My Big Sis and Little Kid Bro

The Weimer kids are in town. Time for a lot of laughter, story-telling, and eating (as my little kid bro eats about six meals a day). Ever since Fred and friends (the parasites from Costa Rica) were killed off by tequila (hooray!) I have been feeling extremely happy and energy-filled which made for many spontaneous dance-offs and lots of activity. Not only did we attend one of the best events in Athens...Twilight, the bicycle criterium, but Charlie and I also participated in a garage sale to get rid of many of our materialistic items. So, yeah...it was a busy weekend especially considering that Charlie's house needed to be ready for the new owners in one week. Oh my...! But, there is no better way to de-stress than to spend time with my favorite brother and sister. We basically hung out and just caught up.

Happy Easter, American-Brazilian Style!

The Easter bunny not only brought colored eggs and candy, but also a cheeky bunch of Brazilians. My dear friend, Ali, from my European Masters program finally came to visit the good ol' U.S. of A. She said she would NEVER come to America...and look what happened. Although I want to believe she came to visit me, it turns out that she came to visit me and some of her college friends (from Brazil) that now live in Athens. Talk about a small world. So, we invited the Brazilians for a fun-filled Easter Extravaganza. Charlie grilled an amazing spread of colorful veggies and chicken and dinner ended with sparklers (see photo). Then, we had an all-out adult Easter egg hunt in Charlie's (soon-to-be-sold) house. We are still missing two eggs...apparently, I did a really good job of hiding the eggs. (The people who bought Charlie's house will not only be the new proud owners of the washer-dryer and bow-flex, but they also get a few Easter eggs filled with high-fructose corn-syrup). Suckers! Anyway back to the story. The Easter extravaganza fun did not end there, we moved to the kitchen for an egg-coloring fiasco. All in all, the weekend was a hit...even though Fred was still alive and kicking which again meant no alcohol consumption for me. Damn, Fred and friends have overstayed their welcome.

The Weimer Parental Units Come to Athens

My parents made the trek from Colorado to visit this place I call (temporary) home. I am sure their visit had nothing to do with the fact that my little kid brother is now living three hours away from me...sarcasm intended. Anyway, we had a nice visit, despite the fact that I was still on parasite meds and could not partake in margarita heaven at my father's favorite BYOB Athens eatery, Cali n Tito's. Unfortunately, my parents visit also coincided with the worse of my illness...loose bowels and an upchuck extravaganza. Ick! Luckily, my parents are very easy-going and so just hanging around the house was good enough for them. Oh, and the weekend trip to visit my brother was probably a welcomed break from the house of ill.

My father booked a 6 a.m. flight back to Colorado (oops, he thought he booked the 6 PM flight)...so, the last night we stayed in a hotel near the airport. Now when I say "near" I almost mean on the airplane runway. Seriously, the hotel (or shall I call it properly by its name--the Days Inn) shook every time an airplane would take off/land. Word to the wise...don't go cheap on airport hotels, otherwise you may find yourself sleeping on the runway too. Regardless of all of the crazy memories of this trip (that we will look back on and laugh about) it is always a gift to spend time with my parents. I am very grateful to have such flexible and loving parental units. You are the best!!

Parasites Partying in my Colon!

*Beware the following blog entry is a little rogue...but this is my life and I feel compelled to educate/share with you all on some of the joys/misery of international travel. (Or perhaps you have experienced something similar...as I know many of you have traveled to faraway places where the bugs in the water source do not settle in our Western bellies.) *

Fred (and friends) are back (remember him from my trip to Morocco?) This time around he is back with a vengeance and his identity has been revealed: Blastocystis! (Blastocystis hominis a.k.a. B. hominis are anaerobic protozoan parasites frequently found in the human gastrointestinal tract.) Yep, after four trips to the health clinic, stool samples, and blood work, my Doc officially confirmed that these cheeky little bastards are dancing the night away in my colon. No wonder I have been spending a lot of time on the toilet, listening to a thunderstorm in my intestines, and at times doubled over by pain. The Doc thinks they must have hitched a ride in my colon when I was in Costa Rica three weeks ago...damn illegal immi-cites. According to the lab report I have 'moderate' levels of these little bandits taking shots of my poo and treating my colon as if it was a after-hours night club. I had to wait one day to receive the meds, as this medicine is so expensive and rarely prescribed that pharmacies do not have it in stock, it was special ordered. Now I will begin treatment and hope that I am one of the lucky few when treatment (antibiotics) actually works to ward off these aggressive dudes. If treatment does not work my doctor advises me that I will "have to ride it out". I am feeling hopeful!

