Dona Ana

This is our wonderful teacher Dona Ana. She is the Spanish teacher for all of the kids who don't speak Spanish as their first language at La Escuela Europea, and we all have the pleasure of working with her for 4 hours a week. She comes to our house on Wednedays to work with Joe and I . Every Wed, I take the kids to school, and pick Ms. Ana up there. By the time we return home, Joe has the coffee ready and they start at our table. As expected, Joe is picking up Spanish so quickly. It is amazing.
Ms. Ana is from here, has taught Spanish as a Second Lang. for 16 years, and speaks the slowest and most clear Spanish you have ever heard. We love her!!! She is the mother of 4, and has 3 nietos. ( grandkids) We are going to her daughter's house for lunch to eat and to squeeze her 2 month old Sebastian. Hopefully, I'll remember to bring my camera and you'll see what I mean about this baby. Yummy!

Paz, El dia de Independencia

The 15th of Sept. is Independence Day in Costa Rica.
Everyone at la Escuela Europeo and all over Costa Rica were getting ready for a huge celebration for about a month. About a week prior to the 15th, Costa Rican flags appeared everywhere. The parents were invited to the school on the 14th for a presentation celebrating Costa Rican Independence. The Celebration began with firecrackers and a parade with all of the kids. We love how the little ones look in their traditional costumes. The flag is also red, white and blue, so you can see lots of these colors in the traditional clothing.
Each class had a different role to play. The photo above is of a class that had props that represented a 7 provinces of Costa Rica. You can see that one kid is holding a sign that says Limon, which is the Eastern most province on the Caribbean side. We haven't been there yet, but are planning on going. I hear that there is lots of Reggae, and African influence there! And more rain than here. We are excited to go to Puerto Viejo there.
Natasha's group was the only group that didn't wear traditional costumes. They made masks, wore crazy clothing and ran around the little ones. We aren't sure why, but Natasha was super glad that she didn't have to wear a skirt! That is her in the lime green shorts!
The festival began with the national antham. I think this is why I am writing. The whole antham is first of all singable for all, in contrast to ours, and more importantly, is about peace. I cried. It was so moving for me to see a celebration for independence focusing on peace. I try hard not to compare Costa Rica and the US in judgement, it was hard not to compare the rockets red glare, with peace.
This is a photo of peace of a different kind. This is a great family that we have become friends with. ( Our kids are super happy that we have friends!) Tim is an ex Californian, who traveled the world and moved to Costa Rica for the waves, 30 years ago. He grows coffee and bananas now. Hilda is a Tica, ( Costa Rican) who only speaks Spanish and is super passionate about everything. And Caroline is their youngest child who is in Natasha's class. We love hanging out with them cause Tim's stories are a blast and Hilda doesn't speak English, so I get to speak only Spanish with her! And Caroline is a sweetie. Yippee.

Glory and Natacha go horseback riding

This entry is called Glory and Natacha's trip because our names are hard for people to say here. I thought that the names here would be the same as the Spanish names that I had known, but they are really different. No one seems to be able to say Lori, so I have become Glory. And Natasha has become Natacha. Alexander has become Buddha, because the first day of school he told the kids that he was a JuBu, a combo of Jewish/Buddist. The name stuck. The word Yo,which means I, has a strong accent here, and it sounds like Joe, so to make things easier, Joe is now Jose.
This weekend, Alexander went to an amazing resort with his friends, called Conchal. One of his friend's fathers is the manager of Conchal and he had a great time. Joe needed to work and study and wanted to stay home, but Natasha and I were excited to go to the beach again. She was feeling a bit homesick, so I found a place that she and I could go riding, as well.


Natash says that riding on the beach was so much fun. It felt so unreal cause she has only seen it in movies. It felt really good to be on a horse again, cause she hasn't been on a horse in a while. Her horse was named Marlboro, mine was El Pinto, and our guides horses name was Coyote, but should have been called El Loco. I would like to make a poster out of this picture.
We rode on trails to the top of some hillsides with amazing views, and then to the beach. It was super peaceful, tranquilo as they say here.

This little guy was so cute. He was a week old and we found him with his siblings in the barn when we returned from our ride.

Natasha walked around the barn and took photos of the horses. I think this one is sooooo cool.

This is the view from our room. The waves are huge here. Natasha and I dove over some and rode some in. It was a ball.

And an added attraction at this beach, Shells!!! As some of you know, I am a crazy sheller. The shells here are really different from the ones on Sanibel. And the sand is volcanic and is black. It is so cool. I was a very happy sheller.
Natasha is standing on the runway outside our hotel. It is wild, the runways for small planes here are all over the place. To get to the hotel, you have to drive on the runway. We have no idea how to tell if a plane is coming and what you would do if one came. Natasha says you would run! We had a wonderful two days!!

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Un poco mas

Hello again, just three more fun photos. The first is Natasha and Alexander, getting ready to go swimming at the health club that we joined. The health club is a blast. Joe and I are spinning still, and we are all doing Tae bo, which rocks and is funny. Alexander is lifting weights there and Natasha goes to the pool to swim as often as she can. Then we play pool or foosball. Joe usually kicks all of our butts, and it is a blast. There is a horse that lives on the land, which is less than a mile from our house, but we don't think we can ride her. Or maybe on Sundays... when my Spanish gets better and I can understand what the Nicaraguan guard ( who speaks so fast) at the front gate is telling me, I'll let you know if Natasha can ride her. Her name is Chiquida.


