Some more photos from Costa Rica

For those of you who are interested....here are some more photos from my recent trip to Costa Rica. I'm back in Silver Spring now and trying to get in my final month (!) of tri training before my first race. May 18th is coming too soon.....


I can't figure out how to get this right side up...but a craftsman carves out a box at his workshop

Posing by the largest ox cart wheel....

Pointing to the lagoon in the background. Do you see it? We didn't either.

Two oxen get a reprieve from pulling their load while they pose.

The ox cart owner and I share a moment.....

Photos from Mexico and Costa Rica

Here are some photos from my recent trip to Mexico and my current (and on-going) trip to Costa Rica:

Mom gets a pedicure poolside in Mexico.

Mom and I pause at the top of the hill.

The main office of Rio Caliente.


I pose with one of the mascots of the Beijing Olympics at the arts fair in San Jose, Costa Rica.

The panorama of coffee fields as we drove out of San Jose to the Poas Volcano.

At Poas, our view of the crater was obstructed by clouds and rain. I hid under the viewing platform to escape the worst of it.

Alisia and I pretend to be oxen big enough to pull the world's largest ox cart. Seriously, even the Guinness Book of World Records says it's the biggest.

Buenos dias!

Greetings from Costa Rica. I'm here until Friday for work. Not a bad gig...and I rarely (seriously) get the "not bad" gigs. I'm here to do OFDA's NGO training for partners. It's a nice break from the Darfur routine.

Today was a national holiday (I think to celebrate a revolution) so my friend Alisia and I went on a little one day tour of a volcano crater, a town with a metal church and a town where they make the traditional ox carts. It was ok, but tiring. The problem is that it's the start of the rainy season so while we hiked up to the crater---nothing but clouds. Oh well. But it was good.

The main problem so far is food. I always think of Central America as having similar foods, but I'm much better off in Guatemala then here. But they are big meat eaters here. The other problem is options close to our hotel. There's a burger king, a chinese restaurant, a subway and a Houston-based chicken chain. Seriously? I just want some rice and beans. Fortunately there's fair nearby so we went to have some "street food".

Our hotel's a little ghetto on the outside but the room's are ok and there's cable (which I don't have at home) so it's a nice treat! Of course, the gym is under renovations...so I'm totally screwed. this is supposed to be one of my big training weeks and with my race at the end of May I've feeling the pressure!!!

Anyway--I've also been to Mexico for a vacation with my mom which was fantastic. I have some photos of both trips and will post more soon. I haven't been writing mostly becuase there's not a lot to say and I'm mostly just trying to get myself together.

Anyway--more soon. Cuidense!!

OMG!! I just realized....

that I'm turning 35 this year! Holy Crap!!! A few of us were talking about our ages and I realized that this September I'm getting close to middle age!! Good grief!

In other news--triathlon training is going well. I'm a biking fool, but still having problems getting up to speed on the running and swimming. But it's getting better. Just a few more months until race days!! For those of you who are in MD and want to come check out the Columbia Triathlon. My sister Sarah will be down for the race too!

Lily's holding steady...she's on a duck and potato diet (we think she has a food allergy) so it's all fun in the Strachan household!!!

That's about it...hopefully I'll have some job news soon. Keep in touch,
Jane

Random Intelligence Triumphs Again!!

There seem to be a lot of people from my office living in Silver Spring. Sometimes we get together for dinner or a happy hour. Last night we went to McGinty's Pub in downtown Silver Spring for Trivia Night. There were 16 teams (frankly I think there should be a limit of 10!). We had six rounds: a general trivia; match the political man with the woman he had an affair with/sexually harassed; a music round; a numbers round (all of the answers were numbers), a round with "cold" clues; and a ID the photos round.

In the end, we were second place winning a gift certificate of $25!! We also won two Bass Ale beer glasses because of 1) a drawing of a person running away from Mt. Vesuvius (one of the answers was Pompeii) and 2) creating the winning limerick (the question was what is the number of lines in a limerick). All in all, we feel fairly superior!! Though there were a couple of standouts on our team, without whom we would have placed somewhere in the teens!!

Good times had by all!

Jane

President's Day Weekend

Hi all,

It's been a while, so just a short update. This weekend the Strachan women (Mom, Sarah, Molly and I) got together for a few days. Molly's in from Tanzania for a conference and Sarah and Mom came down to stay. Needless to say 4 people in a 1 br+ loft was a little tight, but we made it work. We did some walking, a visit to the botanical gardends, some good food, and a little shopping at some of the more arty stores by my place.

Sarah took Lily running on Sunday as I was biking that day. Poor Lily. She's not used to running so far or so fast (I'm slow and lazy compared to my sister). For the rest of the day she could barely walk. Poor thing. She seems to be doing ok now after another little walk and a visit to the dog park this a.m. But still, it was pathetic. She wouldn't leave the front door to go out side Sunday night!

Other than that, things are truckin along here. I'm still working on Darfur for OFDA and hoping to switch to another team--but that probably won't happen for another month. So, in the meantime I'm keeping myself busy with the Pandemic Influenza working group--kind of freaky!!

Well--that's it for now!!

Jane

The Sudan team is cursed and why I love AAA!

So on Sunday my car broke down--randomly--on Interstate 95 between DC and Baltimore. I called my mom's house and my step-dad promptly agreed to come rescue me and Lily from the side of the highway! Then I called AAA. Despite the frustrating wait time while she called around to see if people were open, they were super helpful and it only took about 20 minutes from when we hung up for the tow truck driver to arrive. I had it towed to the place where I bought it, north of Balitmore, near my mom's and will now hand over about $700 for repairs. So brutal. I mean, seriously, some small child probably made that part for $3 in Taiwan. Urgh.

But after towing and transfering the birthday quiche and cheesecake from my car to my step-dads, all was well. A mere two hours that I'll never get back, but at least I'm healthy right?!?!

Then I got to work and found out that my colleague had been evauted from Chad and my other colleague had her purse stolen with everythign in it--planner, check book, house keys, wallet, etc. Blugh. That would suck. And lastly--someone else on my team has pink eye. Seriously?? I've got to transfer off of this bad boy!!

Hope you're all well,
Jane