The Moment of Reckoning is at Hand!

This Sunday I leave for Xi'an It is now a race against time to get my room cleaned out, and my things packed up. I can't take much with me, but I still don't want to leave my mom with more of a mess than usual.

Despite the fact that I've been waiting for this for almost a year now, I'm pretty much speechless. have no idea what to say. I may make an update if I can get wi-fi in the airport, but aside from that, my next post might very well be made from China.

Wish me luck.

Back to packing and cleaning.

Hooray! Hooray! It's Update Day!

Visa Status! I had to go to the post office to get my work permit and letter of invitation. (This is basically my part of the paperwork for the visa) DHL doesn't actually deliver out to the middle of nowhere that is my home. They handed the package (It was really just a big cardboard envelope) over the the regular post office to deliver. It would have arrived last Saturday (The 4th), but because the Saturday drivers are usually lazy temps, they didn't feel it was necessary to leave a note saying that they were to lazy to walk the 50 feet to our house to delive the very important papers. It took a bit of internet searching, and a couple phone calls (Mostly on my moms part. Thanks Mom!) to find all this out. So Thursday I went out in the morning to pick up the papers from the post office. After that comes going to the Embassy in D.C. to turn in the papers and get the actual visa. (I'm not sure what it will look like. I'm assuming it will jsut be a fancy stamp in my passport like my Costa Rica tourist visa was.)

So later Thursday, I booked a hotel room and drove the 4-5 hours to just outside D.C. The reason I spent the night is that I had to get the papers in to the embassy by 12:30 on Friday, in order for them to get all the papers and bureaucratic stuff done and get it back to me on Friday. So I spent the night in a Motel 6 outside of D.C. I should have picked a different one, because there was a freaking train that went by the place five times that night! FIVE ****ing times! I did not sleep well. I gave myself an extra hour of sleep-in time to make up for the train's rude awakenings. This was a bad move on my part, but it wouldn't have made a difference anyway.

I got up on Friday at about 9:00. This is really early for me. After the UHC work ended, I immediately reverted back to my old sleep schedule of 4am to noon. So I woke up 9, got a shower/dressed/etc. Google Maps had done fine getting me to the hotel, but they didn't work in the least at getting me to the embassy. they didn't even get me into the city. By 11:30 I had made it into the city but was completely lost. I ended up parking in a random public garage and taking a taxi. I managed to get to the embassy in time, but I hadn't counted on the two hour wait before I could turn in my papers. From what I've read in other blogs, I'll be doing a lot of waiting in lines in China. I hope they aren't as bad as this. The Chinese embassy made a trip to the DMV seem pleasant. Luckily my mp3 player has a long battery, and I was able to fall asleep in my chair for a good portion of the wait. Waiting is actually very easy if you have some music and it's long enough for you to get in a quick nap. Once my number was called, I went up and turned in my papers. This took all of 3 minutes. I can only imaging what everyone in front of me was doing that took them so long.

Because I wasn't able to turn them in, I have to wait till Wednesday to pick up my visa. Why do I have to wait five days? Embassy is closed on weekends. The nit's closed Monday for Columbus Day, because we all know how important Columbus was to the Chinese. I have a dentist appointment on Tuesday. And so I'm going to drive for about 10 hours on Wednesday to D.C. and back to get what will hopefully be the last thing I need to finish before I can finally leave.

Seperate post to keep it away from the geekiness.

I got an email from Kid Castle last night. It turns out the reason my visa hasn't arrived yet is because DHL can't find my house. I wasn't really expecting something that simple(stupid) from holding everything back. I guess I just need to remind myself that if something can happen, it will happen.

I'm not too surprised though. DHL doesn't usually come around here. It's mostly UPS and FedEx.

Very Lucky Geek

They actually came! I was laughing hysterically for moment there. I really did expect them to come, but to see them in reality is a whole 'nother thing. And I didn't even have to pay a cent!



What you are looking at is over $400 worth of miniatures, that I got for free because the company that made them put the wrong price on the website.

Oh happy day!

I'm Such a Freaking Nerd

Someone posted this image on a certain forum I go to.



I bought two.

The chances of bringing one of these to China with me is slim to none, but still... Opportunities like this don't come around every day. I just hope they ship it out before they notice the price on it.

For those of you who see sunlight enough not to know what this is, Warhammer 40,000 is is a tabletop miniatures futuristic combat game. (Feel free to arange all those adjectives to whatever order makes most sense for you.) Remember those little green army men you had as a child? It's like that but with actual rules instead of just throwing rocks at your friends line of men.

So yeah. I'm a real geek. Anime. D&D. Warhammer. I have all the bases covered.

People tell me that I'm good with kids. I think it's just that I never grew up too begin with.