Delicious Craziness!

Charlie and I are in the midst of delicious craziness...he is selling his house, we are simplifying all of our materialistic crap (wanna buy a vacuum cleaner, printer, or lamp?), beginning to plan the logistics of moving out of our places, driving the material items (that we are wildly attached to) back to Ohio & Colorado, and packing up for Finland. Not to mention all of the everyday things to maintain...like taxes, work, dissertation prep, and time for yoga. WOW...it is all kind of overwhelming, but just the way I love to live life. Anyway, this is probably much more info than you care to know about. But, this is what life entails when you plan to move to a different country.

There are so many moving parts when two people transition their life to a different country (yes, Charlie will be accompanying me on this BIG adventure...which is very awesome!) It seems like everyday we receive news that is exciting and helpful to the process of taking one step forward. For instance, after nine months of Charlie's house being on the market...it finally sold yesterday. Now all of the other pieces need to fall into place (appraisal, etc. ). The housing market in Athens is seriously in the toilet, so this is truly a blessing and a huge relief for him/us . Then, there are other things I must do in order to receive the Fulbright grant such as get a physical for medical clearance and decide on our primary location of residence in Finland (which we do not know yet because it is dependent upon where Charlie lands a job). Yes, add to the list...a job in Finland for Charlie. On top of this, there are summer logistics to figure out...where will we live for the summer (Charlie moves out of his house the first week of May), I will be in South Africa working for May/June, but will I have a summer job for the month of July (still working on this), and finally when will we drive our stuff to Colorado and Ohio? Yes, a little overwhelming, but I have done this before and it is always incredible how it all comes together in the end.

Good vibes: in the midst of all of the superawesomesauce craziness it is springtime in Georgia (see photos), sunny and 70-80 degrees (21-26c) with blooms everywhere. My favorite season to live in Athens!

Gratitude: Fulbright News & More!

The night we arrived home from Costa Rica (Monday p.m.) a manila envelope greeted me in my mailbox which, which by the way was very thin (thin enough to be a rejection letter). This thin letter held the key to my future, as sappy as that sounds...it's true. I waited a few minutes before the letter was screaming, "OPEN ME!" Good or bad at least I will no longer be in limbo, just waiting. Despite it's thinness, it was thick with goodness, "You have been selected!" Woohoo. So, instead of screaming from the mountaintop (or shall I say the hills of Athens) I did a little celebratory dance with Charlie and then simply sat in the news for a few days. I guess I needed my own time and space to think through what this meant in relation to my life in Athens, with Charlie, and my dissertation. Plus, we were just coming off an amazing high in Costa Rica and I just needed to breathe and take it all in. My mom called Tuesday and we talked a lot about Costa Rica, but Fulbright was never mentioned. The news was still settling in. Over the years I have noticed that there is magic in being reflective rather than reactive (yoga has certainly helped me with this). I slowly began to tell people, my mom and dad were the first to know...albeit, six hours after I got off the phone with my mother on Tuesday.

Four days (Friday) after ripping open the skinny manila envelope I received more news that I was also selected for a Scandinavian-American Fellowship grant. Woohoo! After (finally) telling my major professor in person, I officially let the cat out of the bag.

All of this news is amazing and I am feeling super grateful right now. Now, comes the fun part...figuring out all of the moving parts. But, one thing is for sure I will be in Finland August 2011 to May 2012.

An Oversold Flight = More Paradise!

We arrived at the open-air Liberia airport three hours before our 1 p.m. take-off. With 21 passports in hand I immediately got in the short line (which would soon grow to be the LONG line) to pay the departure tax for our group ($26/per person). After filling out the customs forms we all made our way to the line for the Delta check-in. Amidst the sounds of Spanish and English language and gusty wind, an announcement was made over the PA system, "Delta Flight to Atlanta is oversold and we are now asking for volunteers to give up their seats in exchange for a travel voucher and hotel stay." (Not verbatim...but something like that.) Charlie and I looked at each other and knew what the other was thinking, "Heck yeah!" When we arrived at the check-in desk a smiley dude asked us, "Are you interested in volunteering your seat for a $600 travel voucher?" Say no more! We are your peeps! He then went on to tell us about the five-star all-inclusive beach resort that we would be staying in for FREE. At this point, I am loving Delta. We still have to proceed through customs, check bags, and wait in the gate area, just in case they do not need our seats. When we arrive at the gate we find out that one of our students was not assigned a seat, so we talk to the gate agents and let them know that one of our seats should be given to our student. Ah, we have done a good deed...we have sacrificed our seats for our student (and the trumpets sound). They call our names about 25 minutes before the flight takes off and confirms that we will not be going home today (tear). We say goodbye to the Motley crew of students and load up in a taxi headed back to the beach.

