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Before I begin I would like to stress that everything
I write is simply my opinion and in no way reflects
the views on any organization I belong to or associate
with. It is intended to amuse my friends and myself. I
have no desire to force my views on anyone. I
understand that my point of view is often not popular
and I generally try to keep my opinions to myself but
I just can't resist this particular method of
expressing myself. If anyone is in anyway offended by
what I write please, please let me know and I can
remove you from the email list.
Watching hockey in Spanish is an experience. I managed to catch the last period of the NHL All-Stars game on Sunday, Feb. 2. It was great to see a little hockey action, even if I didn't understand a word of the commentary. It was kind of strange to see hockey on TV here, the big game here is futball. Interesting to note that both game do essentially the same thing, put a small object into a net on either side of a field of play. Just that hockey is for cold Canada and soccer is for warm Costa Rica. The fan base is just as dedicated for either sport. You just don't need the mitties for futball. 2 pairs of mitties were in a care package from my sister a little while ago. Strange gift you might say considering where I now reside. Actually I requested the light woollen gloves, for the office. We have pretty powerful air-conditioning here and when you sit at a desk all day with little movement the cold really sets in. Fortunately that is easily relived by short trips outside to the convenience store for Pringles. Even though they didn't bring their mitties my parents came to visit from frigid Alberta. I sent them on a couple of tours while I was at work and was informed that they enjoyed them both. On the weekend I took my Mom to the Gold Museum (we didn't spend the 3 hours there that I did the first time, and I'm sure you don't want to hear it all again). Then we all went up to Arenal, a place I have been looking forward to since I moved here. Arenal Volcano is the largest active volcano in Costa Rica, and it certainly put on a good show for us. We took a rather uncomfortable 3.5 hour bus trip (not a good start) up to our hotel then got settled in a really cool cabin with a fabulous view of the volcano. Don't ask how far away we were, we were told that if the volcano really blew we would only have 7 minutes anyways. We then proceeded to the Tabacon Resort and Hot Springs. The cost was a little steep, but once in you can spend the whole day there, and trust me it's worth the money. There are around 8 hot spring pools, a hot spring "river" and a cold spring "river". The place is beautifully landscaped and you can sneak away to find some private pools or socialize around the main hotspring waterfall, it really feels great to sit under that and have hot water cascade over your shoulder muscles. There is also a spa, if the hot spring is not relaxing enough, where you can get massages, facials (they even have a gentlemen's facial), or volcanic mud packs. My parents ran into a couple from Texas they had met on one of the previous tours and got to exchange email addresses to keep in touch. After a great buffet dinner at the hotspring we took the shuttle back to our cabin for the light show. Now I had been a little apprehensive about the view as I am told the weather is often not clear enough to see the volcano at night. But we got the bonus show. For a couple of hours we saw glowing red explosions erupt from the top and tumbling lava flows roll down the sides of the mountain. The next day we slept in, relaxed, visited, had a nice lunch then took the rough bus trip home. I now know which bus company not to take the next time. I guess that now that I have been here long enough I take certain things for granted and don't notice them enough to comment on anymore. I don't know if I have mentioned the aromas of Costa Rica. Let's just say that Mother Nature has put full strength into a lot of things here. Of course I spend most of my time in San Jose which is a little crowded and not really indicative of the rest of the country. I really am wishing for a change in the weather though. It sounds nice to have sun for months on end, but try living with it. I think it has rained maybe 5 times since the end of November. Things are getting a little brownish, including me. I went to Jaco the weekend after my parent left to do a little sleeping on the beach. I found out that even though spray on spf 30 sunscreen works really well, you have to remember to spray it all over. I now have some lovely white pots on my red legs, next time I am going to go for the Canadian flag effect, at least that way it looks like I did it on purpose. I must say that mitties were definitely not needed that weekend, it was around 37 Celsius, with really high humidity, I mean Wicked Witch of the West "I'm melting" hot. There was a slight panic a couple weeks ago as we were told to 'prepare to evacuate the building' ... translation 'get out now'. It seems one of the previous earthquakes damaged the floor on the 8th floor, but it didn't show until later. I'm told part of the floor has raised up several centimetres and other parts have sunk an equivalent amount. The word came right at noon to evacuate so a number of people decided it was a good time to go for lunch. I had to make a trip downtown to the post office to pick up a package and mail some postcards for my parents so I took off. After my errands I took a taxi back to the office and had a rather butchered discussion about what was going on there with the taxi driver. It seems that it was on the news w/in half an hour. When I got back there were news teams there covering the story. One of our Customer Service people was interviewed for the newspaper, they had a little difficulty understanding what she did. She is from Malaysia and speaks Malaysian and English, they thought she was from the Japanese Embassy. I was a little concerned as I had left my mitties on my desk and didn't know if I would see them again. Things have turned out fine though, we returned to our offices the same afternoon (we're on the 4th floor) and haven't had any problems since. |
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