In which I Ramble on the Topic of Books

Since most of my friends have gone off to college, back to school, or just away, I've been at home bored a lot. Most of this time I've spent watching anime and reading. But mostly reading. I read a lot as it is, but I've really been burning through them since August. I started up the Wheel of Time series last month, and I'm about to finish book eleven. I'm sort of racing myself to see how fast I can get through the series. I've been reading them so much I've often gone to sleep and dreamed that I was still reading the book. I usually wake up right after that dream, fumbling around for the book in the dark. Then I realize it was a dream and I go back to sleep.

My boss from the hospital job lent me an interesting book last week, that I finished today. (Gotta have some light reading to take your mind of the heavier stuff. :D) The book was Mustang Man. Normally I'm not one for westerns, but I was actually named for the main character of this book, Nolan Sackett. My brother was even named after his brother, Logan Sackett. This is the first time I've gotten a chance to read it and I rather enjoyed it. I doubt that I'll read any other L'Amour books, but this was sort of a necessity. What's funny is that Jim (My boss) accidentally called me Logan once, because he got my name mixed up with my brother's. The funny part is that he didn't even know I had a brother. It just kind of snuck in there because he liked the Sackett books. So far he's the only one I've met who's known about them.

I'm kind of bummed. I've been a big fan of R. A. Salvatore's Drizzt series for a good many years now. I've read one of the books so many times the cover has fallen off. Others I've had to replace entirely from the amount of wear. The thing that's driving me crazy, is that the next book in the current series comes out in October. Just a week or two after I leave for China. The idea of leaving a series unfinished is quite atrocious to me. I can't do it. I wont. Either I'm going to have to find a good foreign book store in Xi'an, or my mom is going to have to mail me a copy. I'm not waiting till next summer to read that book. I've already waited a year. Another is too much.

Once I start packing I'm going to have to think of what to do with all my books. I've got entire bookcase for my manga (Japanese comics/graphic novels) alone. I need to start getting some boxes. Big ones.

Finally

Five months after I got my certification, things are finally coming together. I just got an email saying that the school received my Z Visa (Chinese working visa) and they'll be sending it to me right away. This is good timing because my temp work at the hospital ends tomorrow. Now if I can sell my car soon, everything will be just peachy.

This picture most acurately describes how I feel right now.

Soon Soon Soon

So here's what's been going on for me in the whole visa thing.

It seems that the main office of the school kept having trouble reaching me. Now the branch school in Xi'an is working on it themselves. They've been great about it, and I've been getting emails from them about every other day. They always seem to need me to scan a new paper or send them another one of my documents. But this is good. It means they're doing things. Today I got a message saying that they should have my visa within 10-15 days. That's farther away than I expected, but it's still pretty close. Now I can give my two weeks notice and maybe sell my car too. One of my friends has already offered to buy it, so that makes it a lot easier for me.

Blog Updates are Good Luck

Just got back from work. One of the first things I do anymore is check my email for any news about my visa and the job. Today I got an email from the manager (Principal? Vice Principal?) at Kid Castle, the school I'll be teaching at. She also gave me the email address of a guy from South Africa who has been teaching there for a year now. Now I can ask someone some actual questions about the school. The school has been very brief in the answers they've given me before. I'm sure their English is better in person, but the emails they send me look like they were typed by a 14 year old on AIM.

Either way, Blogger is good luck for me some how. It seems like I usually get an email or news within a day or so of posting an entry or leaving a comment. If this keeps up, I'll be posting every day. :P

Emofriend's Emo Post About How Emo He Is.

I'm lonely.

Everything is changing, but I'm at a standstill. Like the wait at the beginning of a roller coaster before it makes the first plunge. My brother left for college last week. Tomorrow, my best friend is going back to college. My mom just sold our main television.

And I still haven't gotten word about my work visa. I'm hoping that I'll get a phone call or email or anything over the weekend. I'm going to send them an email either way. I want out of here.

Work has taken up most of the time, but it really drains my energy. I've been falling asleep at about 9:30 lately. Nine freaking thirty! I used to stay up past midnight on a regular basis! Other than that I've been reading through the Wheel of Time series so fast I'm surprised I haven't gotten paper cuts. That and massive amounts of anime. Eitehr way I'm mostly confining myself to my room. My mom used to tell me to get out more often, but she has come to realize how little there is to actually do around here. The highlight of my week is when I go to Denny's with some of my friends.

Ok.

Being emo sucks, but I had to get that out.

Feel free to return to whatever it was that you were doing.

Regarding my Job in China

Ok. BIG change in plans. A while ago, I got an email from my placement supervisor telling me that the school in Wuhan was unable to get a working visa for me due to my lack of experience. She then recommended another school for me to send my resume to. At the same time (maybe it was just email forwarding) I recieved amessage from said school asking for my resume. I sent it to them and recieved the contract a couple days later. Now I just have to wait and hope that they can get me a visa. I 'm also hoping that I'll still be able to leave by late august. This school is a language school, not a primary school, so I'm not sure if it follows the same schooling/grade schedule. Either way, I still want to be in China by September 1st.

Another Overdue Update

Now that I'm back from Costa Rica and my bandwidth is normal, I can upload pictures! Took forever last time. So here we go...

