Train accident kills two panda bears

We were watching John play with his Brio train set today and as he was pushing the train past the Brio zoo the train fell off the Brio track and took out the two Brio panda bears...hence todays post title.


Yesterday was very eventful. We leave for Ecuador a week from monday and in order for us to get back into Costa Rica we are required to have a yellow fever vacination. So we left the house around noon to meet David Obando at the hospital in San Jose. I am going to bullet point the process of getting the shot for ease of understanding.

• Go to E.R. to find that lady who gives shot is on lunch break
• Another lady says we can go to the pharmacy and buy the vacination there and bring it back and have another person give the shot.
• We go to pharmacy and buy shots. Get paper work stamped by pharmacist saying we purchased the shot.
• Go back to E.R. and get the shot in right shoulder...pain was a non-issue
• Get the paper that the pharmacist stamped earlier stamped by the nurse saying that we were actually given the shot.
• It's not over
• Then we walked several blocks through downtown San Jose to the ministry of health.
• We gave the paper that was stamped earlier to another person who then gave us a piece of paperwork to fill out
• That same person then fills out a little yellow card which is virtually our ticket back into the country.

THE END

So that was the first half of Friday. Eric and I then traveled to a mall in Tres Rios. Youth group was at 7 but it didn't make sense to drive back home and then drive through rush hour traffic (which would be a nightmare) to get to youth group. We went and saw Slumdog Millionare at the theatre in the mall and then grabbed some food at the food court before we headed to youth group. The movie theatre here sells carmel corn and it was goood stuff. '

Youth group was fun, it was good to see everybody. It was the first night that the group had met in the new youth room upstairs so at the end of the night there was lots of food and games. They made a circle for breakdancing....I stayed far away.

Today was a pretty relaxed Saturday. Eric has been doing a lot of catching up on finance stuff so I have had a lot of time to read, play with John while watching Thomas the Tank Engine, and hang out with Caroline. I learned how to play Carcassonne with Eric and we've played twice today and I've won both times. I'm pretty sure it's beginners luck but we will see.

Tomorrow we have church in the morning. The Oscars are a big thing around here with some people on the team so tomorrow night we will be having a little watch the Oscars party. I'm not sure that I have ever watched it but I am not opposed to the idea, it should be fun.

Well, I am off to bed. Goodnight all.

From a place where it never snows,

-Chip

First Post of 2009!

I will be the first to admit that I am a slacker of a blogger but hey...I do my best. I am in Costa Rica once again and am very excited for the next three weeks. Ironically my last blog post was when I was in Costa Rica last June. Maybe it's just that blogging about life in Fox River Grove isn't all that interesting. Maybe when I get home I will try it and see what you all think.

Getting here was pretty uneventful but in my mind uneventful is much better that than a huge pain in the neck. My flight out of ORD was at 6:55am so we left my house at 5am which meant get up at 4:30am to finish the packing I should have done the night before. I felt bad making my dad get up that early on his birthday but hey...life is not like a box of chocolates. I checked in and got through security with no issues. My flight was delayed about 20 minutes because the plane was making a strange noise which turned out to be a faulty cargo cooling fan. The problem was solved by turning the fan off and I was on my way to Ft. Lauderdale, FL. I sat next to some woman who hogged the arm rest the entire flight but other than that it was fine. The delay ended up being a good thing because it shortened the lay-over time. I stopped in at one of the shops in the terminal to buy and over priced turkey sandwhich and a soda. After about and hour and a half wait it was time to board American Airlines flight 2113 to San Jose, Costa Rica. That plane was bigger than the first and was much more comfortable. I sat next to a father and son and the son was sleeping horozontially on the seat next to me and kept kicking me...but other than that it was fun.

My plane landed at SJO a few minutes ahead of schedule and I booked it to beat the line at immigration. I waited 5 minutes for my bag and slipped right through customs and before I knew it I was outside in the warm sun waiting for Eric to arrive. I had misunderstood where Eric wanted me to wait so he could avoid entering the parking garage but after dropping $2.50 to leave the parking garage we were on our way back to San Isidro. Caroline made a delicious casserole for dinner and John was cute as always. I was very excited that I was able to watch LOST last night...so much good.

Today I learned how to make homemade bagels. I don't actually remember how to make them but they sure were delicious. Tomorrow Eric and I have to go get our yellow fever shots for our trip Ecuador, that should be interesting. I will be sure to write about that tomorrow.

From a place much warmer than Chicago,
Chip