Costa Rica and Stuff

Dear Sis Johnson the Coolest,

Heya, sis. Sorry for the crappy emails for the past few weeks. I'm going to write you a quality one now because I'm in for the night and it's only 9:30. Oh, and I love you. 

Where did you end up getting transferred to? How close was I to you when I was in the Houston airport? I liked that airport. They had a Jamba Juice, and there was a group of precocious, violin-playing teenagers from Boulder who were on our flight to Costa Rica. They played their violins in the terminal, and everyone thought it was cool, but I thought it was kind of weird. 

Anyway, I hope that you weren't too heart broken about leaving Lake Chuck. I figured you were probably out of there because you'd been there for like 6 months, and most of the time you don't stay in an area for longer than that. 

So, how's your new place? How's your new companion? Are you senior companion? Training? Just being awesome? You have been out for more than 10 months. That's a long time, but you still have miles to go until you rest, so as Churchill says in that one Dr Who episode KBO, "Keep buggering on."  

So, I'm writing to you now from our hotel in San Jose, Costa Rica. But before that let me tell you about my crazy week!

So, Monday and Tuesday I was in DC. I went to the conference on Monday and learned some cool stuff, then came home and wrote a paper. Then Tuesday I had my interview with GAO in the morning. It was a panel interview with three women, and they were all super nice. I wasn't sure how I felt about it, but the next morning I got an email with a job offer. 

WHAT?! I know, right?! The next morning! I've never heard back that quickly from any interview, and it's the federal government. So, now the problem was that I had two amazing offers and only one summer to do them in. My life is so hard, right? 

So, I wanted to job share and do half the summer at Sandia and half in DC, but Sandia said no because of the long process behind getting a security clearance and getting trained and everything wouldn't make it worth it, so after much consideration, I went with GAO, so I'm going to be in DC for the whole summer, which is going to be AWESOME!! 

So, that happened. Change of plans. 

Then, I did a whole bunch of school work to get ready  for coming to Costa Rica this weekend. On Friday, I tore up the town. I went to Daniel's concert, which was amazing! Then we went and ate tacos with his friend Marley, and then we went rock climbing.

Then we drove to the airport Saturday morning at 3:30 in the morning, which was ridiculous, but worth it because we got here at like 2:00 in the afternoon, and that was when I was in the Houston airport. Fun fact, Costa Rica is in the same time zone as Utah and Colorado, just a bit farther south. 

After we found our way to our hotel, we went down town where we ate dinner and wandered around, taking in the sights and sounds. San Jose is like every other large city in the developing world: noisy, crowded, stinky, dirty, and with people every five feet  all yelling trying to sell you stuff. In this case, socks, ripped DVDs and mini snickers bars out of a shoe box. No idea, how she came up with that one.... 

Then today we went to church in the morning. We found the building kind of OK, Prof. Turley was concerned because we were all in different taxis, and he didn't want us to get split up, but then it turns out that it was an old, unused building, and there was definitely not anyone having church there, s on the cab driver's suggestion, we drove around for another 30 minutes until we finally found a iglesia de los Mormones. 

Church was great. I got about 30% of sacrament meeting, 5% of Sunday school, and 60% of relief society. It depended on who was talking. All the members were super nice, and they were celebrating the birthday of the relief society, so everything was about how awesome the relief society is. 

After church, we drove up into the mountains, which was a beautiful drive, and then went to a volcano that was so beautiful we couldn't even see it. No kidding, though, there was too much sulfuric steam to really see anything but a white wall. But there was a cool lake at a crater where the volcano used to be before it got all hipster and decided that the cool kids were about a half mile away on the other side of the mountain. 

So, we saw that, and then we went to this place called La Paz. It had waterfalls and a wildlife refugee. There's pictures below that will do a much better job of explaining than me. It was beautiful, and exactly what I pictured when I thought of coming to Costa Rica. 

Then, we stopped for some yummy food on the way home. Costa Rican food is mainly beans, meat, and rice, so... my favorite things! 

Tomorrow we start to work for real, and meet with the non-profit that we're consulting with. Here's hoping it all goes well! 

Your quote this week is from Dr Who, the best show, again. It's from the one when the Doctor's supposed to die, but then they get caught in an alternate space-time thingy where all of history is happening at once. Dr. Who's trying to set Rory up with Amy in this alternate reality,

"The Doctor: The loyal soldier, waiting to be noticed, always the pattern: why is that?

Rory: Sorry, sir?

The Doctor: Your boss, you should just ask her out. She likes you. She said so.

Rory: [Dryly] Really, sir? What did she say?

The Doctor: Ah, she just sort of generally indicated —

Rory: [Turns and looks him straight in the eye] What exactly did she say?

The Doctor: [Stuttering] Well, she said you were a Mr. Hottie-ness... and that she would like to go out with you for texting and scones. [Smiles hopefully]

Rory: [Stares at him] You really haven't done this before, have you?

The Doctor: No, I haven't.

I love you!!

Tonya