Bienvenidos!

welcome to my blog and the first of hopefully many posts from a currently unknown location in costa rica. those of you who know me will be surprised to see me "blogging", but hold your surprise until i begin uploading photos and other dodads. two avisos: 1) do not expect me to include capital letters in my posts. 2) expect to see a lot of spanglish. (maybe if you're lucky the spanish words will pop up on the "word of the day" on my homepage!)

so how am i doing/feeling, with less than a week before departure...

remarkably okay considering i have quit my job, filed for "economic hardship" with citibank in order to defer my student loan payments, cut my hair to second grade levels, moved home, identified a power of attorney, named my mother as my beneficiary in the event that i do not return from costa rica (ay dios mio!), and bid farewell to my partners in crime in new york city. a close friend and rpcv (returned peace corps volunteer) likened the pre-departure experience to being on death row...

finding almost 30 fellow tico 19ers on facebook has really put my mind at ease. (cheating? maybe, considering such social networking sites did not exist in the 60's when the pc began.) through this group, i was able to meet two vols in the city and was reassured that when our group of 52 meets in dc on tuesday, we will bond instantly due to the fact that we have all left family, friends, and simple comforts for 27 months of the unknown. there is even a group of west coasters who are trying to get together on monday to see dc before staging. this openness to meeting new people and embarking on new experiences is what life is all about, if you ask me (which you are, because you are reading my blog!)...

one last comment before i bid farewell to the kennebunk free library and head to borealis breads for an olive roll and homeade soup (treating every meal like my last- see previous comment about death row mentality). i am trying to get myself in a go state of mind before departing for cr- trying to rid my head of words like help and fix and educate; trying to remind myself that i am a student, not a teacher, when it comes to all things costa rica.