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 :)

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.

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!

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.

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!

Roomie love!

Just wanting to show you my (awesome!) roomies!

Jugando!
Playing!

Jugando más - yo perdí :(
More playing - I lost :(

Lydia, la artista!

Just chilling..

(Finally!) An update!

Lots of things have happened since I last wrote on the blog – I sincerely apologize to everyone who tried to follow me through this site. BUT! Now I’m back! So let’s start where we left off:

The biggest thing that happened here was that I had to leave the Cornicks because they had to use my casita for Jorge’s brother and his wife who were to come to Costa Rica November 1^st. Unfortunately the planning wasn’t quite there, so I had to find a place in less than 10 days. And so the hunt began...!
 

 

It was tough, but I did my best and fortunately I had sooo many good friends to help me in my search. With their help, especially Stefan’s, I called and viewed 1-4 apartments every day.

Fortunately, I wasn’t alone in my hunt; Lydia joined me so we could search for something nice together. We ended up with a third roommate too, called Freiser and now we all live together in a nice but ugly-coloured apartment in what is known as La Calle de Amargura or in English “Bitter-street.” Should I name an equal to it in Denmark, it would probably be Jomfru Ane gade. This should give you a good idea of how it is to live here – oh yeah, and the train, which is extremely noisy, passes right by us in the morning, so it’s now gotten the nickname “MALPARIDO TREN!! (con cariño)” But we do have a lot of fun and the noise from La Calle is easy to ignore most of the time.

Here’s a couple of pictures from when we moved in:

La cocina - the kitchen

La lavadora - the washing machine.

La alacena! Foooood!

La sala, muy vacio! Jaja. - The livingroom, very empty!

El baño

Me and Lydia's room - messy!

So, this is my new home here. I ended up living by myself abroad before I moved out of my parent’s house in Denmark – oh well.