My new school ...

I just wanted to share this with everyone. This actually happened last Monday in the new student union. It was kept completely secret so it was so random these people just started dancing! I can't believe I missed it! Darn classes getting in the way ...

Sunday morning my mom and I woke up at 4:30 AM to the sound of rain on the window outside and thunder in the distance; slowly, we geared up for a wet race in the Flying Pig’s half marathon in Cincinnati. At the start of the course, we huddled with a crowd of the 18,518 other soggy participants waiting for the gun. At 6:30 on the dot—with permission from the weatherman—we were off! The first mile or so was crowded, claustrophobic, and slow. Unfortunately, due to the rain and the crowds, no one was seeded correctly and my mom and I were entirely too far back. We did our best to bob and weave throughout the crowd, but we still couldn’t do much more than a slow jog or brisk walk for the first quarter to half mile before the throngs of people began to break up. We began passing people and amazing consistently passed people throughout the entire 13.1 mile race! For the first few miles I focused on keeping a steady pace and a relaxed stride. I felt much better during this race than I did during my first half marathon, when once I arrived at the half-way point I was questioning my reasoning for inflicting this type of torture upon myself. Despite the horrible weather, quite a few spectators showed up including an Elvis impersonator, a brass band, and a barbershop group. The presence of that many spectators was amazing; every time we passed another aid station with music or a pack of people, I got more energized.

As expected, I didn’t feel brilliant throughout the run, when the wind kicked up around mile 5, I started to wheeze as we loped uphill. However, when we hit the steep hills at mile 6, I turned to my mom and said “six to nine is up hill, right?” She responded, “yup, then it’s all downhill to the end.” So off we went. Our goal was to remain steady or push harder up the hills if possible, weaving through the other runners as they slowed. Around mile 7, I realized that we were over half way, which was completely do-able! At mile 9 we were still trying hard to make up for our lost time at the start, hitting around a 9 min/mi pace which rapidly sped to an 8:00 min/mi as we approached the end of the course. I was super excited and smiling broadly at mile 12 when I turned to my mom and said, “one more to go!” We both kicked it up into high gear and finished at a pace just under 8 min/miles. My mom and I made a great team: she pulled me along as I slowed down and I did the same for her when she sagged. Overall it was a great experience. Although I really wish our time more reflected how we both ran that day—we finished just at 2 hrs 1 min, 4 min slower than my previous half—it was still a lot of fun and a great feeling to hit the end of the race and know although my legs were tired, I had enough in them to push strong through the end.

Finish Swine!!

Ohio! ...Settling down

After 9 months of roaming, it is time for me to settle down and get serious about school again! In a few short days I am starting my master's program at The Ohio State University (the 'The' is apparently pretty important -- I have been correct multiple times on this). My dad and I came up for an apartment scouting trip a few weeks ago to see what we could find.

Columbus actually surprised me. There are a fair few nice areas, pretty good food, and some great art galleries. The Short North region is the arts district, just south of the university. My dad and I spent some time exploring the area, looking at shops and trying the restaurants.

There were some pretty awesome murals

At least they are honest about their restaurant!

We had a grand time! My dad even got to try out a segway ;-).

We stopped by the North Market on our first evening in Columbus for dinner. The North Market is reminiscent of Boston's Faneuil Hall. The market is full of different food vendors as well as some little stands selling kitchenware, flowers, jewelry, etc.



We did indeed find a cute little apartment in the Grandview/Upper Arlington region, just across the river from the university (within biking distance of course)! It was actually quite serendipitous that we found the apartment. We arrived in Columbus at around 11 AM and immediately began the search for the perfect apartment. I had appointments for a few places, but neither my father nor I were impressed so we just decided to drive around neighborhoods a bit to see if there were any signs posted. Low and behold, we loved one of the first ones we spotted! After seeing a plethora of other apartments, we revisited this apt we and decided it was the one.

After our busy weekend away, we flew back home so I could begin packing my car for the great venture back up north from Okey-homa. Maxwell was a great help while I was packing:

I've been back in Ohio now for about a week after my second exodus back to Tulsa. With help of my friends and family, I am more or less moved in and unpacked. Although I now have an address, I am by no means going to stop adventuring... my next destination: Antarctica! Stay tuned in November.

Vista Valverde ... our last few days in Costa Rica in Pictures

As I mentioned, our last few days in Costa Rica were spent at Tom and Susan's bed and breakfast in San Ramone, Vista Valverde (www.vistavalverde.com). We had a great visit full of good conversation, Tom and Susan's delicious cooking, and beautiful views (pic left is taken from right out of the main building of the bed and breakfast, the Taller which in Spanish means workshop). Although the beach was fun and we learned many new sports, Jaco is a very tourist-centered town. San Ramone, however, is how both my mom and I decided we would like to remember Costa Rica.

