Un poco espanol!

Ahh where to start, we I guess the beginning is the best place according to "The Sound of Music." I started off with a trip down to DIA, via Luke, gotta love that boy! Made my way to Dallas, Texas for the evening. Up at 4 AM to take a shuttle to the airport to catch a flight to Miami, Flordia. Okay so far lets count that, 3 time zones, one day, one hotel room. Airport troubles are bound to find me! My flight was cancelled to San Jose due to the fact that the plane is out of service. They had to run around trying to find another plane that was not in use and was able to fly. Alas! We have a plane, however, we need to change gates/terminals not once but twice. Ahh the joys of flying! Finally San Jose, Costa Rica. Pura Vida! After the long line in immigration and customs I headed to baggage claim. Ahh no baggage, can you say I knew that would happen?! My luggage however, arrived before I did due to the layovers, night in Dallas, so on so forth. Hermana! Carlota! We then made our way to our Hotel Santo Tomas in downtown San Jose. My first cab/taxi ride! This is where our fresco fettish began! They are very, very tasty fruit drinks.

(note the size of the fresco in the picture- haha, they really weren't that big!)

We then made our way to Arenal Observatory Lodge. We were fortunate enough to see the top of the volcano, hear it erupt, and see the lava falling down. We spent the evening soaking in the natural hot springs and gazing up at the stars. We did some hiking to a waterfall and to the lava flow of 1992, these was not an easy task as it was pouring down raining, muddy mess!

On to Monteverde! Hotel Belmar, where we met some people from Erie, PA! We took a hike through the Monteverde Cloud Forest, saw a quetzal, hiked around the hotel, took a night hike through the Children's Ecological Forest, two-towed sloth, tranchulas...

HAPPY THANKSGIVING, well at least in the north! We actually forgot until about 9 pm this evening that it was thanksgiving. Our morning started out at a Zip Line tour throught the canopy. What a blast, I can't even begin to describe the sights, fun and adrenaline that goes along with this. Not only did we do about 18 zip lines, but we repelled and did a Tarzan swing. I think this is one of the craziest things I have ever done! Now onto Manuel Antonio and Quepos! Our Thanksgiving dinner consisted of rice and beans and watching the sun set over the Pacific Ocean.

Manuel Antonio National Park-sunbathing in the warm air, swimming in the ocean, first time for a lot of things on this trip. So the ocean not only ate my hair tie but also my good Nike polarized sunglasses and on the short hike to the other beach I broke my flip flops. However, we did see capuchin monkeys and had a raccoon try to steal our granola bars!

10 seater, no security, turbo prop plane! 20 minute flight back to San Jose. "Hasta luego Cota Rica! Hola Los Angeles, CA!"Made our way down to Carrie's place in Orange County, hung out for a bit until it was time to make the final trip back to Denver. More flight delays. I finally arrived back home, Fort Collins at 1 AM. Thanks to Jen for the wonderful drive back and waiting on my flight to come in.

One quick note: road situation BLOWS! They are filled with rocks, cows, chickens, monkeys, dogs, potholes that you can get lost in, windly, uphill, plus our car was manual transmission, a story in itself, and had little, wait let me correct myself, NO clearance!

So for some totals: 6 flights, 6 hotels, first flight with Carrie, all 4 continential time zones...to find out more details or see more pictures just let me know.

Just call me the American traveler!

I had a Block and Bridle meeting on Tuesday, so I skipped out on the Executive meeting for Ag Ambassadors. We listened shortly to a CCA, Colorado Cattleman's Association, representative and then Bret Kaysen talk about a short two week trip to study in Australia. I wish I was able to go but I will be doing my internship and money is a big issue. It sounds like an amazing opportunity, I wish I could go sooo bad!

Wednesday is a day I would like to forget about. Poor, poor Cody died:( I wanted to go home after class, grab some lunch because I felt so crappy and study till my test. Well Cody had his own agenda! He wouldn't start. I called everyone in my phone book, no one answered. Finally Mitch, my savior answered, he was in work but going to lunch and his boss was a gem! She let him take her mustang and jump/try to jump my truck. NO GO:( So I figured out my starter was gone, kaput, dead to the world. So Mitch and his boss took my back to my apartment, ate a quick lunch and went to take my test that I wasn't able to study for because of Cody! So I didn't do too bad, 80%, but not what I wanted. Then I had to met up with my Range Group to do our project for Friday. I didn't have time to research anything for it again because of Cody. Then on to packing for Kansas City, which begins/continues the free traveling via CSU baby!

