Coming back from vacation is tough to do. Actually, since I'm on a seven-month vacation, I should probably re-state that... Coming back from a trip out of the country is tough to do.
Shing and I got back from Costa Rica late on Monday night. The trip was absolutely fantastic. On the last night of our trip, we tried to pick the best part of the vacation - I couldn't even narrow it down to the best day. Each day was terrific and seemingly at least as good as the last. You know, a review of the trip should be its own post, so I'll tackle that one in the next day or so.
Last night, I went to the gym for the first time in a couple weeks. I go to 24 Hour Fitness on Ocean Ave in SF (which, coincidentally, is NOT 24 hours - they close from 2-5am) and normally they have the usual on tv: ESPN, ESPN2, Fox News, and like the Food Network. I normally find Fox News to be the most motivating thing on. Watching Bill O'Reilly or Glenn Beck blathering their nonsense, combined with the Fox News ticker is normally enough to drive me to stay on the cardio machines at least 5 minutes longer than I normally would. It blows my mind that they can even say the things they do. Luckily, I don't have audio on the Fox News nor are there captions, the images are motivation enough!
However, last night, I found something even more motivating - The Olympics. The men's half-pipe was on and each time an American took his turn, I found myself going harder on the elliptical machine. When Shaun White went on, my pulse actually jumped 10 beats per minute.
Now, I should point out that I became a huge fan of Shaun White about 3 or 4 years ago when I watched the documentary on snowboarding called First Descent. If you have Netflix, put it at the top of your queue. It's a fantastic review of the sport - starting from its punk roots and going all the way to Shaun White and Hannah Teter. The movie brings together five snowboarders: two of the pioneers of the sport (Nick Perata and Shawn Farmer), the premiere backcountry boarder (Terje Haakonsen), and the future of the sport (Teter and White). The five of them are attempting to be the first to snowboard down a mountain in Alaska, hence the first descent. It's a breathtaking movie. You should watch the trailer.
In other news, the hockey match today between Canada and Switzerland was FANTASTIC. It was one of the best hockey matches I have seen ever - the goaltending by Martin Brodeur (Canada) and Jonas Hiller (Switzerland) was phenomenal. Hiller, in particular, fended off a huge number of shots by Canada. It was unfortunate that someone had to lose the match, but after a shootout, Canada won 1-0.
OK, back to watching the Olympics!
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Monday, February 8, 2010
Hello from Costa Rica!
Shing and I are sitting at our hotel here in Tortuguero on Day 3 of our Costa Rica vacation. We´re having an amazing time so far and are really happy that we took Zack and Sarah´s recommendation to come here to Tortuguero. For those of you who don´t know, this is a village of about 1700 people and the main trade here is tourism.
Actually, we just watched the most amazing community play EVER today that was performed in their local theater mostly for locals (it was all in Spanish). It was fantastic. It´s really hard to do this justice though - imagine a school play, but with adults also acting, add a little bit of improvisation and a director who would turn off the lights when he thought the scene was over. So start with that and then throw in a whole bunch more chaos. (Wait, Shing is losing it right now as she recollects the scene.) You need to factor in a very loose script where sometimes two scenes would occur simultaneously, but with no one speaking audibly and then add in two stray dogs that would howl when we clapped between each of the 20 scenes. The height of the play was when a kid who had to be about 13 was flopping around on stage like he had flippers for arms and legs and wearing a green bag. The rest of the actors yelled "Tortuga!!" (turtle) and cheered and started too kill him (turtle was a great source of meat in early Tortuguero (1950´s). Everyone in the audience was laughing and the two dogs almost ran up on stage. Pure chaos and very funny even if you couldn´t understand more than 10% of the words.
At least now, we feel much more educated on the history of Tortuguero.
Our first day was spent in San Jose which we liked, surprisingly enough. Just about everyone who has been to San Jose has reported hating it, so we weren´t expecting too much. I think it helped that we were there on a Saturday, so there were a lot of people out around town. Plus our Hostel was located in a better part of the city. We walked down to the main street in downtown San Jose and just cruised around. We got a little bit lost looking for El Teatro Nacional. Now when I saw "we," I mean the royal we. Shing wanted me to ask for directions (and I was holding the map). As it turns out, I got a little bit turned around and half the streets aren´t labelled anyway. Shing asked a couple of people for directions and we finally managed to get to the teatro, unfortunately just as it was closing. Even worse, we realized that the main plaza we had been in 30 minutes earlier was where we needed to be. Note to self, ask for directions, even if you are a guy. I think she has finally gotten over that one.
