Florida Fun in the Sun

Background points: 

1. I don't like using last names in my blog posts, because I like to give people some resemblance of privacy, and I hate when people use my first and last names in blogs. You know, do unto others as you would have others do to you, and all that jazz. Now that you know that, you must also know: writing this blog was really weird, because I call Zach by his last name, probably 90% of the time.

#tbt #iwasfat #CSRM #missionaries

2. I haven't seen Zach since the mission, so about 3 years or so. We've kept in contact, text, and chat on the phone occasionally. I think my favorite thing to ask him is "Why aren't you married?" because he just laughs it off. Either way, we got along really well on the mission, and we still get along fabulously post-mission.

Storytime:

Zach told me earlier this year that he was planning on going to Austin sometime this summer, which made me super excited all year. But like every other time there's a possibility of us running into each other, something happened where he couldn't go anymore. Like how he purposefully goes to whichever mission reunion I'm not attending. (I'm on to you!) We were chatting on the phone one night, and he was just "why don't you come here?" and I immediately say "I'm not flying to tampa to spend a weekend with you." He's saying, "why not" and I'm saying many reasons, "It's going to be expensive. I don't have any time before you go off to school again. You're not really serious." We talked, and I looked at flights, hypothetically of course. It turns out, Houston to Tampa isn't that expensive for a weekend, and since I would be staying with his family, I would just be paying for airfare and if we went out to eat. It also turned out, there was a great weekend that worked perfectly for my schedule. I made him go ask his mom, for real, if it would be okay if I came to visit and verify he wasn't offering as an impulse thing. Once that was okay, I just had to think about it....and the real concern surfaced. If I went to visit him and stay with his family, everyone is going to think we're dating. I told him this and he just said "who cares? people are always going to think what they're going to think". Valid. I booked my flight. 

The only plan I had for the weekend was spending some quality time with Zach, which is exactly what happened....everything else was extra. I flew in Friday night, and he's messages me to see if it's okay that his mom comes along to pick me up from the airport with him. I'm like, "uhhhh....sure." It was a great decision. His mom, is super awesome, and I adore her. We picked up his oldest (maybe?) brother and went to dinner near Clearwater Beach, where one of his younger sisters and her friends joined us. It was great. I think the best part is when we got back, and I met his youngest brother Matt, who was just waking up from a too-long nap around 10ish. I greeted him, and he just gave me one of those i-just-woke-up-and-nothing-makes-sense looks. I laughed. The next best part was that Zach's mom more awake and ready to stay up than I was. I felt so un-cool.

Saturday morning started off wonderfully. I did my 5-mile run on a trail down the road from their house (see pic above). It was my first 5-mile run; I was worried I would die from the distance, and Zach's family was worried I'd die from heat and humidity. Personally, I think Florida was less humid than Texas that week. I also had to tell Zach to make sure I didn't make up excuses to not run. The sad thing is, it was my last long-distance run. I've been making tons of excuses since. #fail

I went running, while Zach and Matt went to help someone move. Zach's mom made an epic breakfast when we all got back. We headed to the beach, where Zach and Matt did an indoor surf thing, while I hung out and shopped a bit with Zach's mom. Then it was beach time. The sand was so white and the water was nice, warm, wonderful, and clean.

On the way to the beach, I was having quite an interesting family drama morning, because everyone was convinced my older sister was dead. I thought she had been taken. It was very dramatic, and quite entertaining. Turns out she was just asleep. It was so anticlimactic. It did leave us very intrigued for the morning.

I'm not sure if I should share this story, but I'm going to anyway, because I don't have many boundaries. Zach's brother, Matt is a teenagers. One of the teenager things I heard from him was him complaining that his parents "cared too much" and "believed in him too much". I laughed so hard. Fast forward a few weeks. I'm in the car with my mom and sister, and my mom is driving me insane about something. I'm about to open my mouth and say "STOP CARING SO MUCH", but instead I think of Matt and start laughing. It was a great moment. I'm such an adult.

Dang. My face looks nice and tan. Go me...Zach looks tan too.

After the beach, we went back to the house. Zach and I went shopping for groceries for dinner, which was great, because we were very inefficient and kept backtracking trying to find things on our shopping list. I got to request spaghetti with meatballs for dinner. Victory! To make dinner even better, the sister missionaries showed up. I LOVE MISSIONARIES! It was a great night. The evening ended with a stroll and lots of sweets from the Sponge Docks. Then I introduced them to The Mindy Project. There were a few moments where I questioned my decision, but I LOVE THE MINDY PROJECT! NO REGRETS!

Sunset at the Sponge Docks. Isn't it BEAUTIFUL!?!?!?!

Sunday Funday! Sunday was great. I wore my pretty new flower dress and had to borrow a safety pin to keep it appropriate. Clothing these days. geeze. Church was amazing. I was so uplifted. There were some great speakers, but my fav was a 15-year-old boy, who converted recently. The sunday school teacher was deaf, and had great insights into the book of Job. The Relief Society was full of women with wisdom. It was great. I didn't realize how much their words would impact me later the week. Seriously. There were a number of ladies battling cancer in the room, and they were talking about dealing with trials and cancer. I loved one older lady telling about when she got the call that she had cancer. She said something along the lines of, "When you get bad news like that, you take a moment to be miserable/upset/angry. No more than 24-hours. Then you have to get back and face it" She said she called her doctor back and said "ok. what are we going to do about it?" I'm not saying that everyone should deal with cancer or bad news this way, but I really liked the spirit behind her words.

