So Thanksgiving is a mere 5 days away and I am going to miss it sorely. We are having a missionary party with all the fixings but its not till Dec. 2 so I have to wait an extra week to get my turkey coma. But since the tendency would be for me to lament missing such a delicious holiday…and the fact that even when we do have it there wont be yummy bars. I have decided to make a rather obnoxious but still incomplete list of things I am grateful for.
I am thankful for…
1. Jesus Christ dying on the cross for my sins
2. my family
3. my friends
4. Costa Rica
5. Diversity
6. Host families
7. Food
8. Shelter
9. sunshine
10. rain
11. snow
12. kids
13. the elderly
14. school
15. my education
16. books
17. bubbles
18. mountains
19. plains
20. beaches
21. oceans/rivers/lakes
22. clean drinking water
23. public transportation
24. different languages
25. ice cream
26. chocolate
27. peanut butter
28. any combination of the above mentioned 3
29. freedom
30. the choice to give up some freedom to experience new cultures
31. the internet
32. fotos
33. sunrises
34. sunsets
35. cultural blunders
36. language barriers…like the fact that twice I have used the word for dust in place of the word for turkey thus making me ask a lady at a café if I could have a dust sandwich
37. the hustle and bustle of the city
38. the calmness of the country
39. alone time
40. time with friends
41. fruit
42. the texano sandwich I just ate which contained BBQ sauce the first time ive had it in 2 months
43. travel
44. jeans
45. avocado, jelly, and guacamole…3 things I swore I hated before I tried them about 2 years ago
46. laughter
47. good health
48. allergy medicine
49. tissues
50. toilet paper
51. art
52. dance…watching it that is…like the break dancers I watched in San Jose…I felt like I was inside Step Up 2…ha ha
53. the Olympics
54. curling and golf…to remind me that some people have radically different likes than me
55. journals
56. blogs
57. oxygen
58. gallo pinto
59. youth groups
60. honesty
61. bookbags
62. fotocopy shops
63. churches
64. the Bible
65. telephones
66. bicycles
67. the ability to plug my ears if I don’t want to listen to people making out
68. doctors and nurses…even if I never go to them
69. soccer
70. the ONU soccer team…who I should mention have their first round of NAIA playoffs today!!
71. ONU in general
72. street performers in San Jose
73. natural abilities/gifts
74. being thrown into difficult situations
75. English
76. Christmas lights
77. Love
78. Forgiveness
79. Patient people
80. Listening ears
81. Corny Jokes
82. rainbows
83. flowers
84. wise counsel
85. airplanes
86. teachers
87. librarians
88. coaches
89. the poor…who so often have their priorities in the right order, we can learn a lot from them
90. second chances
91. Disney movies and great friends to watch them with…Wingapo!
92. Bourbonnais
93. Music
94. Eyes with which to people watch
95. tourists and their khaki safari outfits
96. animals
97. being a middle child
98. the unknown
99. curly afro headed children
100. the realization of how blessed I really am
So yeah if you read all those…Im impressed. And even as I write those about 100 more pop into my head.
So if your having a bad day or are feeling down right annoyed with the world I suggest making a similar list because when your thinking of all the good there is its really hard to stay ticked off.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
I’m thankful for YOU!
KT
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Friday, November 19, 2010
2 months gone already????
So the first week i got here was the week of September 18. One of the first things i talked about with my host family was birthdays. Mine is May 3 and my host sisters is May 1...when we discovered this Emily got really excited for her birthday. I laughed and told her it was really far away and that we hadnt even gotten to Christmas yet. Which immediately made her excited about Christmas. Which I also thought was funny becuase it was so far away. Well here it is November 19th already and places are starting to get decked out for Christmas. As you guys eagerly away the turkey comatose that comes with thanksgiving we here jump straight to Christmas (seeing as there is no holiday here to commemorate native americans dressed in loin clothes and pilgrims dressed in black sitting down peacefully at a banquet)
Either way my point is that I cant believe how fast time has gone here.
In only 4 short weeks things will be wrapping up for the year in La Carpio and I will become a full time play mate to my host siblings here in Lomas for at least a few weeks.
We have finished one semester at the Refuge and are now starting our next one where i am the 7th grade math teacher and Tuesday soccer coach.
English classes are continueing caotically as usual.
Our remedial classes are now switching to playing thinking games because school is almost over and the kids wont come if we keep making them study.
Wednesday Kids Club is continueing as usual.
And Saturdays we are continueing with youth group and I am continueing to get to know the girls for Campamento.
Things are going well and Im loving my time here.
Thanks for all of you who are praying for me.