The rest of the night was fun. We actually ended up running into a political rally on one of the streets. The Costa Rican presidential election was on Sunday and a bunch of supporters for one of the candidates were out with flags. As cars drove by, people handed out flags and all sorts of cars blew their horns. It was pretty chaotic, though I was really proud of myself for figuring out what was going on. I saw a guy with a t-shirt that matched the colors of the flags being passed out (they were rectangular with a line down the hypotenuse - one half was red and the other was yellow) with the slogan, "La Costa Rica que queremos" or "the Costa Rica we want." Anyway, I asked a guy there and he confirmed my suspicions and told us about the election. Apparently, the incumbent is named Laura Chinchilla and she has been very popular since Costa Rica has really not suffered at all throughout the economic problems facing the world. People respect her because she is a woman and is very intelligent and has done good things for Costa Rica. That said, we were at a rally for an opposition candidate (there were like 12) named Otton. I don´t know who won the election, but Shing and I are pulling for Laura (though we like saying Otton - pronounced Oh TONE - a lot more).
Sunday morning, we woke up at 5:45am to take a guided one-way tour from San Jose to Tortuguero. We went with a company called Jungle Tom Safari and our guide and driver was a guy named Tomas. I was pretty sure that he was Jungle Tom, but Shing confirmed it with him later. The route took us from San Jose to Siquirres to a very small town called Cano Blanco at which point we boarded a boat and rode for about 2 hours to Tortuguero. The trip was amazing - Jungle Tom reminded me a bit of dad, but with a lot more experience with nature. Some may say 100% more experience, but I´d give it a modest 90%. We actually had only really paid for one-way passage, but he kept stopping the minibus to show us sloths, birds, and poisonous frogs and then also showed us how to use our cameras better. Plus the guy was VERY gregarious and very funny. We were also riding with a German couple and their two daughters who were one and a half and three. Plus they were AMAZINGLY well-behaved considering that it took us 5 hours to get there. Once we got in, we grabbed a light snack, walked around the village, grabbed dinner and then went to bed.
This morning, we woke up early (at 5:37am) to go on a boat tour of the canals and rivers. We saw all sorts of animals - spider monkeys, white-faced something monkeys, howler monkeys, blue herons, green finches, Oropendulas, snow finches, and even a toucan. The highlight was watching a spider monkey carrying a baby monkey that couldn´t have been more than two weeks old according to our guide. We came back for breakfast and then I needed a nap. After a light snack, Shing and I went for a hike where we apparently saw an eyelash viper (a very poisonous snake...which we didn´t find out about until we were on our way back, which was quite some time AFTER we had taken pictures from pretty close). We also saw a few trails of ants. Now these weren´t just ANY trails of ants, there must have been tens to hundreds of thousands of ants carrying pieces of leaves from trees to their homes. One of the trails of ants stretched for at least 30-40 yards AND THEN up a very tall tree and the trail was about four or five ants across just transporting leaves and walking back. I could not get enough of it.
After the hike, we did a little bit of shopping and then walked to the Turtle Museum - okay, that´s a simplification of the organization that is working to protect the sea turtles. We learned a little bit about how the turtles reproduce and how they live. It was interesting. We´re thinking about volunteering for the group at some point during the summer. Could you see me working with giant sea turtles?
Anyway, tomorrow, we are flying in a very small plane back to San Jose, will rent a car and then drive to a town called Sarapiqui where we will be staying along the Costa Rican Bird Route. We´ll be going whitewhater rafting and then will take a bird watching tour.
