The End

So that's it. We're back in the US. Starting the process of putting the pieces of our lives back together. We'll get moved into the house soon and get our pets back. Thankfully we have the summer to get our world settled and into a routine before I have to head back to work.

I'm still processing the whole trip. Living in the capital city of a developing country, I've learned so much about myself and the world. I went through stages of culture shock. As a friend describe it, first a high of being in a new place, and then the low of being far from home, experiencing so many different things (not always pleasant or fun) as well as the difficulties of the language barrier. Having Myles along for the journey only seemed to make the highs higher, and lows lower.

And then slowly I came out of it and started to enjoy my life there for what it was. And didn't miss all of my American culture or amenities as much.  I started to accept the new life, and found many great joys in it. I got very homesick at the very end of the trip. Maybe it was b/c I knew we were heading home soon and it was just looming over me.

Costa Rica was a rich, wonderful, challenging and special adventure. I'm blessed to have been able to live there for 9 months with my husband and son. 

Being home, officially ends this blog. If you're inspired to continue to follow us, you can read about us at 3msmith.blogspot.com. I'm sure I won't be blogging as much, but will try to be good at keeping those interested, updated.

Thanks for reading!

Playa Avellana/ Playa Negra

Our last week in Costa Rica...

We spent our last few days in Playa Avellana. We were super excited to have our new friends Roberto, Cindy, and Sunny join us for a few days. Thursday was Cindy's birthday so we were sure to do some celebrating with good food and friends. Her good friends from South Carolina were in the area so the group sang and ate cake!

 

 Of course Myles and Sunny enjoyed the pool.

Video games during down town, and jumping on the bed were fun activities for the boys. 

Playa Avellana is beautiful, and we enjoyed a half-day, swimming, body surfing, and play in the sand.

      

Every night, we had a delicious dinner. Morgan and Roberto went out one afternoon to look for fresh fish. They came home with 2 fish and some lobster. I was almost as excited about the lobster as Cindy. It's been a long time since eating Lobster. 

  

Roberto's friends invited us to Hacienda Pinilla Resort for a morning of swimming, surfing, cocktails and snacks. The pool was beautiful, there was a group of kids playing in the pool, and everyone was super nice and inviting. It was a great morning.

 

We met LOLA, the infamous pig in Playa Avellana.

 

After Roberto and family headed back home, Morgan, Myles and I went exploring. We wanted to see some of the beaches in the area. They are all pretty close in distance but they all have different sand and waves. 

So we jumped in our BEGO and were off....

We visited Playa Conchal which has small shells sand.

We also visited, Playa Flamingo, Playa Tamerindo, and Playa Negra.

Look at these cool trees.

This just might be the right time for us to leave Costa Rica. The rainy season in just getting started. These pictures were taken 15 minutes after it started raining! It sure is a lot of water.

Here are the three kittens that lived under the house we rented. Maybe 5 or 6 weeks. Good thing Cindy and Roberto left some ham in the fridge to feed the little one. Mom was no where to be seen.

Playa Samara/ Playa Corillo

Last week we stayed in Playa Samara. We were in a beautiful guest home. Playa Samara has a few cute shops, restaurants, and a decent dentist. However, the beach isn't anything to write home about. When we weren't playing in the the beautiful pool at the house, we hung out at Playa Corillo which was gorgeous. It had great waves so Morgan indulged in some body surfing. Myles is still a bit apprehensive of the ocean, but is warming back up to the idea of playing with the sand.

Here are some of locals. The frog/toad hung outside our sliding glass door all evening eating dinner. He was quite big!

Preparing to Leave

May 1st we will leave Sabanilla for 16 days on the coast.

Goodbye to our CR home!

 We're renting a car and will do some exploring.

So begins the process of  closing down this chapter, while starting the new chapter in DC.

