asiabird01

A Lesson in Culture Shock

2009-11-10T15:50:00.001-08:00

I've been to Costa Rica once before, and loved every minute of it, so I didn't think I was susceptible to culture shock. Apparently, I was wrong.

Our first week in Samara was discouraging. We didn't like the food, couldn't sleep because of the humidity, the bugs were eating us alive, and we felt like we were unwelcome by the local ticos. We'd walk around town and wave and say the customary "buenos días" to ever human we saw. Most of the time we got a few mumbled "buenos días" back, but sometimes people wouldn't even acknowledge that we'd spoken to them! Also, we kept hearing how dangerous Samara is, and how we have to be extremely, almost overly cautious. They told us stories about being robbed at gun point and about being chased down by robbers. Of course, this is all because of the Columbians living down at the far side of the beach, so, we were told to never walk on the beach at night.

More and more, Kevin and I started spending time at the apartment and feeling like it was the only place we could relax. We even threw around the idea of changing locations and heading to a different place in Costa Rica. We decided to try and stick it out for two weeks, and if we still were unhappy we'd go somewhere else. I'm proud of us for not giving up because as the new week started things started looking up. We realized that we'd been kind of harsh on the local ticos and acknowledged that maybe some people are just grumpy....they don't even really say hello to each other, so it wasn't just us! We started getting used to the humility, and started making friends.

On my first day at the Samara Language School they gave us a little booklet about the school, the town, and getting used to life abroad. I thought it was really interesting and realized that we'd been going through culture shock.

It says: Culture shock is brought on by the anxiety that results from losing all our familiar signs and symbols. These signs or cues include the thousand and one ways in which we orient ourselves to the situation of daily life, when to shake hands and what to say when we meet people, when and how to give tips, how to give orders in a restaurant, when to take statements seriously and when not. These cues may be words, gestures, facial expressions - all customs or norms which we aquire in the course of growing up, and are as much a part of our culture as the languages we speak or the beliefs we accept. When an individual enters a strange new culture, all or most of these familiar cues are removed. No matter how intelligent, broad-minded, or full of goodwill he or she may be, a series of props have been knocked out from under him or her. This is followed by a feeling of frustration and anxiety. All people react to this frustration in much the same ways, but in varying degrees. First, they reject the environment which causes the discomfort. The ways of the host country are bad because they make us feel badly. Another phase is regression. The home environment suddenly assumesa tremendous importance. Some other symptoms of culture shock are: excessive concern over cleanliness and the feeling that what is new and strange is 'dirty'; a feeling of helplessness; irritation over delays and other minor frustrations, out of proportion to the causes; excessive fear of being cheated, robed or injured; great concerns over minor pains.

The booklet, outlines four phases:
The honeymoon phase - I think we felt this when we were in Costa Rica before. We were with a group of friends, and every second was filled with fun and activities.

The hostile phase, the grin and bare it phase, and the effective adjustment phase. I think we are past the hostile phase, and are towards the end of the grin and bare it phase. It feels like we are getting used to being here, and are enjoying ourselves. The bugs seem to have gotten used to us, and we them. The sound of the rain lulls us to sleep, and the humidity really isn't a problem any more. And the more we immerse ourselves in the community, the more we feel like a part of it (go figure), and find local Ticos that are warm, friendly, and inviting.

All in all, I'd definitely say we experienced some culture shock - which is a shock! :P

Super Samara...not so Super

2009-11-10T15:11:00.000-08:00

In Costa Rica, the little corner markets are called supers. They are basically the equivalent of a 7-11. However, the only real grocery store is about an hour away in Nicoya. You can't buy much at these supers, even the biggest super in Samara...Super Samara.

Kevin and I were really looking forward living in a tropical paradise, and had visions of ourselves eating all the fresh fruits and vegetables that were sure to abound everywhere. We imagined that we'd be up to our eyeballs in every exotic wonderful fruit known to mankind, grilling up steaks, and chicken and fish every night and tantalizing our taste buds like never before. We just knew that we'd stuff ourselves silly until we rolled around on the ground holding our swollen bellies with big fat smiles on our deliciously satisfied faces. After about two days we realized that this was not to be the case.

