back in the US and doing what?

Looking for a new job, working PT with the family I nanny for, and pretty much being broke. Costa Rica now seems so far away and I want to go back.

Final Countdown

We'll I had a lovely time in Manuel Antonio this past weekend. It is truly a magnificent place. I only wish I was the gimp and unable to really do all that I wanted to do (like hike in the rainforest). But I did spend some quality time on the beach and enjoyed the company of all my silly CCS girlfriends. I captured some great photographs and made some real memories.

Now I'm into my final week here in Cuidad Quesada. I'm am going to miss this place and all the wonderful people that I've met. However, because of my injury I'm not volunteering as much as I'd like to, which sad. I hope to say my proper goodbyes on Friday at my placements. However I am going to the hospital most mornings to have my leg wound looked after.

As I initially thought, I recieve horrible care in Puntarenas and the stitches looked terrible. I was told originally by the doctor who stitched me up to have the stitches taken out in 7 days. Well I waited 10. This morning they were removed and ewwww! Nothing had really healed as of yet, but thankfully there was no infection. Because of the depth of the wound it really needs to be open and draining and up until this morning it wasn't. I needs to heal from the inside out and I need to take all possible measures to insure I don't get an infection. I am recieving excellent care here in Cuidad Quesada and all the doctors and nurses are just lovely. And Greivan, my CCS advisor, it taking great care to make sure I'm getting the treatment I need. He's really been great.

All in all, this has been a wonderful experience. I know I will come back to Costa Rica again. It is truly a magical place.

Enjoy the slide show from last week:


PURA VIDA!

Manuel Antonio

I will be venturing to Manuel Antonio this weekend for my last(?) adventure in Costa Rica. I will be going with the whole group that is at CCS presently. I am very exciting. MA was one of the places on my MUST SEE list. I don't know if I will be able to see everything as I had hope due to my leg injuries, but the beach there is fabulous, and no matter my condition I can lay on a beach. I will update on Monday on all the wild nights, sights and fun I have while there!

PURA VIDA!

Everything is A-Okay!

Just a quick status report on my injuries from the icky ATV accident I had last week. I still have scrapes and my bruises are quite something to view, but gratefully I will not have any lasting damage, nor will I have to have knee surgery upon my return to US. I had an ultrasound on my knee this evening and it should no tears in the ligaments in my knee (as feared), just a lot of swelling. So yay! I get my stitches out next Monday and after that I should be just fine. I am so relieved and happy about the outcome. This could have been a whole different ball game. There are few times when I seriously happy about being a "big girl" but this is one of those times when I rejoice for my strength and size, for without, I may have truly been broken.

Here are the pics of how things are today:

Miramar Adventure Weekend

OMG! I should have known that my accident prone ass should NEVER have gotten on an ATV.
After what was a glorious weekend trip, I ended up in a 3rd world hospital with a severely banged up right leg, scrapes, cuts and bruises cover my entire body, wondering if something was broken and how the heck were they gonna close the gaping hole in my leg.

Ok, I'm sure you'd like some background info:
Friday, me and my CCS friends headed to Miramar, Costa Rica for a weekend stay at Hotel Vista Golfo. The adventure park/hotel has one of the best zip lines in the world. We got an excellent package deal for the weekend that included our room for 2 nights, 2 dinners, 2 breakfast and a yummy lunch, along with the zip line tour and an ATV tour in the cloud forest. We did the zip on Saturday and my oh my it was spectacular! We zipped back and forth through the rainforest on 25 lines, over 11 waterfalls, and did 2 rapels down waterfalls. It was like nothing else!
We returned to the hotel for lunch and relaxed for the afternoon, watching the sunset and drinking Imperials. We took advantage of the lovely weather and spring fed pool. Definately a cool honeymoon spot... except I was with 3 (awesome) girls. But for future reference....

