pura vida

School was very difficult for some of us, and pretty great for others, but there wasn’t a lot of middle ground. The first week of school culminated in several hour-long crying seshes and no, the tears weren’t mine(!). I think at the end of the day it was good to get some of the residual feelings out from our move, and some of us are so good at holding it all together at school that we need to fall apart at home, which I can appreciate.

But … it’s so much! Some of us are crying, some of us are having meltdowns all the time over all the things. And some of us are fighting with each other due to the stress of the situation. Anyway, by Friday night I was just so tired I fell into bed at 8pm and closed my eyes and was out. The kids only went to school for two days this week but it really felt like a marathon. Wondering how this five-day week is going to go …

That being said, I had a double beach day yesterday which, if you don’t know, is when you go to the beach on two separate occasions in one day. Which I recommend. And which restored some of my life energy. I swam and ran at an empty, shady Playa Grande on Saturday morning. This beach is such a stunner! It’s miles long and just feels completely remote. The sand is so soft and the water is so clear. I can’t really do it justice with words.

In the late afternoon we went to Playa Real, which has red sand. There are actually two beaches separated by an island. Between the two beaches, the ocean hits the shore from two different angles, creating a triangle of wave. Also hard to explain! But there is this perfect spot for body surfing. Fun for the whole family, not even forced! We had to drag everyone out of the water by 5:30pm before the sun went down and made driving the somewhat washed out, small dirt road back impossible.

Then I made yuca empanadas, which was a failure. I didn’t know that yuca is poisonous when uncooked, so I let the kids peel the yuca with a machete. Oops! I also ate a bunch of possibly undercooked yuca as it was cooking because I didn’t know it was poisonous. Oops! Apparently the cyanide in yuca will start causing neurological effects in a couple of minutes, so I’m fine? Also, the empanadas were *not good.* Anyway, I continue to experiment with food, and it continues to be consistent with the title of this post.

In honor of this week, I’ve compiled a list of all the UPS:

• The kids being away at school all day
• Returning to work
• Plantains
• Writing and reading
• Double beach days
• Gallo pinto
• Reina’s chocolate
• Diego at the carneceria
• Mr. Nicky at CRIA
• Eggs: boiled, fried, scrambled, in all the ways
• Dirt roads, the slow pace of life
• Watching someone else be bitten by the ants in the laundry room (this sounds cruel but it is pretty funny)

and DOWNS:

• Tantrums
• Leaving our friends and family
• Not having any friends or family here
• Yuca empanadas
• Our pots and pans
• My hair on chlorine
• Working in an 85 degree house
• Being bitten by the ants in the mud room