Surprisingly the only fruit in the stores that isn't completely crawling with ants are the pineapples, bananas and apples. There are no vegetables, except maybe potatoes, that don't look like they've been living in the bottom drawer of the fridge, rolling around getting bruised and age spotted and all withered looking.

hmmm...soooo...we've pretty much been living on eggs and popcorn. Unless we just can't take it anymore and go out for some local cuisine. Unfortunately, the local ticos are working with the same problem. Crappy food selection. However, they've solved that problem, by deep frying everything. It reminds me of that episode on the Simpsons when Moe turns his bar into a restaurant and everything he serves is deep fried. Even the trays and the silverware etc.

When we finally got a grill, we were so excited to cook our own meat!

We made a trip over to the local carniceria and bought chicken and steak thinking it was going to be the best meat we'd ever eaten. Wrong. It is so tough that Kevin can't even cut through it, and chewing it is almost as pleasurable as chewing rubber. I think it's because the cows out here have to use their muscles! Kevin calls it 'donkey meat', and after an hour of lighting the grill, cooking the meat (which had been marinating all night) he threw it away because it was so bad.

So, needless to say, we were very unstoked about the food here (especially because it was the opposite in Montezuma where we were in June). But there is a silver lining. We found El Lagarto! I'm not sure if we would have survived another second if we hadn't found this place. It's at the furthest end of the beach, and we kept hearing how expensive it was. It was indeed expensive, but well worth it. All the food is cooked on a grill, and they buy their meat from the volcano region wherever that is. So not only is the meat quality meat, but it's grilled to perfection on an open air grill out side on the beach. The mere site of all that grilled goodness had us salivating before we even sat down at the table. So much so that we both ordered up meat specials. I ordered the plato mixto, which included chicken, pork, and steak and Kevin got the surf and turf. The meal was served on 1 inch thick slabs of tree trunk, which Kevin appropriately responded to by saying 'it was the manliest meal, he'd ever eaten'.

So, with bellies full, and smiles on our faces we walked home knowing that we could starve all week, as long as we knew we could go to El Lagarto once a week. In the mean time, Kevin decided that the grill will only work for fish, and I found out that we are going to learn to make empanadas tomorrow at school. We think that stewing the meat is the way to go, and just eating apples, bananas, pineapples, and eggs for the rest of the time. I'll let you know how it goes. In the meantime, I need to go console Kevin who is upstairs in the fetal position cradling his Costco card.

Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of great things about living here, just not the food...so far!

Playa Samará

2009-11-02T16:50:00.000-08:00

One of the reasons Kevin and I chose this little town is because of the beautiful beach. It has been called one of the best beaches in all of Costa Rica. The critics didn't lie! The water is warm, the sand is soft and the waves are mild. It's perfect for swimming and beginner surfers.

Today was the first day I actually swam in the ocean! Kevin didn't bring a swim suit to Costa Rica, so we had to wait for the stores to open today so that he could get some trunks! I think the best time to go swimming is in the afternoon when the heat and humidity are just too much for me to handle.

What Plans?

2009-11-01T18:43:00.000-08:00

We woke up early today and headed back to the airport to catch our Sansa flight to Samará beach. Sansa is a small little airline that flies between all the little towns in Costa Rica, most of the time it lands on a dirt landing strip in the middle of the jungle.

When Kevin first told me about these flights I was a little skeptical. Super tiny plans and dirt landing strips? But the fare was only $12, so I decided to give it a try. We pulled up to a tiny little building next to the airport and lugged our luggage inside. It was a little worrisome to see that not only were they weighing the suitcases (mine was over 80lbs), but the passengers were getting weighed with their carry-ons! Well....here goes nothing.

At the counter the service agent told us that they had canceled our flight (the 8am flight) and instead moved all the passengers to the 12pm flight. However, she had some trouble finding our reservations, and after about 15 minutes of searching she finally informed us that our reservations had been canceled, but the airline didn't bother to notify us. "Okay....sooo...are there any other flights going to Samará today?"
"No, but there is a flight going to Tamarindo which is about a two hour taxi ride to Samará. Oh, but there is only one seat available."
"D'oh"
So, since Sansa only flies in the morning, we had to change our plans. Which is always how it seems to go when traveling. Travel plans are more like a guideline, I guess. So we rented a car, got ourselves a map and drove the 5 hours to Samará.

