From Catalina to Mentor via Costa Rica

The last few weeks have been quite hectic and included sustaining injury to my already weak left knee, moving into a new apartment two blocks north by northwest and of course the simply magical time I spent in Costa Rica. Devoid of a camera and not having to take photographs at every single urge, I chose instead to devour the people, the time and the uniqueness of the moment making some notes by and by. My first foray into a Spanish-speaking country, and hopefully not my last, was filled with wonders at how much more beautiful the language sounds when used exclusively and not as an obligatory and required accessory to English as in the United States, the warm and affectionate Costa Ricans or as they call themselves -- Ticos, rice and beans through many several permutations and yet never tasting the same, frescos or refreshing fruit juice of different kinds every single day, stray dogs, uniformly adorned knee-high skirts, afternoon rain, soccer in all shapes and ages and in all sizes of fields, relatives in New Jersey, Latin American pop fighting for playing rights with hard rock, pura vida, The Simpsons in Spanish and bed at 9pm. And then there were my intimate experiences with our group of eighteen from Caltech most of whom I got to know much closer than I had anticipated at the start of the trip. To think there was a time when I harboured some reluctance to make the trip and even wanting my visa application to be rejected makes my present ecstatic self mildly annoyed by the previous cynical one.

December 2004 - March 2005

October 2004 - November 2004

July 2004 - September 2004

May 2004 - June 2004

April 2004

January 2004 - March 2004

October 2003 - January 2004

July 2003 - October 2003

May 2003 - June 2003

April 2003

January 2003 - April 2003

2002

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