It has been a REALLY long time since I last wrote...
In the meantime, I took a Sustainability Management course at INCAE (June), my brother sent my mom to visit me in July (lots of fun...more on that later), August and September were spent in a trance, frantically looking for the perfect model for my thesis, and planning the table of contents.
At some point in August I started 1. spinning sessions (for those of you who don't know what spinning is, it's really fast stationary cycling and most of the time without sitting down) 2. a slim fast/pop corn diet. This means I have a slim-fast shake (thanks to Cardy) as soon as I'm dressed, a cup of coffee and some whole wheat soda crackers around 9 at the office, 63 calories worth of dehydrated pineapple around 10, then eat all the salads and vegetables at the cafeteria plus whatever lean protein they have, and a bowl of fruit. When I come home I eat a whole bag of popcorn, drink lots of water, and if I'm hungry before bed, I like to eat a bowl of oatmeal with a little bit of milk. People have started noticing a change :) I have also started taking vitamins (One a Day, Women's) and I feel a change!
September was very sad because a family member passed away, so some of that time I just spent mourning...no energy for anything...so sad...
October started with a loud bang...the most unbelievable lightning hit my little house (and about 6 other houses near it). It fried my TV, cable modem, wireless router, study light...I hope that was all, haven't had time to check everything...my neighbors lost TVs and cable modems as well...one even lost a laptop in the storm...unbelievable! I really don't like this kind of weather, although thanks to the rain everything looks so bright and green...
As a consequence, I'm now glued to my desk...no more researching on the hammock, or chatting with the family while still in bed (God, I'm spoiled!). I have learned to not use the TV as an alarm clock, I am now able to fall asleep without watching TV (amazing how adaptable we are!), and I've discovered that I like it. All I do in order to relax before bed is watch a movie (I have many that I've collected but never watched) and I enjoy the luxury of being able to stop the movie whenever I feel like I'm too sleepy to go on, turn off the laptop and go to sleep. Amazing! :) One of the problems with this is that
1. I will go to sleep pretty early, which makes me wake up REALLY early (like 4:30 or 5 am, depending on what time I went to sleep, because my body can't handle more than 6 hours of sleep even on weekends, and it wakes up on its own).
2. Since I'm known for being a night owl, I WILL get phone calls in the "middle of the night" (which might be only 11 pm) and get scared to death thinking someone is calling me with more bad news.
So, now when the TV comes back (some genius technician will fix it for $30), it will be placed in the living room, where it should stay. I will go to bed at a decent time and not re-press the sleep button because the program I'm watching is too interesting. This almost sounds like New Year's resolutions towards the end of the year! :)
I'm also glad to report that I managed to buy (with the help of my nice new neighbor) three pairs of shoes size 10 (I swear I was convinced I'd never find shoes for me, ladies here wear dolls' shoes!): the pair for everyday office stuff, the weekend clogs and the nice shoes at Best Brands (SO thrilled they exist!) and contacts to replace my very worn old ones. I feel like a queen!
The above mentioned neighbor also has permission to drag me to spinning class (the bad thing is I don't go when she doesn't feel like going, she's the one with the car) and we also shop for groceries together. I also get to treat them to chupe and other gourmet Peruvian dishes when I've cooked too much. Glad they're here.
I'm glad we talked. I will try to be good and post more frequently. Please don't complain and threaten to quit reading my blog if I don't post regularly. I couldn't help it! I know it's not so much fun this way, lots of things get forgotten...I will do my best :)
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Saturday, June 9, 2007
We have some catching up to do
This is wonderful! I know, I have to apologize, since I haven't posted for like another whole month, but I had no Internet at home, and, since the university is empty right now, there are no long hours for the library or even dinner...the two reasons why I could stay longer at the university. So I took many books out of the library, printed many articles and papers and brought them home. I know a lot more about world water supply than I ever thought I would!
I was in Lima for two weeks. I really hadn't planned it, the Peruvian Postal Services made me. When I left Germany, I packed 6 boxes: I sent two to Costa Rica and four to Peru, to my mom. The two Costa Rica boxes arrived without complications. For the four Peru boxes I received notices via my mom: It was illegal to import used clothes and shoes, my mom was not allowed to pick up the stuff...and the last straw: Unless I picked them up personally, they were going to incinerate my boxes!!! Mind you, everything that was in those boxes was carefully selected from all the stuff I had collected in my 4 years in Germany...so I was really angry!