Driving to Samará isn't as easy as one might think it is. In Costa Rica, there aren't very many signs or even paved roads. Our Living Abroad in Costa Rica book said it best:

Without a doubt the biggest threat to your safety here comes from the cars and the way Ticos wield them like enormous machetes. Some observers suggest that the national character - which is one of avoiding conflict and smoothing things over at any cost - does a flip flop when Ticos get behind the wheel, with drivers asserting every bit of the hostility they repress in other parts of their lives. They pull out into traffic that would give others pause, pass even if a truck is bearing down from the other direction, and cut off cars so closely that you are amazed that there aren't even more accidents.

The guy at the car rental place told us to "stay on this road until you see Mary's restaurant and a giant bull, then turn left." That's pretty much all we had to go on to get to Samará! Lucky for me, Kevin is a great driver and extremely patient.

Since it was Saturday, it's of course the busiest craigslist day of the week. I was trying to read the map (not a talent I posses), while at the same time figure out how to get my cell phone to work (what? no 3G in the jungle?), so that I could communicate with Neil and Erika back in Santa Cruz. Neil and Erika have graciously offered to help me sell off a few of my things, that I wasn't able to sell before I left. Like my car.

Luckily we spotted the giant bull before it started to rain. It's hard to tell the scale of this bull from the picture, but it was roughly the size of a dump truck.

And when I say rain, I mean a torrential downpour! I love the storms in Costa Rica, rain drops as fat as quarters and as warm as bathwater. When it rains, it really rains...and the roads get flooded (because most of the roads aren't paved and are full of pot holes) and you think that perhaps the end of the world is at hand, and then it suddenly stops and the sun comes out and you think...'wait a minute, was it raining today?'

We made it to Samará at 2:00pm on the dot! By the way, for those of you that are curious about the time difference, we are 2 hours ahead of California and 1 hour ahead of Utah. Costa Rica doesn't have daylight savings! The sun comes up at about 6am and goes down at about 6pm everyday, all year long.

Our little place is right next door to my Spanish School and less than 1/2 a block away from the beach.

Even though tonight is Halloween, I think I'll be turning in early. I feel like I've done nothing but ride in planes, and cars and travel for two whole days. Neeeed Sleeeep!

My Curse of Flying Continues

2009-10-31T15:17:00.000-07:00

I seem to always have bad luck when it come to flying, there've been mechanical problems, planes struck by lightning, cancellations, fuses blown and delays, delays, delays. Always there are delays. I thought maybe this time would be different, but it wasn't. The fog was coming in so thick in Costa Rica that we couldn't land. After two aborted attempts at landing, the pilots gave up and flew down to Panama City because we were running out of fuel. On the way there one of the passengers was having a medical emergency and the flight attendants had to call for a doctor over the intercom. It was a little chaotic with people milling around in the isles, and people craning their necks to see what was going on. I never did get a clear answer on what exactly the medical emergency was. I heard gallstones from one, and a panic attack from another. However, the sick passenger was able to deplane and see a doctor in Panama City while we were refueling and was feeling better to re board the plan with us and head back to Costa Rica.

I think it's safe to say that everyone aboard the plane was tired and cranky. What was supposed to be a 3.5 hour flight turned into 8 hours on the airplane. Lucky for us, we were seated next to a local "tico" (he was born and raised in Costa Rica), but he had moved to London 12 years ago. His English was spoken with a perfect British accent. He was about our age and fun to talk to. Also, right behind us was this really pretty woman, and a sleaze ball guy. I say he is a sleaze ball, because he was laying it on pretty thick with this girl sitting behind me. She was married and had kids, but he was pulling out all the stops with his stupid one liners. You know the type. Shirt unbuttoned to the middle of his chest, gold chain, thinning hairline, drunken swagger. They were getting free drinks the whole night on account of my cat. They would complain to the flight attendant, but be sweet to me and maggie. It was a good system for them, but they were pretty tossed. I think the woman that was sitting next to me may have been a stripper or a porn star or something because she was waaaay done up. Lots of makeup, lots of hair, lots of skin, perfect big boobs, and fake eyebrows and lashes. I mean, who wears fake eyelashes on an airplane? She told us that she lived in Scottsdale, AZ but flew down to Costa Rica all the time because she had a house in Jaco. I was really surprised that she had a home in both places, so I asked her what she did for a living her exact response was "do I have to say?". PORNSTAR.....popped into my head again. I said "no, you don't have to say if you don't want to." That's when she told all of us that she was an "Executive Director at a Hospital". Um, okay. She looked like she was about 35. She told us that she was almost 44, and had 3 kids, one of which was 23. I guess it could all be true.