In bed at 1 am, up at 4 am:( Showered, dressed, finished packing, Matt picked me and Jen up and we headed to Farmhouse to met up with the rest of the group. Headed to the airport, got breakfast, realized that I speak very differently from the rest of Colorado! The topic of the morning was me and my "accent." Arrived in Kansas City, MO traveled to Farmland Foods, they fed us, and had a very informal discussion/info session with the group. Great food! Traveled to The Hyatt and began the conference. Late night, up at 5:50 am and began conference at 7:00 am. That evening a group of us snuck out of the hotel, big NO NO! We went ice skating. What a blast Matt and I were the only ones who knew how to skate before-hand. There was a lot of falls, laughter and stories to come. Up early again after about 4 hours of sleep. Conference is a lot of long day, ~12-14 hours, fun times and memories! We then went to a center and had a comedy club come perform for us and then had a dance. What a blast, I learned how to Colorado Swing dance and flip! Up early again, left for the airport around 3, traveled to airport, boarded about as soon as we got to the gate. I was passed out cold before we left the ground from being so tired and not getting more than 4-5 hours of sleep a night, and didn't even wake up when the flight attendant/Evan put up my tray table and seat back. Traveled back to Fort Collins, got home around 7:15 pm. Attempted to unpack, got some supper and watched some TV and hit the hay, hard core!

Tuesday: worked and basically did nothing. I can say though that I have learned how to drive both the big and little bob cats and the loader:) Executive meeting for about an hour, but then Jenna, Mary and I talked and I didn't get home till like 8:30 or so. Went to bed, I am still not caught up on sleep, I don't think I even will be.

Thursday: work and ag ambassador meeting
Friday: work, test, quiz, packing
Saturday: leave for Costa Rica. I fly into Dallas, Texas, spend the night there and then fly to Costa Rica to meet up with Carrie for Thanksgiving. I am so excited! Relaxation for a whole week! Heck yes baby:)

So I have to say the best part about Colorado State University is that they like to send me around America for FREE! I will be going to Raliegh, North Carolina January 3rd-5th for the National Ag Ambassador Conference. There will be five of us meeting there. I am really excited I have never been there and it is all paid for, the best kind of traveling!

I will try and get pictures up from Kansas City, Mo and Costa Rica ASAP!

Hope everyone has a safe, enjoyable and relaxing holiday weekend/week! I know I will!

Ahh, time to breathe!

Well I have made it through the weekend, much to my surprise! Friday I was out at ARDEC by 1:30 and was done shearing by 4:30! I went up and helped Jen finish setting up the conference center. Then we went around and checked up on everyone else out there. We came back up to the conference center and I played hackie sack with the "crew"- guys I work with and my boss. We are definitely country people as we used an empty chew can and then an empty soda can as the sack! It was a blast. I have a few bruises from it because it gets dangerous when you play with all guys. We did this for about two hours. I left around 8:15 and went to Panera to get a bread soup bowl because I was seriously numb!

Saturday I was up at 6 am! I got ready and headed off to ARDEC. I got there around 7:30. I helped set up and then had a quick meeting at 9 with all the species chairs. Then I headed off to get sheep ready and answer last minute questions the kids had. We showed about 20 minutes early! The girls were not ready, but there was nothing I could do about that. I will not go into more details about the day as I was slightly frustrated. We were finished around 5 and began to clean up. Since all the kids split like a fat chicks pants when she bent over, we decided to canceled the dance. Instead we loaded up everything and finished cleaning up. We unloaded the van at school and all headed to the Roadhouse. We had a blast! I got home around 10:30. I was beat I went to bed around 12:30.

I woke up Sunday around 9, with the time change. I started talking to Carrie and she reminded me that I was able to register at 9, over an hour ago! I tried to get on and the server was down for like 2 hours! I finally got signed in and signed up for classes. So far I am taking, Genetics, Disease, Nutrition, Ag Marketing, Ag Law and hopefully Breeding. I just relaxed that rest of the day, did a little reading and otherwise just caught up on sleep and let my body chill. It was very nice and needed.

Three days of classes and Kansas City baby! Now two days, three meetings, one test, one quiz. almost there. Sweet, sweet break I love you!

I will not update till after KC. We meet at Farm House at 4:45 am! We are leaving FoCo by 5 and our flight leaves at 8:30ish. Once we get to KC we are being picked up by Farmland Foods and they are providing us with lunch and then we will go on a tour/info session. AFA Leaders Conference is going to be a jammed pack four days. I can't wait I am so excited, its going to be a blast!

The keys to success!

PROCRASTINATION! :)

So I should be studying but I am burnt out! My mind, body and soul have worn down from the weeks taxing events.

Ahh the sweet taste of Sunday is in the air!