At the same time, I received a message from this great website www.kayak.com, where they let me know that tickets San Jose - Lima were half price from May 8th until the 22nd...so I bought a ticket. This trip was really meant to be, since during those two weeks I was able to celebrate with my family: 4 birthdays - brother #2, brother #3, niece #7, and my own, plus Mother's day and the birth of my first nephew. Apart from all the abovementioned festivities, I was able to pick up some documents, necessary for my residency permit and I also renewed my driver's license. What this means is that I spent my mornings and many afternoons standing in line at the Peruvian National Bank, the Ministry of External Relations, Reniec, Lima Touring Club, Police Department, Police Headquarters, Medical Center, City Hall, etc. and some afternoons and evenings at birthdays parties or some other family celebration. Really busy, but I enjoyed myself. So, I can now rent a car in Costa Rica and drive anywhere I want! Yes!
No more excuses for not statying in touch now: I have wireless lan at home, which means I can be connected to the Internet and chat with family and friends even while I'm relaxing on the hammock or the sky chair. Of course it's also a big plus when I get inspired on the weekend and want to find information about water desalination via eolic reverse osmosis :) Now I don't have to wait until Monday!!!
I will be starting a course next week on sustainability management with emphasis on funding for power and water projects. I'm looking forward to it, since it will provide me with many contacts for my thesis. I'm really excited, although I will be out of touch for the next three weeks...I just got the course schedule: the organizers have planned our lives from 7 am to 10 pm, Monday through Sunday! Still, I'm looking forward to it...and I'm sure I will have plenty of pictures to publish on my next post. I think I will be writing again towards the end of June :)
Almost forgot to mention Paula doesn't live here anymore. Lili liked her too much...
I was in Lima for two weeks. I really hadn't planned it, the Peruvian Postal Services made me. When I left Germany, I packed 6 boxes: I sent two to Costa Rica and four to Peru, to my mom. The two Costa Rica boxes arrived without complications. For the four Peru boxes I received notices via my mom: It was illegal to import used clothes and shoes, my mom was not allowed to pick up the stuff...and the last straw: Unless I picked them up personally, they were going to incinerate my boxes!!! Mind you, everything that was in those boxes was carefully selected from all the stuff I had collected in my 4 years in Germany...so I was really angry!
At the same time, I received a message from this great website www.kayak.com, where they let me know that tickets San Jose - Lima were half price from May 8th until the 22nd...so I bought a ticket. This trip was really meant to be, since during those two weeks I was able to celebrate with my family: 4 birthdays - brother #2, brother #3, niece #7, and my own, plus Mother's day and the birth of my first nephew. Apart from all the abovementioned festivities, I was able to pick up some documents, necessary for my residency permit and I also renewed my driver's license. What this means is that I spent my mornings and many afternoons standing in line at the Peruvian National Bank, the Ministry of External Relations, Reniec, Lima Touring Club, Police Department, Police Headquarters, Medical Center, City Hall, etc. and some afternoons and evenings at birthdays parties or some other family celebration. Really busy, but I enjoyed myself. So, I can now rent a car in Costa Rica and drive anywhere I want! Yes!
No more excuses for not statying in touch now: I have wireless lan at home, which means I can be connected to the Internet and chat with family and friends even while I'm relaxing on the hammock or the sky chair. Of course it's also a big plus when I get inspired on the weekend and want to find information about water desalination via eolic reverse osmosis :) Now I don't have to wait until Monday!!!
I will be starting a course next week on sustainability management with emphasis on funding for power and water projects. I'm looking forward to it, since it will provide me with many contacts for my thesis. I'm really excited, although I will be out of touch for the next three weeks...I just got the course schedule: the organizers have planned our lives from 7 am to 10 pm, Monday through Sunday! Still, I'm looking forward to it...and I'm sure I will have plenty of pictures to publish on my next post. I think I will be writing again towards the end of June :)
Almost forgot to mention Paula doesn't live here anymore. Lili liked her too much...
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Long time no write...
I know, I disappeared and I apologize...it's been almost a month since I last posted, but I have a very good excuse. I was busy doing lots of things. First, I had to put a presentation together for a conference that's luckily over. I was under a lot of stress, because I had to read about 30 cases on Social Value Creation and try to somehow categorize them and rank them. That's next to impossible because there could be as many definitions as to what constitutes social value as there were cases for me to read. But I finally managed to somehow organize them in such a way that it ended up making sense. It also made sense to the professor I was doing this project with and also to the people in charge of the conference. So I'm proud of myself :)
Other things going on in my life: I will be researching deeper in the area of "water for the poor" from the consumer behavior point of view. So, I've been keeping myself busy reading all I can about the subject. And there is quite a bit.
