Waterfall at Arenal

Iguana at Sugar Beach

Howler Monkey at Playa Flamingo

Trip to Arenal, Playa Flamingo

Just got back from a trip with my folks who were visiting from the states. I've included some pictures here...

It's Been a While

So I haven't updated my blog this past week as I have been quite busy with end of semester hoo-haa and what-not. We finished up school on Friday with our annual end-of-semester/Christmas show. As the drama teacher, I was responsible for putting together a bunch of short plays with kids for the show. It all went off pretty well, I think. People laughed, parents clapped, no one fired me...so all in all, a success. And no Quakers beat me up, so that was a plus. Ha-ha.
My folks are here visiting from the states this week, so I am having the fun experience of showing someone around our little world here. Michael and I will be joining them at the beach for a week, so more pictures and funny stories to come...

In the meantime...we've caught several more scorpions as there appears to be some sort of massive scorpion social event happening in our house. Apparently every scorpion in the neighborhood decided to come hang out at our humble abode, much to our joy and bliss. It is The Hip Scorpion Place to Be. We've caught three in the last two days. Luckily, neither of us have gotten stung yet...so everyone out there, keep your fingers crossed. So far, so good.

More soon.

Wassail?

Anyone know what on earth a ¨wassail¨is? Everyone here has been talking about the Christmas Wassail, and I don´t understand what that is. I want to ask..but then I feel like maybe everyone else on earth knows what this is, and I don´t.
It´s so strange that the winter holiday starts next Friday. Seems so bizarre to be living here where it´s still green and just a little chilly..and to know school is almost over for winter break. Also, it feels like the time just flew by. Seems like just yesterday we arrived in Monteverde! Now we are approaching the five month mark. Wow.
Michael returns from Paris on Saturday! Yay! I´m going to roast him a chicken. He´ll say..¨Who are you and what have you done with my Rebekah Who Can´t Cook?¨ Or probably he won´t say that. He´ll probably say ¨yum¨ because my chicken is yummy.
It is very windy here these days. When I go running, it feels like I´m running smack into a wall. Sometimes I swear my feet feel like they are going to lift right off of the ground.
To those of you who are coming to visit: please bring a jacket. And maybe a little scarf. It´s cold! Probably not as cold as the northeast...I think it´s in the 50s or 60s- but with a lot of wind and some misty rain, that feels downright chilly.
On Monday night I couldn´t sleep at all because I was convinced that the tower that holds my bedroom was going to lift right off of the house and blow, Wizard of Oz style, away into the air. Or perhaps fly down the hill and land on Lucky and Wolf´s house. Or land on a cow. I do wonder about the animals in this wind. Thus far I haven´t seen any horses or dogs or cows flying through the air...but it doesn´t seem beyond the realm of possibility.

Wind, Fog, and Christmas Songs

At the moment it is quite windy and foggy. I'm not talking about an ordinary level of wind and fog here. I'm talking the kind of wind that sounds like the house is perhaps going to blow away. And the kind of fog that makes the entire world disappear. From where I am sitting at my dining room table I can see tree tops, and then a white sea of nothing. No mountains, no rolling hills, no Gulf of Nicoya. Just fog. And of course I can see the tops of the trees blowing around like crazy.
Weather is so funny here. Yesterday it was stunningly beautiful. The sun was shining and it was just a little bit breezy. And it didn't rain all day! That was a first! But today is looking a little more dismal in the weather department.
This weekend was the annual performance of the the Monteverde Choir. Several of my friends are in it, Heather and Jonathan and Tricia as well as our neighbor, Benito. It was lovely. They sang a bunch of Mozart pieces to celebrate the 250th anniversary of his birth and also sang many Christmas songs. Say what you will about Christmas...it sure has some good music. I thought about my mom who is also in a choir. Her choir does not sing Oh Come All Yea Faithful and Gloria in Excelsis...it's a synagogue choir. Synagogue choirs tend not to include the singing of Christmas carols, generally speaking.
The concert was held in a lovely theatre space in Paseo De Stella, the Bat Garden. Really- that's what it is usually used for. The viewing of bats. I haven't seen the bats yet myself, but I am sure I will go there once people start coming to visit. There are lots of interesting tourist things I haven't done yet- the Orchid Garden, the Frog Pond, the Serpentarium...because I'm waiting for visitors to come. It seems weird to do the tourist things if you're just living here. I think all the folks from the U.S at work are doing the same thing- saving all the touristy places until they have visitors. It's funny..I think we're all too embarressed to actually want to go to those place on our own...but if someone is visiting, it's a convienent excuse. Actually, I'm kind of interested in the bat place. Mostly because I can't imagine how they are keeping bats inside. Are they just flying around everywhere? Are they in displays, like a zoo? Or are they not alive? Do they fly past your head when you go in there? How do you get them slow down enough so you can actually see them?
At Paseo de Stella they've built this real theatre there where they can even show movies on the big screen! I'm very excited about that. This Tuesday they are playing Amadeus...one of my favorites!

Abolition of the Army Day

Today we commerate the abolition of the army here in Costa Rica. The army was abolished in 1948, following a period a civil war. Jose Figeros, the president at the time, officially abolished the army with a speech made in San Jose. In the speech, he turned the keys of the building that housed the military headquarters over to the education department of the government. Today the building holds the National Musuem of Costa Rica.
You gotta love a country that gives its military buildings to its schools. You gotta love a country where they deal with a civil war by abolishing the army.
Costa Ricans are immensly proud of their lack of a military. The whole country embraces peace on so many levels; not only do they refuse to engage in armed conflict, you will rarely see Costa Ricans yelling or fighting at all. They tend to deal with conflict by avoiding it...which is not neccassarily always a good thing, but it certainly makes for a peaceful atmosphere.
At our little Quaker school in the mountains, we of course love Abolition of the Army day. The lack of military is what brought the original Quaker settlers here, after all. This morning in Assembly I got to read to the students Jose Figeros´s speech made the day the army was abolished (I read it in English, of course). Then we shared some other quotes about war and its costs.
Other activites for the day include a viewing of a film about civil war in El Salvador and a performance of Dr.Suess´s ¨The Butter Battle Book¨ by the 5th and 6th grade class (a story about the foolishness of war).
A day like this makes you never want to leave this place.