sunday, we got up for breakfast and were super pumped for our ATV tour. I was prepared for some serious adventure, but understood that fourwheeling has inherent risks. However, we were all beginners and they definately DID NOT take us on a beginners tour. We encountered some very rough terrain, that was near impossible to navigate. About half way through the tour, my accident happened. I was zooming up a hill trying to get over all the bumps, craters and rocks, when my ATV sharply veered left and up a slope. Well I didn't make it over the slope, instead my ATV rolled back and the toppled on me. I managed to push it off of me and probably had some minor scrapes and a damaged ego at that point, but what happened next is totally whack. Just as I was about the right myself and check for injuries another ATV came zooming down the hill at me and I was RUN OVER. Turns out the guide had jumped off his ATV to help me but forgot(?)to lock his brake and his ATV came charging back down the hill right at me. I really thought I was a goner. It was sooooooooooo scary. After a few moments, I was able to sit up carefully and thankfully discovered that I did not have a broken neck or back. I could wiggle my toes and my fingers, but I was in A LOT of pain. I bleeding all over the place, but had a gusher coming out of my right leg. You could see straight to the bone and it was horribly gross. I knew I needed to get to a hospital. I could not walk.
Ok, so there is more to this story from that point, but it's tedious. Basically I slowly made it to an ambulance which took me to a hospital about 30 minutes away. It was a dirty, horrible, scary place and I NEVER want to go there again. I was x-rayed and stitched up (poorly) and sent on my way. My friends and I ended up taking a taxi back to Cuidad Quesada (our Costa Rica home). Once home I went to the private hospital and recieved the proper treatment for all of my injuries. I'm still very much recovering but what a horrible scare. It has put a damper on my trip of course, but I'm very glad to be alive and I know I will be ok.
pictures will be posted soon. cuz I know how everyone loves a good war wound pic.
xo PURA VIDA!

Laughter and tears

I have seen some sights in the last couple of days that have stirred emotions within me for both laughter and tears. They are not stories that I want to write about, but will most certainly share in private company of friends and family. I knew and understood that there was potential for many emotions while volunteering and I'm appreciative of the chance to have such experiences. But with all the good that happens there is also the bad. And in communities that are in need of volunteers and people with open hearts and minds, there is always the potential to see and feel things that you wish you could change. By offering my love and compassion I hope that I am able to help a little, however, there are somethings which I cannot change at the present. And from those realizations that I cannot change things, comes a greater knowledge of what I want for myself, my family, and friends for our futures and the steps I can take to ensure that they are achieved and that no one should have to live what I have seen.

I don't mean for this post to be depressing. And without all the details it's hard to understand that both laughter and tears occurred, but just know they did. And I am not sad, I am stronger and smarter for it all. Learning is part of the joy of this experience, whether it's through laughter or through tears.

My Costa Rican Birthday

Well it happened! I made it one more time around the sun... and I'm officially 30! aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! nah, not really. I don't feel a day over 24 and don't look it either, so it's just another day. Which is partially why I wanted to be in CR for the occasion. Just being here makes it all more memorable, which is good cuz I don't remember anything about bday 29 except I was with Kari Garner (maybe I was drunk or something? lol)

At my placement, all the professors surprised me with flowers and some yummy Chinese food for lunch! (who knew there was delicious Chinese food in CR?) They even gave me a super cute gift of one the crafts that the CAIPAD students make. I felt so honored and blessed. It really was so generous and kind of them!

At "home", the CCS casa, they prepared a lovely meal (Tostadas---a group favorite) and I dutifully ate my second yummy lunch of the day. Then it was time for singing and CAKE! And what a cake it was!!! I am seriously a lucky girl. Everyone at CCS has been so nice and really make me feel special. Everyone wished me feliz cumpleanos. It was a great birthday! I relaxed, had no worries, enjoyed my surrounding, my company and most of all, that yummy cake!

Cumpleaños Feliz,
Cumpleaños Feliz,
Te deseamos todos,
Cumpleaños Feliz.

xoxo

A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving. ~Lao Tzu

iev



















So true! My plans for last weekend were derailed due to weather and bad roads here in Costa Rica. For all who plan to visit CR in the future beware the roads! They are pretty bad and it's pretty ridiculous. And considering I am here during the rainy season, lots of things get washed out, including roads. So instead of going to Puerto Viejo (which I still hope to visit before heading back to the States), I stayed close to home.

