So, I’ve been here at my site for about 3 weeks and I feel like I’m making some headway with my work, but there is a whole lot of down time seeing as a lot of my work is in the school and we are currently on “summer” vacation. In this case, I imagine your question is, “what have you been doing?” Great question. One I ask myself every day. It’s kinda hard to feel like I’m working with some of the things that I’m doing, but I guess I am. I've been meeting people, getting the lay of the land and explaining who I am and what I'm doing here. In addition to this “work” I do, I’ve also been spending a lot of time with my family, drinking lots of coffee and generally getting comfortable here.

Here are a few things I wanted to share that might give you a little window into life here in Venecia:

1.Hold on to your hat, literally.
I’ve been doing a fair bit of running here, some of it on the main road, which is a “highway” where big trucks, buses, etc. pass. (Even if I decide to run somewhere else I have to run on the highway about 5 min to get to the other areas) Big trucks create a fair bit of wind as they pass and I have learned that it is essential that I hold on to my hat. I tried the looking down strategy so my hat would not blow away, but after a few unsuccessful situations which ended with my hat in the muddy ditch I concluded I must hold onto it, or else. I usually come back from runs a little muddy anyway because it’s been raining a lot and it’s unavoidable but I’m sure my family wonders how exactly that mud manages to make it onto my head…or better yet, how my head would manage to make it down into the mud.
2.Cows.
I think I mentioned when describing the area that I was going to live that there are a lot of cows. This is true and I had heard that sometimes traffic has to stop for them. I didn’t really think this part was true until I was on a bus on New Year’s Eve headed to meet some friends and we came to a screeching halt because of a herd of cows crossing the road. The first of many cow crossings I’m positive.
3.Even the dogs are Pura Vida.
When I was in Ecuador I had a lot of trouble with angry dogs chasing me when I was running. I’ve never been scared of dogs, but there I became really scared of them due to an incident in Ecuador where I came to the dead end of a path along the river and with 5 angry dogs surrounded me. I just stood there because as long as I didn’t move they just barked, but if I were to move they would have bitten me. I was there on the verge of tears ‘til someone on the other side of the river started yelling to startle them and showed me how to move to intimidate them and I managed to scare them off. The point of this story is that now I am quite nervous around street dogs and when they approach me I clap my hands and yell to scare them off. Here there are lots of street dogs, but when I do that to them they just kind of look at me and wag their tails. They seem to be very confused as to why I’m yelling and they just give me puppy dog faces and wait to be petted. When I’m running sometimes they run with me, or they just watch me as I go by. I still stiffen up a little when I’m coming up to one, but I’m almost used to them. I say they are pura vida because that’s how Costa Ricans say “It’s all good” or “Chill” or “Relaxed” or “Really nice” or “Cool”. It has a lot of meanings but in this case it means, “Even the dogs are chill around here”.

I also have to admit that I really am missing skiing. I know that I claim to dislike winter, very strongly I might add. But I have found myself dreaming of snow and wishing I could be skiing. Basically I'm saying that you are all right and I do miss the snow even though I swore up and down I would not. Despite this I will feel better about winter when they figure out a way to separate skiing and snow from feeling unreasonably cold for months at a time.