turning of the seasons

the seasons have been turning slightly here in costa rica. of course, nothing like summer turning into fall at home with red and orange leaves everywhere. more like excruciatingly hot days turning into much more tolerable afternoons.

so on saturday we decided to spend the day outside enjoying warm and breezy afternoon and it was one of the best ideas we have had in a while. we headed up to the family's second property and let rocco run free. boy did he love it. and so did i :)

i love spending time outside and for whatever reason i dont get to do it here enough. probably because the sun usually fries my skin in about 10 minutes. so here's to cooler days for a few more weeks.

what did everyone else do this weekend?

the perfect way to start a long weekend

it was a stroke of luck that p and i both had friday off (too bad he doesn't have today off too!) and we had an extremely nice/productive day!

first we hit up bagelman's, a chain restaurant that i have been wanting to try for about two years now and we finally made it there. i would pretty much compare it to a panera because it has bagels, sandwiches, and salads. however, clearly not as good as the real panera, nor my bagel emporium bagels but it certainly did the trick to tide me over until december.

next we took rocco for a little joy ride. first to the vet for his last baby check up! he behaved much much better than the last time, we were so proud! plus our little baby now weighs over 3 pounds. they grow up so fast.

finally we spent a little time at the family property up on the mountain so that paris could wash his car and rocco could spend some time outside. don't worry i'll share more of how that went later on!

hope everyone had a great weekend.

just one snapshot

just like my weeks, my weekends are flying by. this weekend especially.

paris had a bbq with a ton of his work friends on friday night and i volunteered to be the person on the grill. i figured i must have inherited at least some of my father's grilling skills and turns out .. i did! well at least i think so ... no one complained about the food.

sunday night was supposed to be our pitbull concert but unfortunately it got postponed to tonight! so we're keeping our fingers crossed that everything goes well.

hope everyone had a great weekend.

sweet 15

as i've mentioned many times before, paris has a huge family and we are always going to birthday parties and other family celebrations/gatherings.

this friday we went to one of his cousins 15th birthday party and here in costa rica the 15th birthday is like our sweet 16 birthdays. and as you can probably imagine, the last sweet 16 i went to was when i was 16.

however, this party was a blast, complete with a 25 minute drum/dancing session that i had never seen before. the group felt like a mixture of mardi gras/las vegas and it was intense.

and i can't forget the larger than life piñata at the end of the night.

it was a really good time and we danced the night away until the wee hours of the morning.

more weekend happenings to come tomorrow :)

smitten with sunday

sometimes sunday is not my favorite day of the week. you know .. the day before...monday.

but then there are some sundays that make you rethink your opinion.

like those sundays when you only have a little bit of schoolwork to finish because you've already done the rest during the week. or those sundays when you tackle all of the laundry head so then you can go spend some time outside watching your boyfriend play soccer. and finally those sundays when you can spend the rest of the evening playing wii sports or watching batman begins.

those are the sundays that i love.

the diversion park

paris has been asking me for a million years if we could go to the parque de diversiones and this weekend we finally went. we actually went two years ago also but someone insists that two years is way too long to go without.

we went with paris's best friend and his best gal friend and we had a lot of fun together. i'm gonna be honest though, it just doesn't compare to the parks in the u.s.

there is only one actual roller coaster that lasts about 30 seconds. the rest are just rides that twirl you around a little bit.

although i will admit that the hammer .. almost had me in tears. hanging upside down while you are really high in the air isn't my thing. i needed a breather and a root beer after that one ;)

everyone really enjoyed themselves though. and i really cannot wait to bring paris to six flags one day. something to look forward to.

birthday weekend

my birthday weekend was not extremely exciting .. but that is just the way i like it. i did however, have lots and lots of quality time with my man and my little pup who is starting to warm up to me again after i was away for two weeks.

we watched the opening ceremonies on friday night and i was surprised to here that paris wasn't really as excited for the olympics as i was. once the ceremonies started though he was quite impressed .. as i thought he would be of course.

saturday was a really rainy and dreary day. so after some olympics we decided to head to the mall just to see what we could see. we got our first round of twix mcflurries for the weekend and instantly became hooked. hence, the mention of multiple rounds ;) while we ate them we watched a little fashion show that was going on. not exactly paris's thing but i was entertained.

sunday .. my birthday! we had bought tickets to see batman a few days ahead of time but after that i realized that women's gymnastics was going to be on most of the day. i was able to watch the subdivision for russia and china before we went to the movies and had already read what happened for team usa. after the movie (which was great .. tears may or may not have been shed...), we went to a restaurant for dinner where i asked them to put the usa gymnastics on. next is where we got round 2 of twix mcflurries and then finished the rest of the gymnastics at home!

an extremely relaxed weekend but like i said, just the way i like 'em. happy birthday to me!

i'm back!

hey guys! so i'm back. back in costa rica and back to my blog.

my airport experience on wednesday was pretty annoying. there was a huge storm and after a power outage, and three or so hours of waiting to see what time my plane would take off and then trying to find my new gate, we boarded only to sit another 45 minutes because we had somehow lost two crew members. wah wah. anyway, i arrived and everything went smoothly after that so i was please.

