Denver, oh Denver

So here I am at 6:45 in the Denver airport. I've been here since my flight from Boise landed at 5:31 and my flight out of here doesn't leave until 11:58 PM tonight. So basically, I have another five hours before I can even think about boarding my plane. So far I have wandered around and looked in almost every shop here, then I sat down in one of the restaurants and had myself a nice chopped italian salad for dinner. It was quite tasty, but it would have been even better with the virgin pina colada that I wanted to get. Apparently I chose the one bar/restaurant that doesn't have the stuff to make a pina colada, so none for me. So now I'm just sitting here waiting; watching those around me board their plane for Vegas; imagining what the guys working down by the plane are saying to each other. Basically I'm just attempting to entertain myself.


I had thought that my nerves would be worse now than they were last night, but oddly, I feel rather calm. My body knows that feeling of wandering around and airport and wasting time waiting for a flight. Most likely, my stomach butterflys will come back when we start the descent into San Jose.

Location:Denver Int'l Airport

Anticipation

It is now officially 24 hours until I board a plane for Denver, then from there, to Costa Rica. I am so extremely nervous and excited and anxious. So many emotions are running through me right now and I know that it will only escalate as I get closer and closer to landing in San Jose. I can just imagine that the SIX hours I have to wait in the Denver airport will be filled with adrenaline and nervousness. Now it's just double and triple checking my packing and counting down the hours. Waiting is so nerve racking.

Almost Time!

Now that my finals are taken and summer classes are officially over, I am anxiously waiting final grades. While I'm am waiting, I figured I might as well get something done, like, I don't know, packing! So yesterday I cleaned out my room (you can actually see the floor, it's a miracle), washed all my dirty clothes, put away all my clean clothes, and basically organized myself. All of this was in preparation of the big task of actually packing for my trip. Ok, it wasn't that big of a task, but it did seem rather daunting until I actually started and realized that, hey, I'm not taking that much stuff.

The little one zips onto the
front of the big one

So, now I am officially all packed with WAY lots of room to spare in my bag. I'm planning on bringing back TONS of souvenirs and Costa Rican coffee for everyone I love. The only things left to pack are the things I'll be using between now and Saturday afternoon, like my toothbrush, phone, iPod...etc. I even laid out the clothes I'm going to be putting on come Sat. morning. Basically I'm all ready, and I really have no idea what I'm going to do all day tomorrow. I don't have any homework, I'm basically packed, and the only thing I really have planned is that the guy from DISH Network is coming around 2:00 to install the new box so my future roommates can have T.V. when they move in. Speaking of which, I should probably let them know that I'm not going to be here when they arrive...

Anyways, I'm off to relax after a hectic day of stress inducing calculus, a laughably easy Spanish final, and organizational worrying. I hope I'm not forgetting to pack anything. It's a good thing I've still got two days until I leave!

Oh keys, where for art thou?

This baby shows my
frustration at losing my keys

So I finally get some time to pack and most of my clothes are clean, and yet, I cannot pack.  Why? Because on the one day that I actually use the lock on my bedroom door, I lose my keys while at school. So now I'm locked out of my room until I drive all the way home to my parents house to get the spare. Luckily though, I had a spare car key in the kitchen, so I can at least drive. I could and should be using this time to pack, which is extremely frustrating. The only good thing about this, is that I can use my time at home to find my passport instead of waiting until the night before and trying to look for it at 11:00PM. Then, of course, I must try to study a little bit of calculus so I don't fail my final on Thursday. Preparing for Costa Rica keeps overwhelming all thought of math, which isn't a very good thing since I really need to learn how to do series before the final.

Planning, Packing, and Panicking

Since it’s getting so close to the DEPARTURE DATE, I decided that it was high time to create a packing list at the minimum, and also to start doing laundry and actually making sure I have everything I need. So i sat down and wrote out the following packing list:

camera + charger phone + charger international phone + charger iPod + charger + bluetooth keyboard for blogging toothbrush toothpaste hair brush ponies clips makeup lotion shampoo conditioner razor shaving cream tweezers cuticle clippers nail file 5x bras

10x undies 4x dresses 4x tank tops 4x t-shirts 4x shorts 2x jeans 1x capris 5x socks tennis shoes rainbows (flip-flops) 2x 1-piece suit 1x 2-piece suit 1x sweatshirt sunscreen bugspray sunglasses x2 books hats chapstick headphones.

I was then going over my list, and I realized that…I need to fit all of this into a medium sized hiking backpack, because that’s all I get to take. So I needed to revise my list. This is what I came up with:

electronic gadgets (same as above)

toiletries (same as above)

3x bras

10x undies

2x dresses (one sun dress one LBD)

2x tanks

Monica's old China bag;
now my Costa Rica bag

2x t-shirts

2x shorts

1x jeans

3x socks (one footie, one knee-high thin, one thick)

tennis shoes

1x one-piece swimsuit

1x two-piece swimsuit

sunscreen

bugspray

sunglasses

hat

chapstick

headphones

and I am going to take/wear with me on the plane:

rainbows (flip flops)

sweatshirt

tank top

jeans

book

small purse

Hopefully I’ll be able to fit all of this stuff in. I can’t try it yet because my bag is at my parents house, but hopefully it will work.

     Besides packing, I’ve been busy worrying about what it’s going to be like down there. For one, it’s supposed to SUPER humid in Costa Rica, and if there’s one thing I really don’t like about weather, it’s humidity. I was born and raised in a nice dry desert, and I plan on living out my life in a nice dry desert for as long as possible, and only ever visiting gross humid places. So I’m not looking forward to that aspect. Also, I have no idea what it’s going to be like. I signed up for this trip through a volunteer program that I just found online, and hopefully they’re legit. We sent them a bunch of money and my flight info, and there should be someone at the airport waiting for me when I get there.

     So assuming that the program is actually legitimate, I have almost no info about what I’ll be doing there. All I know is I’m assigned to the Costa Rica Turtle Program and that the most common task given to volunteers is patrolling the beaches at night.  I don’t even know exactly where in Costa Rica I’ll be placed.  We did find out that it’s on the Pacific side, so that’s good since I don’t want to get malaria, but I don’t know WHERE on the Pacific side I’ll be. The girl that’s supposed to be picking me up at the end of the program (because they don’t take me back to the airport) is one of my sisters friends, and I just have to call her when I found out where I’m going to be. I just hope that I'll actually have something to do and I won't just be sitting around like a lump on a log the whole time. Although, if I'm not doing much actual work, that means I have more time to sight-see, scuba dive (!!!), and hang out on the beach with my new friends who, of course, will be awesome.

Camera

My NEW Camera!! It's 14 mp, waterproof, dustproof, shockproof...basically it'll last through anything. I'm so excited to use it on my trip!

Colones

Holy cow!!! Over 500 colones to the dollar. That’s going to take some getting used to. I bet I’ll be good at dividing by 500 at the end of the trip.
Colones: The Money in Costa Rica

PHONE

 My new international phone is here! It doesn’t get service in the US, so we won’t know if it actually works until I actually get to Costa Rica.

Getting Excited!

I have figured that the easiest way for all those out there to track how much AWESOME FUN I'm having while I'm in Costa Rica, is for me to post a blog. I shall be using a combination of my iPod and the provided computers down there to post regular updates and photos of my adventures. So first of all... IT'S ONLY A WEEK AND TWO DAYS UNTIL I LEAVE!!! I am SOO excited. I just bought on Amazon.com a new camera to take with me. It's waterproof and everything so it should be pretty cool. It's just about time for me to start packing though, or at least starting to get organized. I'm going to have to go shopping as well probably...all my summer clothing is at least two years old!