I've also adopted a wild pet turtle who watches me exercise on my elliptical trainer. No, I didn't go to the pet shop and buy a turtle. A co-worker had bought it to instill some sense of responsibility in her two young boys. Hmmm...how can I put it? They lost the turtle. It ran away...whatever. When I was told this, I tried to imagine how long it took this tiny turtle to run away anywhere without anyone noticing it. When mom came back home, she noticed the empty aquarium and vowed that if they ever found the turtle again, they would give it to me. 
Mind you, I had never said I needed a turtle...I just commented once that my brothers and I had lots of different pets growing up (four dogs, cats, a falcon, a goat, turtles, rabbits, canary birds, parrots, and I must be forgetting other kinds).
Anyway, one day I was working hard in my office and in comes this lady with a pool-like turtle aquarium, a bag of food and the tiniest turtle, whom I promptly named Paula. This is the reason: Here in Costa Rica there are giant turtles in Tortuguero and other parts of the country. These turtles are called Baulas. Since this one is so tiny she could never be a Baula, I named ber Paula. But she's wild! I realized after three weeks, that it was not the boys' fault that Paula ran away. She did that to me, too! Worse, because I had her on a high shelf...about 1.3 meters high...about the height of a tall six-year-old and she just jumped off!
I had no idea this was going on, because I had been invited to a party in San Jose and came back around 11 pm. I went to feed her and I couldn't find her in the aquarium...I looked everywhere and found her under my guest bed with her shell all dried up.
When I set her back in the water, she didn't move. After 10 minutes she started moving a little, then I fed her and everything went back to normal. But she doesn't have such a beautiful view anymore because she's on a lower, safer shelf now.
I have been asked this week to please adopt Lili, the neighbor's cat, for at least 2 months. I'm considering it, because Lili and I have shared a few tuna sandwiches. YUK! No, not like that. She came to me, meeowing loudly, so I gathered she was hungry, I opened a can of tuna, gave her half and made a tuna sandwich for me with the rest :) So, we've already bonded. The problem is, Lili likes shelves. And I don't know yet if she likes turtles...so, maybe Paula will be re-adopted by another co-worker who decided she'd also like to have a turtle watch her when she's exercising.
I'll keep you posted! :)
I've also adopted a wild pet turtle who watches me exercise on my elliptical trainer. No, I didn't go to the pet shop and buy a turtle. A co-worker had bought it to instill some sense of responsibility in her two young boys. Hmmm...how can I put it? They lost the turtle. It ran away...whatever. When I was told this, I tried to imagine how long it took this tiny turtle to run away anywhere without anyone noticing it. When mom came back home, she noticed the empty aquarium and vowed that if they ever found the turtle again, they would give it to me.
Mind you, I had never said I needed a turtle...I just commented once that my brothers and I had lots of different pets growing up (four dogs, cats, a falcon, a goat, turtles, rabbits, canary birds, parrots, and I must be forgetting other kinds).
Anyway, one day I was working hard in my office and in comes this lady with a pool-like turtle aquarium, a bag of food and the tiniest turtle, whom I promptly named Paula. This is the reason: Here in Costa Rica there are giant turtles in Tortuguero and other parts of the country. These turtles are called Baulas. Since this one is so tiny she could never be a Baula, I named ber Paula. But she's wild! I realized after three weeks, that it was not the boys' fault that Paula ran away. She did that to me, too! Worse, because I had her on a high shelf...about 1.3 meters high...about the height of a tall six-year-old and she just jumped off!
I had no idea this was going on, because I had been invited to a party in San Jose and came back around 11 pm. I went to feed her and I couldn't find her in the aquarium...I looked everywhere and found her under my guest bed with her shell all dried up.
When I set her back in the water, she didn't move. After 10 minutes she started moving a little, then I fed her and everything went back to normal. But she doesn't have such a beautiful view anymore because she's on a lower, safer shelf now.
I have been asked this week to please adopt Lili, the neighbor's cat, for at least 2 months. I'm considering it, because Lili and I have shared a few tuna sandwiches. YUK! No, not like that. She came to me, meeowing loudly, so I gathered she was hungry, I opened a can of tuna, gave her half and made a tuna sandwich for me with the rest :) So, we've already bonded. The problem is, Lili likes shelves. And I don't know yet if she likes turtles...so, maybe Paula will be re-adopted by another co-worker who decided she'd also like to have a turtle watch her when she's exercising.
I'll keep you posted! :)
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