and most of all, just living the experience. Today Sarah and I took the bus over to Santa Cruz because we wanted to see if we could get cheap cell phone plans to use down here, just between us and our friend Gabby who is also here for the summer. After an hour and a half bus ride where we were standing most of the time, we finally arrived in this city where we had no idea where anything was. We stopped at a local restaurant to grab some food (even with a huge bottle of water AND tip, our meal was only $10!). Then we asked one of the people who worked there where the main road was and just walked around looking at everything. Little did we know until later, that because it’s Saturday, we had no chance of getting a cell phone service set up that day. We’ll have to go back another day. Then we got back on the bus for the hour and a half ride home. Did I mention that Santa Cruz is only 33 kilometers from where we live? Yup. That’s how awesome taking the bus is. We were seriously the only white girls there. It was quite a sight, at least some people thought. As for Sarah and I, I suppose we get a kick out of traveling to towns where we have no idea where anything is, and what we’re even doing. Guess it’s all a part of the experience.

Lots of Rain and Things to DO!

I think I spent literally the entire day running around doing errands. There is so much to do before you leave the country for an extended period of time and you never realize how time consuming it can be. So here is my advice: Create a list. I made of list of literally 12 different things that I had to do today, and I actually completed them all. Probably only because I had to otherwise things would get very messy abroad. Prescriptions, vaccinations, visa applications, paperwork, everything. And people are always going to make it more complicated than it has to be. Kind of like how I waited for an hour to get three months worth of prescriptions filled when I had called in and explained the situation six hours prior to showing up. After completing the required tasks for the day, the drive home was ridiculous! I-25 was FLOODED. So there was traffic at 8 o'clock at night. Pretty fabulous. But where I'm going, there will be lots of rain, but probably not the massive amounts of traffic that I witnessed today. I have one more day in the states, and then it is off to paradise!

No More School!

After having final exams today from 7:30 in the morning until 3:00 this afternoon I not only feel exhausted but I have still so many other things to get done before I leave for Costa Rica. Seven days... this is what I keep having to tell myself. Until then, study abroad paperwork, moving, and working like crazy will fill my time, while still trying to see all my friends before I leave. It's weird because some of these people I'm not going to see for the next 8 months. It is a little sad and yet, I know that there is so much excitement and adventure to come that missing people for a while won't be too bad. I can't wait to get into Costa Rica and just lay on the beach to watch the sunset every night... not such a bad life after all...