Pura Vida

If paradise exists, it's probably damn close to Atenas, Costa Rica.  Let me set up this scenario for you.  

Weather: 60-80 degrees Fahrenheit, minimal wind, blue skies, and infrequent rain.

People: Ridiculously friendly.

Food: Flavored to the max.

Women: Dark hair with a choice of hazel or brown eyes.

So that's where I live now.  The downsides to the town are few.  The nightlife seems to be restricted to before 11 p.m. and consists of getting ice cream from the center plaza.  Sunscreen costs about one leg per 500mL bottle.  Dehydration kicks in pretty quickly if you don't pay attention.  Other than those things it's pretty nice.  I'm sort of used to the small town scene from having lived in Pohnpei for them two years, so the tears that that situation brings are few and far between.  The lack of friends situation is always a killer when you move to a new place, but I've made some good connections with my coworkers which will hopefully open the door to a more active social life.

As far as my job goes, it goes splendidly well.  Being a mentor consists of making sure the boys have an expert ultimate frisbee partner, a two-legged Spanish dictionary, and someone to help with general daily duties.  Last weekend we went on an adventure to Manuel Antonio which is an interesting mixture between national park and tourist bonanza; not that those two are incompatible, but I find their coexistence intriguing.  At the park I saw just about every animal you see in those National Geographic documentaries that you put on between football games.  Two kinds of sloths, capuchin monkeys, deer, crocodiles, howler monkeys, and spider monkeys all made my jaw drop.  Hell...  Even Toucan Sam dropped on in to say follow your nose!  Magical.  On top of that I got to connect with some of the NSA students by playing board games, communally oogleing over women in bikinis, and fighting off a scorpion that we found in the sleeping room.  Ya, that's right.  There was a scorpion in someone's bed!  If that doesn't scare you, google Gary Busey.  That's about how scary that scorpion was.  In all, I like my job.  It's nice.  Berry Nice.  Jerry Rice?  Posh Spice.  No dice.

Graduate schools will be getting back to me soon.  I have some pretty good prospects that I believe will offer me some graduate assistantships and internships to help me get through with some money and experience.  It's going to be a tough decision if I get accepted at all my schools, but I'm favoring programs with the better internships for out of class experience.  

My barrio (neighborhood) is pretty amistoso.  The gente is siempre saying hola when yo pass por their casas.  La only cosa that me bothers es that muchos dogs ladran when yo pass en this calle.  Are tu confused ahora by mis switches entre both languages?  Me too.  So I'll stop.  Stop that right now young man!  Okay, back on track.  The neighbors are nice.  I've been trying to get my name out there by being annoyingly friendly.  You know... Those neighbors that walk by your house and say hi every time and try to engage you in a conversation longer than, "Hey."  "Hey."  "Beautiful day."  "Sure is."  "Well, I'll see you around."  "See ya!"  And it's working, I think.  There's still too many people to meet and be annoyingly extroverted towards in the neighboorhood.  Which makes me think of only one thing.  WWMRD.  What would Mr. Rogers do?  He'd probably get on the train and meet whatever strange folk lived beyond that tunnel.  Metaphorically speaking, that's the goal.

For now I think this is enough to quench your outsourced thirst for adventure.  Until next time!  :)

Un saludo.

Back to Coconuts

Some people say that everything happens for a reason.  Do I believe them?  I'll answer that question with a question: did it really matter that McDonalds was out of oreo today so I had to get a M&Ms McFlurry instead?  Some would say yes, and some no.  But no matter what side of the existential McFlurry argument you find yourself, this my life has been as follows...

I finished up my Peace Corps service and started to work in northern China.  Yellow fever.  A craving for bao zi.  A hankering for learning another language.  It seemed like a pretty nice fit.  Well, it was until I figured out that my work wasn't all it was supposed to be.  I realized that my happiness was worth more than depression and money, and I know that's quite a yuppie thing to say, but I'd gladly take a pay cut in that case.  I didn't mean to get sad during my time in Dalian, but I did.  I felt like my employer was treating me poorly, and so, I quit, and the day I quit I felt a ton happier.

Things happen for a reason, right?

So I found myself on a plane directed at the U.S.A.  I get off the plane.  I have no clue what I'm doing.  In fact, I was completely lost.  I immediately regretted my decision of sticking it to my Chinese boss and wondered if I could go back.  I mean, I still had a 1-year work visa.  It could work, right?  Naw, screw that.  The job hunt and the call to join the workforce took hold of me.  I began to apply to many Spanish teaching jobs, and I even got through to a final interview for one of them.  Yet, sadly, no job offers came my way.  Picture that.  Returned Peace Corps Volunteer living at his dad's place trying to find a job.  That was me.  What was left of me after scouring the internet for job postings all day was put into researching and applying to graduate schools, which was my original plan for after China.  That kept me busy for a month, but a feeling had returned to me that I hadn't felt since I had graduated college back in 2011.  It was a feeling that everyone has and has to deal with when their life goes through a stark transition.  Uncertainty, and it was quite scary.

But things happen for a reason.

I had grown ill of searching for jobs.  You could have described me as a bum watching t.v. and playing video games in his dad's basement all day.  If I were desperate for an excuse, I could give you the whole Peace Corps spiel of "I put in my karma", blah, blah, blah, but honestly I was in a slump.  I knew I was going to grad school in August/September 2015, but what on God's Green Earth would keep me busy until then?  A full-time job?  The thought occurred, but I'm too honest, and no one would hire me if I told them I was going to graduate school in 10 months.  Volunteering?  No.  I wanted money.  Travel the world?  Now that sounded more appealing, but my prospects of teaching in Korea and Brazil didn't pan out.

Back to square one: no job, no current plan, basement video games.  Oh, the good life of unemployment!

Then one day my dad tells me about a possible connection with an academy down in Costa Rica.  I jumped on it, made the connection calls, and soon enough I was connected with a great organization helping high school boys find their way back after going through difficult situations.  Also, I told them that I was going to grad school, and the director loved it.  This astounded me.  Usually, when you tell an employer that you're only thinking short term, they move on to the next guy, but that was the opposite here.  Also, the academy's mission seemed like exactly the thing I want to be a part of, and luckily enough within one month of contacting them, I had signed a contract.  It was a dream come true.  An eight-month job where I would be getting paid to mentor young men and lead awesome adventures throughout Costa Rica.  Are you drooling?  I sure am.  So tomorrow, January 7th, I hop on a plane and fly down to San Jose.  The excitement bug has taken a hold of me.  Watch out!  I hear it's contagious.

So back to the original statement.  Do things happen for a reason?  Did I get screwed over in China and disappointed by job prospects only to match up with a perfect opportunity in a gorgeous country that I've always wanted to visit?  I don't know if I believe in that causality, but all I know is that's what happened.  And Karma, if you can hear me, I sure hope there's still some credit in my account.  Some fresh coconuts and tropical climate do sound quite good.  Oh, and Karma, if you could, put one of those little umbrellas in the coconut if you could, please?

What's the next thing that will happen to me for a good reason?  Tune in next time to find out.  Same bat time, same bat blog.