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!