Actually I didn't even go anywhere on Friday night. I stay right here in Cuidad Quesada and went out to dinner with the few women who also stayed behind. It was quite nice. I did some shopping, had a fabulous cafe frio, and a yummy steak dinner at one of the local restuarants. I also changed my sleeping arrangements and now have a private room, so I took the time to set it up and make it "mine".

After some thought about how I was feeling leading up to the weekend in regards to the sorority feel of the house and the mounting tensions due to a large group of women living together so closely, I felt that I deserved a little more privacy. I forgot how much I do appreciate the quiet and alone time. Granted, when I'm at home and bored in NoVa and I have all the quiet and privacy I need I don't want it. lol But I'm happy to have the option to share or not to share here in CR. So the change was nice.

Saturday AM I relaxed!!!!!!!!!! I stayed in my pj's and drank coffee. I ate pizza with Molly and had some nice chats. By 3 I was ready for some more action, so I hopped on bus to La Fortuna and met up with some of the other girls from CCS. We stayed at Gringo Pete's Hostel and it was dirt cheap ($5/night). My amiga Joanna met some Ticos on a previous trip to La Fortuna and they wanted to have some fun with us, so we went to the Festival La Fortuna (which is really like a cowboy thing... mechanical bull and all), and hit up the discoteque. It was WILD and muy caliente! All the boys were so nice to us and just wanted to dance (unlike some other places where the Ticos can get a little aggressive) and have fun. I called it a night a little after 12 since my feet were killing me and I had 2 giant blisters to deal with. The other girls followed shortly after.

The next morning we woke to lots of sunshine and were ready for another fun, but relaxing day. Our friend Carlos offered to take us to the local watering hole. And thankfully we had him and some of his friends with us, cuz there were definately some vultures circling. But we had a wonderful time, playing in the rapids and pools. It was beautiful and very much a true Tico experience.

We head back to the CQ around 3. We travelled back home by bus. The trip only costs c600 Colones. Which is about $1. Nice. We grabbed some snacks and enjoyed the 1.5 hour ride home.

I had originally planned to have a beachy weekend with hammocks and cool drinks along the Carribbean, but ended up having a super chill weekend near the volcano Arenal, with lots of new friends and lovely sunshine and good vibes. Oh and did I mention that it was "birthday weekend"? So that was toasted a few times (not a single person bel ieve that I, the most wonderful machita, could possibly be turning 30!) Yeah, so this was actual the best for me. However, I didn't do any adventure sports as I had originally thought (the other girls did on Sat. AM). I WILL however be doing them before I leave. La Fortuna is "close" by most CR standards and it is the PLACE for Canyoning (ie: repelling down waterfalls), so I will be reporting about that sometime around Nov.7th.

So all and all, good times! Pura Vida!

Picassa Web Albums

Please check out all the available web albums from my CCS trip. Each album is titled by the owner of the camera from which they were taken. Mine are titled Lori and which week they are.
PURA VIDA!

http://picasaweb.google.com/Wowi.Jacobspin/

Pura Vida!

Today started off with rain, the first time since being here, I had a feeling things would be a little off. Not to say that things were bad today by no real means, but I think the realization of being away from home and living communally became very obvious to me and how it's making me feel.

I'm am really enjoying my placement with the people at CAIPAD. I however wish that the timing was better or that maybe I had "more" to do there. Also being able to speak Spanish would really help. I'm learning and am communicating with everyone, but it's still such a challenge. I am taking both regular Spanish class twice a week and a Spanish sign language class once a week. I think the sign language is really fun and useful for my job, but it's also helping me master the language as a whole.

I have been working on Arts and Crafts at CAIPAD but have also had the chance to work down in the shop. I've been making cut-outs from wood and even using the jigsaw (which I'm not very good at, but I think it's something that requires a bit of practice too). I also lead the exercises twice a week and the folks really enjoy my take on physical activity, games and baile. They thought yoga was a hoot. They really make me laugh.

As for as "home", I really like everyone in our group, but today was one of those days where I felt like I was back on the sorority hall and I wasn't quite fitting in. Nothing major, maybe more a case of woman issues, but having all this estrogen around is tough.

