Full Circle

If you had to represent life as a diagram, how would it look? Some people think its like this:

The Circle of Life

Others think its like this: 

The Line of Life

Here’s my current view:

The Line of Life with Circles

Life is a series of stages. Each stage has a beginning, but it seems that every stage ends where it started – like a circle. That’s how I currently feel about Costa Rica. My time is at its end but I feel like I’m coming back to the beginning. It’s like I never left home and yet I’ve come back a different person. I have to return to regular life and try to hang on to the new things I've discovered and learned. It's hard to hold on to the new when the old is so comfortable, so easy.

We do not grow absolutely, chronologically. We grow sometimes in one dimension, and not in another; unevenly. We grow partially. We are relative. We are mature in one realm, childish in another. The past, present, and future mingle and pull us backward, forward, or fix us in the present. We are made up of layers, cells, constellations.

Anais Nin

You may wonder, 'How can I leave it all behind if I am just coming back to it? How can I make a new beginning if I simply return to the old?' The answer lies in the return. You will not come back to the 'same old thing.' What you return to has changed because you have changed. Your perceptions will be altered. You will not incorporate into the same body, status, or world you left behind. The river has been flowing while you were gone. Now it does not look like the same river.

Steven Foster

May each of us find a way to change for the better.

Party it uP

It’s difficult to get inspired to write a blog when you don’t have any pictures (My camera was part of the whole robbery fiasco). However I now have some pictures from my fellow volunteers and have been re-inspired to share with you.

My last month in Monteverde has been a hodge-podge mix of traveling and finishing up small projects at school. Nate, Calle and Daniel have officially taken over all teaching so Nickele and I have to wander around to find small projects to keep us occupied. We've been tutoring some newly arrived students who don't know English, making signs for the school, and organizing the library, a project which I started the first week I got to Costa Rica. We’ve also been trying to fill our free time with fun activities with our friends here since our time in Costa Rica is coming to an end. Here is a quick recap of the last month-ish:

Chillin at a student's pool with the other teachers.

Doing what we do best - lie in hammocks in Nicaragua.

Playing with the monkeys at our hostel in Nicaragua.

Nickele's friend Ashley got to come visit. We went to the beach and made a stop in Monteverde.

Ometepe Island, Nicaragua.

Nickele and I in our hostel with the duck of evil. Scariest animal ever.

Us at Ruben Dario's house. In case you didn't know, famous poet from Nicaragua. Had to beg to go take a picture at this house.

Just a normal breakfast on the steps of one of the many cathedrals in Leon, Nicaragua.

Swimming in the lagoon on Ometepe Island.