We made sushi for lunch. Homemade sushi. I've never made homemade sushi before, and I felt super posh. It was awesome, and fun. After lunch, the only way to end a great weekend is with a great dessert! So I made Sister Bunker's birthday cookies (aka homemade oreos). They were a hit. Of course. You can't go wrong with those cookies. 

Overall, it was a great weekend. I needed it. I needed to relax, and spend some time with a friend. I had a great time. Maybe it won't take years before we see each other next. His mom asked me over the weekend what I thought about Zach, or if he's what I expected, or something like that. I've told him, and I told her: Zach is not what I thought he would be like outside of the mission. That may sound bad, but I mean it in the nicest way. You get to know and love fellow missionaries on your mission, and they just stay that way, in missionary-mode, in your mind forever. Zach just got more awesome since the mission, and I love it. 

6 Year Reunion in Puerto Rico

Playlist for this post and for our vacation:

     -"Happy" by Pharrell
     -"Best Day of My Life" by American Authors
     -"Everything is Awesome" by Tegan & Sara featuring The Lonely Island (aka, the Lego Movie song).
...and keep it on repeat....seriously. Also, use the pet name "baby" or "puppy" for everyone.

This is Mego. I haven't seen Mego in six year. What's a better way to catch up than to vacation together?

Happy Birthday weekend to me! A few months ago, I decided I just wanted to get away for my birthday for a low key weekend. I decided that it would be more fun if I had people come with me. I invited my lil sister, and then inspiration struck....invite Mego! I adore Mego, because she is one of my life inspirations. I joke around saying that I can't do anything until she does it first. I already know we travel well together, because we've done it before, 12 years ago when we went to England and Paris together. We know that when someone gets grumpy, you must buy them a candy bar to calm them down. Easy peasy. We met up at the San Juan airport and went over to our hotel to make plans and chillax.

Can I just say, I normally don't stay at fancy hotels when I travel, so this trip was on another level of classy for me. Saryah joked that this is her first "adult" vacation, because adults always go places with no plans but to relax. Those were our exact plans. This was a "No Rules" vacation.

We went out to eat the first night at a restaurant down the road, where we ordered three dishes to share. We would eat part of the plate, and then rotate the plates throughout the dinner. #genius We each took turns giving a summary of the past six years of our lives, because, like I said, we haven't seen each other in a while, and it's hard to find time to catch up sometimes. It was pretty funny when we had those "omg. I can't believe you did that!" moments, as we reacted to events that happened years ago. The waiter gave us free crème brûlée during our meal. We also created a list of all the countries we travelled to over the past 6 years. Over the past six years, we've visited a combined number of 26. There was only one country that we've all been to in the past six years....the motherland, where it all began, the UK!

First of all, shout out to Tattly, which has really cool temporary tattoos! Secondly, Friday was a really lazy day. When I say lazy, I mean, brilliantly lazy. We woke up late, to the maid knocking on our door for room service. We went to breakfast across the street at Denny's. Then, we went to lay on the beach and swim for the next few hours. I read, Megan watch the Canada hockey game, and Saryah just laid there. We went back to shower and get out of the sun in the afternoon. We decided it would probably be a good idea to go look around San Juan instead of only looking at the beach all day. We took a taxi out to Old San Juan, and checked out the Fort. Our taxi driver pointed out the capitol building for us, and recommended a good place to eat. Sadly, with my bad memory, about five minutes later, I couldn't remember what he said. It was so windy at the fort, but the view was gorgeous. The whole place was beautiful. We walked around, and I loved to stone streets and colorful buildings. It was a beautiful mixture of Latino and Caribbean culture without the need of a passport or changing currency.  I would definitely recommend it to people. We went to Barrachina for dinner, where they claim they invented the Piña Colada. With a claim like that, how could we not have a taste. Truth: I normally don't like Piña Coladas, but this one was wonderful. I had two. The dinner was GREAT! We had a great time, and they gave us a free slice of tres leches cake as they sang Happy Birthday to me. Mego was having a fun time making sure everyone knew it was my birthday. We went back to the hotel to book a tour to Culebras Island to go snorkelling, but we found out the tour was cancelled due to weather. Bah humbug. We went back to our room to discuss. Instead, we decided we should rent a car, drive to the ferry in the morning, book a room at a swanky resort, and be completely spontaneous tomorrow. Done.

Saturday morning, we got a rental, and drove down to Fajardo. Mego hopped out of the car to just get us tickets so we could then go to lunch, but she called, told us to park the car because the ferry was ready about to leave! We went...and the ferry broke down. They said it would be up and running within an hour...and it finally left about 3 hours later. Woohoo #carribeanspirit We got to the Resort on Vieques, cortesy of Mego's hotel points, and it was so swanky. I felt like white trash at a cotillion ball. We loved it anyway. We went straight to the beach to enjoy the sun!

After a few hours in the sun, we went exploring. When I say "we", I mean, Mego went exploring, while Saryah and I followed. On this exploration, Megan found a coconut, which entertained her for the next 12 hours as she attempted to open the coconut with random tools found in a hotel room. Room service said they did not have any machetes available. The highlight of the night was discovering the black pebble pool, with LED lights at the bottom. With all the stars in the sky it felt magical, only to be enhanced by listening to "Across the Universe" while relaxing in the starry water.

Sunday Fun Day! Mego and I went on an adventure to find the church building and get ferry tickets. Ferry tickets are only sold one hour before the ferry leaves, and we were quite panic-y that we wouldn't get a ticket. We were told, that you can go and just get them anyways if you are confident enough. False. They guy was quite rude. We then went to church, where we were given a corner and couldn't find it anywhere. After about 20 minutes of wandering, we followed a couple in a nice dress and a suit to find the church. #stalkeralert We met a couple from Tennessee who decided to move to Vieques a few months ago. What I really wanted to ask was, what are you doing on the island? I was pretty sure that was rude, so I stayed silent.