 since then i've just been trying to get re-accustomed to life here. thursday and friday i still had vacation from school so i caught up on some exams and lesson plans and just took it easy. i obviously spent the majority of my days with my pup rocco who i would like to say is not so much a baby anymore .. but he really is! i can tell that he grew a little bit but he is still so so tiny. but if you take a look at the photo below...

he can now go up and down stairs! by himself! he also will now put himself to bed downstairs and wake us up with kisses when the alarm goes off in the morning. oh my baby.

back to school for me tomorrow, though. i feel almost like it is the first day again, like i have forgotten everything i learned in the first 5 months i've been in the classroom. but i think i'll be okay ;)

hope everyone had a great weekend!

boston with the best

boston this weekend was awesome and just what i needed. i got in around lunch time on thursday and lindsey and i went to this delicious italian market and ordered sandwiches, the first of many yummy meals. later on we met up with my brother and laura and they took me to a little pet store by their house and i got rocco a present (to be later posted!). and finally, what i had been waiting for all day, we went to half price sushi! we call it half price sushi because thats what it is .. half price .. all the time. and it is awesome. and then i had my first starbucks in 7 months, also great.

 in the morning we made a lovely little breakfast. sweet potato home fries, eggs, and fresh strawberries. and then i found lindsey's tea stash. all those cans of tea were just some of her collection haha .. don't worry, she works at starbucks. then we geared up for a day in the city!

 it was super hot out so we walked down to the harbor and just sat and enjoyed for a little while. being in boston and sitting by the water reminded me a lot of college and that whole area. my school was right on the beach but since it was never quite warm enough to go in, except during finals week mostly, we would just sit and enjoy the smell and sounds of the water. sitting by the harbor with my college roomie was a nice little reminder.

continuing our lovely afternoon, we made a pit stop in the north end for some yummy italian treats where the chocolate immediately melted because of the heat, but were still super yummy. then we walked towards the gardens and went on the swan boats. love the little fun things around the city. then we walked and shopped alll the way up newbury street before heading home and making pesto pizza! stay tuned for the recipe ;)

it was such a perfect little weekend! it seriously reminded me of senior year and school when lindsey and i were roommates. i sure do miss her.

family weekend

this weekend my brother and his fiance came down from boston to hang with me and my parents.

our weekend mostly consisted of shopping, eating, and just hanging out. we hit up the outlet mall where everything was on sale. 

i got a bridesmaid's dress! going to keep it a secret though ;)

it is always a good time when we're all together. lots of good food and lots of good laughs. and next weekend i'll be heading up to boston for a little more time with my brother and laura. can't wait!

poolside day, mountain top night

 after a semi low-key, semi me being sick weekend, yesterday was a really great day. we spent the whole afternoon at p's sister's pool just hanging out and having a good time. a bunch of cousins came and it turned into a nice ol' family afternoon.

like i said here, p and his sister have these hardcore iphone covers that allow you to use your iphone in and under water. so needless to say we spent a long time playing with that feature. rocco spent a lot of time with teddy.

 then at night, i finally had the chance to get together with some of my coworkers. they took me to a place called mirador tiquicia which is a restaurant/lookout spot way up in the mountains. we had a little bite to eat and then enjoyed the typical costa rica dancing performance where one of my co-worker's sisters was dancing. it was really fun to watch.

 the location was just beautiful. one of my favorite parts of this country is at night when you are even just a little bit above ground level, you can see everything lit up. you could literally see about half of the country from where we were standing and it was impressive.

it was a great day. hope everyone else enjoyed themselves as well!

día del padre 2

i thought it was interesting how today was father's day here in costa rica and in the usa! mother's day is celebrated in august in cr so i was suprised when i found out father's day was the same.

since i couldn't be with my padre today i spent the day at a bbq with paris's family. we went to his sister's apartment (which i love!) and had a lovely lunch outdoors by the pool with p's family and his sister's in-laws.

there was a ton of food. just the way i like it.

there were appetizers, a big paella, and my favorite costa rican dessert, torta chilena. i'm not sure how to describe it, but its a graham cracker(ish) and raspberry type filling, pie with icing on top. yum.

all in all it was a great afternoon. the weather was beautiful and the company was entertaining :)
happy father's day to all those dads out there.

as promised...

lots of pictures of puppy!

this weekend was spent getting to know our little guy.

we have learned that: 

he doesnt like to be left alone at all

he will only eat out of my hand

he has a tendency to walk backwards when he is eating

he loves to give kisses

he also loves to clean our noses

and he loooooves to sleep.

puppy things.

i hope everyone had a good weekend!

weekend wrap-up

this weekend was pretty busy (for us). we started on thursday with a little date night action. we went out for some buffalo wings, which if you don't know already is pretty much a staple for us because it is p's favorite thing to eat. then we stopped by a little family gathering because one of p's cousins is home for a short vacation from her job. she works as a flight attendant in Qatar, which is crazy, and she brought home a ton of little napkins, place mats, and hand wipes from the planes she works on ... hence that first picture above....i thought maybe someone would ask me why the heck i was flying on qatar airways.

