pura vida

this place is like summer camp for grown-ups. seriously. i'm having so much fun...

we work really hard during the daytimes, but we also play really hard in the evenings and on weekends. i think the most striking thing to me so far (aside from the absolute physical beauty of the things around me) is how wonderfully friendly the people here are. everyone smiles and says hello to everyone and people are so willing to help with anything we need. the warmth is especially shocking when coming from a place like seattle where it feels like people never want anything to do with each other. it's tough to make eye contact there (especially in winter when it's rainy and people have their hoods up or umbrellas low) let alone converse. but here it's like the sun has turned everyone's hearts into warm sloppy balls of kindness that simply must be expressed. i like it. it's my style.

updating is really hard to do very often. things here are moving really fast already and i know we'll be home all too soon. i also have youngest child syndrome--i never want to miss out on anything. blogging takes precious time...

i took a whole bunch of photos today on our 3 hour discovery walk. we ran across a coffee plantation and walked up to the security guard to say hello and ask if we could look around. before we knew it, the manager was out there with us explaining how the place was run and how growing coffee beans works. we wandered through the rows and rows of coffee plants for a while before heading back into the city to catch our bus home. on the bus we wound up sitting beside a woman who works at the centro where we live--knowing locals in a place really makes me feel home, or like i belong or something.

hopefully a few of the pictures i took will be worth posting. i know other people have tons of good ones, but i haven't gotten them yet or i would totally show them off.

why is everything in new places so wonderfully exciting? sometimes i realize that there are places and people that are really good for me. i think this time and place are really bringing out the best in all of us and it is so fun to be a part of it.

i hope you guys are doing well too.
as the ticos say, pura vida!