Home.

Disclaimer- I've been spending days trying to fix the formatting of this...I've given up. No idea what happened.

So after exactly 9 months and 2 days, it was time to head "home for the holidays."  While so, so many things have worked out incredibly well regarding my Peace Corps service, one of them happened to be the proximity of Costa Rica to the United States.  I'm not in Mongolia as originally thought, and the cost of plane rides are much more feasible from Costa Rica than anywhere in Asia, and I was therefore fortunate to be able to fly home to spend Christmas with friends and family (and most importantly, keep my promise to Mom that though I would be gone for over 2 years, I'd never miss a Christmas).

So as the days dragged on toward December 13th, I found myself so busy with life in Costa Rica that I wasn't even fully getting excited about home.  I was having fun visiting other volunteers, doing 42 pre-interviews for my JumpStart camp, working out transportation logistics for JS, helping the community get ready for the upcoming 6th grade graduation on the 12th (the day before I left), and preparing my final community class of the year.  All in all, I was busy and I found myself actually getting slightly annoyed at having to pack and organize everything to be gone for over 2 weeks.  Mom even started getting worried when we talked on the phone that I wasn't excited to come home.  Of course I missed everyone but honestly, things were good down here and I wasn't feeling so miserable that I needed a countdown until home and honestly, I think that's a good thing.

But home I did go!  Perhaps the excitement didn't really hit me until I reached Atlanta and the Peace Corps friend I was traveling with and myself just stared in amazement at all the food options at the airport. She also commented that there were more people in our terminal than lived in my entire town, which was a very accurate statement.  The excitement continued as I deboarded my plane in Newark around midnight, walked as fast as possible out of the terminal, and finally saw one of my best friends, Joe, standing at the end of the hallway.  A giant hug later, I couldn't have been more thankful that I chose to come home.

A fellow PCV, Taylor, & I flew to Atlanta together.

First meal in America! Plenty of buffalo sauce

Joe had all my favorites waiting :)

JOE!

While my Mom knew I was coming home, I had told her I was coming home Sunday at midnight when I was actually in New Jersey Friday at midnight.  Saturday afternoon her friends and family gathered at one of our favorite restaurants for a surprise 60th birthday party.  You only turn 60 once, Mom...everyone needs a big party to celebrate!  It was a fantastic way to kick off being home.

I spent the rest of the weekend in Jersey catching up with friends and hanging around with Mom.  While I had thought I would have a few signs of reverse culture shock (even though I had only been gone 9 months), I was surprised how normal it felt to be back.  Driving a car, hot showers, any kind of food you could desire...are all things that don't exist in my life but I adjusted just fine to having them back :)

Monday was off to DC by train.  Two days with college friends back in the old apartment building where a bunch of us lived senior year and it was simply amazing to be back together and simultaneously catch up but also act like no time at all had passed.  A day out in Virginia with another college friend and then it was onto the Hill to catchup with work friends.  Happy hours on Capitol Hill and our favorite country bar were exactly what I had been missing and it simply felt great to, for albeit a short amount of time, slip back into the life I loved so much in DC with such amazing friends.

College Crew!

Best co-workers I could have asked for

Too soon it was back to NJ where I did have minor freakouts at the grocery store (do you know how many new flavors of triscuits there are in the past 9 months?!) but it was great to just be surrounded by friends and a familiarity that will just never exist for me in CR.  Thanks to everyone who made my time at home truly amazing and while the "see you laters" were no easier the second time around, I feel very fortunate to be able to keep in touch with many people due to the wonders of technology.  I'll be back real soon guys!

 America has deliciousssssss food...

Target. No explanation needed.

So lucky to have such amazing friends to come home to.

I flew back to CR on Dec 31st (cheapest available tickets) and thankfully I headed right to a friend's house to spend New Year's with a bunch of PCVs.  It made the whole transition easier knowing I had them to come back to and while it was quite a shock to go from delicious food, a comfortable bed, and hot showers right to a cold shower that wasn't even worth getting clean, french fries for dinner, and sleeping on a concrete floor on only a yoga mat...I also reminded myself that the people I was surrounded by I didn't even know 9 months ago.  Peace Corps can be such a roller coaster, no greater example being from going from America in the morning to rural Costa Rica that afternoon, but I am still so happy to be on this crazy adventure and even happier I get to go through it with great new friends. 

This was our grand attempt to watch the ball drop.  We were unsuccessful.

Beach Days & Thanksgiving in CR

Well, as I looked over the next few weeks in my planner to sum up what I was up to the last few weeks in November into December, I really couldn’t lie.  Most of it was spent at the beach….

