lucybelle

I'm excited to announce that my esposo just passed his US citizenship test & interview! Huzzah!!! In about two weeks we'll have his oath and then we apply for his passport and then he's a GRINGO! While this was a hugely frustrating and expensive process, my CR residency is still pending... With his new gringo passport we have the ability to move out of the USA without ever having to reapply for visas again! Costa Rica as a more permanent location may or may not be in our future. My esposo gets horribly homesick, but he knows financially it makes more sense for us to stay up here. We'll see where life takes us. But for now, the world is our oyster! (And since he's dual, he can still go to Brazil visa free!)

The nicer area of Pavas is Rohrmoser, if you go too far down the hill towards Lomas or Villa taxis won't want to drive there (when there over xmas we went to a friend's house and our uber refused to drop us off at the house, we walked from a few blocks away! Haha!)

I think Santa Ana would be great for you. Can live "in town" with lots of cafes and restaurants, and plenty of places to run. It is quite a bit warmer in Santa Ana than San Jose.

Don't live on paseo colon. You can get to la sabana from lots of other nearby places. This is coming from someone who lived in San Jose, and LIKED living in San Jose. Also, I wouldn't run la sabana after dark, likely to get robbed unfortunately. I lived in Pavas and ran around my neighborhood often and loved it. There's plenty of places to run that's not La sabana as well. Just FYI.

My esposo has a plane ticket to CR to spend NYE with the family. My Christmas surprise was a ticket for me too! He bought it with his miles (he travels internationally about 50% for his job) I'm so happy to go (to 2nd) home!!! Only a few days but it'll be great to see family, friends, and SUN.

Well. It's done. I've gotten no sleep and I'm sad, scared and ashamed. Esposo and started talk a little while back about trying to move back to CR in two years. Now trying to make it happen in one.

I absolutely adore the idea of USA citizens attempting to "flee" to Canada. I wish them well with obtaining residency (which none of them have thought about), finding jobs (which they are not more qualified for because they're from the USA), and adjusting to life in a completely different country. Idiots...

My esposo calls home frequently to cell phones and landlines using Skype mostly, which charges per minute. He also uses Whatsapp to make free phone calls to his sister and others who can figure out the app! Haha

I'm sorry some people are having a tough time. I feel like some of the comments are fairly non important, like the "it's cold" one and "it's hard to find work". It's hard to find work everywhere, and as a recent refugee immigrant it's going to be even more difficult. I'm a well educated teacher with plenty of resources and a support system in CR and it still took me six months to find a job. I was honestly happy I found one in under a year! I know we always seem to squabble over things like this, but I love my country. It's not perfect, but I love living here and realize how lucky I am to have been born in this country with such a powerful passport. The organizations running out of money is really unfortunate. But no one should expect to show up in a new country and have a road of gold paved in front of them. It takes hard work and determination to make a life in a new country. We all know that! (I'm not saying that the people you are in contact with aren't trying, just that it takes a lot of work, it's not easy.) Also, about everyone wanting to leave- that sort of stuff really irritates me. Mostly because people in the USA, for the most part, are ignorant as to what it takes to move abroad. We think we can take our powerful US passport, show up in a new country and just start working and living like we were born there. This is evident by all the posts we get here, all the messages I get on facebook about wanting to move to CR "to live the simple life", and all the ridiculous "I'm moving to Canada" statements. Yeah? Under what visa? It's all arbitrary. Especially for the amount of waiting time and lack of support you get during the process. Applying for my husband's 10 year greencard right now and that set us back a fun $590. Applying for it the first time around was around $903 total (excluding the $80/package for DHL-ing stuff up, like 6 times). And to apply for citizenship (one more year!) it'll be $680. But I'm more than willing to part with that money to be done with the obtuse people at USCIS once and for all!

Estoy usando Duolingo ahorita para aprender potuguese. Me esta gustando bestante. Pero no es suficiente. Yo ocupo leer en el idioma para aprender mas rapido. Eso es lo que hice con espanol. Es que me da demasiado pereza leer en otro idioma!!

Just bought my Beyonce tickets! I can't wait!!!

1- I am a Panther's fan and that game was very disappointing. Honestly the only portion of the team that played well was the Bronco's defense. Bronco offense was really not that great. I mean the score was close, even with all turnovers and fumbles and horrible game play going on the Panther's end. We'll get 'em next year. #keeppounding 2- I love Lady Gaga, she's an excellent singer. I saw her live when she came to San Jose! She was great. Not only is she a great singer, but she's an amazing performer. I like her antics, I think they're fun. I wasn't blown away by her national anthem, but I know she's a great singer so whatever. 3- The halftime show was great. I am a big Beyonce and Bruno Mars fan, I mean who isn't? Coldplay seemed to just try to keep up. Speaking of how fabulous Beyonce is, I'll be buying cheap-o tickets to her tour which is starting soon. Gotta love the Bey!

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=how+much+is+the+first+checked+bag+on+delta+international

I let each of my classes pick out numbers and I went and bought the tickets. I told them if they picked the right numbers then I'd give them all a 100 on their project they're working on right now.

Powerball in NC is now 1.3 billion! If I remember I'll buy a ticket, though my esposo always rolls his eyes at me.