fredag den 4. maj 2012

4/5 2012

Dánnell is sick.

Today I went walking to Novacentro to buy a t-shirt I've got my eyes on for eternities. I was surprised that Novacentro is so close - I thought it was so much further away, so I was pushing going there yesterday (also because finding your way around without street numbers is hell).
Didn't buy the t-shirt because they only had it in large. Got caught in an aguacero (a LOT of rain). Went home, had lunch and didn't go out with Lydia. Meh.

tirsdag den 1. maj 2012

1/5 2012

Dánnells grandparents' wedding day. The 45th or something like that. We ate out at Princesas Marinas and it was all great. I got pasta with shrimp in white sauce. Just one little thing was wrong...

The night before I'd decided to make me a cup of tea. And, learning from Dánnells mom that it tastes really good with Rosa de Jamaica leaves, I just mixed them with a random tea bag and drank it.

I woke of with an indescribable pain in my stomach. Actually more around the lower part of the stomach, and as my womb is located around that spot, as so many times before as a result of pain there I decided to never have kids. Because cramps suck and giving birth apparently includes A LOT of those. So yeah...

Anyway, I soon realized that the tea I'd chosen wasn't just any tea. it was laxative. I wouldn't have worried about it, if it wasn't because it was HIGHLY effective.
I felt sick to the point of dying the whole day. The shrimp pasta was great though!

mandag den 30. april 2012

30/4 2012

Mette's birthday. I've never wanted to go home this much except for the day of Jens' confirmation.

søndag den 22. april 2012

Uvita









We're becoming badass campers!

Ocean front, baby!

Relaxing after the hard work of putting up the hammock!
View from the hammock
Luxury outdoor kitchen!

A coconut fell from a tree. Into the wild!!

On the way home


22/4-12

Jens' confirmation yesterday. It rained all day. Felt sad because I couldn't be there but fortunately he liked the speech/video I made him. In the evening went to a birthday with Dani.

Today I talked with y family. Good to hear a little about the party yesterday, everyone enjoyed it. Not much else, lazy day in bed with Dani and Gucci. Playing poker tonight!

Dani and Gucci chilling in bed

Dani right before going to remove the leaves from the roof of the house. Yesterday in the aguacero it rained so much that we had a waterfall inside the house - fortunately only in the "ball" room which almost doesn't contain any furniture.

fredag den 30. marts 2012

FORGOT TO TELL!

I attended poker night last Friday. Mostly just because it was at Dánnell's house and I didn't wanna be all meh and antisocial and going to bed super early when eight people were coming over.
So then, in spite of feeling a little sick, I decided to sit through it. I would quickly lose and that would be a great excuse to sneak into the warm bed without anyone thinking I didn't like them or that I was afraid of meeting new people. It was quite embarrassing really, because Charlie, Dannell's best friend, had to write down the order of different card combinations. I DO know the basics from playing a little poker with the girls for fun and, mostly, watching poker on television with a hangover so big you don't have the strength to change channels if you ever had the patience to look for the remote in the first place. And the chips have different values! Well, I knew that, but didn't know the values and even though they'd tell me how much it was worth, I would usually just put out the same amount of the different colours as the one before me. It went pretty well, I was just sitting, minding my own business, trying to figure out good and bad hands and realizing just how anti-social poker really is. People don't really talk, a good bunch of them were listening to music on their headsets, the rest were just staring down the cards on the table. I was drinking tea.

This could have been a long and exiting tale of how I discovered my unknown poker skills, but it's really not that interesting. Basically, I outplayed a shitload of people and won everything. Afterwards, when everyone had gone home and I realized I'd won, I celebrated. Then I went to bed. I still think my "sick face" served me as a poker face for the night. But I won. And there were real, freaking serious casino style poker players at the table. Just saying...

Ps. Here's a picture of nacho night at Stefan's house because 1) Nachos are freaking delicious and combined with Stefan it's just so much more deliciousness right in your face and 2) Blog posts without pictures are boring.

tirsdag den 20. marts 2012

Family visit #2

In february-march my grandparents came to visit me for two weeks. I had such a great time with them and I miss them a lot now, that I've seen them again. I think they really enjoyed the trip even though we had some trouble with plan-changing a couple times.

Having them on vacation is hard, because they are two extremely different persons. My grandmother can't sit still for more than 30 minutes and my grandfather needs his space and time to relax and make his crosswords. Fortunately, they're not hard to please, and we had some good times together in Sámara, Dánnell's house, Stefan's house, Uvita and Manuel Antonio.

I really think I showed them a good mix of the tourist and the real Costa Rica. It's always nice to be able to share a little part of the experiences, friendships and the life I've made here. It's so very different from my "Danish life" which makes me appreciate it so much more.

Mis abuelos y yo visitando la Basilica en Cartago :)

mandag den 19. marts 2012

Monday

Just a regular Monday, though I hope to go to a concert tonight at the FIA (Festival Internacional de los Artes), which we're celebrating right now. Very exciting and interesting since I don't know too much Latin american / Tico music!

Yesterday I went to the (2nd) concert of Cocofunka, a local band which is REALLY good. Probably going again Wednesday just because I can (and because it's free. Whooo!)

