One week to go...

This is Kate.

It's pouring rain again. I got home in the nic of time. Today was somewhat uneventful. We had some people check out this morning, so I got up to clean their room and bathroom while Eric was surfing. Before that we had a hankering for pancakes, but did not have any pancake mix, so I created something out of flour, egg, sugar and bits of pineapple. It was pretty good. Sort of crepe-pancakes. While Eric was gone, I searched for jobs again. Yesterday I applied for an online job as an online organizer for an environmental group. It consists of trying to market and network online as well as maintaining written content. I think I would be good at it but I don't really have any experience relevant to that field besides having to do my master's degree online. We'll see what they say. I also applied to a job in Rota, Spain which is right on the coast and near a lot of surf spots. It is for an environmental specialist, and I don't think I can get that job until I have my master's degree finished, but I went ahead and tried anyway. It would be nice.

We had a couple check in today from Canada and two girls checked in yesterday from NYC. Also, we have a new long-time resident, Nadia, from Sweden. She is kind of strange so far but very nice. She is a fruiterian, which she says is due to a weird stomach disorder she has, but we all think it's by choice. She is very very small, almost just skin and bones, and I'm sure it's not healthy. She has a lot of good ideas about environmentally-friendly practices we can start around here, which is good. She wants to start a compost because she mostly eats the center of fruits and there are alot of skins she throws away. Even of tomatoes! When she scooped out the middle of those and was going to throw the meat/skins away, I told her I would take them and I made a salsa with it. So, altogether, we have 5 people here besides us. Well, 6 actually because Steve's girlfriend, Mariacruz, is here as well. There are supposed to be 6 others coming in as a group, but we havn't heard from them.

I made lunch around 11:30am, which was like a home-made hamburger helper. We had a box of mac-n-cheese which I added extra whole-wheat noodles too and then I put some ground beef in mine that Steve had. I saved a can of tuna for Eric to put in his, but he just wanted the noodles and cheese. We hung around for a bit more and then I headed to work out. I got home just in time! About 15 min. before the rain started. That was over an hour ago, and it's still raining pretty hard. We had plans to go to the farmer's market tonight, but that might have to wait until tomorrow morning. We may just be surviving on noodles, fish, and beer this evening. I bought a whole fish, scales, fins, and all... so we'll see how well we do cooking that.

In other news, I will be leaving Quepos in a week. I am excited and nervous and sad all at the same time. I have never been apart from Eric for that long, and it will be hard. I think the longest we will be apart is 3 weeks, even though my time there is 2 months, because he will come visit me or we'll meet somewhere in the middle. Even so... I will miss him a lot. We have spent 24/7 together since we've been here, minus the 2 days I just spent in La Fortuna with Carolyn. Even only 2 days apart and I was missing him mucho mucho. Tomorrow I'll probably start going through our stuff to see what I should bring with me and making a list of things to buy when we're in San Isidro. We will spend 1 night there so that we can buy everything I need and then 1 night in San Gerardo which is the town next to the Cloudbridge Reserve. Then Eric's on his way back home and I'm on my way to do work. I have emailed the guy I'm going to be helping on his research project, and he said things are going well so far (he's already there). Sounds good. I am also excited about this trip because I think it will be a big detox for me. We will be 1.5 miles away from any kind of store, and the store that is that far away is really small. So... no junk food! Also, we don't have a fridge there, so no cheese, yogurt, ice cream... it will be powerdered milk for me for 2 months. Also, lots of canned food I'm sure. I heard there is a guy that takes orders once a week and does a produce run. Hopefully he is still doing that. It would be nice to have some fresh stuff for a few days. Most importantly, no alcohol! It is very easy to drink in Costa Rica, and it's not like we get drunk all the time, but we have a few beers or cocktails frequently. So, while I'm there, no dranky dranky.

I am waiting for Carolyn to post the pictures from her trip here so that I can write the blog about La Fortuna. That was really great. I am excited to see the pictures. There are a lot of me ziplining!

Anyways, our tentative plans now for after I get back from doing research are to do our next border run (have to be out by Oct. 4) in El Salvador. We are planning to take Tica Bus, which is a more "luxurious" bus company, to San Salvador. On the way, we stop overnight in Managua, Nicaragua and Guatemala City, Guatemala, so we will get to see those 2 places as well. Should be a fun trip. It is our first wedding anniversary as well, so we'll probably spend a little more cash than usual on accommodations and food. I'm excited. Once we return from that, we are planning to travel around Costa Rica and Panama. We will head to the Osa Peninsula first, then to Panama, then to the Caribbean side of Costa Rica. We will probably be on the Caribbean side when Amanda and Chris come to visit for Thanksgiving. We plan to leave for the states around Dec. 20 to come home for Christmas. We still have not decided what we will do afterwards... maybe head to South America for awhile. I found a nice website that lists lots of volunteer opportunities in South America that include at least lodging and sometimes food. It sounds really fun. I would love to see Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Argentina, and Brazil. There are other countries we have heard are nice as well like Uraguay. We'll see where life takes us. It's all a journey.

Pura vida!

---

---