We eventually made it back to the hotel and decided to risk missing the ferry to stay later at the resort. We laid on the beach. Worried when Mego disappeared. Mego came back after exploring more of the beach. Ate lots of yummy coconut. And took silly photos.

After six years, things haven't changed much.

There was a little vacation romance...that lasted about 5 minutes.

Needless to say, we made it onto the ferry without a problem. While waitin in line, I started chatting with this really cute Brazilian. It was in Spanish, so Mego and Saryah thought it was something nice we were talking about, but I'm pretty sure they were talking about when him and I laughed over me hoping I don't get sea sick on the ferry ride back. #whatyouseeiswhatyouget #classylassy The romance ended, when he went to the bottom deck, and I went to the top. I didn't even think of telling him I was planning on going to the top until Mego and Saryah reprimanded me for being so bad at flirting.
We finally made it back to San Juan and had a late night dinner at Denny's. It was a great way to end a whirlwind vacation.

Monday, Saryah and I slept in, while Megan woke up to soak in as much sun-time as possible. I joined later and had a pizza and piña colada brought out to my chair. Mego and I talked for a while, as Saryah stayed in a shaded hammock far away from us. It was sad to say goodbye, but I'm pretty sure, we'll travel again together in the future to make more epic memories.

Better Belize It!

Now, a few Friday ago (5/3), at work, I was thinking to myself that I needed to get away. Someone called me predictable earlier that week and it might have had an impact on my decision making process. I then decided I needed to go to Belize. I then talked myself out of it because it was irrational and more pricey than I would have liked. I told Saryah about this thought and she was like "dude, go for it" It's not like i have any current financial obligations or responsibilities. I'm single, and have every right to pick up and go galavanting across the world if i want to. With that reasoning, I agreed. Tuesday (5/7)....I booked my ticket and started planning. it's going to be legendary. It's been a while since I took a solo vacation, but luckily, I have a few friends who have been giving me great advice on what to do and see. One of my cousins gave me a hotel recommendation, so I'm going for it. I'm going to book a dorm to force me to be social. I've forgotten how fun it is to meet people and hang out with them knowing you will probably never see them again, and I cannot wait to rediscover the joy. #yolo

Needless to say, this was a much needed getaway. I dont think I even realized how much it would be needed when I purchased it, but I am currently forever grateful to my past self for this vacation. Leading up to this trip was a series of unfortunate events, and I had my fingers crossed that my trip to Belize would not follow that same pattern. The night before I left (5/23), I packed and stayed up late (like I always do before trips) watching Rookie Blue (my new summer tv show).

I woke up with only a few hours a sleep underneath my belt and headed off to the airport. After going through security, I sat down and started reading my book, A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Baeh. Read it on the airplane. Caught a taxi to the water taxi terminal. Then I read as I waited for the water taxi. Read on the water taxi, which was a good accomplishment for me because I was nervous it would make me sea sick, but it was all good. Then I arrived. Caye Caulker. The "caye" is pronounced "key". A little fact that surprised me about Belize, everyone speaks English. It's the language the learn in school, but they speak English with a Jamaican accent. They also speak their own dialect, Creole, which they learn at home and use to speak to each other.  Personally, I think they like speaking Creole, because they know people can speak Spanish, but none of the tourists speak Creole.

I got on the island and they have taxis....which are men driving golf carts. People get around the island by walking or bikes, with the option of their golf cart taxis. It was adorable. My hostel was about 50 feet from the dock. It has a magnificent view of the Caribbean Sea.

When I got on the island, there were a couple of things I needed to do...like finish booking my ATM Cave tour from the island and book a night tour. I went to book a night tour, but the group I went to, was not doing tours that night, so they referred me to another group. I started walking to where they guy directed me, but as I was walking this random guy sitting on the side of the sandy road hollered after me, "Where are you going so fast?"
I was like, "errrr. excuse me?"
He said" Don't walk so fast. Go slow."
Words of wisdom, i didn't even recognize at the moment. (the island's theme phrase is "Go Slow") I went to book my cave tour, but they recommended I pay in cash. I explained how I don't know my pin number and they explained that there was a bank on the island that would give me cash from my card if I had my passport, but it closed in an hour. I rushed to my hostel to pick up my passport and then went to the bank to get cash. It was then in all the rushing I trying to determine which tour group to go with for my Hol Chan Reserve snokel that I realized I was overthinking it. It made me think of when Saryah and I were in New Zealand and I was overthinking everything, and she was relaxed and zen-like telling me to stop worrying. I did. I let go of the rushing around. I went and booked my ATM Cave and Hol Chan snorkel at the same place so I wouldn't have to worry about it. Then I went back to my hostel and laid out on a hammock until it was time for me to go on my night snorkel. I was the first person to show up so it was me and Javier just chatting. I thought the place was cold, so I asked him to turn off the fan. Eventually we were joined by two other couples and one of the girls said "oh man, it's so hot in here". I told her that I asked for the fan to be turned off...but we eventually realized that she was from Cali and just wasn't used to warm weather. lol. It was a really good nighttime snorkel. We saw lobsters, two octopi, and some other cool nocturnal animals. It was pretty legit. After the night snorkel, I went to find some dinner, with my book, and then went to bed early so I would be able to make my 6:30am water taxi ride.

