Reflecting on a Month in Costa Rica....

Quick Facts About the Past Four Weeks:

Countries visited:  2 (CR and Panama)
Beaches visited:  10
Starfish touched:  3
Jellyfish stings:  several (did you know that jellyfish tentacles contain their poison, and that if they touch you, it's like a mini-sting?)
Bee stings:  1
Sun burns:  none!
Feet cut open on reef:  1
Band-aids used:  50?
Sunken ships seen:  2
Snorkeling trips called off due to anxiety:  1 (me and Dave both freaked because we couldn't see the botttom!)
Trimarans rented:  1
Hostels stayed in: 4
Towels used while on vacation:  0
Coconuts consumed:  3
Sloths observed:  2

Too-Many-to-Count Catergory:
Salsas danced
Crabs avoided (they look like spiders and freak me out!)
Mosquitos/Random bug bites
Friends made
Drinks consumed
Jumps into the ocean
Waves body-surfed
Hours spent on buses
Photos taken

Overall, classes here were well above my expectations.  They were enjoyable and so informative.  On top of it, the people in this group had such great chemistry.  Everyone worked and traveled really well together (with the occasional qualms, but really nothing memorable).  Costa Rica is good people, good music, cheap drinks, beautiful beaches, beautiful surfers (really, amazing eye candy), lots of jokes, exotic animals, good food (usually!)...it really is pura vida here. 

I've really had a lot of time to think down here, as always.  I've got a lot of unanswered questions for myself:  what country do I want to work in?  what do I want to do?  where am I going to live when I get home?  where do I buy a bed?  should I drop environmental law?  what happened on project runway so far?  is my dog ok without me?  how much have I abandonded my friends this month?  what did my friends do while I was gone?  do I really have to go buy law books now?  what should I eat first when I get back?  Naturally, some are more serious than others.  But all are valid.

I am most looking forward to a pedicure when I get home, over anything else.  This country is rough on your feet.  But who's complaining when you're walking on the beach?  I also can't wait for this combo:  hot water + water pressure.  I also take my abundance of pillows and blankets for granted every time.  But again, I'm not complaining.  Here, there, it's all good.  Back on Friday, give me a call!

Que Soy Gitana

So, I read over my last post and it struck me as very gloomy.  I've been single now for just shy of a month, and I have to say the outlook is much sunnier now.  I bought my ticket for Costa Rica.  You can expect to find me there, and are welcome to try, from May 17-August 20.

I'm making progress on ending this semester.  Trial Ad is over.  My fantastic partner and I did a great job on our final trial, if I do say so myself.  I have one class down and four to go.  That's why I'll be staying in this weekend to work on papers and such.  At least most of the material is interesting. 

My brother is coming home this weekend (yay!), so I have to surrender the room I've been living in for a month (boo).  But really, all I have in here is a laundry bag and school stuff.  I'm sort of in between homes right now.  I am moving out of the apartment and into public storage while staying in my brother's room.  When he comes home for the summer, I have to move out of his room and spend a week or so on the couch.  I then somehow have to pack for three months abroad while all my stuff is in storage.  Oh it's possible, and it's going to happen; it's just a little complicated for finals time!!

Not much else to report, except a high-five to other recently-single, couch-surfing, laundry-bag-living friends out there.

Todo se transforma

Well, the past few weeks have been unusual.  On March 17th, I took a trip to Costa Rica for a week. I stayed at Roda's house, and hung out with Roda, her two daughters Navila and Mili, Abuelito (who is still medio loco), Felicia and Katy (two ISA students staying with Roda), and some of my Tico friends.  It was a really good time.  I got to see everyone, got to spend some time outside, felt the sun actually warm my skin, laughed a lot, talked a lot, thought a lot.  That week of relaxation and fun prepared me for the weeks to come.  Two days after I came home, Cliff and I talked about the status of our relationship and decided mutually that it was time to go separate ways.  It's really very simple: we want different things.  But it feels really complicated, and its logistically involved. 

So, it's April, the last month of classes.  I'm doing final projects for all of my classes.  I had two rough drafts and a journal article due on three consecutive days this week.  I have two large assignments for next week and two for the following week and two more after that.  All the while, I'm living back with my parents until Cliff can move out of the apartment.  We gave our thirty days to the complex last week.  It's all extremely sad.  The truth is we still love each other very much, but we just can't sacrifice the things we want most in life for each other.  On the one hand, school is a good distraction.  But the break-up is distracting me, too.  I'm sure it's pretty plain how stressful this month is.  But there is a lot to look forward to: a job in Costa Rica for the entire summer, for example.  I'm pretty sure I've nailed one down in a law office.  Not sure what I'm doing, or where I'm living, but those are just details.  The big picture:  I'll be in CR again, and that makes me happy.  Anyway, if you think of me this month, please send positive vibes my way or give me a call.  I could use the support.

And you're changin'.....