Pura Vida
KT
Either way my point is that I cant believe how fast time has gone here.
In only 4 short weeks things will be wrapping up for the year in La Carpio and I will become a full time play mate to my host siblings here in Lomas for at least a few weeks.
We have finished one semester at the Refuge and are now starting our next one where i am the 7th grade math teacher and Tuesday soccer coach.
English classes are continueing caotically as usual.
Our remedial classes are now switching to playing thinking games because school is almost over and the kids wont come if we keep making them study.
Wednesday Kids Club is continueing as usual.
And Saturdays we are continueing with youth group and I am continueing to get to know the girls for Campamento.
Things are going well and Im loving my time here.
Thanks for all of you who are praying for me.
Pura Vida
KT
Friday, November 12, 2010
Savor Your Chocolate.
So if there is one thing I have learned here in CR its that ticans know how to savor Chocolate. Yesterday my host dad brought home two packs of peanut m & ms to share between the 6 of us after i devoured my first 4 i looked around at my family and realized they were all on their first one. Well...feeling slightly awkward at my inhaling i kept my mouth closed and pretended to be sucking on my last one. Then everybody got 2 more (remember i have young siblings...there is shouting and occasionally tears if one person gets more than the other) and i decided to attempt to savor it. What I learned?
1. savoring M&Ms is rather a messy option seeing as how if you bite them you wind up with spit and chocolate on your fingers.
2. the taste does not change at all if you savor it.
3. and finally I learned that when the candy is in your mouth long enough to savor your brain has enough time to register the enjoyment and not leave you wondering where the chocolate went.
Why does any of this matter? Doesnt really. Just wanted to remind you all to savor the little things in life. Like Chocoalte. And like a student telling you they had fun in math class. And the opportunity to read to your six year old sister while she snuggles on your lap...even if you would rather be reading your own book. And laughing out loud while you walk past a group of gringos in san jose dressed for safari. And strawberry smoothies. And the fact that as soon as i post this im going to go eat some chocolate... and attempt to savor it.
So...as my dearly missed soccer teammates would say...carpe diem.
Sieze the day.
and sieze some chocolate.
pura vida
kt
1. savoring M&Ms is rather a messy option seeing as how if you bite them you wind up with spit and chocolate on your fingers.
2. the taste does not change at all if you savor it.
3. and finally I learned that when the candy is in your mouth long enough to savor your brain has enough time to register the enjoyment and not leave you wondering where the chocolate went.
Why does any of this matter? Doesnt really. Just wanted to remind you all to savor the little things in life. Like Chocoalte. And like a student telling you they had fun in math class. And the opportunity to read to your six year old sister while she snuggles on your lap...even if you would rather be reading your own book. And laughing out loud while you walk past a group of gringos in san jose dressed for safari. And strawberry smoothies. And the fact that as soon as i post this im going to go eat some chocolate... and attempt to savor it.
So...as my dearly missed soccer teammates would say...carpe diem.
Sieze the day.
and sieze some chocolate.
pura vida
kt
Monday, November 8, 2010
Surfing in Nicaragua!!!
Hola everyone,
Back from the short trip across the border to renew the visa. I went to the little surf town of San Juan del Sur in Nicaragua and it was wonderful.
1. because everything is cheep in Nicaragua (meaning that I ate very well)
2. because I was there for 3 days and ate 3 different kinds of ice cream
3. because whatever Im allergic to here in CR is not where I was in Nicaragua so I didn´t have to blow my nose nearly as much
4. and most importantly because I WENT SURFING!!
Thats right the townie who four years ago had been to exactly 4 states has now been surfing in another country :)
I should probably clarify that all attempts at surfing count as going surfing...there does not have to be much success.
So this is how it all went down...Saturday we were chilling on the beach and i was building a sand-snowman when Corey our resident vacation planner and fellow short term missionary found us and said who wants to go surfing. So off we went to another beach with better waves and got an hour surfing lesson and then spent another hour? or so in the water (mostly fighting the waves) I pretty much only got up with the help of the instructor but thats ok by me. It was awesome and I was able to check it off of my invisible list of things to do before I die. (Best part about this list...it doesnt really exist so every time i do something cool and out of the ordinary I check it off...I have a 100% success rate :)
Only bad part is that there are exactly zero photos to prove my surfing adventure. Before we left we decided to only bring one camera so we didnt have to worry about it and well the girl who brought her camera forgot it at the beach. So I shall just have the memories of salt water in my eyes and you all will just have to trust me that I really did go...and i did...for the record.
Anywho weekend was great...absolutely didnt want to wake up and go to work this morning but even that ended up going well. And tomorrow I start teaching math...were going to play review games for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division since i have no idea where these girls are at in their educations :) Should be fun.