We've begun planning our weekend trip and there were so many ideas being tossed around it was getting a little frustrating. Finally I just really looked into our options and after a more detailed approach we all decided to go to Puerto Veijo on the Southern Carribbean side of Costa Rica. I'm excited to go. We are going to stay at Rocking J's, a hammock hostel. Pretty groovy, huh?

We had some visitors here this week from CCS Tanzania. It was amazing to meet them and spend time with them. Mama Theo and Moses are program directors from the volunteer programs in Tanzania. They came to see what the program here was like and learn about our placements and how volunteering works here. it was great. Because of their prescense things were a little extra special around here. We had extra special food and desserts. (soooo good) The San Carlos HS band came and played for us. And their HS band is totally different than any I've ever seen before. They all played instruments, mostly percussion and guitars. They all sang. And they all danced while singing and playing. It was really fantastic. They played for over an hours, songs from all over Latin America and got us all groovin'. It was really an amazing experience.

so things are well, I'm happy and working hard. I miss everyone a lot though! (including my kitty cats). I'm excited to have more beach time this weekend tho and I'm sure I will continue to do some reflecting. My decisions regarding what I "want to do with the rest of my life" are getting a little clearer. It's pretty nice to have that clarity.

xoxo

Para mis amigos de habla hispana

Para mis amigos de habla hispana, usted puede nosotros este Web site traducir mi blog.
http://babelfish.yahoo.com/

enter the blog address www.wowijacobspin.blogspot.com and the whole page will be translated like this:

http://babelfish.yahoo.com/translate_url?doit=done&tt=url&intl=1&fr=bf-home&trurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wowijacobspin.blogspot.com&lp=en_es&btnTrUrl=Translate

It may not be perfect and things may sound strange, but you can get the point. I hope!

Monkey Business in Tamarindo

Me and all the gals from CCS traveled 6 hrs by bus to Tamarindo, Costa Rica this weekend. it was an amazing trip. We left Quidad Quesada around 1 PM. We traveled through winding roads in the mts (very slowly since our bus was lacking some serious get-up-n-go), we passed through Cloud Forest and got drench in the Rain Forests. And getting to the beachy part of Costa Rica was a lot of rough road too. I've never see pot holes quite like the ones leading to the beach.

We pulled into Tamarindo around 7 PM and we very surprised to find out accommodations to be so great. We stayed at the Villas Macondo. We loved it! we had 3 rooms and 1 apartment. It was perfect for all of our needs. The Villas Macondo is online: http://www.villasmacondo.com/. I highly recommend it, especially for the price, location and service!

We went to dinner that evening as a group at Nibbana, right in "downtown" Tamarindo, which also means it's on the beach. The food was excellent and we actually ate their quite a bit, since it was reliably delicious for all meals and a good price. After dinner we headed to the Monkey Bar for some Baile! There was a live Salsa band and DJ. We of course all got our groove on and had a blast. Quite a few of the ladies met young men to socialize with. It was surprising (well not really) how many of the people living there were from California or Florida. It is a surfing town after all :)

The next day we all went to the beach and then in the afternoon, about half of us tried out surfing. It was fabulous! We paid $20/ea for a two hour surf lesson from Tamarindo surf school http://www.tamarindosurfschool.com/
Our instructors were very helpful and we all got up on our long boards! It was very tiring tho. What a wonderful work out. If I ever live by the coast I will be surfing again for sure.
In the evening I happily made my famous Lo'Ritas and we all got very happy. We had dinner at Voodoo Lounge and then most of ladies headed to Babylon for some more baile and drinking. I decided to stay in and relax. I had a little dip in the pool, laid in the hammock and then passed out. It was pretty close to perfect.

Sunday morning the rain rolled in, but I could have cared less. Me, Carol, Kari and Karen headed out to mangrove forest (via motor boat) for a tour of the wild side of Tamarindo. We saw all kinds of birds (small blue heron, green heron, Ibis and King Fischer), we saw a few Cocodilo, and the best part: We got out of the boat for a hike through the forest in the pouring rain to find howling monkeys. We ended up taking our shoes off and hiking barefoot to find a large family of monkeys and it was amazing!!!!!!!! Our guide was able to call to them (sounding just like a monkey) and found us a large group to observe. We got really close and it was blissful. I felt like such a natural women afterwards.