Anyway, when we finally landed in Costa Rica, and made it through immigration and customs it was about 11pm. We got a taxi and headed on over to Belin Suites. We really lucked out with Belen Suites. Last time when we were in Costa Rica, it took us much longer to drive from Montezuma to San Jose than expected and when we returned the car at the rental place, we asked them to call us a taxi to take us to a hotel. We had no idea where the taxi was taking us and the hotel was a little off the beaten path, but only about 10 minutes away from the airport. To our surprise it was a cute little hotel called Belen Suites. We loved it so much in June when we were here last, that we decided to come back and stay there again. The rooms are huge, very clean and modern. I was very happy that each room had a brand spanking new air conditioning unit.

I called my mom at midnight to let her know that I had made it to Costa Rica safe and sound. We left Santa Cruz at 6:15 am PST, and finally went to sleep at 12:00 CST. That's 14 hours of traveling. My poor cat and her tiny bladder. She must hate me.

No pictures today, sorry mom, we didn't think to take any pictures of ourselves on the airplane.

New Blog Site

2008-10-25T12:56:00.000-07:00

I have moved my blog from here to http://www.asia-bird.com/blog
Please head on over there and subscribe on that site.

Thanks,
Asia

My life as I knew it...

2008-10-17T19:13:00.000-07:00

My life as I knew it ended on Thursday morning at 6:34 am. My husband, my best friend, my love, my everything, my Zach.....has died.

The main artery to his heart was 90% occluded, which means that his heart was only getting 10% of the blood that it needed. His heart stopped suddenly, and it died quickly. My heart, unfortunately, is still beating - but is broken.

I can't imagine life going on without him.

Birthdays

2008-08-29T08:30:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about birthday's a lot this week. I really feel like birthday's are a special time and you should be treated like a king or queen on your birthday. Perhaps the general consensus is that birthdays become less important as we get older, and become adults. But I disagree. I love it when people remember my birthday, and I love feeling like the day is full of selfish indulgences.

It's a day to remember what birthdays were like when you were a kid, full of cake, and balloons, and party hats. Even if you aren't having a party, hopefully you still get that feeling a little bit. To all my friends near and far HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I might not be able to call, or send gifts or bake you goodies, but in my heart I'm thinking about you.

I have some ideas of how I can be a better friend on your special day, even if we aren't in touch as much as we'd like to be....I can't tell you what my ideas are, because that would ruin the surprise! So instead, I'm asking you to email me your current mailing addresses. Many of you have moved, and I've been bad about keeping my information up to date. Sooooooo....if you are reading my blog - email me and send me your mailing address!

And if you've had a birthday recently that I've missed -- this blog is for you!

Abbie Warnock does it again

2008-07-16T07:50:00.000-07:00

Abbie did some more portfolio shots of Lakin and Stetson's senior pics. She was wonderful, as always. I think that I got the short end of the stick when it comes to the gene pool in my family! ;)

Lakin is 16, and Stetson is 18

Meet Lulu

2008-07-08T20:00:00.000-07:00

During our stay in Guatemala at the Villa Maya, the hotel that was in the center of an ecological preserve, we met Lulu.

She is a wild howler monkey that usually appears around breakfast time. I watched her jump up on the table and steal the food off of plates! She also ran off with the sugar bowl once or twice.

The other cool thing about Lulu, is that she is a mom! The baby monkey was so cute, I just couldn't stop taking pictures of him.

Hair is a big deal

2008-07-08T16:18:00.000-07:00

For those of you who know Zach, you by default know the hair. The entire time that I've known Zach he's had long hair. I'm definitely not complaining, he rocked the long locks! However, for everybody else (especially the folks in my family back in Utah), Zach's hair has been sort of a big deal. So when he decided to go in for a trim at a little Guatemalan barber shop, I was surprised. The hair cutter guy didn't speak any English, and Zach speaks even less Spanish than I do - so when Zach turned down my translation services and opted to go it alone, I was skeptical.

I sat in the waiting area watching the discovery channel (dubbed in Spanish of course). They were doing a special on tiger sharks, so I was sucked in. I looked over at Zach during a commercial break and .....wouldn't you know it. After more than 10 years with long hair, he now has the shortest hair he's had since his mission.