Also this morning was actually chilly (i should note that it is now back up to its hot and sunny normal weather) and reminded me of fall which reminded me of you all :) hope your having a great day!
pura vida
kt
Back from the short trip across the border to renew the visa. I went to the little surf town of San Juan del Sur in Nicaragua and it was wonderful.
1. because everything is cheep in Nicaragua (meaning that I ate very well)
2. because I was there for 3 days and ate 3 different kinds of ice cream
3. because whatever Im allergic to here in CR is not where I was in Nicaragua so I didn´t have to blow my nose nearly as much
4. and most importantly because I WENT SURFING!!
Thats right the townie who four years ago had been to exactly 4 states has now been surfing in another country :)
I should probably clarify that all attempts at surfing count as going surfing...there does not have to be much success.
So this is how it all went down...Saturday we were chilling on the beach and i was building a sand-snowman when Corey our resident vacation planner and fellow short term missionary found us and said who wants to go surfing. So off we went to another beach with better waves and got an hour surfing lesson and then spent another hour? or so in the water (mostly fighting the waves) I pretty much only got up with the help of the instructor but thats ok by me. It was awesome and I was able to check it off of my invisible list of things to do before I die. (Best part about this list...it doesnt really exist so every time i do something cool and out of the ordinary I check it off...I have a 100% success rate :)
Only bad part is that there are exactly zero photos to prove my surfing adventure. Before we left we decided to only bring one camera so we didnt have to worry about it and well the girl who brought her camera forgot it at the beach. So I shall just have the memories of salt water in my eyes and you all will just have to trust me that I really did go...and i did...for the record.
Anywho weekend was great...absolutely didnt want to wake up and go to work this morning but even that ended up going well. And tomorrow I start teaching math...were going to play review games for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division since i have no idea where these girls are at in their educations :) Should be fun.
Also this morning was actually chilly (i should note that it is now back up to its hot and sunny normal weather) and reminded me of fall which reminded me of you all :) hope your having a great day!
pura vida
kt
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Travels
So I have been traveling a bit lately. Last weekend I went to the USA and this weekend I am going to Nicaragua...
Now before you get all upset that I was in the USA and didnt contact you I should probably clarify that I wasnt really in the USA it just felt like I was.
We made last sunday Gringo day for the short termers here and went to an international english speaking church. It was a one hour service and the pastor appoligized when he thought he was going to go 2 minutes over...definitly a USA time conscious feel to it. It was really nice to completely understand the service though. Then we went to a mall for lunch and this mall is at least double the size our poor little one back home. It was huge and pricy and I had lunch at Subway. Felt like I was back in the states. Which ended up providing a bit of culture shock without even leaving the country! I new there were wealthy here in CR but i didnt know it looked like that, completely westernized. So monday I was happy to be back in la Carpio.
This past week I translated for a short term medical team that came down to Carpio. It was a nice change of pace and it was fun to be able to help in a new setting, although I definitly had to act out some words that I didnt know in spanish. I also became a bit of an expert at fitting people for reading glasses since that was where i did most of my translating.
And tomorrow I leave for Nicaragua, just till sunday, to renew my visa. Its earlier than I need to go but I wanted to go with the rest of the short termers so there are 5 of us going...should be fun. Anywho thats what Ive been up to in a nut shell.
Hope all is well!
Pura Vida
KT
Now before you get all upset that I was in the USA and didnt contact you I should probably clarify that I wasnt really in the USA it just felt like I was.
We made last sunday Gringo day for the short termers here and went to an international english speaking church. It was a one hour service and the pastor appoligized when he thought he was going to go 2 minutes over...definitly a USA time conscious feel to it. It was really nice to completely understand the service though. Then we went to a mall for lunch and this mall is at least double the size our poor little one back home. It was huge and pricy and I had lunch at Subway. Felt like I was back in the states. Which ended up providing a bit of culture shock without even leaving the country! I new there were wealthy here in CR but i didnt know it looked like that, completely westernized. So monday I was happy to be back in la Carpio.
This past week I translated for a short term medical team that came down to Carpio. It was a nice change of pace and it was fun to be able to help in a new setting, although I definitly had to act out some words that I didnt know in spanish. I also became a bit of an expert at fitting people for reading glasses since that was where i did most of my translating.
And tomorrow I leave for Nicaragua, just till sunday, to renew my visa. Its earlier than I need to go but I wanted to go with the rest of the short termers so there are 5 of us going...should be fun. Anywho thats what Ive been up to in a nut shell.
Hope all is well!
Pura Vida
KT
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