Sorry; I lied.

I know I said that I'd write about work, but it will have to wait at least until next time. I will say that I'm enjoying my job, my co-workers are great, etc.

We've started getting some of the things we ordered through the mail. Sara's birthday present finally came (pictures below were taken with it). We got the diapers we ordered. Of course now we know that we like the ones we get here better; and they're cheaper. Oddly enough, baby formula is also cheaper here. So far, those appear to be the only two things that are cheaper in Costa Rica. Well, those and haircuts.

I'd gone quite a while (more than a month) without a haircut. There's a little barber across from the embassy. I walked in yesterday and got a great cut for $6. I had one moment of panic when he pulled out the straight-edge razor. Sara and I saw Sweeny Todd back in February and I had a flashback. Thankfully, he didn't cut my throat.

Speaking of cheap things; right in front of the barber shop is a lunch kiosk where you can get a huge plate of chicken/beef/fish, rice, beans, salad, veggies, plantains, plus a drink for $4. Ok, so there are many cheap things here. But I can tell you one thing that isn't cheap: drycleaning. I took 6 shirts and a tie to the drycleaner and it cost me $28. At least I think that's expensive. Sara used to take my clothes for me. I'm going to try a different place next time.

We've clocked over three weeks here. It has gone pretty fast. But it feels wrong that we haven't gone to the beach yet. Who spends three weeks in Costa Rica and doesn't go to the beach? Oh well; we'll get there. I've started making a list of things I want to do before we move again. One of the things we're looking forward to the most is having visitors.

In gardening news, my thyme is coming up nicely, and I'm pretty sure I see some movement in the pineapple. If growing everything here is going to be this easy, I should be fairly successful.


My thyme pot.


The back of our house and some of the side yard.

Home Life

We've been here a little over 2 weeks now, and things are still going well.

There was a marked improvement in the mood around the house once internet was installed. We've especially enjoyed talking with friends and family via Skype and MagicJack. You get what you pay for with internet service. I had heard a lot of complaints about slow service here. I don't know; maybe it's that our internet service in Virginia was SO bad, or maybe it's that I'm paying for a gold package static IP, but it doesn't seem very slow to me.

What IS slow, however, is the mail. Some things we can ship to our DPO address (like an APO/FPO), but many companies and products can't go that way. To solve that problem we have something called the diplomatic pouch, which can carry many more items to us. It, however, has some restrictive rules (no peanut butter or kitchen knives, for example), and can be pretty slow. I understand that they have more important things to deliver than our Pampers, but Huggies (which we can buy here) are just awful.

Another benefit of internet installation is cable TV. I opted for non-digital until our HHE arrives. We still have something like 50 channels, including NBC, ABC, & CBS from Denver (so we haven't missed an episode of LOST). I'm hoping to find a line-up that will make my TiVo work once it gets here. Malachi really enjoys watching U.S. cartoons in Spanish. Go figure. I'm enjoying Food Network.

We've had a break from the afternoon rains, so last week Malachi and I planted pineapple in the backyard. We probably won't be here long enough to actually harvest one (assuming it grows--I think its spot is maybe too shady) but the plant is supposed to be very pretty. I also planted some thyme in a pot out back. I chose thyme because I wasn't sure what the other seeds were (names of Spanish herbs & spices were not taught at FSI). But this functions as an introduction to something I'll probably talk about often in the future: gardening. I'm planning on having two raised-bed (6'x4') vegetable gardens during our stay here. The wood is coming in HHE and I'll have to find soil/compost and seeds/plants locally. There are lots of nurseries around here (and a Home Depot clone) so it should be no problem.

I was going to write about the actual work, but I think I'll save that for next time.

Things we wished we'd brought with us or put in UAB: measuring cups, some sort of baking sheet.

Pura Vida!

Let me rush through the last couple of months.

First, the baby was born a few days after my birthday post. Details are on Sara's blog.

Second, I did receive my 3/3 in Spanish in March.

Third, we moved to Costa Rica (that brings us up to last week).

Everything went smoothly with the move. We even got to spend about a week in Texas visiting with friends on our way south. It was fun to see everyone we've been missing, and be at our church.

We've been in country for a few days now. It really is beautiful. There are mountains in virtually every direction, and we some great views from near our house. Also, I love waking up every morning to a tropical breeze and palm trees outside the window. That, however, will probably stop when we get our air conditioner in the bedroom. It is quite humid here, if not very hot.

We are at the beginning of the rainy season, so it has rained every day we've been here for between 2-5 hours. The sun always shines in the morning, and the rain always comes in the afternoon. Speaking of the sun, it rises at 5:00. We've been adjusting our schedule to go to bed and get up earlier because of this.

Being here without a car is difficult; we don't have any other embassy families within walking distance and feel bad relying so much on our sponsors for rides. No estimate on when our wheels will arrive, but our initial shipment of stuff (UAB) is already here. Fortunately I can use motor pool to get to and from work for a while.

Our house is nice (if a little overwhelming). Malachi says his favorite part of the house is the yard, but I think he likes all of it. He's never had so much space to run.

On Sunday we took a walk into the nearby downtown area. Not a lot was open on Sunday morning, but once we got to the central plaza (where the Catholic church is located), it was pretty busy. After we got passed by horses and ox carts, Malachi remarked, "Costa Rica is very different." We were all sweaty (and a little sunburned) when we got back, so Malachi enjoyed playing in the sprinkler for a while. In the afternoon our sponsor took me shopping.