After lots of giggling by both of us, and little bit of 'what was I thinking' from Zach, we got over the initial shock. I like the new do, and I think he's pretty okay with it too. What can I say, he's hot no matter what his hair looks like!

...and just in case you can't remember - here's a before picture:

Can you see the crocodile?

2008-07-08T07:48:00.000-07:00

Well, we just got home from Guatemala. What an adventure! I'm working on getting some of the pictures up, but I was so excited about these - I just had to post them!

We stayed at a hotel in the middle of an ecological preserve in the rain forest, all the animals, birds, and creepy crawly things were free to roam around. Definitely not like a zoo, where everything is caged.

Can you see the crocodile?

Yep, he's pretty well camouflaged, but if you look closely you can see his eyes peeping out. Here is a closer look:

It's hard to tell from the picture, but he was about 6-8 feet long. Look how brave I am....standing next to the crocodile in the wild!

We had such a great time and I learned and saw SO much. I can't wait to tell you all about it, check back for the travel scrapbook soon!

TV and Movies Online

2008-06-25T05:19:00.000-07:00

Okay, I'll admit it. I like TV, and I have my favorite series just like everyone else. However, I usually don't have a lot of time to watch TV, so when I do it is when I'm not home or when my TV is occupied by video gamers! I seem to get a lot of people asking me how to find their shows to watch online, so here it is....

Here are a few sites that I use that stream TV Series, Movies, etc from a web browser, so it doesn't matter if you have a Mac or a PC.

ABC - Lost, Grey's Anatomy
CBS - CSI, Moonlight
NBC - Heros, The Office, Scrubs

Hulu
Fancast
SideReel
TvLiveShows
SurfTheChannel
TVLife
QuickSilverScreen
Cucirca
TVLinkVault
AllUC

If you just have to, HAVE to see the second part of Grey's Anatomy season finally and you can't find it anywhere else, you can check this list. Typically not as good of a selection, but sometimes you can find what you are looking for:

PeekVid
ReelTime - Kinda like an online version of Netflix, doesn't work on Macs though.
WatchTVShows
Veoh

If you STILL can't find what you are looking for, try the other links posted on this site.

Peru Scrapbook

2008-06-09T16:27:00.000-07:00

Yay! It's finally finished. After weeding through over 1000 pictures that Erika and I brought back from Peru, I've finally finished the scrapbook. It doesn't look as cool as all the other scrapbooks that I've done, I might need to go back in and add some backgrounds and embellishments (all you scrapbookers know what I'm talking about). And I should warn you that it's long - really long. However, it's better than just looking at a slide show of pictures, right? I mean at least the scrapbook has some of my travel journal in it, and it's in chronological order!

Twilight

2008-05-07T08:31:00.000-07:00

For those of you who don't know me very well, I love to read. I read anything and everything, and I love to get recommendations. (Hint Hint - Please send 'em to me)

However, when my mom first told me that I should read Twilight, a book about a teenage girl falling in love with a vampire, I couldn't stop rolling my eyes. It sounded like it was about on the same level of The Baby Sitters Club books (which I read back in 4th grade, of course). I said 'Mom, come on....does that sound like something I would really read, don't you think I'm a little bit too old for that?'

But then a couple of weeks later, I was at the library trying to find a book and there right on the shelf in front of me was Twilight. I figured, what the heck....and I got it.

What can I say, I fell in love with Edward from the very beginning and LOVED LOVED LOVED Twilight. I simply can not get enough of the Bella/Edward story. I read the next two books in the series in one day each. I keep recommending this book to all my girl friends, and I keep getting the same reaction that I gave my mom...'Right, like I'm going to read this'. I even went so far as to buy the book for Erika and Rich's wife, Sarah. Every person that I've gotten to read it, has become just as obsessed as me. Erika has now read it like 4 times, Lisa (my step-mom) read all three books within one week. Even CJ and my little brother liked the books.

So if you are reading this blog, and you haven't read Twilight yet. DO IT! If you have read Twilight, you should definitely check out Stephenie Meyer's website for some extra bits. And add this site to your RSS reader.

The movie is going to be out this Christmas, but even better - the fourth book will be out in August. I can't wait! I've pre-ordered mine. If you've read the series, let me know what you think!