Actually, we just watched the most amazing community play EVER today that was performed in their local theater mostly for locals (it was all in Spanish). It was fantastic. It´s really hard to do this justice though - imagine a school play, but with adults also acting, add a little bit of improvisation and a director who would turn off the lights when he thought the scene was over. So start with that and then throw in a whole bunch more chaos. (Wait, Shing is losing it right now as she recollects the scene.) You need to factor in a very loose script where sometimes two scenes would occur simultaneously, but with no one speaking audibly and then add in two stray dogs that would howl when we clapped between each of the 20 scenes. The height of the play was when a kid who had to be about 13 was flopping around on stage like he had flippers for arms and legs and wearing a green bag. The rest of the actors yelled "Tortuga!!" (turtle) and cheered and started too kill him (turtle was a great source of meat in early Tortuguero (1950´s). Everyone in the audience was laughing and the two dogs almost ran up on stage. Pure chaos and very funny even if you couldn´t understand more than 10% of the words.
At least now, we feel much more educated on the history of Tortuguero.
Our first day was spent in San Jose which we liked, surprisingly enough. Just about everyone who has been to San Jose has reported hating it, so we weren´t expecting too much. I think it helped that we were there on a Saturday, so there were a lot of people out around town. Plus our Hostel was located in a better part of the city. We walked down to the main street in downtown San Jose and just cruised around. We got a little bit lost looking for El Teatro Nacional. Now when I saw "we," I mean the royal we. Shing wanted me to ask for directions (and I was holding the map). As it turns out, I got a little bit turned around and half the streets aren´t labelled anyway. Shing asked a couple of people for directions and we finally managed to get to the teatro, unfortunately just as it was closing. Even worse, we realized that the main plaza we had been in 30 minutes earlier was where we needed to be. Note to self, ask for directions, even if you are a guy. I think she has finally gotten over that one.
The rest of the night was fun. We actually ended up running into a political rally on one of the streets. The Costa Rican presidential election was on Sunday and a bunch of supporters for one of the candidates were out with flags. As cars drove by, people handed out flags and all sorts of cars blew their horns. It was pretty chaotic, though I was really proud of myself for figuring out what was going on. I saw a guy with a t-shirt that matched the colors of the flags being passed out (they were rectangular with a line down the hypotenuse - one half was red and the other was yellow) with the slogan, "La Costa Rica que queremos" or "the Costa Rica we want." Anyway, I asked a guy there and he confirmed my suspicions and told us about the election. Apparently, the incumbent is named Laura Chinchilla and she has been very popular since Costa Rica has really not suffered at all throughout the economic problems facing the world. People respect her because she is a woman and is very intelligent and has done good things for Costa Rica. That said, we were at a rally for an opposition candidate (there were like 12) named Otton. I don´t know who won the election, but Shing and I are pulling for Laura (though we like saying Otton - pronounced Oh TONE - a lot more).
Sunday morning, we woke up at 5:45am to take a guided one-way tour from San Jose to Tortuguero. We went with a company called Jungle Tom Safari and our guide and driver was a guy named Tomas. I was pretty sure that he was Jungle Tom, but Shing confirmed it with him later. The route took us from San Jose to Siquirres to a very small town called Cano Blanco at which point we boarded a boat and rode for about 2 hours to Tortuguero. The trip was amazing - Jungle Tom reminded me a bit of dad, but with a lot more experience with nature. Some may say 100% more experience, but I´d give it a modest 90%. We actually had only really paid for one-way passage, but he kept stopping the minibus to show us sloths, birds, and poisonous frogs and then also showed us how to use our cameras better. Plus the guy was VERY gregarious and very funny. We were also riding with a German couple and their two daughters who were one and a half and three. Plus they were AMAZINGLY well-behaved considering that it took us 5 hours to get there. Once we got in, we grabbed a light snack, walked around the village, grabbed dinner and then went to bed.
This morning, we woke up early (at 5:37am) to go on a boat tour of the canals and rivers. We saw all sorts of animals - spider monkeys, white-faced something monkeys, howler monkeys, blue herons, green finches, Oropendulas, snow finches, and even a toucan. The highlight was watching a spider monkey carrying a baby monkey that couldn´t have been more than two weeks old according to our guide. We came back for breakfast and then I needed a nap. After a light snack, Shing and I went for a hike where we apparently saw an eyelash viper (a very poisonous snake...which we didn´t find out about until we were on our way back, which was quite some time AFTER we had taken pictures from pretty close). We also saw a few trails of ants. Now these weren´t just ANY trails of ants, there must have been tens to hundreds of thousands of ants carrying pieces of leaves from trees to their homes. One of the trails of ants stretched for at least 30-40 yards AND THEN up a very tall tree and the trail was about four or five ants across just transporting leaves and walking back. I could not get enough of it.