Friday I went to the Calle 13 concert in la Sabana. They expected around 30.000 people, and we were probably around 70.000 or more. So here's my concert experience:

Dani y Charlie jugando


Hehehehehehehheheh

Lydia, Stefan and Ashley were there too, but RIGHT in front (lucky bastards!) so I never found them. Had a great evening anyway and the music was awesome.

fredag den 16. marts 2012

Bocas!

There's lots of stuff I haven't told you... And now you will never know! (Or maybe you will because I'll eventually get to it) Because right now, I'm just gonna jump straight to the latest event:

Bocas del Toro!


It was fun, I met some great new friends and I had an amazing time! Unfortunately, I'm terrible at taking pictures of people, so here's a photo of a caiman:

This little fella was part of the cave trip we took one day. We planned on going snorkeling too, but it never happened, since it was all dark and rainy the last couple of days so we couldn't see anything.

Nola admiring a cacao fruit at the cave tour!

 Nola is a friend from NY that I met in San Jose in December btw...She's cool!

Most of the time consisted of chilling out with wine drinking and cookie baking at a private island owned by one of Jim's friends (pretty cool!) when we were not hanging out at Los Secretos or in town.
Jim is the guy Nola and I stayed with. They're both couch surfers. Now I am too! Yay! I'm sure it made my Bocas stay a million times better than if I'd stayed in a hotel!
View from the private island
View from th private island covered by Nola and me.
Just an old plane in the backyard..

View of Bocas town from the sea


Well..Nothing more to tell for now. Here are some more cool animals!
This can probably kill you..

Bat cave! Pretty cool!

torsdag den 5. januar 2012

Entering 2012!

The First Day

Went on a mini picnic with Stefan's family. We had a good time even though it was very short as it started raining pretty quickly after we got there. When we got home and was drinking the afternoon coffee, the sky was blue again. Of course!

Angie y Ariel

Carlos David. Muy contento con la comida!
The Second Day
We went on a tour around the cities close to Juan Viñas and saw a lot of different things and beautiful views!

Stefan & Ashley enfrente de las ruinas

A tree con "Barba del viejo" (Old man'd beard) Que bonito!

La perrita más linda de 2012!

La iglesia más vieja de Costa Rica - The oldest church in Costa Rica
El lago de Cachí.
Best thing: The cute little white dog! (no mentiras!)

The Third Day

Stefan, Ashley and I went to the biiiiiiig property of the people who own the coffee farm. They have a lot of horses and we were so lucky to get to borrow one. I haven't been on a horse for many years now, so I was extremely excited about doing it again! We had a good time and everyone got a ride, even though some liked it more than others!



Me riding the horse solo. The guy warned us that it was hard get him to stop, but of course that didn't stop me.
Now, two days after, my legs still hurt like ****.
In the evening I went back to San Jose and met Freiser's 14 year old brother Brandon for the first time. He's going to live with us from now. It's going to be very interesting, and I hope we can all get along. Yesterday (The Fourth Day!) we all went to see "Las Aventuras de Tin Tin." Awesome movie! And a nice way of "bonding" a little with Brandon. He's super sweet.

søndag den 1. januar 2012

A Costa Rican New Year's

I was a "little" sad when my family left the 29th and still didn't have exact plans for what to do for New Year's. Luckily, my good friends here stroke once again and gave me more than one option for new year's (which made it really hard to choose!) Everyone I know here are extremely open and welcoming and it's always a joy to visit the tico families!

I ended up going to Juan Viñas to celebrate with Stefan and his family. We were nine around the table and I had a great time with the whole family!

La mesilla como se vió para Año Nuevo. Después la juntamos con la mesa grande para que pudimos comer todos juntos. The little table as it looked for New Year's. Afterwards we put it together with the big one so we could all eat together.

Stefan, being the chef of the family, made almost all the food (with a little help from the rest of us). Everything was super delicious, and he even made fish for me as a special dish as I (still) don't eat red meat!
La comida del nuevo año (el plato de Stefan). Todo muy rico y con la pierna de cerdo tradicional. Las papas morenos (brunede kartofler) fueron el toque danés ;)
Just a picture of us:
Stefan y yo muy felices!
It was really late when we finished eating, so we left the kitchen as it was and went to the "living room" waiting for the new year to come. Every country has it's own traditions, so this year I didn't drink champagne, we didn't jump into the new year and I didn't kiss anyone at midnight.

Instead, we all stood in a circle waiting for the new year to come and so at twelve, we entered the new year together. Afterwards, there was a lot of grape eating (one for each moth of the year for good luck) and throwing lentils for there always to be enough to eat in the new year.
La última foto de 2011
Toda la familia!
Stefan, Carlitos, Ashley, Rosario, Roy, Angie y la novia de Roy, Alejandra
Afterwards, we went out on the street to say happy new year's to all the rest of the city (at least the rest of the family - who all live in the same city - and whoever else we met on our way). Later we went on a short visit to the neighbouring barrio to see the carnival. Mucha fiesta!

I had a really good night and it was very interesting and enriching to experience a Costa Rican new year's!

Stefan and I ended the night by throwing lentils at each other until around 3 in the morning. Great start of 2012!