Indian Baby Dropping Ritual

2008-05-02T16:25:00.000-07:00

I first saw this headline on Yahoo's main page. Indian Baby Dropping Ritual, it just screamed to be clicked on.

What I like best about this little clip is at the very end where they show the baby bouncing back up and the guy plucking them off and handing them off to the crowd. I think it was Johnny that said "look, they are like little hot potatoes". Drop, Pluck, Hand off, Drop Pluck Hand off. What's not to love?

Thanks Stadium Pal

2008-04-21T17:59:00.000-07:00

David Sedaris is one of my favorite stand up comedians (second only to Brian Regan). He did this bit on the Letterman Show that I think is absolutely disgusting, which of course, makes it hilariously funny.

The funniest of all, though, is while looking up the link to post the video, I came across this....which appears to be an actual "Stadium Pal". All I have to say is ....wow - he wasn't kidding.

Funny Cat Stuff

2008-04-18T08:39:00.000-07:00

I don't know if it's because I have cats or because cat stuff is funny, but lately I've been running into more and more funny cat stuff. I end up showing people stuff all the time....so here's what we've got.

Stuff that Jeff killed
By far one of the coolest, most twisted blogs out there. This cat is a serious killing machine. Every other day or so I find dead worms sacrificially placed outside of my bathroom door. Zach found a snake once, and just last week, our cats brought in two dead mice. They must love us lots. Thanks to Jeff, we have been inspired to take pictures of the dead things with soda cans, etc....so we can measure for size, etc.

Cats That Look Like Hitler
Funny site of little Kitlers....you can see my cat Charlie there as well....go vote! The best part of this site is the comment section (we love Kitlers, we hate kitlers). Some people get really offended at this site, but I just think it is funny.

Oh Long Johnson
Who doesn't love talking animals? This video from YouTube is complete with subtitles. I don't know why, but every time I watch this clip I laugh so hard I cry. Here is another talking cat, it has inspired me to teach my cat to talk. I'll keep you posted as to how that works out.

LOL Cats
Not sure about this site. Zach really likes it though, so I thought I should add it. LOL cats are these random pictures of cats doing stuff, and then people have added funny little captions. However, the captions are written in pigeon English....which gets under my skin. See for your self.

And of course....here is a picture of my two cats. Charlie and Maggie...the very inspiration for this blog. Awww. I've finally become everything I hate.....a "cat lady".

What's the big deal with W.O.W

2008-04-09T16:28:00.000-07:00

It's funny how you can go your whole life knowing that something exists, but never really giving it a second thought until one day (or within a span of a couple of days), it seems like all you hear about is this weird non-existent, totally random thing. This kind of thing happens to me all the time it seems like.

Recently this weird, random thing has been World of Warcraft, also known to the legions as WOW. Now, I've never played WOW (never been one for any type of video game except Guitar Hero, Tetris, and Super Mario Brothers), but I've heard a lot about it from my 'nerdy' friends. Now those of my 'nerdy' friends reading this, don't get offended....I consider myself quite 'nerdy' too (it's a good thing)! I guess World of Warcraft is like the computer version of Dungeons and Dragons (also another game I've never played).

Anyway, between yesterday and Monday, I've been asked if I play World of Warcraft like 4 times by complete strangers - totally at random. First while I was at the Apple store, getting my macbook fixed, 2 of the mac geniuses asked me and then again the check-out guy at Safeway. 'Milk....eggs...bread....so, do you play World of Warcraft?'.....whaaaatt? And then today, my co-worker brought it up completely out of the blue. Either, it's becoming an extremely popular game that EVERYONE but me is now playing or I've just come into contact with more than the usual amount of nerdlings. Weird.

Once you go Mac...

2008-04-08T08:16:00.000-07:00

As my mother likes to say....'once you go Mac, you never go back'. As usual, she was right. I was a die hard PC fan, until I started working at Nordic Naturals - they were a complete "Mac Shop". There wasn't even the option of using a PC. When I left the company 18 months later, I bought my own MacBook, because I loved Apple so much. Since then, I've treated my little laptop with so much loving care! I've upgraded the memory, and the hard drive and even installed parallels so that I could run windows (when I had to).

