I have updated some of you but not all of you. I'm trying to gather a mass email list so that I can send updates every once in awhile. Joey is going to be keeping up the blog as soon as we get internet at our house (which is lucky for you all, you get to actually read great writing). Because we don't have internet, we have to rely on the schools, which literally didn't work the first 3 days of school:) and we don't have a telephone yet because it is hooked up to the internet... We're hoping to get internet this week and then hopefully we can attach some pictures as well - a lot of "hope" in that last sentence.
Anyway, things here are GREAT! The trips turned 5 today and everyone has been so cute. I love the culture here surrounding kids. So many people just touch the kids heads and say the sweetest things about them. The restaurant we went to on Saturday night found out it was going to be there birthday and brought out 3 giant pieces of cake. These 2 old ladies just sat and stared at us the entire dinner and then came over and spoke with us. All in Spanish, by they way, which I'm LOVING!
Then last night we had our neighbors over, 11 people:) and I attempted lasagna which was actually a success, and had delicious fresh mangos, pineapple and strawberries. They made a beautiful and DELICIOUS cake, with Dulce de Leche in the middle, my favorite! They brought gifts and insisted that we sing "Cumpleanos Feliz" 3 times for each kid. Our neighbors are absolutely wonderful. We got so lucky with our location, thanks to our friends Mike and Andrea.
We live on an incredible farm. The kids just play non-stop outside. There are 1500 avocado tress on the property. There are also 3 "guard dogs" that roam and protect the farm from 8pm - 6am. So if we ever get home late or need to leave early, we have to call our neighbor and have him put the dogs away. We've woken up to one of them laying in front of our porch a few times:)
We have a great porch, that already has a designated lego's table on it. There are 4 other houses on the property including ours. All of our neighbors are workers on the farm and they work HARD everyday. Our immediate neighbors, Olga and Oscar, have 4 daughters, ranging from 21-10. Sarita, the 10 year-old, and Sharon, the 12 year-old are just awesome. They know only a few words in English but it doesn't matter, kids are kids and they play for hours together and have a blast doing it. Manuel, another neighbor, is 6 and teaching our kids more soccer than we ever could.
The hills in Tres Rios, or more specifically Dulce Nombre, are INCREDIBLE! I can't even begin to tell you how steep they are. Yesterday, I went "running" and literally saw 50-60 mountain bikers. I don't know how they get up these crazy hills. Anyway, I had a HILARIOUS experience yesterday. I saw these 2 guys on bikes in front of me and they had stopped about 40 feet apart from one another. I got to the first guy and saw that there was a little animal in between them.
I asked "Que es esto?" and he told me it was a squirrel. Then all of a sudden, the squirrel made a b-line for his friend and literally jumped right on his leg and then crawled up and ran all over his back and arms and wouldn't get off. His friend, next to me, burst out laughing and I was screaming and laughing. The guy with the squirrel on him didn't even freak out. He couldn't get the squirrel off though, he literally had to get off his bike and try to pull the squirrel off, which didn't come off easily, and put it in a tree. His friend and I were laughing so hard and talking about how confident this squirrel was. The only problem was, that the guys were biking towards me and my house was in the direction of the squirrel.
The squirrel started to come in our direction again. I'm screaming and running backwards while these guys are biking. Thankfully they were biking up hill and couldn't leave me. They were laughing so hard and then I told them "vivo en este dirrecion" and the guy turned to me in English and said "your turn" and burst out laughing. I refused to leave my new squirrel bodyguards and didn't know how I was going to get home. Then I saw 2 runners turn the corner and start coming up the hill. I knew this was my chance. I told the guy I'd be sharing this story with a lot of people and then took off.
Both the runners and myself were about 5 feet away from the squirrel, on opposite sides of it, and then it turned and started running straight at me. I started screaming and spraying water from my bottle at it, meanwhile, I could hear the 2 bikers behind me laughing. Thanks to my water the squirrel ran off the road and then I just took off sprinting (hearing laughter the whole way). Lesson learned, take water with me regardless if I need to drink it:)
Anyway, we've had 5 eathquakes so far - yikes! They are very unsettling but so far have been short lived. The kids haven't felt one yet. 4 of them were in the middle of the night.
On Saturdays there is an awesome farmer's market with the most fresh and delicious fruits and vegetables. We've been eating mangoes almost everyday - mmmmmm, they're so juicy and delicious. I'm learning the market language quickly "Cuanto cuesta por kilo?" I'm just loving how much Spanish I have to speak, although I know I'm just butchering it. Joey is trying all the time and I love it! We were at a restaurant with my mom and sister Katy and Joey said to the waitor "Puedo comer la cuenta por favor" - Can I eat the check please - we had a good laugh with that one:)
My mom and Katy were out for the first 2 weeks and thank god for the "maids!" They completely cleaned our house, rearranged (thank you Mom), took the kids on adventures in the car (literally getting lost for hours at a time and loving it), hung our laundry, etc etc. We had SO much fun with them. We took a trip to Volcan Arenal where my mom and sister took my zipling for my birthday. It was AWESOME! We were ziplining through the jungle and did a giant tarzan swing. Ask my mom or Katy for the video - it is definitely worth the watch!
We can't wait for more visitors. We want to show you around our house and then send you off to explore this awesome country. We have so many adventures ahead of us, like taking the kids to the ocean for their first view ever (this coming weekend!). Let us know when you think you want to come out and we'll mark it in our calendars.
Joey has been keeping a list of things he wants to share on the blog, so hopefully you'll get an update soon. I feel like I could just keep writing, we're having so much fun so far and have had some many things happen. Oh, like teaching - oops forgot to mention that - school is awesome for me. I have 6 students and they're great. We're going to have so much fun this year. I get to see Charlie, Kiefer, and Scout like 3-4 times a day. They're playground is right outside my classroom windows. They are just loving school and their teachers are awesome. They hug and kiss them all the time, just like preschool teachers should be able to. They go to a swimming pool every Thursday, where they get lessons from swim teachers, during school - awesome!
Anyway, I hope to send pictures soon and will hopefully do shorter updates more often, or at least until Joey starts the blog.
Sending hugs to you all and hope that you are doing well. Please shoot us an email and let us know how you're doing. I don't have a chance to reread this so I'm just sending it as is (Oh, Joey would never do that:) ) Please pass this along to anyone I may have forgotten.
Take care,
Suzy
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