Saturday (5/25) started off very early. I was sleeping in a 4-person dorm, on the top bunk so I tried not to wake up the guy sleeping on the bottom bunk. I failed. I felt horrible. But I made it out for the 6:30am water taxi to Belize City where my driver, Tom Minor, was waiting for me. He brought his girlfriend along for the ride, which was fine with me. We had a really good chat and it turns out my name, Natasha, is a lot more common in Belize. He said he had a few friends with the name Natasha and he calls them Nat. Personally, i *HATE* that nickname, but was fine that he was going to call me that since we were going to have a pretty short time together. He drove me to meet up with the tour group I was going. I changed cars and my tour group consisted of a nice English girl with a lot of piercings, who I completely clicked with, a guy from the Bronx who looked like a total frat boy, and a couple who kept to themselves. Needless to say, I hit it of with  the Brit. We were on our way hiking to Actun Tunichil Muknal (Cave of the Crystal Sepulchre), where photos are no longer allowed due to a Frenchman dropping his camera on a 1500 year old skull. Our adventure started off with about a 45-minute hike in the forest, where our tour guide, Aaron, was showing us pretty interesting stuff, as me and the Brit decided to find out his pretty cool life story. (He wants to become an archaeologist, focusing on the Mayan people). The entrance to the  cave was amazing. after the hike you go down and see this cave entrance over a blue lagoon.

ATM Cave Entrance from http://belizetravelpoints.com/blog/belize-hotels/romantic-luxury-jungle-beach-resorts-in-belize

You are not allowed to bring cameras to the cave anymore because a tourist dropped his camera on a 1500 year old skull, which is stupid. The tourist. Not the new rule. Because of the lack of cameras, I think the tour was probably more magical, since you are paying attention to every detail rather than focusing on what to take a picture of. You walk up to the lagoon and have to swim across it to get into the cave where you are hiking for a while through tight spaces and through a stream of water that is sometimes just a tiny stream and sometimes goes drops and goes all the way to your chest. 
Our tour guide asked us if we wanted the touristy path or the "jaguar" route. lol. we chose jaguar, and it was epic. It's really hard to explain, it's something you have to try. After traipsing through the stream you have to climb up this rock onto a ledge about 15 feet above you. You take off your shoes and walk around an ancient Mayan area, which is a current archaeological reserve, looking at human bones and lots of broken pots. It was truly legendary. 'm really glad Mego recommended this to me. I really feel like this is a unique experience that cannot be replicated anywhere else in the world. At one point the tour guide stopped us to draw "ancient Mayan symbols" on our face. lol. it was great. You can still see some reddish-orange smudges on my face from when the rain washed it away. We ate lunch after the tour and got to go back to the parking area and change into some dry clothes. 

While we were waiting, everyone was being poured a cup of rum punch, and I was talking to the Brit. She found it very interesting that I did not drink and immediately inquired about it. I explained that I was Mormon. She explained she didn't believe in anything but knew about the LDS church's missionary program. I told her I was a missionary, and it was the most amazing thing of my life. Very sincerely, she asked how I felt about spending time trying to convert people to my religion. It was a very thought-provoking question for me as a very personal mission-related experience happened to me pre-Belize. I tried to convey the best I could how I never thought of it as a converting-people-thing. It was a 'I have this amazing truth that has blessed my life in every aspect, and I want to share it with the world' thing. I tried to explain how we believe that after Christ and his apostles were killed, we believe the truths they taught eventually were changed and distorted, thus leading to the existence of so many churches nowadays. I told her that after centuries of that state, God called a prophet to restore all the truths that were lost and that we have a living prophet who guides the church today through inspiration and revelation from our Savior. This is where she got confused. She thought that I was saying that the current prophet was more Savior than prophet. This is FALSE. I was trying to explain myself better, but then we started loading the bus again, and the moment was over. I wish I could have had one more minute to explain. It's better that people don't believe actual doctrine than don't believe because of misunderstood doctrine. 

After this, we drove and met up with Tom Minor and his girlfriend. On the drive we saw a lady selling mangoes on the side of the road. They had told me about this on the drive up and got really excited when they saw it. So excited that Tom hit the breaks in the middle of the road, and started driving in reverse about 100 feet to get some. It was a great deal. 7 mangoes for 1 Belize dollar. That's $0.50 American! I got some mangos to eat. They were so good. They also taught me to peel off the mango skin, instead of having to cut up the mango, as I've done my whole life. And the mangos were smaller than the ones I grew up on too! Adorable. 

I made it back to the island and met my new dormmate. She's Canadian, but very social and nice. I decided to have a nice walk around the island and go tell the tour people that I left my tennis shoes at the ATM Caves. Then I went to dinner to with my book, Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea. I had a nice quiet dinner went back to find her still hanging out in the room. She was going out partying with some German guys, and I thought about joining, but I was tired from my day and read a little before bed time.

Sunday (5/26) started lovely. I had breakfast at Amor. I also decided to read my scriptures at breakfast. I was reading in the Book of Mormon in Helaman chapters 1-5. Honestly, I cannot remember what verse I read and cannot find it when I search for it again, but I was reading about how the the people choose to become unbelieving and as a consequence of their actions, the Lord no longer protected them. In these five chapters, I remember thinking about how this happened gradually. Their unbelief didn't switch off like a light switch, it was a gradual process of allowing the bad to come into your life. It made me think of all the insanity that had been leading up to my trip to Belize, and wondered if during the chaos, had I allowed any bad into my life? As I was pondering on these thoughts, I began to read Helaman 5:12 and felt incredible peace.

And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.

After my very enlightening breakfast, I started walking down to the side of the island where my tour was going to take place. I stopped at a restaurant to take a picture of this sign. I snapped a photo and started walking away when I heard someone yell after me "Natasha!" I stopped and turned back thinking that it was someone I've met on the island, since it is a small island and I've been meeting people and seeing them throughout the day. I looked at the guys and felt guilty that I didn't recognize any of them but someone obviously knew who I was. One of the guys joked, "were you taking a picture of my bike" to which I responded "of course. its' a very nice bike."
Then another guy asked "what is your name?"
I said "Natasha" in a puzzled way; after all, they were the ones who called after me, right?
They started laughing and saying "no way! we just guessed!" and "it's our lucky day!". Someone asked my age because they were going to go buy a lotto ticket now. hahaha.
After that moment, I knew it was going to be a good day. I had to wait around on the beach for the tour to start, and apply sun block.

The tour started, and we headed out to try and see some manatee. No luck. We then continued onto the Hol Chan Marine Reserve. On the boat ride over to the area, the water was super choppy and it was a little painful going over the water and hitting hard on the way down. We snorkeled and there was one couple who was super prepared for this snorkel. They had an underwater video camera constantly rolling and a professional underwater camera. They were deep snorkeling to get close up pics of everything. It was a little intense. At the first stop, I saw cool fish, but the best part was seeing a crab hanging out underwater. I've eaten crab, and seen in on the beach, but never in the ocean hanging out. I saw an eel, who I'm pretty sure, was about to attack the male counterpart of the intense couple going up to it to take a picture. I also swam with sea turtles. Truth: this picture took a lot of effort to capture, because the girl I asked to take the picture seems to have disabilities in the picture-taking-realm of life.

Yeah. That really happened. We then went to another area, Shark Ray Alley, to snorkel with nursing sharks and sting rays. It was a little intimidating having to see these dark shadows in the water swimming around and jumping into it. I had to psych myself up and think "dont think, just do it" and I was the first one to go in! It was cool. 

We then went to another area to look at fish and coral. Then to try and see some more manatees and then we went to try and find some sea horses for the intense snorkeling couple. It was nice. One of the great parts of this tour was the company. There was an English guy who you could do laundry on his abs. #yesplease He was working at an art museum in NYC. There was a German girl who's boyfriend was scuba diving that day, and they were on the tail end of a 6-month trip in South and Central America. I got to ask her a lot of advice about going to visit the Galapagos Islands. There were two girls who grew up together in Alaska for a bit, but one of them was living in Austin, TX. It turns out that the Austin girl and I were going to be on the same flight home the next day and coordinated catching the water taxi together so we could split a cab to the airport and have some company. It was super fun and we all had a great time getting to know one another. We got back to the docks and the English guy pointed out a stingray and a starfish off the dock. It was nice. 

When I got back to my hostel I realized I was severely sunburned.  I did not realize, and I forgot to reapply. Wow. It was painful! Luckily, I brought at maxi dress so it was long a flowy and covered all my sunburnt areas, so I wouldn't get any more sun exposure. I was walking down the road to follow up on my missing shoes and ran into Javier from my night time snorkel. We stopped and chatted. He thought I was dressed up very nicely for the evening. I told him how I was very sunburned. He told me he was swinging by his house and would pick up some aloe for me. I went to talk to the other tour group and they hadn't managed to get my shoes back, so i told them not to worry about it and make sure it gets donated to someone who needs them. 

On my way back, I went by the Scuba Sensation shop to wait for Javier. As I was approaching, this rasta looking guy was like "where are you going?" I said "to this shop" pointing right in front of me, about 5 feet away. He gave off a super creeper vibe and said "can I come with you?" I said "no, I think I'm good." and walked closer to Zac, the guy who was my night snorkel guy. I chatted with him waiting for Javier to come back. He did, and brought some aloe with him, part of the plant. It was awesome. Something my mom used to do. We ended up talking for a while. We shared music tastes, I got to ask questions about Belize culture, talked about bad relationships, and we experienced a very great cultural exchange. They brought out a chair for me and we just sat our in front of the Scuba shop talking for about 2.5 hours. At one point in the conversation, Zac started asking me about what I believed in. I shared a little and listened to him tell me about his belief in the goodness of people but his disillusionment caused by people being Sunday-Only-Christians. I listened as he shared his life story, and understood the sadness he felt over the hypocrisy of some religious people. I regret not sharing more about the truth I knew, about how church is hospital for sinners. You don't go there because you're perfect. Alas, it because dark, and I became hungry. I was grateful at Zac's expression of gratitude for sitting and talking with him. He expressed his awe in someone who can sit and have a good conversation , especially without the need of any alcoholic assistance. 

That night I went to eat at Rosie's or Rose's, I cannot remember. I ordered the fish shish kebab and waited at my table alone, with my book. As I was waiting, the power goes out on the island. Luckily I have a flashlight app on my phone, so I was not too worried. This also happened the other night too, while I was in my hostel reading. It was a relaxing night, even though I was in serious pain as the back of my legs were super red. I got back to the hostel after dinner to find my Canadian dormmate chatting with an English couple who was also at the tail end of a 6 month travel around the world. I chatted with them for a while heard about their adventures. Then the three germans she met up with the night before came down to see meet with us. They went out to get some beer and got me some water. My sun burn thanked them. The germans, of course, were gorgeous. #ilovegermanguys One of the guys was curious to why I didn't drink, and I explained that I was Mormon. He had no idea what that was. I had a mind blank on how to describe mormonism to someone who had zero exposure to the religion. I'm pretty sure I gave a terrible explaination, but he was satisfied. We stayed up till the enforced quiet time came, when they went out to the bars and I went to bed. 

Monday morning, I had breakfast, I finally got wifi, which was not happening all weekend. I wandered around the island and then spend the rest of the morning on this dock reading. It was glorious. I took the afternoon water taxi off the island and it was super full. After the taxi ride, where I read the entire time (take that sea sickness!) I met up with the Austin girl and we caught a cab to the airport. We checked in and had some lunch together. We bought postcards and then got separated when she went to go find something in one of the stores and our previous seats had been taken. Instead I found a new seat and read. Boarded the plane and read. Landed back in America. Had to unload my carry-on and repack it for my business trip the following morning to Illinois.

It was a wonderful and much needed vacation. Coming back I feel so rejuvenated. I felt like I hit nirvana; I was at peace. I felt like all my previous worries from earlier that month were gone. When I explained this to Jon who I got to have dinner with up in Illinois, he rephrased it, my life got the reset button. It was wonderful. I felt super happy all week without a care in the world and without a stressful moment that could catch me. 

Costa Rica (pt 2)

Thursday (12/27) was an early morning, and we hopped in our little shuttle to the Cloud Rain Forest Reserve....who would have thought that it's cold and rainy in rain forests? Not I. We had to buy a poncho when we got there. It was cold too. Colder than I expected. The hike was really nice, except that I ruined my new cross-trainers with all the mud. And I slipped and fell, missing the mud by an inch as the tour guide caught me right before I hit it. (which makes my fall from the morning before, where I slipped on a rock and fell into the waterfall pool in front over everyone, a little more silly). So after the hike we went to a hummingbird reserve and there were so many hummingbirds flying all around, you could hear them and see them! They are adorable! And there was a little furry animal that climbed onto one of the wires to steal some sweet stuff from the hummingbirds. It was super cute too. Then we went back to our hostel as it rained all afternoon. I read a book and mom took a nap. Cold weather is a bad influence. Mom did manage to escape for a bit to buy a guanábana ice cream. It was interesting. Then we went to our Canopy Tour in over the Cloud Forest. It was cold and rainy. I made friends with a Tico who was on vacation there and spoke little English. Have I mentioned how grateful I am to know Spanish? We had fun. The best part of the tour was doing a Superman zipline across the tops of the trees. YAY! There was an annoying family vacation on our tour, and they were super intense. Everyone was feeling sorry for the guides. It was bad. And the kids were harassing the guides; the family was very stereotypical for the country they're from. They made us wait for a different bus because they insisted that their family go on the shuttle back first. During this time, I was able to talk to 2 Canadian girls, Helen and Julia, who were pretty cool that I talked to earlier. We went back to the hostel and went to bed.

Don't I look like a garden gnome?

I woke up in the middle of the night smacking that was on my arm. As I becoming more conscious to the night, I just knew what I would find when I turned on the flashlight app my phone. I looked down and there was the spider I saw crawl into our room earlier that night, which I couldnt find as I looked for it. It was dead and in my bed. I felt so violated. Why do bugs think they are allowed on my bed?!?!?!?! I couldnt sleep, even though my mom went back to sleep no problem. I stayed up reading in the common room for all hours of the night until I was so exhausted I couldnt think of spiders crawling over my body and I prayed intensely asking for spider protection as I dosed off to sleep.

I can FLY!!!!!!!!!!!!

Friday (12/28) saw us off to Arenal. Originally, I wanted to horseback ride from Monteverde to Arenal, but after the horseback riding, I realized I was not emotional stable enough to attempt that as the trail would be cold, rainy, and probably mountainous. No way, Jose. On the shuttle, we saw Helen and Julia. Cowinkydink. We got to the lake and had to wait for the boat to pick everyone up. This time, I wasn't the one who fell. It was mom. And she got muddy. That's what happens when they want you to walk down a muddy hill to get to the boat.  The boat ride was fine and then we crammed into a shuttle to take us to our accommodations in La Fortuna. (Please note: everyone refers to this place as Arenal, but that's not the name of the town. So if you're searching for hostels, you have to type in La Fortuna or it will say that no hostels are available) 

The hostel we were staying at was really nice and had it's own pool, except once again, it was raining. It was rainy, and overcast, so the Arenal Volcano we were suppose to see, was never seen. We got there and went across the street because I was craving ceviche, and there was a sign advertising it. #effectiveadvertisement The food was good. We went back to our room, and did I mention that Helen and Julia are there too. I'm thinking maybe they are stalkers, and it is no longer a coincidence. #joking Then I fell into a stage of siesta due to all the muggy weather. Mom, in her brilliance, decided to go to the computer room and do work. #crazylady
When I woke up, I decided we should continue with the plan we had, even though the weather was terrible. So we went to the hot springs. Not the swanky one that I wanted to go to, but the cheaper one because the weather was terrible, and I didnt want to go to a nice hot springs if the weather was going to ruin the experience. (and we shared a taxi with Helen and Julia #newfriends #cheaptaxi) The hot springs were SOOO NICE! They were all warm and relaxing. The cold drizzle was surprisingly relaxing and added to the experience. Mom and I enjoyed the hot water, went on a slide, and then had to change in order to go eat dinner. This idea was dumb, because it was super rainy and there was no covering to get to the hot springs areas to the dinning hall. Lame. But it was a yummy buffet full of goodies. We were then able to head back to our hostel after the nice relaxing evening.

Saturday (12/29) started abruptly, with my mom waking me up saying "what time is the shuttle coming to pick us up, because I think it's here" SAY WHAT? My phone died in the middle of the night and so the alarm didn't go off. Even though I told my mom a million times the day before (because she asks a lot) she forgot, and assumed I would wake up on my own. False. So I literally grabbed my bag and brusquely went to the waiting shuttle...in my pjs. Now I'm all for travelling in pj pants, but in your actual pajamas, without planning on it, is not as fun. When we got to San Jose, we took a little break and then went out wandering. Fact: San Jose is really confusing at times to walk through due to the lack of street signs in some areas of the city. But seriously. We attempted one outing and had to turn back because i couldnt find us on a map. The second time we got it right. we walked all downtown and saw all the important things before heading back for a much needed rest and early night.

Sunday (12/30) we had to take an early morning taxi to be at our pick up location by 6am. We hopped onto the bus, and I passed out until we arrived at where we were having breakfast. Did I not mention where we were headed? Our yacht cruise to Tortuga Island (on the Pacific side in the Gulf of Nicoya). They gave us some yummy gallo pinto for breakfast before boarding the boat. It was a nice 1.5 hour ride where we had unlimited nonalcoholic drinks and kept feeding us fresh fruit. It was super relaxing. And the view coming up to the island was remarkable. It was gorgeous. It's a private reserve island, so they monitor the activity there, and it has some of the earth's 2% of tropical dry forest. The day was spent relaxing on the beach. Avoiding getting sunburnt. Going on a banana boat ride. Snorkeling. Playing in the water. Eating a huge lunch while speaking spanish with out new Costa Rican friends who were on holiday. I was really surprised how many latinos were on the tour with us, I was expecting a lot of white people. Pleasant surprise. It was a nice long day of fun in the sun, and i cannot complain

Floppy hat and cute sun dress provided by Saryah

Our last day (12/31) in San Jose consisted of being nice and lazy. Enjoying the day. Going to eat some pan dulce and having fun. It's really been a great trip with my mommy. She's the coolest. She was able to keep up on all the activities. And I think she's learning to relax a lot better than she could before hand. I would also like to add that vacationing with Saryah in New Zealand earlier in 2012 helped me to really enjoy this trip better and have more fun. On that trip I think Saryah helped me to chill out and not stress so much, and this trip I was able to show that. Progress.

We got home in time to start some laundry as I got all dolled up to go out to the YSA New Years Eve dance party and I had a BLAST! I danced my little heart out and was inspired to just let go and have fun.

Happy 2012 and looking forward to what 2013 brings. 

December & Costa Rica (pt. 1)

Oh how life changes when you get back to the United States. My monthly pictures used to be in the hundreds. Now I'm lucky if I get over 50 in a month. In December...I took only 11 pictures. Sad day.

So I have a few highlights for the month of December (pre-Costa Rica).

1. I got a hair cut so my hair finally has proper layers. I'm sick of hairdressers telling me I'm not allowed to have layers because my hair is too short and curly. #liars

2. I took a basic pistol 101 class and learned how to properly hold and shoot a pistol. I shot a Glock 19. Lesson learner: I will not be owning any guns in the foreseeable future.

3. I saw The Hobbit with my old friend Tim. It was soooo much fun. My inner geek was unleashed and had a wonderful reign in my life.

4. I went to the Museum of Natural Science with the sister missionaries on their P-day (I took a half day) and it was awesome. I loved hanging out with the sisters.

5. I got to hang out with Hollister who got some days off during the week, and we had a sleepover in my hotel, went shopping, and had too much fun!

6. Family Christmas dinner on the Saturday before Christmas so we could have a family get together. It was quite pleasant.  I had an interesting consternation with an uncle, who said I could plan a vacation for him and my cousin. IM SO EXCITED! I love planning vacations! WOOHOO!

Then it was off to Costa Rica for me y mi madre :) As Bilbo Baggins says "I think I'm... quite ready for another adventure!"

Sunday night we flew in, and I was lucky enough to sit next to a nice Costa Rican guy. Yay. Mom was recovering from sickness, so she was passed out against the window in her seat. Poor little mommy. lucky me. He was super funny. He works for Amazon and we got our nerd on, talking about movies and superheros. It was a really good flight over, especially because we were able to switch back and forth from English to Spanish during our conversation. He seems like a really great guy. Anyway, we arrived at our hostel and went to bed because we had an early morning ahead of us.

Monday morning (12/24 aka Christmas Eve) we woke up to get ready for the shuttle bus to come pick us up. In all the hustle and bustle of the morning, my mom was in the bathroom and I was changing the bedroom. When I tried to get out of the bedroom...I discovered I was locked in. Not because the door locks from the outside or the door knob was stuck, but the door knob had somehow detached itself from the latch in the door that you have to turn to get the door to open. So I was turning the door knob and nothing was happening, all the while, time was counting down to when our shuttle would be arriving to take us away. Now, I've watched enough tv to know what to do in this situation. I channeled my inner Sydney Bristow (reference: Alias) and started looking for an escape. The windows had bars on them that would not move. and the window part was separated in parts where I would have to individually remove slides of glass to get to the bars. Realizing there was no window escape, I turned towards the door. I tried to push and pull at the door knob, but did not feel it was time to try and break down the door. Instead, I channeled my inner Neal Caffery (reference: White Collar) and started to work on opening the door with my student id card (as I didnt want to hurt my credit card or ruin my driver's licence picture in this amazing feat) I worked on the latch with my card, and praying up a storm, the latch seemed to open and I was freed from my temporary holding cell. Now who says tv is detrimental to our brains?

We got in the shuttle (luckily it was a few minutes late, because so was I) and we drove to Manuel Antonio. We made a little stop and mom and I were able to have some empanadas for brunch. Yum yum yum. We got to our new hostel and there was a porch area overlooking forest and the ocean with hammocks lining the area. It was so relaxing. We got into our little hostel apartment area and enjoyed the hammocks, and walked to the market to get some sunscreen before our first Costa Rican adventure. Kayaking and Snorkeling. When we got to the location, I SAW A SLOTH!!!!!!!!! AND A BABY SLOTH! they were just hanging out in a tree. My first sloth sighting. It was beautiful. I want one. Now, about this adventure, first thing you must remember, I get motion sickness. I often forget this, because I'm so used to taking preventative measures, that it often doesn't become a problem. I haven't gotten super sick since December 2008 (that's a fact/tmi) Anyway, my mom and I were put in a two-person kayak together and started kayaking across a part of the ocean to a where we would kayak. After a little bit, I started feeling terrible. Sadly my mom didn't realize it, and so I was not a happy camper. So I was having to kayak, and focus on not getting sick on our little adventure. Luckily we made it to the other side and I was able to get into the water, and my body normalized because I'm part fish. The visibility wasn't that great, but it was fine. The worst part was kayaking back, as my arms were tired and my nausea was exponentially worse. Miracle 2 of the day: we made it to the other side. Kayaking in the ocean causes motion sickness...who knew? Aka...I'm never doing that again. It seriously made me reconsider if I wanted to go on a yacht cruise later in the week. But we were able to go to dinner and eat a classic Tico dish, casado. It was good, and we met the other people on our little tour. They were really nice and funny. One of the girls loved my swim suit. (I fell like a 60's movie star in it). We went back to the hostel and I spend the rest of the evening reading on the hammock until I joined my mom (who was trying not to fall asleep until 9pm) in watching a little of The Big Bang Theory in our living room. 

I'm channeling my inner 60's girl

Christmas day was wonderful. We ate breakfast and were picked up to go on a surfing lesson. The surfing lesson was fun. We had our lesson in Spanish, which was awesome. We could have done it in English, but once the guy found our we spoke his language, he was happy, and i was happy. We started off on the sand, like they do in the movies, before moving into the water. The waves beat me up a lot, but I'm pretty tenacious when I want to do something. I was able to get up more than I thought I would, but only stayed up the entire time without the wave knocking me over once. I felt super accomplished. One of the surf instructors was american, named Aspen, and he's my new life hero. He had a successful career and decided one day that he wasn't living the life he wanted. He decided to travel the world. He says that surfing saved his life and it taught him to enjoy nature and life more. He's living in Costa Rica now. But he said something that I liked: that people save money to spend it later and never really enjoy life because they're so worried about their money, so he's spending his savings and living/loving life before he's too old. I was inspired. A side note: what they dont tell you about is the surfboard can sometimes rub your skin, so my elbows and tops of my knees were scrapped up after the 2 hours. Another note: one of my favorite things is when everyone asked me how I learned my Spanish, they think it's from school. Yeah right. I never understood Spanish  not even after 3.5 years of studying it. I learned it from with the Latinos of Northern California when I served my mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. #toolegit 

Christmas afternoon was spent reading on the hammock, listening to the Spanish Christmas songs I put on my phone before the trip, and reading the story of Christ's birth from the scriptures. I should have read it all in Spanish, but I wanted my mom to understand everything. (I also discovered on this trip, that my Spanish skills have surpassed hers...oh how the tables have turned...must remember to not become prideful) It was a very special Christmas for me, as it was my first time to Central America. I had a very precious moment as I read the story of our Saviour's birth as the Spirit, once again, testified to my soul that it happened, and that the people in ancient America knew it too. (reference: The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ, 3 Nephi 1:4-25) They also had signs of his birth and knew of his divine mission to come to this earth for us.

Later, We were picked up for horseback riding on the beach. It was a little nerve wracking (as i have been thrown/fallen off a horse 4 times already). But we went. I tried to go slow on the horse. Eventually I felt comfortable enough with the horse, I let it trot a little. The guide was super funny. He had a machete, and said it was part of his uniform, along with his jeans, spurs, and cowboy hat. There was a old lady in our group who wanted to canter and was freaking out trying to get her horse to canter. It was interesting. We had a nice dinner before going back to the hostel and me relaxing with a book. (I used my NOOK app on my phone. I love my NOOK) It was a very happy Christmas.

Mom on one of the shorter ziplines

Mom repelling down the waterfall. Can you see her?

Boxing day (12/26) started early as well. We got up and ready for our outdoors adventure. We were going to repel a waterfall and we weren't sure what to expect. We went with Quepos Canyoneering, and it was AMAZING! loved it. It wasn't only repelling. We had to climb up rope ladders, zipline from different platforms, walk on a tight rope between trees, and did a drop into a waterfall  in addition to repelling down a waterfall. It was LEGENDARY! We made some cool friends along the way, Deepa (a Harvard grad student) and another guy whose name I forgot. They were our buddies. On the drive out of the forest, on of the guides was telling me how he built his house with his own two hands out of wood, and it took him 2 years. He's cool. We had a really good lunch before catching our shuttle to Monteverde. Fact: it had been a miracle that I hadn't been car sick yet, but this drive was borderline. I had to drug myself up and it was funny how mom was getting nervous with all the windy mountain roads. I could never drive in central america. One of our drivers told us at one point, that Costa Ricans are bad at two things: driving and giving directions. I would like to say, that they are pretty good at driving, as I could never drive on such narrow roads up a mountain in a big van when other big vans are coming the other way. #truth But we managed to get to Monteverde without incident. One of the hostel guys showed me a sloth in a nearby tree in the darkness (while i fought my crazy side that said "dont follow him in the darkness or you will be taken!). Mom and I went to the market and made spaghetti for dinner. And I made some reservations for tours tomorrow, something I had been waiting to do in order to get a native person's opinion, because there are so many organizations that do the same things there.

Waterfall we were dropped into from a scary height backwards :)