Vista Valverde is located at the top of a very large hill and my mom and I explored the mountainous area on foot via walking and running. Our run was quite a challenge! We ran down, down, down, down and then realized once we turned around we had to go up, up, up, and up! Here are some of the amazing views from where we were staying:




We also enjoyed several beautiful sunsets up in the clouds.



We saw so many beautiful and fun plants in San Ramone. Susan and Tom have spent a great deal of energy on planting beautiful plants that line the road leading up to and surround their bed and breakfast.

This was the most interesting seed I have ever seen on a plant!

This plant reminds me of a giant dandelion!

It's a Sago Palm! I have one of these back in Oklahoma.
It was fun to see them lining the road up to Vista Valverde.

I love the baby pineapple plants. There are many of these
baby pineapple plants leading up to Vista Valverde

Jungle Women!

We left Jaco saturday morning for Tom and Susan's bed and breakfast in San Ramone. We were sad to leave the beach, but were excited to see a new part of the countryside as well as spend some time with my mom's friends. However, before we left Jaco my mom and I had to have one last adventure: zip line-ing through the canopy! It was so much fun. I was a little worried since my mom is a tad afraid of heights ... we saw one of the zip line platforms during our run up the canopy trail the other day and she said, "oh Maya, look at that tree house!" and I responded, "Mom, that is one of the zip line platforms." Her only thought about it was, "crap that's high!" She was a little hesitant at first, but after the first few platforms, she started to get into it and have some fun. There were 15 total platforms that started high up in the canopy and gradually decreased in elevation so you could see all the different levels of the canopy.

We didn't see many animals along the zip line unfortunately. I think between the noise the zip line makes and the people noises, we effectively scared them all away. At the bottom of the zip line we did see a nest of little parakeets and several iguanas!

After our zip line adventure, we finished packing up our bags and left with several of my mom's friends who were going to drive us to Tom and Susan's bed and breakfast in San Ramone, Vista Valverde (www.vistavalverde.com).

We stopped along the way to visit the crocodiles. For some reason, there is a particular bridge between Jaco and San Ramon that is known for having tons of crocodiles. We hopped out of the car (but remained high above them on the bridge) to take a look. There were so many crocodiles there! Many were easily 15 ft long. It was quite impressive!

We made it to Vista Valverde late in the afternoon. Vista Valverde is beautiful. I am really impressed with the amazing views and beautiful countryside. We are now at about 4,000 ft above sea level in the mountains. It is so beautiful here, with rolling hills and large expanses of untouched terrain. Tom and Susan have done an amazing job building the guest houses (cabinas) and the Taller (workshop), where they serve meals for guests. Once we arrived, my Mom and Tom caught up on old times. We had a very nice evening hanging out and chatting.

One of the cabinas for guests of Vista Valverde

Our last day in Jaco ... (a couple of days late, Sorry!)

Our last few days have been so busy, I didn't have time to post anything. My apologies!

Our last full day in Jaco started with a run. During our run the day before we saw a dirt path winding up the mountain marked canopy tour and we wanted to see how far we could take it. It was a beautiful morning, much cooler than the past few mornings. We started up the path and quickly realized that the run needed to be more of a run/hike. We heard all kinds of birds and screeching monkies, though we didn't see any .... I think between the noise we made running and our initial chatting scared all the animals away. It was of course a beautiful view from the top. Unfortunately since this was on a run, I didn't have my camera with me but it was indeed awesome! We could look down off of the cliffs and see Jaco Playa where we were learning to surf. After we reached the top, it was a looong downhill all the way back to the main road. This run we were honked/flashed/whisled at 7 times (I counted; it makes the miles go by faster if you have something to focus on!).

Once we returned to the hotel we decided to get ready for our 9 am yoga class with poses on the yoga rock. I suppose the rock is not specifically FOR yoga, but there is this perfectly round rock in the middle of the grounds of our hotel, Dulce Lunas, that is pictured on their website with people doing yoga poses on this huge round rock! We had to give it a go. It was a lot more difficult than it looked.

The yoga class that morning was actually pretty challenging. It was supposed to be a vinyasa flow class, but the focus of the day was hip opening. I have such tight hips, sitting in poses like pigeon and the variations of lunges is quite difficult for me!

