Life as I know it...: Happy Birthday Melinda!

It is hard to beat a weekend spent doing nothing but enjoying yourself with friends in a beautiful location, which is exactly how I spent the past weekend. On Friday, I made my way across the country to my friends’, Melinda and Stephen, site in the Puerto Viejo area of Limón to celebrate Melinda’s birthday and also their new place after moving out on their own. Other volunteers also made the journey and at one point there were nine of us staying in one place. Sure it was a bit crowded, but the crowd was made of pretty cool people so it didn’t feel like it.

For the most part, we all just hung out at their new house relaxing and getting to know each other a bit better. However, we also managed to get out to Puerto Viejo and make our way to a couple of bars. That ended up being pretty fun for everyone. The second bar that we went to had tables and chairs out on the beach. So, those of us who didn’t want to dance basically got to chill out on the beach and chill. Sometimes it’s just fun to hear about other people’s lives, experiences or even have intellectually stimulating conversation. Ah Peace Corps, a self-selecting group of goofy, nerdy, fun people who want to change the world.

At some point during the night these fire dancers came out and did a little performance on the beach. It kind of reminded me of fire dancers in the Pacific Islands. They were pretty talented and had some wild tricks. Unfortunately, I couldn’t make it through the whole performance because I had to go to the bathroom. If I had known that we were going to go home after, I probably would have waited because the bathroom was disgusting. It’s up there in my top 5 worst bathroom experiences of all time. They were basically stalls behind a screen in the back of the bar, which isn’t the worst in theory, but it was just filthy and nasty. Also, getting through the crowd of hot sweaty bodies was not that fun.

At different points throughout the weekend, we managed to eat a lot. We got to have traditional food of Limón, eat gelato (yes, they actually have Italian gelato), eat delicious pizza, and even make a healthy vegetable stir-fry. Life was pretty good. On the more active side of the trip, we worked out one morning in Melinda and Stephen’s amazing yard/garden/jungle and we took a hike by the beach in Cahuita. The hike was incredible and we were lucky and saw all sorts of animals. Actually, not to do another “Lost” reference, but it did kind of feel like we were cast in a much less glamorous version. The path was small, there were lots of animals, we were sweating profusely and being eaten alive by mosquitoes. All in all, I would say that it was a pretty successful venture. When you mix good people, good food, the beach and some exotic animals and smash them all together in a couple of days, it’s anything but terrible.

On the downside, I had to go back to my current version of the “real world” and was met with terrible news. It turns out that the Ministry of Education is making our English teacher leave due to another English teacher wanting to teach here. This is allowed because the other teacher has property closer to the school. I think that this is ridiculous rule. Anyway, everyone is pretty sad about it. The kids are devastated and I’m not only bummed about losing a good friend at the school but also a bit worried about her replacement. Ugh, life in the Peace Corps, life in Costa Rica. Nothing is predictable. So while I take the time to absorb that information I will just keep on doing what I do and truck on slowly. Hopefully I can find more projects to occupy my time, but until then, I’ve got my exercise class.