CGC Costa Rica: Cori's Update: Vacation, vacation, vacation, and a lil' bit of home improvement

Apparently, I'm incapable of blogging more than every 2-3 weeks. Sorry. And lots of people have been asking for more pictures, so here's the story. I don't take pictures. Yes, I have a camera here. Yes, Logan has his itouch here. Yes, we all have phones that take pictures. No, I don't take pictures. That said, between the 5 of us, we do have several pictures, so I'll try to throw a bunch of them into this post.

We are still on 'summer' vacation, so there isn't much to report regarding the school. Cailene, Bonnie, and I have been sorting papers and files, creating and modifying worksheets, and just generally getting organized for the coming year. Both the Tabarcia and Palmichal classrooms have been cleaned, and, after digging through several tubs of stored random school stuff, we are getting some new books, games, and posters into the classrooms. Classes start the first week of February, and there are several students who want to take classes but can't afford it. If you're interested in sponsoring a student, please check out the official website (cgccostarica.com).

While we've been taking it pretty easy and enjoying places like the beach and the river, we've also been working on the construction of Bonnie's apartment. It's official now: the apartment is going below Cailene and Cornelio's porch. There will also be extra garage space for 2 or 3 cars below the porch, which will be great for parties and group events. After our beach trip, the guys really buckled down and put in a few long, hot days of construction work. The walls are now completed, the support beams for the porch are being welded together, and as I type, the guys are putting in the septic tank (not quite a US-style tank, but still functional). We don't have any predicted finish date, but progress is being made, which is encouraging. It will be nice to get the porch back, and to have more usable space in general.

Logan's brother, Colter, just left this morning after spending 2 weeks with us. He arrived at 645am on New Year's Day (nobody got much sleep on New Year's Eve...), and spent a couple days here in Palmichal before we headed to the beach at Jaco. For lack of space in the car, Bonnie stayed behind and enjoyed a 'girl's weekend' with a couple of her good friends. They had great fellowship and opened doors to lots of new experiences for one of the ladies. The rest of us had a wonderful time at the beach. Logan and Colter took an Open Water Scuba Diving Certification course (and even passed!), which allows them to now scuba dive without an instructor. They did 4 dives in the ocean and several pool sessions over 3 days. Cailene and Cornelio did a Discover Scuba Diving program, which was one pool session and 2 ocean dives. We don't have any underwater pictures, but it sounds like the saw some cool stuff. I know my limits and passed on the scuba diving. See, you have to take a lil' boat a decent distance out into the ocean, and then you're out there for a few hours. I get motion sick. Thus, small boat + ocean + me = really bad idea. After their ocean dives, they all said it was good that I didn't come along, because Cailene and Cornelio both got pretty sick on the boat. I spent my time and money in a much more intense pastime: surfing. I took a lesson one day and just rented a board the next, and had a fabulous time beginning my professional surfing career. :-) By the time our 3 days were up, all 3 boys thought they were dying of heat stroke and couldn't wait to get back to the cooler mountain air. Not gonna lie, it was pretty toasty.

Bonnie and I spent a day with Lidieth and her friend, Isobel, learning how to make tamales. It was an all day process (started at 7am and finished about 3pm), but they were delicious! Pictures below.

Not a whole lot else to report. Bonnie, Cailene and I are still swimming regularly, and working out here at the house on non-swimming days. We try to run a couple days a week (I'm determined to convince Cailene to like running!) and we do some strength circuits a couple days a week as well. It is fabulous to have people to workout with again and I'm really going to miss it when we go home!!! Speaking of home...can't believe we are approaching our 3 month mark. Time flies!