Costa Rican Castaways

Would you ever come home if you were us?

Pura Vida

As I expected, the last thing I've wanted to do since arriving in Costa Rica four days ago is sit at a computer and write a blog post.  But I know the Grandmas are waiting anxiously for an update, checking the blog hourly for a post.  And I am excited to share what we've been up to with you people, so here it goes.

The kids and I flew down into Liberia, Costa Rica on Sunday.  Since Kevin isn't able to take three weeks off of work the kids and I came down first and he'll join us next Thursday for about eleven days, then we'll all fly back to NYC together.  From Liberia we were picked up at the airport and taken on a little less than an hour's drive out to the coast where the kids' school is located.  Tamarindo is a little surf/beach town, which was probably a lot smaller and sleepier many years ago.  Although it is still fairly undeveloped with only one main paved road and many side dirt roads, no high rises and only one large-ish hotel, it still has its share of gift shops, tour companies, restaurants and bars.  You can walk from one end of town to the other in less than 15 minutes but if you ask a local (and by local, I mean one of the many expats who have started businesses here) they'll tell you that Tamarindo has become very built-up.

Shortly after we were delivered to our two bedroom condo that will be our home for the next three weeks, we had to make our way into town for the Sunday evening orientation the school puts on each week for the newcomers.  The school caters to all ages wanting to learn Spanish.  The youngest student here this week is three-year-old Josie and the oldest I've met is a Grandma who brought her two grandchildren, all three of them taking Spanish classes.  They are staying with a local family, which is also an option.  In between, the students are split up into approximately elementary school age, middle school kids, high schoolers (who either come with their family or most of them are here on their own in a dorm style situation like the ultimate sleep away camp) and then there are the adults (some of whom are the parents of the kids in camp).  The school teaches adults year-round but only takes kids for the summer camp.

At the orientation (which took place at a beach bar - I just can't keep the kids out of bars) we got to meet some of the families who were already here the previous week as well as new families who had just arrived, like us.  We were given a run down of the town, activities, the week's schedule and tips on what to do in our free time.  People coming to the school can stay wherever they want in town but at our condo/hotel, which is also where the classes for the younger kids are held, everyone staying here is going to the school, which has made it incredibly easy for us to make friends.

On Monday morning the kids had to be dropped off at school (downstairs) at 8am.  I thought that sounded too early for us to be getting up and out the door while on vacation, but I forgot about the time change.  The kids and I were wide awake at 5am the first morning, long before the howler monkeys had their loud squabble in the trees outside our door.  Everyday the younger kids start with two hours of Spanish "class" (which is really just playing games and having fun in Spanish).  The middle and high school kids have a longer, more intensive Spanish class and then spend the afternoons in surf lessons and taking yoga daily.  None of the counselors speak much English, so it's definitely immersive.  Although, the Spanish abilities of the kids varies greatly.  In their group, Ella and Holden probably have the best Spanish so I was worried that they might be bored.  I even moved Holden from the 5-7 year old group to the 8-10 year old group with Ella on the first morning since the really small kids are all beginners.  But they're having a lot of fun and I'm told that Ella speaks up a lot and is really practicing her Spanish, so I think they'll be fine.  The biggest bonus is that Spanish is becoming fun again for them, something that was definitely not the case at their school in New York.

After snack on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays they go down to the beach (across the road) and go swimming.  Friday they will have surf lessons.  The parents are invited to show up anytime they want to watch the kids.  I went down to the beach to see what they were up to, but kept my distance, watching from the shade of a tree a little ways down the beach.  I don't think I've ever seen my kids happier - diving under waves, playing tug-of-war in the water with the other kids, and being tossed high up in the air, over the waves by the counselors.

This is taken from my covert location under the tree.

After beach time they returned to the school for an art project until 2pm, pick-up time.  Monday nights the families are all invited to the same restaurant to have dinner and get to know each other.  We met several more really nice people and the kids played on the beach at sunset, jumping through tide pools and playing catch with a coconut.

On Tuesdays after Spanish class there is always a field trip.  I was pleasantly surprised to find out that parents can join the field trips, too.  And you know I love to chaperone all field trips!  So I tagged along on a tour of the local estuary where we saw more howler monkeys, many different birds and even several crocodiles!  One of them even chased our boat, which of course was the highlight of Holden's year.  I took most of my pictures with my good camera and since I'm not able to download them to this computer, you'll have to make do with the few pictures I actually take with my phone camera while we're here.

Wednesday was again beach and art project day.  Wednesday night though was Spanish Movie Night, which is meant to be a date night for the grown-ups as you can just drop off your kids from 5:30-8pm.  But since my date is back in New York working hard, I was invited to tag along with three couples from Austin for dinner.  I forgot how much easier it is to meet people and strike up conversations when you're travelling alone.  Everyone has been so nice to me and I'm constantly running into other parents in town or on the beach and getting into lengthy conversations with them.  Of the couples I ate with last night, two of the husbands will leave at the end of the week and their wives and kids will stay here for another couple weeks.  I've also met a couple other moms who are here before their husbands arrive, like me.  Costa Rica is one of the safest countries in the world with a very low crime rate, so I have felt completely safe while here, even walking home in the evenings with the kids.