Our bus ride home was not very eventful. We were all quite tired and cramped but we made it home safe and sound.

Pura Vida!

some of my favorites

Because I know everyone is eager to see milk squirted in my face and some of the other wonderful things from today...here's the best of the best (kind of). I probably won't get the slide show up until Monday when I get back. It's gonna be A LOT of work uploading pics if I continue to take pictures the way I do. I took over 150 today! But can you really blame me?

so much fun, so many pictures

I will be posting a slide show of all these pics real soon, but it's very time consuming to upload them all in a large format. But I want to recap this week so far for all my family and friends:

I love it here! I love all the women here, sharing in this adventure with me. All the people working for and with CCS are fantastic. Are casa is so nice and cozy. I am sleeping well. I'm exercising daily and eating healthy... it's amazing.

I'm working with amazing people at CAIPAD. Before my time here is through, I will be posting the "bios" of all the fabulous students at CAIPAD. I really like working with them all, such kind and generous souls---all of them. I get to play games and exercise with them and help them make crafts. It's pretty much the perfect job for me here. I do hope I get the chance to experience something a little different once or twice, but at present I'm very content.

As for adventures, I've had quite a few so far. At the beginning just exploring Cuidad Quesada was wild. Since I speak such little Spanish and understand less when being spoken to, even going to the market for a calling card is tough. But it's cool. The locals see me, the blonde or "macha" and know I probably don't speak Espanol, so it works out ok. And they like to use what English they know too.

At the casa we recieve 3 great meals a day. Spanish lessons. and Wednesday night we had Salsa and Merigue lessons. It was so fun and a great work out too! I certainly have been sweating a lot!

Today was the best of everything so far though. We went to La Fortuna, which is about an hour away. All we were told is that we were going to a farm to milk a cow and learn about cheese. I was game for anything. When we got there we were pleasantly surprise that our tour of the farm consisted of so much more. Not only did we meet some cows, we got to feed them--- we learned all about what makes "a happy cow". We got to milk one. I was lucky enough to be squirted in the face with milk straight from the teet. It was so funny. We all tried fresh milk from our cow friend, "Cinnamon". it was actually really good and warm. Then our guide, the son of the farm owners, taught us how they make cheese. Very interesting stuff! After our lesson he took us on an unexpected tour of the rest of their property, which is nestled at the base of the Arenal Volcano. It was amazing! We "saw" a two toed Sloth. We heard lots of parrots. We were shocked by all the huge ant trails and their shear "ant power". And we saw the red jeans frog (I think that's what it's called)... It was beautiful and oh so poisonous. We hiked all around and just really enjoyed the scenery.

After our tour we were search fresh fruit and some yummy fried cheese, as well as some of best iced tea I've ever had. It was all in all stupendous!

Tomorrow all the ladies and I are headed to Tamarindo for our weekend excursion. I'm sure there will be lots of stories to tell after all that. So stay tuned!

PURA VIDA!

CAIPAD San Carlos

I have so much to share regarding my first day at CAIPAD, my job placement here in San Carlos. I met some many lovely, friendly people. But before I go into more detail about each of them I really want to get to know them better. Presently language is a barrier. I am the only person who speaks English there, so communication is challenging at times. They really want me to learn Spanish and are eager to talk to me no matter if I understand or not.

The students there are all special needs and very sweet. I really enjoy the staff there. They are funny and caring and seem to really enjoy their job (which I think is so important).

I have been assigned to work in Arts and Crafts which is tremendous. As many people know, I am very skills in A&C. They have asked me to come up with some A&C ideas that can be used with the program and to give them a list of materials. I already have like 12 ideas. Plus if I have recipes that would be easy to teach, they would enjoy that too. Basically I will be aiding in teaching them life skills (crafts to earn money) and cooking so that they can cook for themselves. They also have a recreational period with exercise and games, and I will most certainly be able to pitch in and help there. I know lots of games and can definitely lead group exercise. It keeps them and healthy and me too. It's very much about self-sufficiency.

I know I will learn Spanish quickly since I am being fully immersed. They want to learn so much about me and I about them. I will be taking lots of pictures and creating a bio for all my new friends. I think this placement is perfecto!

More to come! Pura Vida!