After the hike, we did a little bit of shopping and then walked to the Turtle Museum - okay, that´s a simplification of the organization that is working to protect the sea turtles. We learned a little bit about how the turtles reproduce and how they live. It was interesting. We´re thinking about volunteering for the group at some point during the summer. Could you see me working with giant sea turtles?
Anyway, tomorrow, we are flying in a very small plane back to San Jose, will rent a car and then drive to a town called Sarapiqui where we will be staying along the Costa Rican Bird Route. We´ll be going whitewhater rafting and then will take a bird watching tour.
Friday, February 5, 2010
Gone to Costa Rica!
Leaving in about 20 minutes for Costa Rica. I had meant to do a couple of posts before I left, but I ran out of time. Check back periodically between now and the 15th and I'll do my best to post some stories from the road!
However, this is courtesy of Ringo.
However, this is courtesy of Ringo.
Monday, February 1, 2010
I Found the 80s!!
Who knew that they were alive and well? They currently reside on the radio in northeastern Pennsylvania. Seriously, I did not have to change the radio station once on my drive up and down the Pennsylvania Turnpike (which, I found out, does have an end to it...in Scranton of all places. Yes, Scranton.)
BTW, I'm not knocking Scranton at all - I've only been once (last night) and it was much bigger than I expected. And something you may not know about Scranton, my sister* who lives and works there told me that there has been a lot of natural gas discovered in the area. People are being paid upwards of $2000 per acre for the right to drill on the land which is elevating people from abject poverty to incredible wealth almost instantaneously. It will be interesting to see how that affects the economy in this area.
* Some of you may be thinking, "wait, what sister? I don't remember you having a sister." It's a story I'll tell at a later date on the blog.
How's this for a play list:
Modern Love by David Bowie
Dancing in the Dark by Bruce Springsteen
Broken Wings by Mr. Mister
Don't You Forget About Me by Simple Minds
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun by Cyndi Lauper
And yes, these were played back-to-back. What, were they too good for Martika and Toy Soldiers? (And don't worry, I won't Rick Roll y'all). And it wasn't just that one station, there were quite a bit of 80s and 70s stations and then a few other stations that seemed to only play Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Train, and Ke$ha (who is so incredibly trashy).
On a related note, has anyone listened to the lyrics to Paparazzi by Lady Gaga? Here's the chorus:
I'm your biggest fan
I'll follow you until you love me
Papa, paparazzi
Baby, there's no other superstar, you know that I'll be
Your papa, paparazzi
Promise I'll be kind
But I won't stop until that boy is mine
Baby, you'll be famous, chase you down until you love me
Papa, paparazzi
With lyrics like this, it should be an 80s song. When else could you get away with crazy stalker lyrics but yet have it be happy and upbeat? The 80s. That's where.
In closing...dude, east coast, you've got so many ridiculous tolls to pay while driving. In my drive from DC to Philly, I paid $2 for a tunnel toll, followed by $5 for a bridge toll and a $4 toll for leaving Delaware. From Philly to Scranton, there was the turnpike toll ($5.80) plus two other road usage $.70 tolls. I don't mind paying to use the roads, but I didn't think that there would be so many different places and amounts to pay. Hey, if you work for Google maps (or know someone who does), here's a cool new feature that they should add - tell us in advance how much the standard tolls are per car on the roads when giving us a driving route. It shouldn't be that difficult to collect that information - it doesn't change often.
OK, signing off, back to California tonight! Unless... Or even worse...
BTW, I'm not knocking Scranton at all - I've only been once (last night) and it was much bigger than I expected. And something you may not know about Scranton, my sister* who lives and works there told me that there has been a lot of natural gas discovered in the area. People are being paid upwards of $2000 per acre for the right to drill on the land which is elevating people from abject poverty to incredible wealth almost instantaneously. It will be interesting to see how that affects the economy in this area.
* Some of you may be thinking, "wait, what sister? I don't remember you having a sister." It's a story I'll tell at a later date on the blog.