Puerto Viejo
Buses are extremely cheap in Costa Rica. If you want to take the good ones, you can get across the country for a bit under $12 US. Probably less than $6 if you take the ones that are basically school buses.

We got up early and took one of the buses to Puerto Limon. IT was about 2 hours, but I slept through most of it. From there we got on another bus and went to Puerto Viejo. This ride was interesting because I met a girl from Wisconsin who had basically been living in the jungle for the past 6 months. Compared to America, living by yourself in the woods is surprising easy/common since there are so many fruit trees and other food sources around.

I said goodbye to Jungle Girl and got off at Puerto Viejo. It's a tiny town by the beach with only two paved roads. There weren't as many tourists as I expected, but my dad says that tourism slows down a lot during the rainy season. Despite this it only rained at night while we were there, and we were able to have a lot of fun.

The people who live in Puerto Viejo never do things outside during the day. Unlike San Jose, it gets really freaking hot there. When you walk down the street, the only people you see are tourists, and all you hear is the sound of Bob Marley coming from some close, yet indiscernible place. As soon as the sun sets, the town lives up immensely. Little stands pop up along the roads with lots of little generic souvenirs that are "supposedly" handmade in Costa Rica. I don't belive it at all, since I've seen a lot of the same things in shops in the US.

The beach is devided into two parts. The part with coral, and the part without. The coral area is cool, because it makes a lot of nice little pools that are protected from the waves. The bad part is that... there are no waves. Because there are no waves, the only things you'll find on the beach at this part are the coconuts that fell/were discared here. This is also the place where people with little kids swam, because it was safer without the waves.

There are two ways to distinguish where one the coral ends and where the waves begin. The first is that there's a little barge-like boat washed up on the end of the coral. I guess it's been there for a good while considering that there're pictures of it on postcards here. The other way to tell, is by looking at the sand. I'm not sure why, but the sand on the part without the coral is pitch black. About ten feet from the ocean itself, all the beach is black. It's pretty cool.

The animals in town are very friendly. There's a lot of stray dogs, but they all seem to be in good shape. The seem to just wander from one shady spot to the next all day. They're all pretty calm, and are more than happy if you feel like giving them a scratch on the head. For some reason there's also about ten horses that wander around here too. They always stick to the thin line of trees that divides the beach and the town. None of them have harnesses, and they don't go very far. They just walk back and forth all day, sometimes they even sit down for a while, which is rather strange from what I know of horses. Like I said, the only things that do anything during the day are the tourists.

We got to try out surfing a bit. The waves were fairly small, so that made it a bit harder. Aside from timing when to start paddling, it's fairly easy. I'm sure the pros do things a lot more difficult, but the very basics of it are fairly simple.

I got a really bad sunburn on the second day. It was probably the worst sunburn I've ever had. Highlight between the lines for the gory details. |Ok. I, like many people I hope, enjoy picking at the pealing skin I get from sunburns. I had a lot of sunburn, so there was plenty of that. Over a week later and I'm still peeling in some areas that weren't even burned. About two days after I got the burn, I noticed some boils on the tops of my shoulders. It was the next day that I realized that they weren't boils. Sweat had apparently gotten trapped under the skin that had yet to peal off. Whenever I rubbed those areas, little wads of moist skin would get stuck to my hands. It was rather surreal.| It's not that gross, but I figured it would be better to avoid forcing you to read that. Anyway, I've now got a very noticeable tan line around my neck, from where I had a tan before, and where my sunburn got me.

The food here was great, despite being the same chicken/rice/bean combo that we had everywhere in Costa Rica. We ended up going to the same place for dinner all three nights, because we loved it so much. My favorite memory from there is when we ordered our drinks. My brother and I both got the Banana/milk refreska naturals. A minute or so after we order we see the owner/waitress walk out from the back and down the steps. (The place where people ate was on her rather large porch.) We didn't really think much of it until she walks back abnout three minutes late with a humongous batch (Bushell? Pack? I don't know what you call a set of bananas. Either way it was big.) She had most likely gone and grabbed them off a tree herself. Every night after that, my brother and I would imagine here epic journeys that she went on to get our food.

For the first two nights we stayed at the Cabinas Guarana for about $36 a night. It was a very nice looking place. It even had it's own little forest inside the walls. There was a tree house too, but the ladder to it was broken, and it didn't look like it had been used in years. The room was nice. It had a ceiling fan and hot showers (deathtraps). If it wasn't for the bugs at night, I would have slept in the awesome hammock on the porch of our room.


The last night we stayed at Cabinas Grant. This place was a little bit cheaper, but it didn't have a heated shower. I didn't care/notice much because it would have hurt my sunburn jsut as much if it was hot water. The closest thing to temperature contol ron those things is "The water doesn't get heated as much if it goes through the heating part faster."

