Happy Halloween

For the school's Halloween dance, Steve and I decided to mortify our children and break the Costa Rican, machismo taboo against cross-dressing by dressing-up as each other.

This morning, one of the night guards commented, "Ayer por la noche , su marido era muy sexy."  (Last night, your husband was quite sexy.)  Indeed!

Guy Fawkes at Jaco Beach

A Guy Fawkes fire code violation

Poor Guy!

Remember, remember, the 5th of November; so say the British who have annually celebrated, since 1605, the foiling of the "Gunpowder Plot" and the execution of its leader, Guy Fawkes.  If you really want to know about this contemporary of Shakespeare, read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Fawkes
      But in this bloggers opinion, here in Costa Rica, celebrating the burning of Guy in effigy is a good excuse for some drinking, playing in the surf and failing miserably at darts.

We got together with a gaggle of Europeans and North Americans at the Hotel Club del Mar in Jaco, and started the day with an intense game of rounders; which as far as I can tell is a lot like baseball, but much muddier.  Steve and I celebrated our victory with  rum and cokes, which ingeniously come in a can around here.  Overhead, groups of Macaws flew by, like a scene from "Rio".

Later in the day, Steve was paired with one of our students and they were the power team to beat for much of the darts tournament (which lasted 3.5 hours, but seemed like a lot less when you're drinking.)

That evening, before Guy was lit up, the fireworks exploded overhead like fiery missiles, but closer.   Glowing balls of still-hot powder poured down on us, singeing our eyebrows. Marina hid under the small awning the hotel set up, while Benji and Steve dodged flaming pyroclasts, raining down like streamers.   Steve's comment was "My eyes hurt!" and another party-goer declared, "If we were in the US, we'd all be arrested right now!"

Most enjoyable, we all agreed, was the thrilling and exhausting new sport we've discovered:  boogie boarding.  Although we've all boarded before, with these waves, and with some new techniques (observed by carefully studying the smooth moves of a particularly skilled group of 7 year-olds) we skidded and skimmed along the waves with jet-like propulsion.   What a hoot!

Feliz Cumpleanos a Benji y Marina (Happy birthday, kiddos!)

At 1:37 in the afternoon, much to my daughter's mortification, Steve and I burst into her classroom, blowing whistles, ringing bells, singing the birthday song and passing out cookies.  Her math teacher, Mr. Rosenberg, who was in on the shenanigans, projected photos of Marina as a baby onto his Smartboard.  Chaos erupted.

We repeated the crazy process in Benji's math class at 1:39, the 12th anniversary of his birth.  Our twins were sufficiently embarrassed and pleased with the events.

This morning they had breakfast in bed. (As you can see, we were running a touch late.  Benji was already up, showered and in his uniform.  We made him get back in bed so that he could be properly feted.) Tonight we dined on sushi. (Indeed, the seaweed had been brought with much prescience all the way from Seattle.)

Twelve years ago . . . the time is flying!

Happy birthday, kiddos!

Pura Vida in Tres Equis

By Marina Blatt

This weekend my family and I went to visit Dona Maricela and Don Johnny, and their kids, Julisa and Jaison in Tres Equis, near Turrialba Volcano. Each year mom went with her students to stay with this family.   We decided to visit them for three days.  During the stay we had an extraordinary experience of being in such a place that felt communal and peaceful. My parents kept saying how "this is real Costa Rica."  There were trees filled with fruit everywhere and cows walking across the street.   

The family helped us get settled and then we had a delicious meal of  beef soup cooked by Maricela.

At night our friends showed us the frogs that live in their school. Don Rafa picked one up to give us a better look at it and it peed all over his arm! 

The next day we woke up early and set off to go meet Johnny's niece.  When we got there, her dad climbed a tree and started picking oranges off of their tree. They peeled them for us and then we took a bite. It was the best oranges that we had ever tried! Then they handed us a cacao fruit which we were told had seeds that you could cook into chocolate. Instantly, after taking a bite, it was my new favorite fruit!

Johnny's cousins showed us their family's cows.  For the first time, I saw a cow nursing from its mother!  

We got to feed the cows the peels from the oranges that we ate.

It was a hot day and ants were attacking our ankles while we petted the cows.

Dad cooked us a Thai meal. 

Mom is looking surprised because this bull just licked her arm!

Maricela's mom and dad; owners of the farm.

After a lot of asking to my family, I finally got the chance to ride a horse on the farm.  After I did it, my family got jealous and decided to ride the horse as well.

Benji is showing off his cowboy moves.

Twin Power Activated!

The day that we arrived, Don Johnny had just come back from his haircut.  We thought it looked nice, and we noticed that Benji had been needing one for a while.  Johnny told us that his aunt had cut it.  The next day, we walked with him to her house, and Benji got a haircut while mom admired the aunt's garden of  beautiful flowers. 

The Cowboy Family

Our New Home

At last!   We've moved to a lovely apartment overlooking the sparkling lights of San Jose and the mountains and valleys of Costa Rica.  What a sight to wake up to!





Boy, we are happy here!  Our landlord has supplied us with all the furnishings that we could ever need, complete with a dining room table set with chargers beneath the fine dishes.   "A charger?" Benji asked.  "Where do you plug it in?"

Not to mention the bidet in the master bedroom.  I should have seen this coming:   I leaned over the bidet thinking, "I wonder how this thing to works..."   Needless to say, I ended up with a face full of tepid water.  Thankfully, I was wearing glasses.  I needed some mini-windshield wipers!

Steve thought it was hilarious.

We now have plenty of room for visitors...