Some Tico Slang

So what's the Spanish slang of Costa Rica?

Tico- a Costa Rican person

pura vida- literally 'pure life', translates into everything's great

tuanis- the same thing as pura vida, used mostly by a younger crowd

mae- dude

que dicha- that's great, que bueno

polo- a bum looking person

chunche, barras- a thing, a whatchamacallit, esta cosa

diay- a sound Ticos make to express whatever

Samuel- a peeping Tom

tapis- booze

guesa- ugly

Getting your Blog listed

I came across this helpful website for those that want more info on how to get their blogs listed in search engines.

It offers the links to these blog engines, where one can submit their site.

Blog Search Engine
Blogwise
Eatonweb Portal
Blog Universe
Popdex
Blogarama
Blogdex
Globe of Blogs
Blizg
Online Marketing Links
Weblogs Compendium
Octopus Files
Kmax
Open Weblog Directory

Slight change of URL

The current website of this blog is http://www.monicastravels.com/blog/blogger.html

To make this link a bit shorter I am changing the url to www.monicastravels.com/blog

If you are linking my site, I kindly ask you to change the link.

See ya on the flip side!

The Halfway Mark-3 months

Time passing quickly
So it's been almost three months since I landed on the Rich Coast and, I know everyone says the same thing, but, damn, the time passes quickly. In contrast with Turkey, when the first three months passed by soooooooo slowly. I feel settled in here, with my cirlce of friends, job, life........ I think the next trip I make will have to be for at least a year and half.

Work
Work is going well. You can see the new site at www.dnicostarica.org . Yes, I did that, everything there, all by myself, including some graphics. Needless to say, i have learned A LOT, but not enough because as you can see, the website still has a few things not working properly. I can't wait to take some computer classes once back in Canada. I feel like my job would be sooo much easier if I knew how to program and do all that fancy server side stuff. So instead I have to do everything the long way, which takes forever! But anyway, my coworkers really like the new design so I feel like I've done a good job.

Spanish
After feeling that my Spanish hit a plateau, I finally realized that it has improved a lot. Conversation flows easily without too much thought into grammar. i just have to start reading in Spanish now for vocab.

Health nut me
Since I ventured out almost exactly one year ago to live abroad, I've been hit with a variety of health problems that I never experienced in Canada. In Turkey, it was colds and coughs and now here in Costa Rica, it seems to be allergies to dust and random bug bites from god knows what. So needless to say, I've turned into a health nut, I'm talking about food now, alcohol and beer is good for you, we all know that. So here since I make my own food, it's been veggies, rice, whole wheat whatever, fruits, garlic and onions, apple cider vinegar and a few vitamins suppliments in there. And I do feel stronger, less colds and more energy. Maybe I'll get into gardening some day, growing fresh crops and cooking them without all that pesticide crap.

Anyhoo, here are a few pics from this weekend in Cahuita!


With my new roomate, Alanna from Vancouver, and from the same program as me. It's been pretty cool having someone to chill with.

Two reunions in two countries

I just came back from a one week vacation in Nicaragua and Tamarindo and it was soooooo great. Nicaragua was so much cooler than I´d expected. The best part was the type of backpackers we met at the hostels and on the road. It seemed mostly everyone was travelling solo and for months and months at a time. I´ve always liked the idea of vagabonding alone and now I think I have the guts to actually do it.

We were only in Nicaragua for 5 days but went to Granada, Masaya, Laguna de Apoyo, la Isla de Ometepe, and San Juan del Sur. So we went from a quiet colonial town, to a beautiful, warm lake, to a jungle monkey island and finished in a beach town close to the border. I was travelling with Pat Kim, my buddy from Istanbul, and his girlfriend from Slovenia, Martina.

Afterwards, we hit up Tamarindo, on the Pacific Coast of CR, a developed spring break type of beach party town, and met up Jeff, Scott, Pat, American friends that I haven´t seen for two years since we all did our exchange at the Tec de Monterrey, in Mexico. So a reunion with friends I haven´t seen in a while, that´s always soooo great.

We finished off in San Jose watching an American football game, University of Texas against Ohio State at an American type sports bar with tonnes of Texas fans. I really felt I was in Texas, it was so weird.

Being back at work after such a great week …..sucks. At least the beach is only a few hours away……