There were two little grocery stores in town. I made sure to buy plenty of snackages while I was there. Anyone who knows me well, knows that I love food. I don't eat much of it at once, but I eat a lot over the course of a day. I plan to make the most of my metabolism while I have it. I didn't want to waste this opportunity to see what delightful little sugary foodstuffs were available. I ended up spending about $30 US on snacks and during the first week alone.

Overall, Puerto Viejo is a very nice place to come on any vacation in Costa Rica. Aside from bad reggae music all over the place it's a fairly quite town. It's pretty calm too, but this may be because all of the locals have probably had their fair share of marijuana. People tried to sell it to us at least two or three times a day. In multiple forms no less!

The bus ride back to San Jose wasn't that bad. The sunburn made it hard to sleep, but sleeping is something I'm very good at, so it wasn't something I couldn't handle.

San Jose Again
Sunday was interesting. It was the first time I've ever been to a prison that was still in use. We went there to visit one of my dad's friends who's been there for the past two years or so. Her name is Jessica, and she was sent there for possession of cocaine. Cocaine is a big problem for people in Costa Rica. It goes there before it gets shipped off to the US. Unfortunately it gets sent to CR faster than it can get moved to the US. What the dealers in CR do, is sell it for the what it cost them to get it. This means that cocaine is really freaking cheap down there and about 90% of the homeless people are addicted to it. Possession of drugs is one of the most common reasons for a person being in jail down there.

Despite being a prison, I actually had a very good time. We brought some chicken and some of my extra snacks, laid out some sheets, and basically had a picnic. In a prison. I'm serious, I enjoyed myself. I had a very nice four hours, and the prison guards at the entrance were very polite when they searched us before letting us in.

Before she came out to see us, my dad had to go to the bathroom. If she showed up before he got back, he told us to look for a short, black haired girl with dark eyes. Saying that "everyone here looks a like" is the wrong thing to say about this, but that is still a VERY vague description for a tico. Unless it's been dyed, everyone in the prison had black hair, and most people there also had dark eyes. Luckily he came back before she showed up.

Jessica is a really nice person. She reminded me of a peppy high school cheerleader to be honest. She was very happy to meet us, and gave my brother and I each a little gift bag. A t-shirt, some candy bars, and some beaded key rings that she handmade. My dad had told us before we went that she had wanted to buy us Nike t-shirts. Brand clothing is expensive down there. Even more since she's in prison. The shirt she gave me was Quicksilver. I felt guilty excepting it because of how much it probably cost her. (Though I didn't tell her) Luckily I really like the shirt, so I'll make good use of it. She kept offering us other things too. Her Spanish-English dictionary, a keychain that had more matching beads, some of her skin cream (I did end up taking some cream because it was amazingly helpful for my sunburn), more food... She probably would have given me her shoes if I had asked for them.

She's such a nice person that it's hard to imagine that she was on drugs at one point. Apparently my dad is the only person who ever visits here. I guess that it looks good having a gringo visit that often. It may actually help reduce her sentence. That he even brought Logan and I to visit could also be a big help. I hope she gets out soon.

Although we took a bus to the prison, we took a taxi back. Visiting hours end at 12:00, and my dad usually starts work on Sundays at 12:30. Because a bus would be too slow, he has an arrangement with a certain driver to pick him up at the prison every Sunday and take him to work. This ride once again reinstated the primitive fear that taxi drivers give me. First off, the guy had a can of NOS in his taxi. NOS! For those who don't know, NOS (Nitrous Oxide a.k.a. laughing gas) is like a speed boost gas for cars. Not something that I would like to see in a taxi. Although he drove with both hands on the wheel, one hand was perpetually on the center, ready to honk the horn at the slightest notice. The scariest thing is that neither the speedometer and gas meter worked. That's not something I want to see on any car, but it seems to be a standard feature on cabs in Costa Rica.

San Pedro Mall
The San Pedro Mall is cool enough to get its own section. Although I think the little mall near where I live is a lot better than most of the bigger malls I've been too, the San Pedro mall kicks its ass in many many ways. While the actual building is about 8+ stories high, the mall part of it is only on the bottom three of them. The ceiling is a lot lower than the single story Meadowbrook mall of home, so I always felt like I was inside. But there was so much stuff crammed in there. I've always prided the local mall of having a wider selection of stores than most bigger malls. *cough*onlyclothingstores*cough* The San Pedro mall had a wide selection and then some. It also had a great food court, which is something I'm very particular about.

Much to my surprise and pleasure there was even an anime store here. This is something that my hometown (and possibly state) is severely lacking. I bought a nice figurine for about $16 more than I could have in the US, but hey. I was there, it was there, and I had spending money. It is now one more thing that I need to find space for when I pack for China. ;_;

Like I said in my last post, the top couple floors of the building are owned by Datascension, the company my dad works for. I didn't go there again, because my dad wasn't working and they, like every company in San Jose, have very large security guards.

