Back in CR

Hey all! So we made it back to Costa Rica! I was able to go to Chicago to visit one of my best friends and then I met Kate to fly out the next morning. All went well...minus Kate and I frantically trying to get everything into suitcases. Somehow, even though we weren't allowed...we ended up checking two huge bags and 3 big back packs for free...plus carry-ons. Amazing! Now we are stocked up on everything we could possibly need. Since then, we've just been doing orientation and getting everything moved in. We went to the pool on Saturday, ate guacamole and banana smoothies...everything we had missed in the States :). It is so much warmer here...thank God! God has been providing me with some serious provision, so I am thankful! Thanks for your prayers...here are some Pics of our apartment.

Christmas break

People have been giving me a hard time about not blogging...so I thought I would send a quick shoutout. I didn't blog for so long because Kate and I moved to a new apartment. We were too cheap to buy internet for just 1 month and then have to pay while we were home on Christmas... so we didn't get it and we only used it sparingly at school. A lot of good things happened though. Our new apartment is great and we have loved living there so far. We are going to have to improve our eating habits and break down and spend the money we need on meat once in a while...although it is nice to pay only $5 for all the fruits and vegetables you need for the week. I also was able to return to New York for 4 days for one of my best friend's wedding. It was so incredibly fun. I loved being with Melissa and her family. The wedding was absolutely beautiful and I was even able to eat Thanksgiving there! It was wonderful...I mean except for the old turkey server man at the church dinner that called me big :). When I got back...it was pretty difficult but after two weeks of school and lots of Christmas parties, I was able to come home. It's freezing and there has been snow but I love it. It's been wonderful to see everyone and eat some great food. God has also been showing Himself in some wonderful ways. We've had a family living with us here. It's a long story...but their daughter fell really ill 2 months ago. They live near Dayton, but they were tranferred to a hospital here. Kiera is 22 and was first thought to have the flu...then the swine flu...then meningitis...the psychotic problems because her body started attacking itself. Anyway, they found out she had these awful and rare tumors on her ovaries that were making her lose her mind and kidneys shut down and all this other stuff. Well she had surgery today and she is doing well. They are hoping that taking the tumors out fixes everything. What was amazing was that Kiera was supposed to go to another hospital but her paperwork got screwed up and she was sent here...where a doctor was that is one of the only people that has ever diagnosed what Keira has and he did it almost immediately. Plus we have had the opportunity to share with Kiera's family about Christ and get to know them so well. On top of that...one night their transmission went out in their car and our friend Carl offered to put a new one for free labor...and our church came together and paid for the transmission. Just so many things have been wonderful and we're so thankful to see God's hand blessing this. Well more updates to come soon. Please pray for complete healing for Kiera. God bless and Merry Christmas!

Melissa's wedding

It's been FOREVER since I blogged last! Things have been pretty hectic around here as we finish up the semester. Over the last few weeks we have been finishing up basketball, moving into a new apartment, having crazy things go on at school, and I went to New York for the wedding of my friend Melissa, my roommate from college and one of my best friends. Basketball ended well. We had a tournament here. We took third place...not bad huh? I was going to neglect to mention that there were only three teams, but I felt a little dishonest :). But all that matters in that we had fun and we looked good doing it :) lol. School has been good, but we are in a major time of transition and testing. Please pray for Sojourn Academy and that God would help us to overcome obstacles and that we would not allow discouragment to get in. We also moved into a new apartment. It is so great and super cheap. Thankfully Kate and I are living together again, which is so great! We got a great deal for an awesome place, so God has definitely blessed us in that. Finally, I went to the U.S. this past weekend for four days for the wedding. It was absolutely awesome. God provided the money for me to go and it was great. It was absolutely freezing...but really good. I had so much fun with Melissa and her family. I was also able to see Kim (the one whole lived in CR with me last year) and we were able to catch up a lot as well...so it was just really great. I even was able to eat Thanksgiving there! Now I'm back in CR and trying to wrap up things before I got home in two weeks! Crazy...but really exciting! Please pray that we finish strong! Thanks!

New apartment!

We've moved to a new apartment! All went well! Pictures to come :) We don't have internet at the apartment yet, so no blogs yet. Just real quick I wanted to say something so that my grandma doesn't think I died! I'm going to the States this week for Melissa's wedding in NY, so there will be pics of that to come as well!