The Hilton Papagayo all-inclusive beach resort nestled on the coastline of the Pacific Ocean is ridiculous! Seriously. Now, this is where Ugly Americanism and ethnocentrism rears its head. The default language is English (in a Spanish speaking country). The name of the game is pure gluttony (all you can eat and drink). The beach is smaller than the length of a football field (forget going for a long walk on the beach). There are no sidewalks only shuttle buses that move you from the pool to your room to the restaurant of choice (no exercise). There are six restaurants, one of which is a buffet open 24 hours/day. With all of this luxury and convenience you would think that we were back in in the U.S. Now, even with all of our critiques (and lengthy conversations) about this sad sort of development in a culturally-rich country lush with biodiversity, we fully enjoyed our 19-hour stay at the resort (hypocrisy at its finest). It was a great way to un-wind and relax from a busy week of adventure and prepare ourselves for reality. But, I gotta tell you, if we would have stayed there longer than one day I would have gone a little crazy. There was no sign of the Costa Rican culture except for gallo pinto (rice and beans) in the breakfast buffet and this is called international travel? I guess the biggest thing that we grappled with is the dichotomous nature of this luxurious and non-cultural sort of vacation versus the type of vacation/experience where you are immersed in the culture and speaking the language. I prefer the latter (shocker, I know!)

Costa Rica: La Playa Samara

The last two days were spent on the beach at Villas Playa Samara. You would think with all of the adventure in the cloud forest the beach would be our time for rest and relaxation. Nope...most of the time was spent learning to surf, horse-back riding, kayaking, and swimming. Unfortunately, I got the icky stomach bug and had to sit out the excitement of surfing and getting stung by jelly-fish (yes, those dudes were biting). So, my time at the beach was relaxing (because it had to be). Nonetheless, I was able to enjoy the full-moon beach bonfire that our fabulous bus-driver, Johnny, initiated, the incredible sunsets (see photos) and take some great surfing shots. As is the case in many of my travels, I also had the joy of experiencing the farmacia and trying to explain in Spanish my condition. All I really had to say was diarrhea and he immediately handed me the Imodium and some sort of elixir. I have learned that international pharmacists know best, thus I did not even ask questions before slipping him the colones (Costa Rican currency), swallowing the little white pill, and washing it down with the luke warm, orange-flavored elixir.

After a short two days at the beach, it was time to bid farewell to paradise. Pura vida!

Costa Rica: Off Campus Adventure

Day four we hopped on a bus and headed into the Monteverde cloud forest reserve for some quetzal viewing (the incredible cloud-forest bird) and then went zip-lining on the Sky Trek. Zip-lining never gets old...this is my third time doing it and once again it was fantastic. But, I gotta say I would choose to do it in no other place than the green, lush, and sometimes wet Costa Rican cloud forest. The vistas are brilliant.

Costa Rica: On Campus Adventure

The thing I love about this spring break program is the coupling of both educational and adventurous activities in one tightly packed weekly schedule. There are a few rest breaks, but for the most part it is an intense learning experience while at the serene UGA Costa Rica campus (seven days) and then the last two days of the trip is spent on the beach. While on campus we went on night hikes (saw a tarantula), hiked to a waterfall (while learning all about the flora and fauna), walked to a local coffee farm, toured around, and drank coffee (saw a sloth hanging out in a tree), learned about the medicinal uses of the various flora and fauna, helped with the reforestation project in Costa Rica, in the outdoor classroom attended classes named "plant-o-rama" and "insect-o-rama" (where we attempted to catch butterflies and many of our students got ticks), walked to a locals house for a cooking class (where I stepped into an ant highway and OUCH!), learned to dance cumbia and merengue, tried to milk a diary cow (as the dudette took a BIG dump), and the students even went on a one-night home-stay with local families. So, yes...our week on campus was extremely busy and incredibly educational, not to mention F-U-N. Charlie and I really enjoyed the group of students as they were actually engaged, curious, and on-time, which made our job much easier.