On Thursdays after Spanish class the kids go to a nearby school for Costa Rican kids as a sort of cultural exchange.  They have a year-round schedule in Costa Rica so they are still in session right now.  The kids got to meet local kids their age and play a game of soccer with them.  Ella was intimidated before going because one of her friends who was in camp last week said that the Costa Rican kids take their soccer very seriously and are really good players.  But it turned out that she and Holden had a really fun time and Ella said that Holden played really well and even stole the ball from one of the local kids.  Our campers even won against the local kids.  They all had lunch together and then broke open a pinata for a good sugar rush.

You may be wondering what I do while the kids are in school.  So far I've started each morning with a long beach walk.  However, it's really hot here.  Even at 8am, right after drop-off it's probably in the 80s and gets well into the 90s later in the day with high humidity.  So even a nice walk on the beach doesn't last long because really, it's just too hot.  So I usually find a nice lounge chair in the shade and read for a bit.  I'm on my second book already and it's only been four days.  I've also spent a lot of time wandering around the town, getting my bearings.  I've found the two local grocery stores and stocked up our kitchen (which much to my delight is probably three times the size of my kitchen in Manhattan, not that that's saying much).  I've found the bank and figured out the ATM and exchange rate.  I've discovered my favorite local coffee shop and even found a good used bookstore.  When it gets too hot in the afternoons I go back to our condo and stand in the pool, reading my book.  There are many yoga studios in town and I had planned to take yoga while I was here but honestly, when given the choice of being outside and walking on the beach or being inside an air-conditioned room taking yoga, I choose the former.  In crowded and noisy New York City, going to yoga classes is my way to escape the chaos and center myself.  Here, there's no chaos to escape from.

In the afternoons after I pick up the kids we've been alternating between staying at the pool with a bunch of other kids from camp or heading back to the beach to play in the surf, check out the tide pools or get an ice cream.  Today the kids swam in the pool continuously from 2pm until dinnertime and passed out at 7:30 from exhaustion.

Ella's buddy, Sophia

A More Perfect Union

[Finally posting this 3 days after I wrote it. I'm also posting it from Costa Rica on a computer I'm unfamiliar with, using shotty internet service, so please excuse the strange font and any other problems you may see.]

I’m sitting on the airplane on my way to Costa Rica and realize that I never got up a post about our Fourth of July and Holden’s birthday celebrations.  

Independence Day was rainy and cloudy all day here in New York.  The city is completely empty (relatively speaking) and it sure didn’t feel like any Fourth of July I’ve ever experienced.  At one point I told Kevin that this should be our last Fourth in the city.  The holiday is supposed to be one spent outside, barbequing, swimming.  Not wandering around a city under umbrellas wondering if we’re going to be able to see any fireworks.

We spent a big chunk of the day inside at the New York Historical Society.  It was opening day of a new exhibit of original paintings and drawings from the Madeline books written and illustrated by Ludwig Bemelmans.  He lived and worked in the city which is why it was being shown at the NY Historical Society.  We all really enjoyed it and it always makes it more fun for the kids (little and big) to get an audio guide with it, explaining what we’re seeing and why we’re seeing it.  

Unfortunately, I cleared out my phone of all photos before leaving on our trip to make room for more, so if you want to see a cute photo of Ella at the exhibit, you'll have to go to the trouble of clicking here.  Sorry about that.

After the exhibit we did a scavenger hunt that the museum has for kids that takes you around all four floors, seeking out clues.  It was a special kids scavenger hunt just for Independence Day so again, it made the visit a lot more fun.  We learned a lot about George Washington, how he was inaugurated in New York City which served briefly as the capital of the United States, and even got to see several chairs that he sat in.  

Even though I knew the chance of our seeing fireworks in such yucky weather was low, I agreed to head downtown near where the fireworks would be set off over the Brooklyn Bridge.  We continued the George Washington theme by eating dinner at Fraunces Tavern. After British troops evacuated New York in 1783, George Washington bade farewell to his officers in the Long Room of this building. It is just down the street from Federal Hall where he was sworn in as President.  

We struck up a conversation with a woman and her son sitting next to us.  It turned out that it was her son Dylan's birthday and they had decided last minute to take the train down from Greenwich, Connecticut to see the fireworks.  He and Holden hit it off and they ended up inviting us to join them in trying to get close to the edge of the river using their hotel room key, as their hotel was near the water but within the restricted areas to pedestrians.  There were barricades and police all over the place but we were able to get past several barricades and police lines by just flashing her room card.  