La Fortuna
La Fortuna had both the best and most boring parts of the trip. We got up early at about 5 AM to catch the 6 AM bus to get us to La Fortuna at about noon. We didn't bother reserving a hotel room, and it turned out for the best. A guy caught us as soon as we got off the bus, and we ended up paying $7 per person for the night. It was a pretty good room for $21. Fans, TV, deathtrap, and a bunk bed. I haven't slept in a bunk bed since 4H camp! For another $25, Logan and I signed up for a volcano tour and hot springs that night. We wandered around town for a while before we left for the tour, and signed up for a zipline canopy tour and horseback riding the next day.

The volcano tour was entirely a waste of time. We were picked up at our hotel room by the tour van, and drove about 20 minutes to the base of the volcano. From there we walked about 10 minutes to a river. From there the guide said that because of a landslide caused by the volcano, the bridge was down and we couldn't go further. From there we walked BACK a bit and sat down to wait for it to get darker. After a bit we began to see what Logan accurately described as "megapixels" of lava. From a great distance we were able to see tine red dots on the side of the mountain. While it was interesting to know that was lava, I felt kind of cheated that I didn't get to be within a stones throw of the lava. I guess that the flow of the lava is unstable enough on Mt. Arenal to make that possible.

See this?This is what I was hoping to see.

See this?
This is what I got. If you want to see what it looks like at night, open MSpaint, lower the contrast, and put about three single-pixel dots of red on it. That's what I saw. I'm disappointed.

The hot springs were fun though. To be exact, it was more of a hot stream. Everyone from our tour group put on their bathing suits and went down to the stream. It was pretty cool. There was even a little cave behind a waterfall that we were able to go back into. Despite being to small to stand up in, it was very stereotypical and cliche. It was perfect.

The zipline tour was one of the coolest things I've ever done. Roller coasters have nothing on it. The tour bus for it came at about 7 or 8 to pick us up. Again we drove about 20 minutes to get other people and take us to the actual place. From there we were given a quick safety speech and instructions on how the zipline works. From there we were loaded onto a large wagon of sorts behind a tractor, and we rode for another 125 minutes up the hill. (Mountain, but I'm from West Virginia, so it has to be pretty big before we would call it a mountain.) Even this was nice because we got to see some nice scenery, and wildlife (cows and horses :P). When we reached the top, we then walked further up the hill to where the first zipline was. There, we put on harnesses that we're just like the ones for climbing rock walls at amusement parks. These however also had a pully like wheel attached that would hook you too the wire.

Now for those of you who haven't guessed how this works, you're basically attached to a metal cable suspended 100+ feet above the ground, flying along at about 40mph at the faster points. The only brake you have (aside from slamming into the guide at the other end, is a thick leather glove that you pull down on the cable to pull you to a stop. It took about 3 hours to do all ten lines. It was one of the coolest things I've ever done. I'm no big fan of heights, but it was just to amazing to be nervous. I felt completely safe the entire time. It's really something to ride alone a wire over half a kilometer long, and look down to see the trees flying by beneath you. The view from there was breathtaking. Unfortunately, the battery in my camera died after just a couple pictures at the very beginning.

That's me in the brown. The thing in my right hand is the braking glove. The two people next to me were on the volcano/hot spring tour with us as well. Apparently they've been backpacking through Central and South America for about 4 months now. This was the firs zipline. It was good for getting you started, because it was still fairly sheltered, so it got you used to how it all works without being scary right off the bat.

After riding on ten lines, we got on a bunch of horses and rode back down to the base of the hill. My horse was slow, lazy, and hungry. I liked it. God for a first time rider like myself. Logan's, however, was always running around, and wanted to be at the front at all times. I didn't see him much, being at opposite ends of the group and all.

Quepos and Monte Verde
The day after La Furtuna, we headed out on the bus again to the West coast of Costa Rica. We got a hotel in Quepos, and rode the bus 10 minutes to Monte Verde for the beach. The beach is the only good point about this place, really. The waves were a lot bigger than Puerto Viejo, and there were more tourists. It also seemed more forced "happy tourist area" than Puerto Viejo. I still had a good time though.

On the bus ride from San Jose, there was a woman chatted with my dad for a minute or so. During the rest stop, when I groggily got off the bus to see if there were any good snacks to buy (there weren't) I vaguely remember her asking me something about chocolate. We didn't really think anything about it until we ran into her again at the beach in Monte Verde. We also met her friend. The first woman was 54 and originally from Costa Rica, though she had lived in the US since she was about 8 or so. She still spoke fluent Spanish, but my dad says she had more of a Mexican accent. Her friend was 30 and she was originally from Taiwan, but I think she was adopted when she was little because she didn't know Mandarin or Taiwanese. They were both teachers at a school in California, and had come down to Costa Rica during their summer break. We all had a nice long talk on the beach, and then decided to have dinner together back in Quepos. They were both really cool, and I regret not getting their email addresses or something.

I don't know if it was because we hadn't really been able to talk to to other people or that they were both so interesting, (My dad speaks Spanish, so he was fine) but the dinner and the conversation, and the social interaction made this possibly the best day of the whole vacation.

