Orange Limes, Spices & Time

You know you've been in Costa Rica for 3 months when your snacking on frozen grapes, the howler monkeys become apart of your morning alarm, the mangos are falling on your tin roof at all hours of the night, and an iguana running through your class is normal. Twice, both times happening in third quarter, we had an iguana slide down the tin roof of our classroom, crash onto the ground, and spastically run through the center of our class because a dog was chasing after it. It certainly interrupted the class as people jumped up onto chairs and massage tables but moments later we were back in lecture. Another normalized classroom occurrence that I have become less aware of but want to acknowledge, is when birds and butterflies gracefully float through our classroom and no one seems to flinch. And what's even more special and unreal is when Chapone (the 90 something y/o that owns this property) harvests mangos from 8am-9am and very obviously comes to the edge of our classroom, looks around at all of us, smiles, and unloads dozens of fresh fruit onto the wooden floor.. boom boom bang.. and back into lecture. Can you see the iguana listening in on Pathology?

Another funny and practical thing that appeared last week was about a dozen free-range roosters running around campus.. but more directly right in front of our house because they're fed and taken care of by my neighbors and owners of the property. I'm not sure why they're all roosters, but I guess it doesn't matter if they're being raised for meat. They will roam around between houses, come up onto the porch, walk under our table, and then are corralled into the gated area at night, usually by Chapone waving a stick with a purple string attached to it.

As the temperature rises (to about 94*), snacking on frozen grapes or mangos and making random fruit/vegetable smoothies has become a common trend around campus. I've rediscovered my love of drinking carrots. YUM. I need to remind myself that I can make smoothies at home, even when it's snowing outside.

Another simple pleasure that I've forgotten to mention because it seems so normalized now, is that the inside of limes are orange rather than a white/green. This makes me wonder if limes are meant to be a radiant orange inside.. and maybe America is mass-producing a different/dull variety? Or maybe it's just another variety of a tropical fruit that grows in this area.

A couple of spices that I've really incorporated into my cooking are cinnamon and cayenne pepper. I've also been playing around with cooking or rather pan frying plantains for the first time ever. It's amazing how naturally sweet they are. I've never been a fan of baked goods or really any sweets other than dark chocolate, but I've been on a cinnamon roll kick. Don't worry I've done my research. I've compared all 3 bakeries in town and I think I determined the winner today when they topped it off with a cream cheese frosting.

We started fourth quarter with Pathology, Business, more Thai Massage and CranioSacral Therapy. Ahh stress and reality are starting to set in. I was torn between naming my business 'Elevated Bodywork' or 'Sol Bodywork'. I ultimately went with Sol Bodywork because it resonated with me more and seemed like a simple concept that the public could more easily relate to. As I created my 5 year life and business plan (the business of my life), the color scheme and other details started to fall into place and now it's really exciting to envision. It's always nice when anxiousness turns into excitement. It always helps to look at the 'big picture'.

I received my fourth and final professional instructor massage from Kaysie who specializes in pregnancy massage and is a practicing doula. Her touch was so confident and experienced, I've never felt more whole and connected to my own body. Receiving such experienced bodywork is always inspiring and further motivates me to improve my own touch and techniques.

I had a funny sighting on my lunch break today. I went into to town to grab a sandwich and an iced coffee and as I walking back to campus I saw 2 men outside of the hardware store brushing their teeth? I'm assuming they were brushing after lunch.. well, okay.

My days are so long and my nights are like the blink of an eye. I'm a person that's always appreciated at least 10 hours of sleep a night, but since I've been here I'm getting anywhere from 4-8 hours a night. I believe that the warm and bright mornings help deflect the lack of sleep and feeling completely exhausted, but I'm seriously amazed at how fast time has been going by. Don't get our group started on the topic of time. It's not just me, everyone in this program has slightly lost conception of time. The best example I can give is when someone thinks an event or comment happened yesterday or even last weekend when it actually happened that morning. Our days are so full and mentally productive that it feels like many days. We also discussed in one class that the earths rotation is spinning slightly faster possibly causing time to elapse in a different way. Something to think about.

I keep meaning to mention the monotone yet beautiful chanting that comes from the church on Saturday nights and Sunday mornings. The church is nestled just behind our house, which allows the sound to carry seamlessly onto campus. It's nice to enjoy the predictable sound waves without actually participating.