A pleasant turn of events...

Since my last blog post there have been quite a few exciting things happen here in my world!  First of all, I am thrilled to say that my journey to buy a used car has come to an end and I am officially a car owner!  I am so blessed that in my fundraising before moving here I was able to raise the amount needed to buy a decent, used car.  My boss and I have poured over several different websites that feature cars for sale, visited some friendly and some a sort of shady people interested in selling their cars, and finally found a great deal at a Suzuki dealer nearby.  My new wheels is a 98 Suzuki Sidekick and it has been pretty enjoyable so far!  It is a manual, which I was opposed to for a long time until I had to drive my friend Cailah's car (a manual) the other day and realized, "hey, my brain, feet and arm seem to remember how to do this and it's kind of fun!" so I changed my mind regarding the ban on manuals.  Here's me in my car, accompanied by Jeff and Tracey's blond crew of kiddos:

Another exciting change has been the addition of two new interns to our staff.  Both are close to my age and both are wonderful, energetic young women.  We have enjoyed the gym, farmer's market, artisan market, Asian food and karaoke, and are looking forward to taking my Sidekick to the beach in the new future.  It was really fun to have them at our most recent "SI Family Dinner" that we had last weekend.  Our theme was "Sombreros," thus the reason a number of us are wearing hats in the pictures.  We had hot dogs with all the fixings and a Tico version of smores.  Yummy!

Karissa, me, Cailah and Emily

The goofy guys that I work with

Roasting marshmallows!!

My new gym buddy and friend, Karissa

 I posted about English class recently and that has continued to go well!  The guys in the class are starting to joke around with me, which I take as a sign that they like me and having me as their "Profe."  Recently we made pancakes as we talked about ingredients, cooking terms and utensils.  

They ate the pancakes up real quick

Glad to put my ELD and good teaching methods to practice! :)

 

 

The weather has been a lot more enjoyable lately, as in, cooler and less sticky.  We have such beautiful views from my neighborhood and I can't resist adding a pic out my window this evening: