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. 

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 :)