In brief, I headed up to a gorgeous beach near Nicaragua for a “Festival de las Tortugas” which was meant to raise environmental awareness.  I actually worked for moooost of the following week before calling it an early weekend on Thursday after school and heading to Tamarindo to hang with a friend whose family was visiting.  Staying in a resort with AC and eating good food is NEVER something to be passed up.  I may have fit in another beach day before heading back to work the following week ;) but back to work I did go, even fitting in heading to some of my schools where kids are coming to my JumpStart camp to do pre-interviews.  But by Thursday it was again time to head out of site because it was THANKSGIVING!

Haley & I in Tamarindo with her parents, eating like kings! (or like we were in America...)

We were lucky enough to be invited to spend the holiday with families of the US Embassy.  I was staying with 3 friends and the family was nice enough to pick us up from downtown San Jose before heading out to their gorgeous apartment.  It honestly felt like walking back into America with COUCHES, wifi, hot showers, comfy beds, and amazing food.  You could smell the turkey cooking as soon as we walked in, and my mouth was literally watering in anticipation.  Over dinner, we went around the table to say what we were thankful for and it wasn’t difficult to think of my answer.  On a day I normally would have been so upset to not be in the states with friends and family, it was an amazing feeling to be taken in by basically strangers and made to feel right at home.  I will be forever grateful to them for making my first Thanksgiving away from home as amazing as it could have been.  The night continued with delicious deserts, impressive cocktails, and lots of Rock Band.  The leftovers the next day for lunch tasted even better…

Eric ready to eat like he'll never see food again. Well, he won't actually see food like this until he COSes...

The following weekend was back to Tamarindo to meet up with a friend who had a friend visiting before getting back to work for the first week of December.  I may have fit in one more beach day before the packing for HOME commenced and helping prepare for the 6^th grade graduation was in full swing.

Back to Tamarindo...

One of my coteachers with our school banner

The 6th grade class with the directora

Halloween, Puerto Viejo, & Katsi

Well, as many of you know, Halloween is one of my favorite holidays.  Just like when I was in Australia, my Mom went to great lengths to make sure Halloween wasn’t forgotten in my host country.  And also just like Australia, her package encountered quite a few problems.  When I went to the post office to pick up the packages she sent down here to Costa Rica, I was instead met with quite a few forms that I eventually realized said I had to go to the customs office in Puntaranus to pick up my packages.  It’s about 2 ½ hours by car and I had no idea where I was going to take a few buses, so this was going to be a lost cause.  But that weekend my host family wanted to go to the fish market down there anyway, so off we went to get this package.

But of course, this is Costa Rica, and things are not as simple as they are in America.  After waiting at the office and looking at the things in the package, it was off to the bank about 10 minutes away to pay a fee of roughly $2.  Then drive the 10 minutes back to the office, wait again, fill out some paperwork, wait a bit more, and then receive your package.  Oh and then drive the 2 ½ hours back home.  All in all, the trip was about 9 hours to receive the package so while I appreciated the brownies, Mom, no more please!  I will be very happy with pre-packaged food that will not be taken by customs…

Well, since I now had this fantastic Halloween package, there had to be a Halloween party of course!  So a bunch of us PCVs gathered at a friend’s house in Santa Cruz and the below pictures are the result…

                                                                        

            

                                              

Shadow was quite the hit!

It was a fantastic night and it was great to not just be sitting alone in site during one of my favorite holidays J

The fun continued and the next morning it was off to San Jose, switch buses, and then off to Puerto Viejo.  For reference of the amount of traveling I did in a day, here is a map…

I live outside of Santa Cruz (top left) and headed a little north of Bribri (all the way on the right).

So yes, I traveled to basically the complete opposite side of the country.  I spent a fantastic weekend in Puerto Viejo with friends before traveling to a PCV friend, Esteli’s site in Katsi to help with a JumpStart camp for a week.  Here are a few pictures of the travel (bus to Bribri, switch buses, walk a bit to the river, cross the river in canoe, then make it 7km more to Katsi).

It was a great experience to visit the indigenous region of Talamanca, get some experience with JumpStart (the camp I was planning on doing in January), and spending the week with Alicia at Esteli’s site.  Esteli whipped up some great meals without having a refrigerator and we spent plenty of afternoons relaxing at 2 of the gorgeous rivers near her house.  I’m so glad I made the trek out and before we knew it, it was back to San Jose for 2 days of JumpStart training before heading back to site.  After being gone for so long, it really did feel good to be back and jump back into doing my community class, going to school during the days, and organizing and facilitating the two remaining conversation club lessons we had in Santa Cruz.

Here are some pictures of my time in Katsi...