The next day we headed back to San Jose so we could pack and be ready for the plane ride the next day.

Too long, but not long enough...
We woke up at 4:45, to take a taxi to the airport at 5:30. The taxi driver was happy, because Airport=money. Dad says that the driver probably went on his break during that time, so the money he made from taking us there (I think around 12 to 18 dollars) went straight into his pockets. Public transportation people have all sorts of ways to make extra money while on the job. I'm glad we got to the airport when we did.

They say you should get to airports about 2 hours before the plane is set to depart. This is a good idea, because we were in line to get our tickets for about 45 minutes. Our dad covered it, but we also had to pay a $26 "leaving the country" tax. What the crap? If anyone who reads this is planning on going to Costa Rica, make note of it. A couple people lost their place in line because they didn't know, and had to go pay it before they could get their tickets. Security going out of the country was a little bit more thorough than coming in. They actually opened all our carry-on bags, although like most people in CR, they were very polite.

The plane ride back was odd, because I had just gotten used to everyone around me speaking Spanish. now with all the English I notice how much I really tune out other peoples conversations. The flight attendants were (and always are) very polite. The people who work in the Atlanta airport, on the other hand, weren't. We were about as likely to be answered with uncaring grunts as we were to get actual words out of them. The whole luggage process coming back was also kind of messed up. we had to get our checked luggage again, take it to get checked again, and then go through the security checks again. This was not a requirement going down. I don't see why it should be coming back. Or why they can't just do it on their own. We waited about 3 hours for our plane. 1 hour of which we spent wondering around looking for food, or going from one terminal to the other when our gate was changed. I was going to watch a movie on my laptop, but there wasn't time to finish it. ;_;

The plane ride to Pitt was a lot shorter than expected. The stewardess was also kind enough to give me some extra cookie-cracker things. For airline food, they were really good.

Our mom was waiting for us when we landed. It felt really weird being back in the US. Surreal even. On the way back down to WV we stopped off at a waffle house. Anyone who hasn't been to one is missing out. Waffles all day! Good waffles too. Big ones. |Typing this is making me hungry.| The sudden return to more American food through my stomach for a loop, and I felt weird for the next couple days. I regret nothing. They were good waffles. I slept through most of the car ride home, but distinctly remember waking up and having no idea where I was. At first I thought I was still in San Jose. Then I realized where I was, although it still felt fairly dreamlike. I guess lack of sleep does that to you.

Either way, I'm back home, back to work, and rather sleepy. I've been slowly working on this entry for almost 3 hours now. Holy Crap. I got news regarding China while I was in CR, so I'll leave that for tomorrow. I've been sitting weird, and my legs are all tingly. I'm also getting about 10x more typos than usual. I'm also rambling.

Sleep. Time for sleep

Tripfriend in Costa Rica

My brother and I have been in Costa Rica for about a week, so it's past time for an update.

The Flight


Woke up at about 2:00 get to Pittsburgh at 4:00 to make a flight at 6:00. I slept most of the ride. Plane went from Pitt to Atlanta and got there at about 730-ish. Hung around the airport till the plane left at 10:00. We got to Costa Rica at about 12:30 their time. I think. The time zone change and daylight savings and everything was to much work to figure out at the time, and I don't want to break something trying to figure out how long I was actually on the plane. We flew over Cuba apparently, but I could see it through the clouds. The inflight meal was better than I expected, but nowhere near very good. There were little screens on the back of the seats, and we were able to watch movies or TV or play some games on them. It made the 4+ hour flight much more enjoyable.

Costa Rica
The architecure here is weird, but the first thing any one from the US will notice is that EVERYTHING has bars on it. Peoples porches (or yards if they have one) are either surrounded by a large fence, or entirely encaged. Then the main door has another large metal gate over the door itself. Robbery seems to be fairly big down here. My dad has told us at least 7 stories of times he was robbed or was almost robbed. "When you see guys walking down the street with their hand(s) in their pocket, they've probably got it on a knife. Don't mind them. It's for protection. It the people who put their hands in their pockets when you get near them that you should be warry of." Little things like that make me realize what a large difference there is between the US and here. The US and most anywhere even. Despite being a bit parnoid, I've still noticed that the people here are, for the most part, very friendly. I still wouldn't want to walk around at night though. The stores here have armed security guards for a reason.

We've eaten at a couple places around here now. Rice beans and chicken seem to be the staple diet. I have had something that is both genious and simple. Refrsca naturals. They're delicious drinks, and very easy to make. Step 1. Choose fruit. Step 2. Put fruit in a blender. Step 3. Blend with either water or milk. That's it! They're not like fruit juice, or smoothies, so I'm not jsut getting worked up over nothing. The Banana/milk combo is my favorite so far.

The money changing thing is kind of annoying right now. $1 USD is basically woth 500 colones. It's simple math to figure out, but it's a real pain to have to do it every time I want to buy something.

