Desert to Rainforest, Hummus to Rice

Who says you can't go home again??!
After 3 flights (NY to Boston, Boston to Miami, Miami to San Jose) and zero hours of sleep, I finally made it back to Costa Rica! The students all seem great and really excited to get started, which is a good vibe to start the trip with. Dropped them all of at their various home-stays and then, at long last, I arrived at the door of my casa. Such an adorable reunion with my hostmom, and soon after, her daughter and grandkids. It really felt like coming home.
It's still a bit strange and surreal to be back in my neighborhood and school, it feels like I could have just been here yesterday. Very different experience to be here to work as opposed to study, and with different people, but i'm getting back into the swing of things. It will take me some time to adjust, but it's great to be back!
Had an early dinner with my professor, Lori, and the other TA, Julie, and I was proud that I was able to find my way around and navigate like an old pro. Sleep deprivation soon caught up to me and I fell asleep at 9:30...but I guess thats a good thing, I needed to be fresh for today.
We had a full day of orientation for the students, and they're starting to get situated and ready for spanish classes and their service learning. All in all, we're off to a good start.
One note is that I do have internet in my house now...it seems to be a bit shaky and sporadic, but nevertheless, I should be relatively accessible. S0 e-mail and skype away!
Other than my continuously saying things in hebrew, and the fact that it has been POURING, I'm very happy. I'm used to the perfect weather of Costa Rica, and this rainy season business is no joke. I know that its important for the environment and rain forest and ecosystem and blah blah blah, but I want to be dry!! When I was studying abroad everyone back at home was shoveling snow while I was at the beach...and now all of you are at the beach, enjoying the sun, and I'm watching thunderstorms. I much prefer the first option!!
So to sum up: the program looks good, my tan is fading, my belly is full of rice, beans, pineapple, etc etc, and I am settling in nicely.
Costa Rica 2009 friends: it is SO weird to see all of your houses, eat at vishnu (but its still SO GOOD), pass signs for Zapote, and generally be here without you all, and in rain rain rain. All of you need to come back and play with me!!!

Back on the Road!!

Hello again!
I am back to what I do best...packing up and giving my passport lots of love. After graduating in May and supposedly entering the "real world," I decided that getting a job, applying to grad school, and generally being a responsible adult just wasn't for me (yet...). I'm sure that doesn't come as a shock to anyone.
Soooo off to Israel I went for a lovely 5 weeks. The first two weeks were with a program, which was a cheap way to get back to the Holy Land. It was not at all what I expected, and the goal was to teach me about (and then make me become) orthodox. No success on their part, but I met some great people, learned a lot, and had a good time. I spent the next three weeks traveling around and visiting friends, which was really nice and fun and HOT. I had plans to make it to Egypt but did not succeed...however, I did spend a day in Petra, Jordan, which was really amazing and interesting.
While I was there, a bunch of people asked me if I was keeping up a blog again, which was really sweet and flattering...I didn't think anyone except my mom actually cared or read it! So that's why I'm keeping this up again...back by popular demand :)
After a long 12 hour flight back to NY, helped along by some xanax, I made it home safely on July 1st. I have a few days at home, and on the 6th, I am headed back to Costa Rica!
I will be there for one month, working as a Teaching Assistant for my professor from Northeastern. I am SO excited to get back, although it will be really weird to be without my friends from my study abroad experience in Costa Rica. We are working with the same organization, so I am very familiar with the area and the people, and I get to live with the same host family, which I am most excited about!! It will be a fast switch from hummus overload to rice and beans overload, but I think I can handle it.
The trip is the same model as the one that I went on when I went to Mexico in a few summers ago. The students study language and do service learning at various organizations in Costa Rica. They also have lectures, field trips, and some time to travel as well. It looks like it will be a great program, and I'm so excited to get started. There has been so much work and preparation before we leave over the past few months that I am ready to actually get to Costa Rica and put everything into action.
The past 5 weeks have all been focused on learning and practicing Hebrew as much as possible, so I have completely mixed up or forgotten all of my Spanish. Hopefully it will all come back after a few days, but my brain definitely has been getting a work out.
After Costa Rica, I get to spend a few days in Boston, then I have the rest of August to hang out at home before...drumroll please...moving to Ecuador for 8 months! That's right...I am buying a one way ticket and shipping off to South America to live in the Amazon Jungle teaching kids. I will be the Assistant Coordinator of a program that works to bring education to children in this area of Ecuador. More information on that as the time gets closer, but suffice to say that I have a crazy, fun, exciting year coming up! In between all of this I will have to find time to apply to grad school and prepare for real person-hood. But I won't rush that process.
SO. That's me. Whats up with all of you? Please keep in touch!

Happy 4th of July. Lots of love to everyone.

I'm ho-o-ome!!

Well, it had to end sometime. And after 6.5 months, 6 countries, and 20 new stamps in my passport...I'M HOME! At the moment, I am extremely overwhelmed, but definately happy to be back safe and sound.

It's been an incredible, wonderful, amazing adventure, and now I will have to force myself back into the real world. But being away for so long definately made me appreciate the luxuries of home...like tap water, and showering barefoot, and putting toilet paper IN the toilet. Exciting stuff.

I'm home for all of August before heading back to Boston, so anyone who is around should expect to see my smiling face soon!!

Thanks for following my journey with me!!
Time to start planning my next trip...

Almost at the end...