These are Alexander's good friends. Alfred is from England, and has lived here for 7 years. His English and Spanish are super fast, and he is so funny. Cora is from California, and is super sweet. If you see one of these two, you will find Alexander nearby. They are great! The school continues to be awesome. It's about higher thinking. Alexander is taking Spanish of course, as well as biology, chem, math, geog, history, English, Art and more. Natasha is in 6th grade and the focus for the whole year is Africa. She must memorize a poem every week and recite it in front of the whole class. Hard enough for her, think about how hard it would be in your second language, which is what most of the kids are doing in her class. She has lots of Ticos ( Costa Ricans), and kids from Germany, Columbia, Brazil and the states also. It is so cool for us to meet so many people from all over the world. In 7th grade the kids must take another language, either French, or Mandarin. I sort of wish I could retake school here!

This is Natasha's friend Julia and Kathrine, on her last day at the school. She is Ms. Anne's youngest daughter. Ms. Anne is the director of the school. Kathrine is awesome and was helping to organize things for the beginning of the year for her mom. She graduated from CU in Boulder, knows where Nederland is and has skied at Eldora. Small world, huh? She moved to San Salvador to be with her boyfriend. We were happy for her, and sad to see her go.

We were super excited to find out that we could go snorkling at Playa Hermosa. ( I don't know why this is underlined, sorry) It was so much fun. Our guide told us that the water was super clear, and it was.




This is Joe and I getting ready to jump in. The water was so warm!



Alexander practicing using his equipment.


As soon as you put your face in the water, it was amazing what you could see. It was so clear.
This is a photo taken with our underwater camera of fish. You can't see anything, but I thought you'd want to see the color of the water. Amazing.

Alexander managed to capture Joe underwater.



Lori after the mask was taken off. It was a blast.

Natasha in her favorite water position: On Lori
Joe!


Alexander on the way back.

Joe and our guide, Alonso. A great day, for sure!

Here are some photos we took at The Grand Papaguayo Occidental Hotel, where my best friend from college Beth and her partner Brett, where celebrating her 50th birthday. Please read the next blog for the story. Enjoy!



Friends for many years! Life is better with sunglasses! Even if they are prescription!

Joe and Natasha in the pool at the Grand Papaguayo Occidental Hotel. Sweet.

Amazing view from Beth and Brett's room at the Grand Papaguayo Occidental Hotel in Playa Hermosa. This was an outdoor hot tub looking over the ocean. Wow.


Alexander chillin in a hammock outside Aunt Beth's room
Here is a great photo of my dear friend Beth and her novio, Brett.

We decided to go to another beach over the weekend, for three reasons. First of all, my best friend from college was there with her boyfriend, to celebrate her 50th birthday. ( How did we get so old???) They were staying at a beautiful resort in Playa Hermosa, so we get a room nearby and had a wonderful visit with them. This is a photo from the beach that our hotel was on. Secondly, we want to see as much of Costa Rica as we can, so we are traveling every 4th weekend. And thirdly, we have trouble thinking of reasons not to go to the beach.

Playa Hermosa is in the province of Guanacaste, in the western part of Costa Rica. It is much hotter and much drier then the Central Valley. And way more humid. And beautiful. We drove forever, like 5 hours, on Friday night. Then we went snorkling on Sat morning, which was amazing. We haven't snorkled much in our lives, and each time, it takes my breath away. We saw tons of fish, some eels, ( sounds like eek) and some of the strangest looking fish that I've ever seen.

Then we went to the Occidental Hotel, where Beth and Brett were staying. It is so beautiful. All inclusive. Food and drinks everywhere. Amazing. It was so great to see them here, and they were amazing hosts.

Driving to Guanacaste is so cool, cause you pass so many ecosystems. We live in a cloud forest. We drove through the city, then up and down, into a rainforest, and then onto an area that you would think you were in Africa somewhere. It is so wonderful. We spend a lot of time looking for monkeys, and we think maybe we see them. Hard to tell. I will post this and then ad a bunch of photos from our trip.

One funny thing, it is getting harder for me to write this in English! Yeah! My brain is loving being in Spanish. Natasha and Joe are learning so fast, its amazing. And Alexander and I are putting it all together. Alexander asked me to speak to him in Spanish only, which is a blast. I hope that will be a lifelong change.

More photos!!!

My sweet Natash
These four photos are places that I see when I run here. The trees are so tall and beautiful. Often they are dark against the gray sky because it is the rainy season and it is a great time to run when the rain is just sprinkling. It isn't cold rain like in Colorado.




This is at a party that Natasha got invited to that she and I went to. Her friends were dancing to really loud music when we got there and then a couple of them started singing kereoke. It was a really fun party!

Two more running shots. The roots above make great stairs down to this beautiful river that I run across. Yay!

I finally got Alexander to smile for a photo!!!