CR medical system

This is going to quite possibly be my best blog ever because it's probably one of my favorite stories ever. Beware: it may be graphic. So I've been sick for the last several days and today I deciced to go to the doctor. Now that I am on the Costa Rican social security system, I get to go for free...so I decided to brave the confusion. For some reason my costa rican mother couldn't go with me and everyone else was at school, so I sucked it up and did it myself. So you have to go early in the morning, before 7a.m. and wait in a line to get an appointment time. If you come later that 7, you have to just wait in line for hours until they can get you in. Anyway, Kate calls me at like quarter till 7 and tells me to get my butt down there. I threw on some clothes and walked down there. I got lost, but eventually arrived. After waiting in the wrong line and not doing the right thing, I finally got the guts to ask like 9 people what I needed to do. I'm not sure if it was the fever or if I was just nervous, but I was serioulsy sweating. I finally got attended to by a lady and she started a new a file and set me up with an appointment...which wasn't until 3:15...what??? So I went home and went to bed. At 3:15 I dragged my butt over there. I sat in the waiting room waiting for my name to get called and after about 10 minutes I asked someone if I needed to sign in...yes. Come on Tricia. Finally get called in and explain my symptoms. Everything is going well until she asks me THE question. Now... in Spanish: Papá=dad, papa=potato. The lady asks me if I want to do a routine papa....something. I didn't catch the last word, I had never heard it before. (the word was papanicolao). I told her my dad wasn't there. That didn't work. Then I asked, what about potatoes? lol that didn't work either. Then she starts in medical terms describing what this dad-thing or potato-thing was. I didn't catch any of it. I started freezing up in Spanish until I heard one key word (this is not for the faint in heart, sorry for any men reading this): the female reproductive organ word. WHAT??? Then it dawned on me. She wasn't asking about my dad or offering me potatoes...she wanted to give me a pap-smear. LOL what the heck. I went in for bronchitis...why would I want to do the most miserable thing in the world on top of being so sick? lol but thinking it was free and that I might as well kill two birds in one stone...I did it. lol as if the gyno isn't awkward enough in English...try having some Spanish dude giving you orders. It was absolutely humiliating. I finally got finished and tried to compose myself and then they sent me off to another room. I got lost. When I finally got there, they told me to drop my pants again. WHAT??? They were giving me an injection for the bronchitis in the butt. Seriously, Costa Ricans get injections for everything! Oh my goodness, I just lost it. Then the lady starts blabbing in Spanish and I heard her say, oh some of the liquid got out...you're going to have "some" pain. She should have substituted some pain with a serious butt spasm and inability to walk normal for an hour. It was unbelievable. Then they hooked me up with three perscriptions and orders to come back in 8 days for a full body checkup (well what the heck did they just do??). I'd say that was a pretty "full body" check up. I finally got out of there running. lol not running, more like sauntering because my left butt cheek was numb and because you never feel much like walking after the gyno. I laughed hysterically all the way home and of course had to stop to catch my breath because I can't breath with this dumb bronchitis. It was incredible. So in summary, today was productive: I learned how to handle the medical system here, I learned a new word, I got an injection, and I got a great story. Fue un exito! (It was a success)

I'm a liar...

Me and my coaching expertise :)

So....yo soy mentirosa (I'm a liar). The problem with me and speaking Spanish is that sometimes its so hard to actually get out what you're trying to say that I just have to bend the truth if you will. Now...I'm not saying that it's okay or anything, but I really only do it when the information needed isn't important. :) This past weekend when we were shopping for wedding dresses, I had to lie. Carolina was driving and I was calling places to make reservations. My name is impossible for latinos, so when the lady asked for my name I said Patricia, which is not my name. Then she asked for my last name...so I said Carolina's last name: Vargas. lol then she asked for my second last name (for they all have two last names here). That time I said that I didn't have one...because I was gringo. When we got there, Patricia Vargas was called and then I had to go up. The lady was like...we need a last name for you. I couldn't think of anything at the moment, so I said my actual last name bringing the final count to Patricia Vargas Wegman (which it took me 10 minutes to explain how to pronounce Wegman). Then the lady asked the questions I hoped she wouldn't ask: how I acquired that name....which is where the lie grew and grew. I then said I married Carolina's brother and that I moved to Costa Rica and that she was my sister-in-law and blah blah. The girls are just dying as I squirm. We finally get to the dressing room and another asks how we know each other. Finally Carolina takes one for the team and tells how we're all related and then looks at me in Spanish and in a sickenly sweet voice says, "mi cunadita." (which is sister in law). Of course we all just lost it. So there you have it. I'm a bilingual liar. Besides that...it's been a good week. We celebrated Drew's bday on Tuesday. My middle schooler's had a game on Thursday...only lost by 6!!! Clearly paying attention to the game :)Then on Friday we had a double header...except for the other coach forgot to bring his middle school team...lol. So we just played varsity. My guys played so good though and I even got the middle's in. We only lost by 6 and we were up for some of the game. It was so great :) Now we're house sitting for some missionaries here and just living the life: sleeping and eating. It's wonderful. :) God bless!

Boundaries

Boundaries is the theme word of the week because Kate has been preaching them at me all week. So basketball season is always really crazy...but among other things, life has just been nuts. I have been running everywhere (all good things), but not getting any sleep. And Kate just got taken out with Bronchitis, so I need to be careful. :) We were everywhere so I'm going to give you a brief summary with some good pictures. On Friday we had character day. I dressed up supposedly as Jasmine in Aladdin...but really it was just some Arabian princess. Yes, I did dye my hair darker for the outfit. Yes, its permanent. lol if you're going to dress up, you need to do it right. There were some funny ones though. Kate was Sherlock Holmes, Eden was a pirate, we had the Joker from Batman, Michael Jackson...it was great. After that we had our first middle school basketball game. We got destroyed, but it was still fun. One of my players scored the first basket...given, on the wrong basket, but who's counting? Then, one of the highlights of the week- we went to the movie "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" in Spanish. The reason it was a highlight was for one it was funny, and secondly, there were times that I didn't even realize it was in Spanish I was understanding everything so well. Amazing :) Thank you Jesus. On Saturday, Carolina, Kate, Peggy and I went shopping for a wedding dress for Peggy. It was so awesome. She was so excited. Finally, on Sunday, we went to see the Harlem Globetrotters play with my basketball team. It was a lot of fun and a good team bonding time :). So that's a little summary. Sorry it's been so long grandma :)