Hi again from Peru!
It´s hard to believe, but I have only 3days left in this lovely country, and of my trip. I can admit that I am looking forward to coming home, but I am not ready to face the real world again quite yet.
This last week has been exciting and fun and a little chaotic...I first spent 3 days white water rafting, which was definately not the best thing for my health, since I was pretty sick, but it was a blast. We would raft all day, then set up camp alongside the river for the night. We were literally in the middle of nowhere, so the night skies were absolutely incredible. The amount of stars was amazing, and we could see the milky way perfectly. Very cool! And let me tell you...wetsuits are very humbling. Man oh man, I thought I had been getting fit being so active in peru, but wetsuits are very unforgiving to those extra few pounds. So I looked verrryyy sexy for 3 days. Back to cusco for a night or 2, and then the plan was to do to the Ausangate trek, which is 4 days and 3 nights, mostly on horses. It is supposed to take you to some of the most beautiful views in Peru...mostly snow-capped mountains, so its verrryyyy cold. Long story short (this is another one that you just have to ask me about), the company we picked was terrible. The horses were crazy, the guides were awful, and it was just not good. My friend Roni was thrown off his horse towards the end of day one, which we used as our excuse to turn around the next morning and get the hell out of there. It was unfortunate that we didnt make it to the views, but it started snowing on the first day, so I managed to see at least some snowy mountains! Quite an experience, camping in the winter and hiking in the snow...and I dont think I need to do it again. And riding horses for so long is painful!!

So now i have 2 more days to relax in Cusco, and then its back home! I´m really looking forward to seeing everyone so soon!

mucho amor!

MACHU PICCHU!!

I DID IT!!!!!!

I dont have the time or energy to do the last few days of my life justice, but it has been incredible!! In a nutshell, I spent 3 days biking and trekking, and then day 4, I awoke at 4am, sore and tired and excited, and hello Machu Picchu! So incredible and amazing and beautiful. And we climed Wayna Picchu (if you look at the typical postcard picture of machu picchu, there is a really tall mountain in the background...thats wayna picchu). Hardest thing I have ever done in my life, but so worth it and amazing. You sit at the top, overlooking Machu Picchu, and you really feel like youre on top of the world. The 4 days were just awesome, and now I am back in Cuzco for a day or 2, still sore but finally clean! Tomorrow or the day after we leave for a 3 day white water rafting trip, which will hopefully be stellar and hopefully NOT give me pnemonia.

I cant believe my flight home is in 10 days!! not ok! but at least im making the most of the time i have left!

So winter means that its actually cold? Who knew?!

hola hola!
since my last post, i have been quite the busy traveler. I made it back to Lima and met up again with Evya and some of his friends. We spent that night in the city, and got up the next morning to head to Ica, about 4 hours south. There was some sort of transportation strike so it took us an extra bus and an extra hour or two, but not too bad. Ica is bascially just desert and massssssive sand dunes. (In general, the geography and landscape of peru is truly spectacular. You leave the city, and suddenly its just sand and the Andes. Very impressive, words cannot do it justice so you all need to wait for pictures). So in Ica we went sandboarding, which is exactly what it sounds like, and is probably one of the stupidest and one of the most fun things i have done. About on par with my waterfall jump. You basically get in this car/truck/strange contraption thing that zooms a million miles an hour up through the sand dunes. Its just like a roller coaster ride! You then have to actually board down the dunes, which are gigantic. Most of us couldnt ever do it standing up, and we did it sitting down and on our stomachs, which was the most fun. I ate more sand than is healthy and almost a week later, i still find sand in my hair, but I broke no bones and made it back onto solid ground in one piece. The next day we wanted to go to Pisco, about 2 hours away for a boat tour, but because of the transportation strike, we couldnt go. So instead we did a wine and pisco tasting tour (pisco is the national drink). Fun day just relaxing. The 9th in the evening we got on our 19 hour bus ride to Cusco. 19 hours and lots and lots of drugs later, we made it. The ride is intense, you are basically winding through the Andes for hours and hours, right on the edge, basically thinking you are going to fall off at any second. Buttt I will admit that it was a gorgeous ride and quite the experience. Now i´m in Cusco, which is amazing and beautiful and adorable and COLD. The days are sunny and warmish, but at night, so so so so cold. I had to buy lots of alpaca stuff, since I have almost nothing warm...my head is still in central america! We spent our first afternoon walking around, and the next day we did the Sacred Valley tour, and saw lots of Incan ruins. This afternoon yana and tito arrived, finally!! it is SO nice to have yana with me! And tomorrow, we begin a three day trek to Machu Picchu!!!! I am so excited and terrified, and cant wait. Cross your fingers that I actually make it.

Heres hoping that my next post begins with ¨I DID IT!¨...

Peru!

Happy 4th of July, from Peru!!
I believe that this is my first 4th of July out of the country, but a bunch of Americans...and some Brits...and I are having a BBQ bonfire on the beach tonight, so it feels a little bit like we´re home!

Anyway, I finally made it to Peru, after one cancelled flight and a million hour layover in San Salvador. But I arrived in one piece, and my friend Tito met me at the airport. I went back to his house in Lima, we hung out for a bit, and then I proceeded to pass out and sleep until NOON! I have no idea where that came from, but I havent slept late in months, so I guess my body needed it. We had lunch with his family, which was nice to practice my spanish for an extended period of time, and then we spent a few hours at the orphanage where Tito volunteers, which was nice and interesting to compare to the orphanages that I volunteered at in Guatemala and Mexico.

I then took an overnight bus 9 hours north to Huanchaco, a small beach town where my friend Kate from my Costa Rica trip is spending the summer. It has been FANTASTIC just hanging out and catching up, and all we do is talk about Costa Rica, which really makes me miss it and all of our friends.
The weather has been a nice change of pace...its winter here, and definately much colder than its been for me since January. I´m wearing long sleeves, and drinking tea, and taking hot showers! Exciting stuff. I do miss the sun, but its nice to not be sweating 24 hours a day.

So all is great with me. I cannot believe that its already July...the time is flying by, and I know that these next few weeks are going to go by even faster. But i´m just trying to enjoy every minute and take advantage of the time I still have left!