If anyone wants to commit suiced on vacation, Costa Rica is the place. My reasoning: the showers are deathtraps.


See that machine? That's what makes the water hot when it comes out of the shower. See those long thin things running from the wall? Those are electric wires. ELECTRIC wires, with a little bit of tape, mere inches from water that is falling on your head. I've gotten used to it, but I'm still praying that that's not where my hot water will be coming from in China.

San Jose
My dad met us outside of the airport. Him and his landlord, Lolo, drove us back to his place just outside of the downtown area. Lolo is a cool guy. He's a bit like a stereotypical grandmother though. He's got all sorts of stuff hanging up on every wall of his house. He makes a living renting out rooms to gringos (Foreigners) and running a cafe directly across the street.



The first night we went to see where my dad works. It's a company called Datascension. It's a "call company." They call people and ask their opinions on things. His job is to help them have more of an American accent. Basically, it's so the people getting called don't think it's coming from India or any other country for that matter. The company owns the top 3 or so floors of the San Pedro mall, and it's only a 5 minute walk from Lolo's. It's a pretty cool mall, but I'll talk about that later.

San Jose has this weired attempt of a tourist attraction called "The Cow Parade" There are about 130+ life sized painted cows scattered throughout the central part of the city. Some of them have been fairly interesting, but I've mostly been left questioning the minds of whoever's idea it was to put cow statues nearly freaking everywhere.




To be continued
I should have done this earlier. Uploading these images takes forever on this internet connection, and the guy upstairs is hogging all the bandwidth. I'll post the rest some time tomorrow.

Comming up:
Puerto Viejo - We go to the beach and I get a sunburn.
San Jose again - We visit one of my dad's friends in Prison. lol wut?
San Pedro Mall - Totally awesome.

The least important update so far.

I'm leaving for Costa Rica tomorrow. I'll post pictures, I swear.

Family Trip

I went up to PA with my mom and my brother yesterday. We spent the day at a cabin that my aunt and uncle rented. I had a great time. My grandparents were able to come, and so were some of my cousins. I haven't seen any of them (except my grandparents) for about 5 years or so, so it It was a good chance to catch up on things. My aunt and uncle gave me a nice little leather journal. I'll probably use it to write down things like recipes or other little things that I wouldn't bother putting in the blog. I got to talk to my cousins' husbands (cousin-in-laws?) and it turns out one of them has a friend who does missionary work in Kenya. He said that if I ever felt like working there I should let him know. I may have to take him up on that after I'm done in China, but I don't expect that to be a for a couple years. Overall I had a lot of fun seeing relatives that I haven't seen for a while. It didn't hit me till we were leaving that I might not see any of them for another couple years again. It was a weird feeling.

This weekend my brother and I will be leaving for Costa Rica to visit my Dad. I haven't seen him in about 3 years. We're going to spend two weeks down there, so we'll have plenty of time to sit around and talk. I still need to find out what to bring with me. If I can I'll bring my laptop and post updates while I'm down there.

Things I still need to do.
1. Ask the school LOTS of questions. I still no very little about what I'll be doing other than "teaching English." I also want to make sure they got all the paperwork from me that they'll need for a while. I don't want to be in Costa Rica and get an email asking for paperwork.
2. Learn more about China. I'll admit that I can be stupid at times, but I refuse to be ignorant. I want to know enough about China that I won't feel left out when people talk about the going-ons.
3. Get some pictures on here. The blog looks fairly sparse.
4. Tell people I know about the blog. For all I know, not a single person has read anything I've posted so far. :P
5. Check about online classes. I want to get my bachelors degree, but I still don't know how much it will end up costing me, or how I'll go about getting it in China.
6. I know I forgot something important... Darn.

I gots me a Job!

It's confirmed. I got the job in Wuhan. All the apprehension about teaching younger students is gone. I'm so excited I can't wait. I should be getting an email with the actual contract on Monday. Now I just need to focus on getting a work visa, selling my car, the trip to Costa Rica, getting a ticket to China...

I downloaded Skype yesterday. I used voicechats like Ventrillo when I played World of Warcraft, so I've known about Skype for a while. It was never practical for WoW though, so I did really payed it much attention. Now that I'm going to China I'll need a way to call home and Skype seems to be a great thing for that. I was testing it out tonight, and I got a message from a girl in China! I have no idea if this was a coincidence or not, but we messeged each other for a little bit. (No actual voice chat yet.) It's nice and a little bit reasurring to know that I've already got a friend over there. She lives a bit over 500 miles from where I'll be living, but it's still nice. I have a bad habit of falling out of contact with internet friends like her, but I'm resolving myself not to just disappear. That I've managed to keep my blog updated even this much is asstounding to me.

The First Best Day of the Summer.