I still don’t know how it happened, but somehow we went from assuming we wouldn’t see any fireworks at all and were resigned to trying to see them on the bar television set, to getting a second row seat on the edge of the river, directly across from the three barges that were launching the fireworks.  And to top it off, the sky cleared up as if by magic and turned an amazing shade of blue.  I have no doubt that we had the absolute best seats in the entire city.

The next morning we woke much too early to Holden racing upstairs and jumping in our bed, so excited to finally be seven.  He tore through all of his gifts as though it were Christmas morning.  We got ourselves ready, picked up our Zipcar and made our way through the Lincoln Tunnel and over to Secaucus, New Jersey, home of Field Station.  Field Station is kind of like a zoo for dinosaurs.  They have dozens of robot-like dinoaurs, fun shows to learn about what dinosaurs ate, how they lived, theories about how they died.  

We spent the rest of the afternoon watching Costa Rica play The Netherlands in what will hopefully be the last World Cup game I see for a long time.  We found our favorite sports bar in the Columbia University area and watched the heartbreaking loss in the very last kick of the game  It would have been oh so fun to arrive in Costa Rica on the heels of a victory.  

Over nachos and french fries Ella asked, “Why do we always eat in taverns?”  

Time for this World Cup to end.

Summer Vacation in Central Park

The wall of humidity hit this week.  Temps in the 90s and there's no walking as far as the corner without dripping in sweat.  I'm ready for a vacation.

Kevin and I started off the week with back-to-back concerts in Central Park on Monday and Tuesday nights.  Throughout the summer, the City Parks Foundation puts on concerts and events throughout the city under the name of SummerStage.  Monday night we joined our friends Sharon and Stefan to see The Counting Crows - a former favorite band of mine. 

 

Tuesday night we saw one of our very favorites, Beck.  He always puts on a great show and is so talented.  The great part is that the venue in Central Park is so small that everyone is really close to the stage.  I was feeling my age after two nights in a row of dancing in a crowd for a couple hours each night and have been popping Ibuprofen ever since.

But before Beck came out, the opening band started playing.  We had never heard of the band and were only slightly paying attention, still finishing up our beers.  Then Kevin realized that the lead singer was Sean Lennon, the only child of John Lennon and Yoko Ono.  It was pretty cool to watch him perform just steps away from the memorial to his father in Central Park, Strawberry Fields.  

While the big kids were having fun listening to music in the park, the little kids were also enjoying Central Park with our awesome babysitter, Casey.

  
During the day on Monday the kids and I took our time getting up and ready.  We eventually made our way into the park for a picnic and some reading time.

For only one week each year, the New York Public Library puts on display an original draft of the Declaration of Independence (one of 5 that exist) on display.  After giving the kids a synopsis of the significance of the Declaration of Independence with this School House Rock video on Tuesday, we met Kevin at lunchtime at the library.

 

The library is located in Bryant Park in midtown.  We wandered around the park, rode the carousel and discovered that Tuesday was game day in Bryant Park.  There's a big cart of board games that you can choose from and take a seat and play, all for free.  After Kevin returned to work, the kids and I spent some time playing several rounds of UNO.

 

They even had free knitting classes going on.  Apparently they happen every Tuesday throughout the summer so don't worry Jay, we'll try to get back for one of those!

The next day was really when the wall of humidity hit.  So we found ourselves once again in Central Park, hundreds of water balloons in pocket, ready to be filled and catapulted.  We met their friend Luke at a playground and cooled off.

Late in the day I had a doctor's appointment not far from Kevin's office so we met up with him after work.  We wandered past the United Nations buildings and vowed to return for a tour soon.  Thunder and lightening started to strike so we ran for Grand Central Station.  It turns out Kevin had an ulterior motive for getting us there.  Ella has been begging to try raw oysters lately (remember her sour face in Mystic?).  The Grand Central Oyster Bar is world famous and as good a place as any to lose your oyster virginity.  It opened along with the terminal 101 years ago and has been in business ever since.

 

Much to my complete shock, she gave them two thumbs up.


We wrapped up the week swimming in the suburbs again.  This time we went to Hastings-on-Hudson, a cute little town just 15 miles north of the city.  Our friends have a summertime membership to the neighborhood pool.  We were threatened with thunder clouds all day but the flash floods held off until we were bundled up at home, watching Mrs. Doubtfire (I forgot what a great movie that is).  That's something I still haven't gotten used to: thunderstorms on a hot day.  Where I come from, if it's raining and thundering, it's cold out.  It never rains when it's hot. 

I will try to post again before the kids and I leave for Costa Rica on Sunday morning (Kevin will join us ten days later).  But considering I haven't even packed yet for any of us, I make no promises.  I do plan to blog while we're there though, although possibly on a less frequent basis.   

After all, I'll need to tell you all about how Holden turned seven years old!

Happy Independence Day, people!