Overall, the city is quite small. Driving isn’t nearly as bad as many have made it out to be. Of course at this point I’ve only been riding… The embassy is very close to stores like Hiper Mas (Walmart..no, really), a Home Depot clone, malls, restaurants, etc. There's even a brand new IMAX theater here--hopefully we can go see Iron Man there.

Once we have internet at home (coming soon) we can start to post some pictures of our life here.

Birthday

So it was my birthday on Tuesday. For a number of years now, birthdays haven't meant all that much to me, and this year especially. It's not that I'm bothered by getting older--partly because I'm still quite young, and partly because I am firmly committed to the idea that my life will always get better and not worse.

But this year, my thoughts weren't really focused inward. I was torn between thinking about the imminent arrival of our second son, and the premiere of LOST. Both momentous occasions, and both had the potential to occur on my birthday.

One did.

It wasn't the baby.

LOST was fine; no major complaints. We did have a nice birthday/LOST party with a lot of friends at our house. Between adults and kids we had nearly 30 people in our apartment, but it thinned out to about 12 hardcore nerds before LOST started.

My brother, while in India this week on business, granted my birthday wish.

Cambiando de tema...

Many of my A-100 classmates have just had their final Spanish exams, or are about to take them. I still have six weeks of class left, but I'm starting to feel the pressure. Honestly, I feel pretty confident, but I don't want to be overconfident.

Haiti Taskforce

Spanish class is interesting and important to my job, but it doesn't actually feel like I'm contributing anything to the world. That's one reason that I've enjoyed working on the Haiti Taskforce this week. The primary responsibility of the State Department is to assist American citizens who are overseas. So it's easy to imagine how busy the department has been since the earthquake in Haiti.

I grabbed a couple of overnight shifts answering phone calls, emails, and placing calls to Americans who had/have loved ones in Haiti. The work was interesting and certainly emotionally challenging at times. There are a lot of families in the U.S. trying to get their children back from Haiti (they may have been visiting family, going to school, etc.). In some sad cases the parents died in the earthquake, leaving the children to the responsibility of uncles, cousins, or grandparents in the States who may never have met them.

In retrospect, overnight shifts right before Spanish class might not have been the best idea. I've been pretty sleepy this week, and my lovely wife has been very good about letting me nap during the afternoons. My last shift is tonight.

Restaurant Week

This last week in D.C. was "Restaurant Week," a biannual event where some of the best restaurants in D.C. offer complete meals for a fraction of their normal prices. With so many great eateries here, it's an amazing opportunity to sample what the city has to offer without a lobbyist's salary.

Sara and I had a great dining experience at Tosca, and only paid about half of what we normally would. This was probably our last real date before the baby comes, so I'm glad we took our time and really enjoyed ourselves. I wish we were going to be here for the next Restaurant Week; I definitely would go out more than once.

In Spanish news, I'm currently in negotiations with various people in the department to extend my time in Spanish. We're also checking on the possibility of heading to post a little early.

Avatar

Yes, THAT Avatar. I am by no means a film critic, so I'll leave that up to more qualified persons. I just have some things I want to say.

First, I really did enjoy the movie. I had mild interest after seeing the trailers, but it was the Metacritic score that finally convinced me to go. The film took me by surprise; it exceeded my expectations. And yet, I didn't feel blown-away like some viewers (some that I know and some that I've read). And yet (again), I felt like I should have been blown away. It was a disturbing conundrum. Why wasn't my reaction as strong as it should have been? Why didn't the thrilling 3-D visuals leave me breathless? Why did this incredibly foreign, incredibly immersive world feel altogether too...familiar?

I blame World of Warcraft (WoW). Or more specifically, I blame massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) in general. WoW is just the most recent game of my MMORPG career (including UO, EQ, DAoC, NWN, and more). For the benefit of my readers who are not familiar with these types of games, they provide a fully-immersive, detailed, persistent world for the gamer, complete with social interaction, progression, and economic systems. Click here for a more detailed explanation.

I want to be clear that I'm not simply making a visual comparison between Avatar and World of Warcraft, although that's striking as well. But the experience of MMORPGS is more impactful than the visuals. It's the experience (the immersion, the parallels to real life, etc.) that make the games so addictive and fun. All of Avatar's best aspects (the visuals, the otherworldliness, a captivating story, senses of progression and accomplishment, sexy natives) are present in World of Warcraft with one critical, pivotal difference: it's wholly interactive.

**SPOILER ALERT**
So instead of simply watching Jake fly his dragon-bird around the floating moutains, YOU can fly YOUR dragon bird around the floating mountains of Nagrand. Instead of watching one army fight another, you can participate in the battle. Instead of marvelling for nearly three hours at exotic flora and fauna, you can spend unlimited time trapsing through the jungles of Stranglethorn, the swamps of Zangarmarsh, or the mountains of the Storm Peaks. You can fish, bake, tinker, eat, drink, sleep, swim, run, fly, tame and ride animals, and so much more. And many, like Jake, have taken the ultimate step and decided to stay in MMORPGs forever, costing them jobs, family, and sometimes (Google "World of Wacraft suicide") even their lives.
**END OF SPOILERS**

To me, Avatar was a three-hour commercial for WoW. It was like a cinematic cut-scene before a new expansion. I admit that in the weeks since I saw the movie, my desire to reactivate my WoW account has grown substantially, but I'm managed to hold off so far. And it's not easy. So if you loved Avatar and want more, I recommend trying out an MMORPG. But if you value your time and family, well...maybe you should just watch more movies.

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If you thought this post was going to be about the message and politics of Avatar, please read this interesting article by David Brooks instead.