I have never had a problem with my MacBook, but it has been about 2 years since I bought it and well, all at once stuff started breaking. My battery stopped working for no apparent reason, my isight didn't work, my cat ripped off a couple of keys when she tried to jump into my lap, and my power adapter cord broke. Apple sent me a new battery, no problem, but I decided to go into the Apple store to see what they could do about the keyboard and the two missing keys.

I booked my appointment online, went in and expected a long wait. I also expected that I would have to buy a new keyboard and leave my laptop at the store for a week or so while they fixed it. Instead, I sat down at the Genius Bar and got help right away. They fixed my missing keys, and gave me a new power adapter cord. We got started on the isight thing and then they offered to replace my keyboard and face plate for free. I was so excited.

So they took my computer back to the back room and swapped out the face plate and the keyboard, and it only took like 20 minutes. Justin, my Apple Genius, rebooted my laptop on an external drive and found out that the reason my isight wasn't working was because of some software bug, so he was able to fix it by re-installing leopard. 2 hours in the Apple Store and I feel like I have a completely new computer. It's like Christmas. The best part is they did it all for free!

If I was starting to doubt the wonderfulness of Apple, well, my little trip to the Apple store has restored my faith...and then some! I can't wait to get my Apple phone this month....then I'll be completely Apple'd out. YAY!

I love my Mac!

Meet Abbie

2008-04-01T20:41:00.001-07:00

Meet Abbie Warnock.

www.abbiewarnock.com

If you haven't heard of Abbie yet, you will hear of her soon. Abbie is the most amazing photographer and is on her way to becoming the bigger than Annie Leibovitz. See for your self on her website. Not only is she extremely talented and professional, but she is also a blast to hang out with. This girl knows what she is doing. I got to know her a lot better on her last trip to California (which was last weekend) and am hoping that she moves out here soon. If you are interested in having her take some pictures for you or of you let me know and I can help set it up. Trust me when I say, Abbie is by far the very best!

Here are a few pictures that she took of my 15 year old little sister for her modeling portfolio:

Brian's Weekend

2008-03-23T22:10:00.000-07:00

This weekend, Brian came to visit Erika. I was looking forward to his visit for two weeks. Erika and I met Brian on our Peru trip, and he took a weekend out of his busy world traveling schedule to come see Santa Cruz. I was excited for Brian to meet Zach and the rest of my friends. Unfortunately, Zach didn't get to hang around too much because he was off to Hawaii to visit his folks.

Saturday night, I rounded up as many people as possible for a night out in Santa Cruz. We started with dinner at El Palomar, and then a stop by Rosie's (Brian is a sucker for those Irish pubs), then played some pool - where I ran into an old friend Laura. We ended up going back to Rosies for dancing. I think we all had a really fun time, and Brian was an instant hit! Kevin and Brian hit it off like old drinking buddies from the start!

I was surprised that everybody else didn't really have a problem understanding Brian's thick Irish accent!

Sunday was a beautiful day, so we went to the beach, and threw the football around, played fetch with the dog, and just sat around talking. What a fun time!

Peru

2008-03-18T19:47:00.000-07:00

As most of you know, Erika and I just got back from an amazing trip to Peru. We spent most of our time in Cusco, met some awesome new friends, and did a 4 day trek to end up at Machupiccu. This trip was one of the best experiences of my life and I definitely can't wait to go back.

Here is a small sampling of the over 1000 pictures we brought back with us.

I'll post the complete scrapbook with journal later.

How to reach me

2008-03-18T19:29:00.001-07:00

Recently I started signing up for a few of those social network sites for my job and also made some new friends. Here's a list of every single way you could ever wanna reach me:

EMAIL:
asiabird01@yahoo.com

IM:
asiabird01@yahoo.com
asiabird01@hotmail.com
asiabird01@gmail.com
asiabird01@aim.com

SKYPE:
asiabird01
(831) 207-4131

MAIL:
41 Grandview St. #101
Santa Cruz, CA 95060

All about me

2008-03-18T18:39:00.001-07:00

I originally had this posted in my profile, but it was too long - so I moved it to this post. Here is way to much information you probably never wanted to know about me:

Things I like to do: Snowboard, travel, hike, wakeboard, dance, find new adventures, skateboard, go rock climbing, go camping, read - read - read, sleep in on Sundays, bake cookies and breads and other yummy stuff, take pictures, try to speak Spanish with out sounding like a total idiot, riding 4 wheelers (especially when it's muddy), movies, beat people at air hockey (trust me, you don't stand a chance), cut off my split ends while talking on the phone, playing with fire, play volleyball, organize and reorganize stuff, scrapbooks, of course! jump on trampolines....yeah, I can do cool stuff on a trampoline. I like playing laser tag - especially if Jack and Chase play too, hanging out with friends, going to the flea market - help save it! I like to watch live hockey - Go Sharks! I can always talk about religion and politics and life. I like to wear black clothes (sorry mom, sorry erika - I'll always be fashion challenged), roller coasters (I gotta warn you....I'm a screamer)

Things that I like: the smell of clean sheets, tattoos, earth - lets keep it around for a while - recycle and get carbon neutral, vargas girls, the smell of fresh cut grass, stepping on sprinkler heads, needles going into skin....like tattoos, shots, or drawing blood, going to the dentist, Zach, hats, vampire/warewolf/zombie stories, kung fu movies, chocolate chip cookies for breakfast, sore muscles - because that means I did something to earn it! I like coke slurpees, because there is no carbonation in them. I love cold cloudy days, and I like snow. Sharks - not actually sharks themselves, but learning all about them, I guess. Mountains. Not wearing any shoes - I might be the only girl that hates shoes. Pets - mine and other peoples. I love having my back tickled, probably more than anything in the world, and I could live off of popcorn and strawberries (not necessarily together, but they are my two most favorites). Handwritten letters, cuddling, the song that meadow larks sing in the morning, black and white photography, History (especially US and European history during 1938-1948, and English history from 1400-1500, wild west stuff, and pretty much any history in general) fire places, computers/internet/techy stuff - especially if made by Mr. Jobs! I like inside jokes, of course hopefully you and I have them! Cheese Pizza (thanks to Erin on this one). Keeping in touch (don't be afraid to email me or call me, even if it's been a while) with friends and family.

Favorite Movies: First, and always at the top of my list is the Parent Trap - the old one with Haley Mills. Not the Lindsay Lohan one. I pretty much LOVE movies - just in general, so it has to be pretty bad for me not to like it. But some of those special movies that I could watch over and over again include The Sandlot, Grease, Last of the Mohicans, Resident Evil 2, Shaun of the Dead, The Gods Must be Crazy II, Dirty Dancing, Ace Ventura Pet Detective, Love Actually, Monte Python and the Search for the Holy Grail. Anything with Johnny Depp or Christian Bale. Project Grizzly and the Grizzly Man...as long as I watch em with Zach and Stetson. I always cry when I watch All Dogs go to Heaven. Always. I really like movies that make me think, or that I find myself still mulling around a few days after watching it.

Favorite Books: My all time favorite book is the Fountainhead. I've read it many times. Each time I read it, it's like I figure out something new about myself. Other than that, I am CONSTANTLY reading. Sometimes it takes over everything. If you ever want a recommendation for a good book - ask me!

Favorite Music: I like all music, but especially the kind that makes me want to move! Mostly I listen to Punk, Alternative or Classic rock. But when I'm in a mellow mood, I like to listen to Spanish guitar, or classical music. I think that classical music makes me smarter, even though I know that's a myth. I love it when Zach or Erika sings, especially when they are performing. I can't sing nor can I play an instrument, so I have a lot of respect and admiration for those who do. I love 80's music, I'll even admit to belting it out to country music when I'm alone. I also LOVE LOVE LOVE Christmas music. And that's pretty much all I listen to from the day after Thanksgiving until New Years Day. I know that it bugs everyone around me - and to them I say....ba humbug!

Random Question: What kind of fire are you? (I really wanna know the answer, email me and let me know - or post a comment).

Sharks Game

2008-03-15T09:11:00.001-07:00

Okay okay, so for months now I've been telling myself to get this blog started. I love reading blog posts from Erika, CJ, and Erin. And I know everybody is waiting to see my Peru pictures (which will be posted soon!) I figure this is a good way to let everyone know what I'm up to.

If your new to blogs, then I recommend you download an RSS reader, I have NetNewsWire, and love it! But then again I'm a total tech-y nerd! Here is more info on RSS readers.

So last night we went to see the San Jose Sharks play. It was an awesome game! The first period was the best the Sharks scored 4 goals in a row and numerous fights broke out. That's really my favorite part of hockey....the fighting.

I'll be sending out an email to let you know when the Peru pictures are up!