Gone too Long

I never thought it would be so hard to be away and so hard to go back at the same time. Sometimes a person has to get out of his or her own head and just live.

Balance

Do you judge the comings and goings and happenings on of a culture other than your native one by what you know from your own culture? No. You must not, because they may only be understood and therefore managed by the rules and workings of their own making. Outside regulations need not apply. This is a different world than the one that I am from.

But as long as you're trying, I'm staying

Doing alright today. It's hot and sunny and I believe the insane winds have died down for the afternoon until it's time for the Samara Fiestas (aka rodeo) to begin around 7 or 8 tonight.

Best time of the year in Samara...for sure.

good thoughts from the bible as per a friend's post

But I tell everyone who is listening:
Love your enemies.
Be kind to those who hate you.
Bless those who curse you.
Pray for those who insult you.
If someone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other cheek as well.

If someone takes your coat, don't stop him from taking your shirt.
Give to everyone who asks you for something.

If someone takes what is yours, don't insist on getting it back.

Discovery

So apparently an old dog even knows that you can't teach an old dog new tricks.

Ohhh Car...and other acquired knowledge

hmmmm...it's been quite a while.

buying a car in Costa Rica, like in any other place, I'm sure, is a total crapshoot when you're in the market for a used car. The difference is, in Costa Rica there's a really high likelihood that you'll be on curvy roads with steep dropoffs when your breaks and/or steering fail...yup...It really happened.

Things I've learned recently:

Children do not trick or treat in Costa Rica, at least not near us.

My generation is the one getting into the idea of Halloween, but still only about 1/2 the population polled recently planned on dressing up.

Here, the idea is still, for the most part, to be scary for Halloween...THAT's a big difference. lol.

"Cars are holes into which to throw money"-Dad

"Lo barato es caro (That which is cheap, is expensive)"-Jairo

Having a license to drive, or a licensed driver to take one driving could be equated to having gold here.

Eating turtle eggs helps to clean the beach because there are actually too many turtles trying to lay their eggs in the same place.

Rice cookers and I are not friends.

Nothing lasts in the fridge for more than like...3 days...max.

Light bulbs cost less than a dollar.

The buy/sell rates of currency make absolutely ZERO sense to me...and cost me $100 to change colones to dollars back to colones in order to make the car payment.

Banks started charging 50 cents per ATM withdrawal as of August something.

Earthquakes are cool...as long as they are just at tremor-status.

Sometimes just a long girl-chat is all you need.

If a girl walks by any number of men, every one of them is guaranteed to at least look her way.

"Picadillo" is a food, "pesadilla" is a nightmare

I don't know that I will ever adjust to knowing the date based on the local seasons other than those experienced in WNY (It is ridiculously odd to me that it is going to hotter here the closer we get to Christmas, for example).

a good quote

“The reason people find it so hard to be happy is that they always see the past better than it was, the present worse than it is, and the future less resolved than it will be." Marcel Pagnol