friday we spent all afternoon moving apartments to one in which we lived in previously, which is a complete blessing. i'm so grateful that p's parents offer us an apartment to live in essentially free of rent, but the apartment we had been living in for the past 4 months was a mistake. so now i can say, hello hot water, hello full sized-kitchen sink, and hello non-smelling bathroom (.. among other things). even though it was a ton of work moving everything from one apartment to another just the two of us we are extremely happy to be back in our old home. oh and then we went out dancing with some cousins which is always a good time. we've been to this bar a lot and one thing that always gets me is that it is in the middle of the forest and it has no roof. so you are just dancing with some trees and stars above you. something i have only experienced here.

and finally, sunday was spent organizing our new apartment .. notice i now have my own closet area .. so much less stress. i spent a good amount of time reading a free book i downloaded on my kindle which made me really happy because i havent been able to do much reading for pleasure lately. we also headed to the movies to see snow white and the huntsman which unfortunately wasn't as great as i was expecting but still entertaining.

i hope everyone had a good weekend and is ready for the week to begin!
xo

weekend tid bits

the rainy season has begun.

when it rains this much usually all anyone wants to do is watch movies and sleep.

so this weekend we didnt do much.

friday we went to p's sister's apartment with some other couples to eat pizza, watch the costa rica vs. guatemala game, and have some girl/guy talk. it was quite fun.

saturday, we went to the movies and saw men in black. it was cute but i remember the first one being way better. they probably should have stopped while they were ahead.

then today we didnt do so much.

since i've moved here i have noticed that p's family doesn't bake so much. now there is nothing wrong with that but i love to bake so i was quite surprised when his family was so amazed that i could make chocolate chip cookies.

i brought a little muffin pan with me from my last trip home and p has been wanting to try out some muffins. to start easy we got the simple...just add water kind. yep.

anyway, p was super proud to have made them by himself and they were delish.

the end, weekend.

beach weekend pt 2

a few more pictures from the beach this weekend. paris and his sisters recently got these iphone covers that allow you to bring your iphone into the water. it makes me a little nervous even though it is advertised with people taking pictures from beneath water. but we played a lot with that this weekend having lots of fun taking pictures in the ocean and the pools. except it was a little difficult to get some of the pictures with the waves continually hitting us and sometimes catching us off guard. but a lot of fun was had and thats what matters right?

now i just have to finish all that work i didnt do this weekend... ;)

and i'll leave you with the best picture from the weekend ... one of those waves that caught us off guard.

beach weekend

this weekend we went to the beach. paris and i, two of his sisters, two cousins, one girlfriend and one friend all piled into two cars and headed to the beach. we went to punta leona which is a place i had never been before but paris's parents recently became members so we finally took advantage.

it was a really great weekend that seemed to last 4 days instead of just two. the beach was beautiful, as most of the beaches here are. we found some monkeys trying to steal one woman's food and paris's sister actually went up to them and just held out some chips and they would crawl over and reach out and just take them right from her hand. it was super cute.

we spent the entire day on saturday at the beach or at the pool. after a quick dinner we went back to the beach to find that there was a sponsored party, like a dj and games and beach volleyball all sponsored by dos pinos te frio. it was then that i had one of those "this is my life?" moments. everyone was dancing, but not the type of dancing that would happen back home, instead it was bachata and salsa and pairs just dancing up a storm. and then i was dancing too, as if it were natural for me too to be dancing salsa on a tropical beach with a ton of other people. it was just one of those moments where i realized, oh thats right, i live in costa rica and not back home in the united states. and it felt good.

i have tons more pictures and they are the fun ones so i will try to get them up on tuesday when i catch up on all my schoolwork that i have to get done! hope everyone had a great weekend :)

the weekend

friday night was date night. what do you think of paris's red sox hat? with that and the shirt he was wearing i told him he looked just like an american ;) . we went to the movies to see american reunion. i had never seen any of the other american pie movies but none the less this one was pretty funny. then we went home and hung out with a pretty cute pup while watching some tv before we all went to bed.

saturday we hit up a weekend fav, "new york pizza." i'm so happy that paris wants to go there almost every day because it reminds me of pizza from home. it basically is pizza from home because one of the owners lived in nj for 20 years and thats where he learned to make it. lucky me i get a little taste of home every time we go (which is quite often!).

this afternoon we decided to go for a little walk, or more like a hike because we went up this incredibly steep mountain. and then it started raining halfway through so we ran the rest of the way back. not too bad of a workout. it rained the rest of the day so we just hung around, and i was able to work on my lesson plans for the week. i also made a new dish for dinner, taco pasta, which i will be posting about this week!

hope everyone had a great weekend!

weekend part 2

yesterday to finish out our weekend we went to a country club pretty close to my school for the going away bbq of one of paris's cousins. he is going to live in colorado with his wife and little baby girl! so he had a really nice gathering at the country club he is a member at and a ton of his friends and their lady friends came. there was a lot of meat eating, sun bathing, and soccer playing. here are some pictures from the day.

happy monday. lets hope this week flies by.