After yoga, mom and I had a couple of hours free before our surf lesson. Our whole time in Jaco, everyone kept mentioning how huge the waves on Hermosa playa are. We decided we needed to see it for ourselves. We hopped on our rented mountain bikes to head south. Hermosa Playa is technically just a few miles from Jaco, but what we didn't realize is that these few miles are a few miles of really steep hills! So not only were we riding in the heat of the day (almost high noon); with semis and other large vehicles on the main road between the cities; on bikes with rusted chains, rubbing breaks, and only occasionally working gear shifts; we were climbing hills! It was quite a ride to say the least. All we could think about when we got to Hermosa was getting off the road with a cold drink. We stopped by a little beach side restaurant for refreshments and lunch. The waitress of the little restaurant came over to our table and directed a question in spanish about ordering something...not entirely sure what (I think she was asking if we wanted to order drinks). It is kind of amusing; I think I really confuse the Ticos (a word used to refer to Costa Rican locals). I don't have the right skin tone really to be considered a Tico, but I guess I am muddled-looking enough to possibly be able to speak Spanish. After I turned to my mom, unsure about what the waitress asked, she said in a quite slightly suprised voice,"oh." We both ordered Coca cola Lights (I don't think a Coke ever tasted so good ;-). Lunch was delicious. We had Ceviche, which is fish marinated in some sort of lime juice with onions and other veggies. Oh, it was amazing! I had tuna sashimi, which was also some of the best sashimi I think I have ever had! It was served with avacado and scallions on top which are some of my favorite vegetables (which I guess isn't fair since I really like most vegetables, but they are definitely at the top of the list!).

After lunch we checked out the surf. It was pretty windy that day and the waves were huge! That day there were easily swells of over 10 ft. The picture to the left was of the Hermosa beach taken from a cliff when we were on our way out of town. It really just doesn't do the waves justice...

It was starting to get late, so we hopped on our bikes to head back to Jaco Playa for our surf lesson. The waves at Jaco, although nothing compared to Hermosa, were some of the biggest we have dealt with on surf boards! It was quite a lot of work trying to get out once you ride the waves back in. We were constantly getting smacked in the face with new sets of waves as we fought to get back out to the ocean. Although we both were a bit frustrated that we tanked on more waves than we had other days, we both had several good rides during the day. I actually caught a couple of waves on my own without the extra push from a guide to get me moving.

After our surf lesson, we rushed back to room to get showered and gussied up for our evening out on the town. Since this was our last night in Jaco, we were going out to Casa del Caletas to watch the sunset. It was an amazing ride up the mountain to Casa Caletas. The the thin road was bordered by a hand laid stone wall leading up to this amazing ampa theatre to have a drink and watch the sun set. It was a beautiful end to a busy day!


If a picture is worth a million words, I am going to end this blog with 2 million words:

A new sport!

My mom and I rose this morning for a quick bite before our 7:30 am pickup for our paddle board lesson. Paddle boarding is as my mom described it a cross between surfing, kyaking, and yoga. It is really quite a good work out, but very meditative at the same time. You work your abs and core muscles paddling, but balance and centering body weight is very important to stay on the board. I discovered the importance of focus when I stopped to briefly glance down at my watch and ended up in the water!

Unfortunately, after about an hour of paddle boarding I asked to go in to grab water and more sunscreen (I am still lobster colored on the backs of my legs). However, once we got in the wind started to pick up and the waves started to churn. Paddle boarding is really best on calm waters...Unless you are really good and can catch the waves!

This afternoon my mom and I went into town to get lunch and do some shopping! We stopped by a fish taco bar for lunch. It was really cute! The stools around the bar were all hanging swings. The food was quite good too. We had Wahoo fish tacos!

By this evening, my mom and I were getting a bit punchy and dropping absolutely everything...this resulted in an unfortunate mishap with one of the gifts my mom purchased for someone which involved her getting clunked on the head! We broke down in a puddle of giggles as we realized what a hopeless pair we were. She was icing her head and I was icing my sunburned legs! We really need to remember how to ask for ice in Spanish. I think that will be an important one for us.

This evening my mom and I went for a run and were honked at by several trucks, yelled at by at least 2 other men, chased by 3 dogs, and ran into 3 dead ends. We did however find a papaya farm which was pretty amazing. I need to go back tomorrow to take a picture! I always expected papaya trees to be really tall, but these were only about 6 feet tall.

Some funny/neat things:

A sign outside of a restroom for a bar in Jaco

Trails left by an unidentified beach organism on Playa Jaco. I think it is some sort of crab that lives in burrows since the trails always center around a burrow hole.

The insects here are huge! This is a giant beetle we saw while waiting for our pickup for paddle boarding this morning