Lisa Lisa Bo Bisa

This series is getting a little long, but it's so hard to condense 2.5 years in just a few little posts!  Hang in there, if you're still with me.  I'll finish this soon, I promise. As you may have noticed in my email excerpts in Part 4, I kept pretty busy in Costa Rica.  I had a full classload which changed every 4-6 months, I did some traveling, spent time hanging out with friends, and just plain LIVED.  Because I was there on simply a tourist visa, I had to exit and re-enter the country every three months to renew it.  It was awesome, because my job would allow me a day or two to take a long weekend and go somewhere (usually north to Nicaragua or south to Panama).  I timed some of my exits to coincide with trips home for Christmas and another for Alicia's wedding.  Those trips home were amazing, the perfect time to cure any homesickness I may have had, and for the most part, I always looked forward to re...

The best way to remember some of my experiences is probably through the emails I sent home during my time in Costa Rica.  Here are the most interesting ones I sent home to family and friends. (I apparently loved exlamation marks and writing in all caps for extra emphasis at this stage in my life, so please excuse the excess use of both in the emails below.  I hope my writing has improved since then!)  March 2004 I hope life is treating you all well!!!   As always, it’s a joy to hear from you.   All of your emails somehow manage to make me feel just hundreds of miles away from home instead of thousands.   Anyways, here’s an update on “la vida en Costa Rica” which I’ll try not to make too long or boring!   Last time I wrote I think told you all about my new teaching job and how excited I was to start…well, scratch that!   What they failed to tell me is that this school is where all the kids with extreme learning/behavior/...

In 2004, my career in Costa Rica was finally coming together.  I really enjoyed teaching with the company I ended up with.  We provided onsite classes to various businesses around San Jose to help improve their employees' language skills.  The students were enthusiastic and interested in learning (so unlike the school I had previously been at), and I was gaining exposure into some great international companies.  And you can't go wrong teaching at a coffee plantation and companies that produce bananas and chocolates.  :)  I usually had classes on Monday - Thursday at varying hours of the day, often starting at 7am and finishing at 9pm since we had to work around employee shift hours, with some breaks in between.  I spent Fridays at our office creating lesson plans, printing off worksheets, researching new activities, and chatting with the other teachers.  By the weekend I was usually exhausted, until I picked up a Saturday 6:30 - 9:30am class, in...

Oh man, what a way to start the week. This morning I arrived at work and went straight for the breakroom to get some coffee, per my typical morning routine.  I noticed some coffee had spilled on the floor from the previous whoever that made the last pot, since some of my co-workers aren't so neat, so as I bent down to wipe it up, I heard a snap.  I stood up and noticed that my pants felt a little looser and immediately thought, "Oh no.  Crap." Fortunately, it was not my actual pants - thank God.  However, my belt sure bit the dust. I bent down and my belt broke.  It BUSTED in half, just from me BENDING OVER.  That's something no woman ever wants to experience.  I know I probably went overboard this holiday season with cookies and other not-so-good-for-you foods, but enough to break my belt??   And it didn't even break where the notch was starting to wear away from wearing it so often, where you'd think a belt...

The holiday season is over - how is that possible?  It came and went faster than I thought it could.  But I have no complaints.  We've enjoyed a lot of great time with family and friends over the past few weeks, which was a great way to finish up the year. 2011 turned out to be a pretty great year, with a lot of wonderful memories had.  Here are some of the highlights - those I can remember. January The beginning of the year is always a little slow and ho-hum.  We had tons of snow from what I remember (so unlike this year) and spent most of our time cozied up at home.  Not a bad way to recooperate from a busy holiday season.  February Jon and I celebrated our 3-year anniversary of meeting each other.  Is that silly we still remember/commemorate that?  Thank goodness he winked at me that day in 2008, or who knows where I'd be right now.  This photo is not from February, but I love it. March We took our offic...