Down by the River

Wow, I am a morning person, but 4am comes really early. Somehow we managed to be on the road in our tourist bus by 5am. We headed north of San Jose, out of the city. Los Chiles was where we had to meet a boat. On our way we stopped and saw lots of iguanas. At Los Chiles we technically exited Costa Rica, went through immigration, then got on a boat. The boat was interesting...long, two seats on one side, one on the other. It required weight balance and shifting of some people before we got going. Everyone pulled their cameras out as we were told we would see monkeys. Little did we know that the Nicaraguan border was only a few miles up the river. Waiting for us there were a few Nicaraguan soldiers. Of course everyone was still taking pictures, which didn't make the military men (boys) very happy. When we stopped so they could inspect our boat, one of the men came on the boat and made all of us (most likely for a good laugh) put on our life jackets!!! Lesson learned.

Next we were off to San Carlos, which sits at the corner of Lake Nicaragua, Rio Frio and Rio San Juan. We had to go through Nicaraguan immigration and then we had lunch. After lunch we returned to the boat and continued on to El Castillo. It was a beautiful 2 hour boat ride. It was so nice to pull in to El Castillo and get settled. We would stay for 3 nights and 2 days at Hotel Victoria.

We all went off to explore after we got settled. We went to see the fort the town is named after. This is where we discovered that no one in Nicaragua has change. (ASIDE: Two reasons for this---1) We were in small towns and we were tourists; 2) we learned that Nicaragua just doesn't have much currency.) The lady taking money and one of our trip members conversed in Spanish while about 19 students stood by confused at why we couldn't just pay our $2 to explore the fort. It all worked out in the end, and the view of the river and the surrounding region was awesome.

At our meeting that evening we learned we would be "hiking" to El Gavilan community the next day to do home visits. Then the day after that we would hold a clinic for the same community.

An Aside

Here are some photos from our recent trip to KC for Andy's Birthday and Valentine's Day. We enjoyed the Power and Lights District for Andy's Birthday. We went to Bristol Seafood Grill for Happy Hour. It was a bit pricey but very yummy, and their drinks were high quality. We then went to the flying saucer. I had been to one in Houston before. This place has an amazing selection of beer!

Then the real party started as we went to Howl at the Moon!

Here you see Andy dancing up on stage!!!


After this it was lights out...after ordering pizza at the hotel. The next day we moved to the plaza. We had reservations at a Japanese Steakhouse. It was different from what we had done on past Valentine's Days. It was a lot of fun and I'm glad that we did it. We spent the rest of the night in the hotel hot tub.

Next up we will have a short trip to Des Moines to run a 1/2 marathon. After I get done with class we will head to Vegas. And then our trip to Hawaii!!!

Costa Rica/Nicaragua 2009

The following set of blogs are being published on UNMC's Blog. I recently went on a spring break medical mission to Nicaragua. Enjoy!

Our first day consisted of pure travel. Arriving at the airport at 430 am is not exactly my favorite thing to do. Everyone in our group made it on time and we flew to Phoenix on US Airways. I am happy they decided it was worthless to charge for beverages (including water) on their flights.

After we arrived in Phoenix we left security and parked our selves in an area with tables and chairs. We read, slept, did crossword puzzles and even played “paper basketball.” I don’t think the custodians were too happy with our group after 5 hours of lounging and bonding.

I was so happy when we got on our second flight. It was another 5 hours…yikes. My favorite part about the flight was meeting the woman in our row from Canada. She was also traveling for a mission. She had only been out of Canada a couple of times and it was to the States. This was also the longest plane trip of her life. I was happy to share it with her. She had been organizing a project for 3 years and had always sent off care packages. This time she actually got to see the children who received the packages and deliver them in person. The group from Canada was traveling to the “Earthquake Zone” in Costa Rica.

When we arrived in San Jose, Costa Rica we were met by our trip leader Marta. She is a group leader for ISL (International Service Learning). This group organized our trip. We stayed in their “Casa Concordia” for our first two nights. They had a cook that made some of our meals. We slept in bunks, which reminded me of being at camp when I was in 5th grade. The windows were open through the night and some people had trouble sleeping with dogs barking and other unfamiliar sounds startling them.

Many of us awoke by daylight—530 am. Really not too early (630am) at home, but considering we had traveled the previous day (all day), I was wishing my sleep would’ve lasted longer. Some of us decided to take a walk early in the morning. There was a nice park around the block as well as a bakery that some in the group tried.

In the morning we had class on medical spanish and tropical diseases.

In the afternoon we explored San Jose’s City Center. Since it was Sunday many families were out and about. Some of the highlights of the city center were the National Cathedral, the National Theater and the post office. For dinner we went to an area called El Pueblo. It seemed like an American Tourist Trap. We ate at a seafood restaurant. We were informed that we would be leaving the next day at 5am!!! It would be a long day of travel to our next destination: El Castillo, Nicaragua.

School countdown...

If you were wondering...school starts on Monday...only 4 days

Darling's Wedding

So much fun...here are some great pics from the weekend! I can't wait to see the wedding pictures. We partied all night long...I was actually up on stage dancing...oops! I'll have to find some of those pictures.

Darling is Getting Married!

Alison Darling..This lovely girl is getting married! Well, the one in white. I think we have been friends since the middle of 4th grade when she moved to Lincoln from Pennsylvania. That makes about 15 years of friendship. We didn't go to school together until 7th grade, but played soccer together. When we got our schedule for 7th grade it was pretty much completely identical. We were locker partners. It has been 12 years since we found out about her cancer. And 11 years since she's been cancer free. It has been 9 years since she met her husband-to-be at an FBLA conference in Wichita, KS. Even though they attended high school together they had never met before that weekend. It has been 6 years since our summer of Moo-meries. 2 years since she was in my wedding. I am so glad our friendship has lasted the test of time, and so excited to be a part of her wedding this coming weekend. I can't wait for many memories to come!

Note to Self

I knew my brother was in L-O-V-E, but wow...he wants to get married...I think he found a winner:

I am so happy he's found someone so wonderful. He left us for 10 months last year to study in Italy and now he will probably go live in Germany starting next summer. I guess I will just have to get used to having a brother that will be living abroad.