Phantom Playlists

For the last 3 years I have been creating playlists and promising to share them.  Over time I have run out of excuses so I'm planning to release them in reverse chronological order starting now.  These are (most of) the songs that I listened to obsessively throughout 2014.

2014: My Year In Music

Stay tuned for 2013 and 2012.

La Ropería

The day after I posted the internet and phone stopped working, so I'm glad I posted when I did.  I was cut off from everyone outside of Selva Bananito for almost... I guess it was just 11 days, but it felt like way more.  It left without warning (as it tends to do everyday for shorter periods of time) due to a failed power inverter, but it took days just to figure that out.  I hope it never goes away again.  I need internet.

I've been ousted from my cabin temporarily while we have a lot of guests, and more volunteers are coming.  I'm currently staying in the back room of the office where all the linens and towels are, as well as an extra mattress.  It's a small room, but it has a window, and WIFI!!  In the cabins I'm too far from the router so being able to check email in the privacy of my room is great.  That is when the ladies who work here don't need a new towel or set of sheets.  I'd like to stay here I think.  There are more volunteers coming this week, and I think I'll end up having to share with them eventually

If you'll notice, there are plastic bags full of clean laundry that needs to be folded and put on those shelves.  Until we have time to do so, I will be woken up by the rustling of plastic under the bed, which I'm assuming is a toad that likes the room as much as I do.  I've seen its excrements... but I haven't seen it.  I'm forever grateful for those mosquito nets because they're the only reason I can relax enough to fall asleep.  Toads don't scare me, but I also found a baby scorpion, which my friend Justo killed and kindly reminded me that there's probably a (very angry) momma scorpion around too.  Fantastic.    

What it is

I've been in Costa Rica since September 4.  Today is my 20th day.  In the last 20 days I have: visited with Luza and Ana Sofia 2 nights, worked 1 1/2 days in the San Jose office, driven with Jürgen to Límon, and been working at Selva Bananito Lodge and Reserve ever since.

It was great to see Luza and Sofie.  My first day here I think has been the hardest yet, and I wonder if it would have been better or worse had I been alone.  I felt so homesick.  So it was great to see family, but at the same time I wish I had been in better spirits.  Oh well.  I started feeling better by day 2.

Day 2 was spent taking the bus early into San Jose with Luza, and she dropped me off at the office.  Jürgen met us there, and then Luza went back home.  I've worked everyday since.  There haven't been any days off, but since my work changes a lot from day to day, and ranges in intensity, I have found it not only bearable but pleasing.

I like my coworkers, and the volunteers that are here.  They're friendly, and patient with my spanish.  My roommate thus far, Lina from Germany just left today.  So tonight I will have the cabin to myself, which I'm happy about, but also a little indifferent.  It's great to have my own space, but I barely spend time there as it is, not to mention Lina was clean and polite (and really nice), an ideal roommate.  I think another volunteer is coming in a couple weeks though, so I may have to share again.  Hopefully I still feel indifferent to sharing when the time comes.

My work has varied from sitting in front of a computer doing research, to hiking up different creeks in the rainforest measuring the flow of water, to prepping food in the kitchen, to eating with tourists and schmoozing, to writing short stories about the goings-on here.  It's been pretty awesome in that respect.  I'm doing a lot of brand new things, and I love the rainforest.  It's hot, and there's crazy bugs that are constantly too close for comfort, but I'm getting used to it.  Today I had a talk with some sort of flying/hopping/humungous bug.  I don't think he could fly very well anymore.  He came into my shower last night and wouldn't leave. This afternoon I scooped him up into my waste basket to bring him outside but he seriously refused to let go.  So I left the waste basket outside.  I have to check on him soon.  I need that waste basket back.  I've also had a problem with the bats living in the wall next to my head at night.  They wake me up.  I hear them flying right over my face and it freaks me out.  They're harmless, but they're like flying mice.  No one here seems to think they carry disease either.  They're supposedly just harmless fruit bats.  None the less I'm in the process of having someone remove their nest.  We tried just spraying and cleaning the area, but it didn't work.  Now we have to take the wall apart.  Mucho trabajo.

In conclusion...living far away from my friends and family is hard.  I've experienced lots of new things:  some of them good, and some awful but I want to keep on keeping on.  So I will.  I miss everyone.  And I hope this will be an easier way of staying in touch with everyone while I explore our lovely planet.