I finished classes at Mesoamerica. I left at an "Advanced" level. While I think I'm book-smart, and have a good understanding of all the rules, and the exceptions to the rules, I really am still speaking at a Beginner, -maybe, an Intermediate level. I came here hoping to leave fluent, with the realistic expectation of not reaching that goal. So the good news is I built a strong foundation and will continue to build my skills as I return to the US. I do believe living here was the only way I would have been able to make the jump from non-speaker, to speaker. As my friend Montzi always says, "Un poco a poco."

Came in at level 1, leaving at level 6!

It'll be difficult to leave our good friends (adopted family) here in Sabanilla, but the excitement of returning to our friends and family in the DC area really is helping to ease that ach.

I think Myles will miss Cristiana. His first BFF.

We are one lucky family to have the incredible support back home to help us transition us back to the US.

Both of Morgan's parents worked together to get our car shipped from Nanc's house to Mike's house. So we'll have transportation as soon as we land. I have a slight smile on my face as I write this, b/c not having a car has been one of life's luxuries I have missed the most while living abroad.

 

Myles has been accepted to a Immersion preschool in NW. We're super excited to work with this school as they seem to be a perfect fit. We're thrilled to have found a program that will nurture Myles's Spanish language development. I also have to mention it's very close to Guapos. So I'll be in the area every evening around dinner time if you want meet up at my favorite restaurant.  :)

My dad has offered us my childhood home as a place for us to live for the next year... or longer if we'd like. We fell blessed to have this house to transition back into the DC area. It's more than big enough for us and has great yard space for Myles and Kira and our new puppy to run and play.

Did you catch that last line? Yes we're looking into getting a puppy for Kira and Omar will have another companion to play with and hang with while Morgan, Myles and I go to work and school all day, 5 days a week. I'm super excited about expanding our family.

Omar has already made the journey across the country so we just need to get Kira to DC. I'm so anxious and excited to get everyone back together.

I'm happy to say I signed a contract with MCPS and have a job. I will interview with schools in late June and hope to know where I'll be teaching by the beginning of July. As many of you know, I've truly missed teaching, so having this job lined up is very exciting. I've already had dreams about my upcoming year teaching. I can't wait to get back into the classroom!

There are so many details that have to be thought through and planned for, but as I said, we're so lucky to have an amazing support system to help us get a few things (some of the most important things) in place before landing back on May 17th.

We'll spend the next two weeks traveling, exploring, and enjoying our last few days in the beautiful country. We look forward to meeting up with our friends Cindy, Roberto and Sunny.

It's all so surreal. I can't believe this chapter is coming to an end, all the while I'm very excited to move on to the next thing. I guess that's the best part... being able to look back with many fond memories, but at the same time looking forward with excitement. It helps to ease the pain of good-byes.

Kim and Ralph Come to Town!

As you read in the earlier post, Kim and Ralph made their way down to Costa Rica to help Myles find Easter eggs, learn to fly a kite, and explore the country too. We stayed at a friend's house in Arenal. This time we were on the NW side of the lake. Last time when we explored this part of the country we were on the SE side of the Lake, very close to the Volcano.

Beautiful Sunsets

We visited a hot-water river. This river feeds into the Hot Spring Resorts around town. Kim and I hung out in the water and enjoyed the scenery and relaxing water.

The water here is as warm as bath water.

Kim and Ralph in front of Volcano Arenal

After getting past the pack of cattle in the road, we went to a beautiful waterfall. We walked down a steep cliff to get to the bottom of the waterfall where Kim went for a dip.

   

 

 

Myles loves to drive us around.

 The next day we met up with our new friends for a day at the pool. We were the only ones taking advantage of this great spot and enjoyed, the sun, water, slide and company.

 

    

Cindy, Roberto and Sunny with our family

Kim and Ralph and us in front of the lake

On our way back to San Jose we made a stop at the beach so Kim and Ralph could get a little flavor of the Ocean. 

 

It was so great to have them down here! I'm glad they were able to make it before we return home.