I got what is basically my first job offer today. If I go for it, I'll end up working at Wuchang Experimental Primary School. I'm kind of apprehensive about the thought of teaching five, six, and seven year olds, but everyone tells me that I'm good with kids. I'm more than happy to teach them, but the closer I get to going to China the more nervous I get about how well I'll do. I dunno. I asked my placement adviser if there was anything closer to high school level. I think I'd have an easier time teaching that age group.

I've been on Google Earth for about an hour now. I'm not sure where in Wuhan the school is, but I've been looking at a lot of pictures of the surrounding area. It's a very nice looking city. Wikipedia has also been helpful. Because of it, I now know that the city of Wuhan ALONE has about 8 times as many people as my entire STATE! Thats right. One city has more people than all of West Virginia. That's rather daunting.

So far today, I've come up with two new frightening realizations.
1. I'm going to have to learn the metric system. This isn't much of a big deal, but it's just one more thing that I'll have to memorize.
2. Wuhan is probably the hottest city in China. The average temperature in July is about 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Being a port city, I bet it's also very humid. I don't mind the sticky feeling, but I always feel like other people know I'm sticky and that creeps me out.
3. (Yes, another) I'm going to be in Costa Rica for two weeks this summer. Unless I stop off at net-cafes or something, I may have trouble getting some things set up. Oh well. I'll deal with that when I get to that.

Now that things are happening again, I can start updating more often. Joy!

"You must be," said the Cat, "otherwise you wouldn't have come here."

Today has been a good day. I started work at four in the morning, but got to leave at noon. Normally I go in at 7:00 and get out at about 3:30, so I took the opportunity to drop by my old high school. I wanted to ask my English/Yearbook teacher if I could use her as a reference and, since she never throws anything away, if I could have one or two of her old grammar books.

Mrs. Tichenor was one of my favorite teachers in high school, and I was very happy to see her again. I like to think that I was also one of her favorite students. Probably because I was one of three (out of 30~) that stuck around to finish that years yearbook. She was more than willing to give me the reference. It will help quite a lot having an English teacher as a reference. And the books? I only asked for one, but I ended up leaving with a small pile. She was so happy when I told her about my plans that she just started stacking them on. She even said she'll send some home with my brother if she finds more. There're about five books and a workbook in all. They'll make good study material for the Summer and I need to get this stuff back in my head. She also gave me the phone number of a girl who's been to China a couple times. Since she graduated from the same school I did, it won't seem as weird to call her and ask about things.

For today, though, I'm going to try and finish typing my resume and get the basics of my cover letter ready. I'm on my laptop at a friends house. For some reason I'm able to focus on my work better when I'm here, but he just got a kitten yesterday and she seems to delight in stepping on my keyboard.

TEFL Classes: Days Five and Six (Final)

Well, I'm officially certified to teach English as a second language. This is almost like a birthday. Before it comes you keep thinking that you'll feel different once it comes, but once it does you realize that you're still the same person. I have the same feeling about China. I keep thinking like I'll have some epiphany once I step off the plane, but I know that I won't be any different. I'll just be the regular me in a different country. I think it takes at least a year to notice that you've changed. If I look a year back and think, "Man. I was a real idiot back then." then I can believe that I am maturing and becoming a better person. The hard part is looking at myself now and making the same evaluation.

It's weird knowing that I won't be making the two hour drive back to Pittsburgh next week. Even over three weeks it's become such a habit that I'll need to find a bit extra to do to replace the eighteen hours of time spent in class. Everyone in exchanged email addresses so I'm hoping we'll all be able to keep in touch. Some of us already have jobs lined up. Some know where they want to go. A couple are still thinking. I'm going to contact the placement assistance people tomorrow. I want to get a job lined up as soon as possible.

It's a good thing I have steady work through the summer. I need to pay my mom back for the $534 plane ticket to Costa Rica. Luckily my tax return should take care of most or all of that. Then I just need to start saving for a couple other things. Spending money for Costa Rica, a nice little laptop, and enough money to get me through the first month or so in China. I'm probably going to use craigslist to try and sell some of my stuff. I can only take so much stuff with me, so I need to get rid of some of it. The extra money will help too. My mom has already told me that she's taking over my room as soon as I leave. It feels really weird knowing that when I go, I'm moving out for good.

TEFL Class: Days Three and Four

This weekend was great. Class went well and I feel like I'm starting to get to know the other people a little bit better. Our class of thirteen has been reduced two twelve with the dropping out of one woman. I didn't expect it, but I wasn't surprised. It didn't seem like she needed the class, really. What we're being taught still isn't what I expected, but it's also more than I expected. I guess you could say it's much broader than I thought it would be.

Only bad thing to happen to me over the weekend was a nasty fall. I've got about a dozen scrapes and scabs. I'm never going to wear my Heelies again. The only places that are safe to use them, you aren't allowed. Where you are allowed, it isn't safe. They had a good run, and I got a lot of fun out of them, but they're just not worth it anymore.

I got a call from the temp agency today. I'll be starting work again tomorrow, and that should last me through the summer or until I leave for China. Whichever comes first. Hopefully the leaving.