All experience is an arch wherethrough gleams that untravelled world whose margin fades for ever and for ever when I move.
~Alfred Lord Tennyson

In Chicago, there is life

Chicago is finally thawing out.  What does this mean for suburban commuters?  It means more parking spots at the train station (as the snow banks dissolve), choosing to walk instead of taking the bus, wearing layers, and an overall better atmosphere on trains and at stations.  Commuters are no longer silent blocks of ice, head down, hood up, expending what little existing energy we have on sprinting across the street to catch the bus.   Today, for example, I walked out of the station and the first breath I took did not feel like a swift stab to the lungs.  It was refreshing, cool, and it smelled like there is some life that has survived Thunderstorm 2011.  I actually made eye contact with another human.  There is hope. 

This optimism, admittedly, is tainted by the ungodly amount of work that will keep me indoors for the next 24 hours.  My eyes will blur as they shift from the screen to the WestLaw cases in front of me.  When I take a break a few hours in, I will struggle to focus on anything farther than ten feet away.  I will drink an unhealthy amount of caffeine drinks, and eat quicker than trainees at bootcamp, shoveling down a Chipotle burrito bowl as I read cases about interstate commerce.  I will work until the early morning hours, but I will not be able to sleep for the stress of what needs to be done.  I will wake up at the crack of dawn and scramble to finish the final revisions of my trial brief, throw together a professional ensemble for my oral argument, toss an apple in my bag, and rush to catch the train just in time.  Although the daily grind will not abate any time soon, thanks to the livable climate my semi-rested eyes might be able to focus as far as fellow commuter's face without stinging and freezing, long enough for me to say good morning.

FINALS

They're here!  The worst part of every semester.  There's truly nothing good about finals.  I have taken two so far, with two to go.  At every other school and in every other class I have been an excellent test taker.  But in law school, I'm not.  Or...at least I think.  Actually, I have no idea, and this is one of the reasons law exams are stupid.  I could have gotten two A's or two C's; I have no idea or instinct about how I did. And when I find out, it still won't make sense.  What's more, three hours of derranged legal memo drafting based on a complicated hypothectical fact pattern does not demonstrate in the slightest what kind of advocate I can be.  And to top it off, the merit-based scholarship system is dysfunctional and really just a bait-and-switch tactic.

And despite all of this, I freak out about grades.  I pull all-nighters to study.  I get stressed out and I can't sleep at night when I want to.  And I will probably check out CampusConnect compulsively until grades are posted. 

But, despite all of that, I am going to really enjoy my three weeks off! 

I've made a list of things I plan on doing:
1.  Visit my niece (Johnny and Andrea's baby), Kenley Grace
2.  Learn to knit
3.  Christmas shop/finish making presents (lots of scarves this year...I'm crocheting them!)
4.  Go to Rochester, NY, with Cliff to visit my grandparents
5.  Watch the Bears win the division
6.  Learn to snowboard
7.  Read ahead for next semester
8.  Visit Emily Hunt


All the list continues to grow.  It's what's motivating me to get through next week.  And I think you will understand, when you see this unbelievably adorable and precious two-day-old little girl!  (She was born 11/29).

Some news...

So, some of you may know by now, but for those of you who don't, the Center that I worked at this summer suffered extensive damage due to flooding brought on by two tropical storms that passed through San Cristobal last week.  We are pulling together emergency funds, and I am trying to find a venue that will donate its space for a benefit dinner within the next two weeks.  If anyone out there has any idea where this can be done, please pass the info along.  I have emailed/called several places, but most of them charge high fees to rent the space.  So I'm just not looking in the right place, because there has to be a place out there and I have to find it soon.

In other news, school is running relatively smoothly.  I was way behind the first few weeks, but then I dropped Biz Orgs, which saved my academic life.  It was way too much work and too confusing.  I didn't like the professor, and it made my schedule extremely difficult.  But now, things are really starting to flow, so I'm glad for that.

I went to New Orleans last weekend for the National Lawyer's Guild Convention (progressive lawyers/law students group).  It was three days full of panels and time well spent in the French Quarter.  The city was so inviting and fun.  I would love to go back!  And some of the panels were very powerful (especially one on housing as a human right, a particularly important issue in NOLA right now).  Made some great friends, and recentered myself on the work I'm doing.  It can be hard being a progressive law student and feeling like you just don't belong because you're not there for the same reasons that most other students are.  So it's really refreshing and encouraging to have a new group of friends who understand and relate!

Actress Rachael Albers (of DePaul and Chiapas fame) is in for the next couple of weeks.  She held an awesome panel on Theatre of the Oppressed, so many gold stars to her for coming back to DePaul and sharing her passion!

And more exciting news, my family has finally agreed not to celebrate Christmas this year!  I have been on that boat for years, but we always seem to get sucked up into it even after we say we don't want to.  But this year, everyone is seriously broke.  I'm hoping that this will influence them to see how backwards the holdiay is, but one step at a time I guess.  But good news for me, nonetheless!!

That's all for now because I have a billion things to do today.  But if you want to support the Centro in any way, or if you want to be invited to the dinner, let me know.

Peace in the Middle East!