How's this for a play list:
Modern Love by David Bowie
Dancing in the Dark by Bruce Springsteen
Broken Wings by Mr. Mister
Don't You Forget About Me by Simple Minds
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun by Cyndi Lauper
And yes, these were played back-to-back. What, were they too good for Martika and Toy Soldiers? (And don't worry, I won't Rick Roll y'all). And it wasn't just that one station, there were quite a bit of 80s and 70s stations and then a few other stations that seemed to only play Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Train, and Ke$ha (who is so incredibly trashy).
On a related note, has anyone listened to the lyrics to Paparazzi by Lady Gaga? Here's the chorus:
I'm your biggest fan
I'll follow you until you love me
Papa, paparazzi
Baby, there's no other superstar, you know that I'll be
Your papa, paparazzi
Promise I'll be kind
But I won't stop until that boy is mine
Baby, you'll be famous, chase you down until you love me
Papa, paparazzi
With lyrics like this, it should be an 80s song. When else could you get away with crazy stalker lyrics but yet have it be happy and upbeat? The 80s. That's where.
In closing...dude, east coast, you've got so many ridiculous tolls to pay while driving. In my drive from DC to Philly, I paid $2 for a tunnel toll, followed by $5 for a bridge toll and a $4 toll for leaving Delaware. From Philly to Scranton, there was the turnpike toll ($5.80) plus two other road usage $.70 tolls. I don't mind paying to use the roads, but I didn't think that there would be so many different places and amounts to pay. Hey, if you work for Google maps (or know someone who does), here's a cool new feature that they should add - tell us in advance how much the standard tolls are per car on the roads when giving us a driving route. It shouldn't be that difficult to collect that information - it doesn't change often.
OK, signing off, back to California tonight! Unless... Or even worse...
And now a short post
Happy February!
I know my last few posts have been fairly long. Here are a few funny/interesting/entertaining links for you to peruse...
I don't know if you watched the schlock-fest known as the Grammy's tonight, but let me tell you, it was over-the-top cheesy. It almost felt like being at Disneyland. Anyway, instead of the Michael Jackson tribute they did on tv, here is a much more fitting tribute that was done by Kenichi Ebina at the SF Hip Hop Dancefest this past November. Remember, we saw this live. Oh, and don't get bored - the last minute and a half is amazing.
I really liked this parody of the news on Today's Big Thing.
While I was driving today, I saw a billboard that read, "SEX CAN WAIT. YOUR FUTURE CAN'T" I have no idea what the billboard was trying to convey. Are sex and your future mutually exclusive? If it's 10:30pm on a Thursday night, you probably don't have too many resources to pursue your future. You might as well have sex. Or am I missing something?
And this never gets old.
Last one. Back to the Grammy's, but this time from 2007. If you haven't seen Christina Aguilera's tribute to James Brown, you are missing out. This gives me chills every time I watch it - she puts everything she has into it (even if one of her notes is slightly out of tune). She went for it. This actually gave me new respect for her.
I know my last few posts have been fairly long. Here are a few funny/interesting/entertaining links for you to peruse...
I don't know if you watched the schlock-fest known as the Grammy's tonight, but let me tell you, it was over-the-top cheesy. It almost felt like being at Disneyland. Anyway, instead of the Michael Jackson tribute they did on tv, here is a much more fitting tribute that was done by Kenichi Ebina at the SF Hip Hop Dancefest this past November. Remember, we saw this live. Oh, and don't get bored - the last minute and a half is amazing.
I really liked this parody of the news on Today's Big Thing.
While I was driving today, I saw a billboard that read, "SEX CAN WAIT. YOUR FUTURE CAN'T" I have no idea what the billboard was trying to convey. Are sex and your future mutually exclusive? If it's 10:30pm on a Thursday night, you probably don't have too many resources to pursue your future. You might as well have sex. Or am I missing something?
And this never gets old.
Last one. Back to the Grammy's, but this time from 2007. If you haven't seen Christina Aguilera's tribute to James Brown, you are missing out. This gives me chills every time I watch it - she puts everything she has into it (even if one of her notes is slightly out of tune). She went for it. This actually gave me new respect for her.
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