I made it!

  Alajuela, Alajuela, Costa Rica
Friday, January 11, 2008

Buenas!

I am here, happily, in Costa Rica.  I can´t believe it, it has been such a burning desire to come back and so I am very excited.  Yesterday was a little bit stressful... Let me explain.  I was very rushed finishing packing, like always, but made it to the airport, the flights were fine, and flew into Costa Rica.  It was so beautful from the air.  Anyway I get off the plane, and head to baggage claim.  I checked two bags because I didn´t feel like dragging them all through the airport.  So I´m standing there, so excited to get out of the airport and meet up with my friends outside.  And I´m waiting.  And waiting.  An hour later the baggage belt stops and the guy says "finished".  And myself and the other 12 people standing there looked at eachother in disgust and went to the lost baggage counter.  After standing in line for another half hour finally I got everything proccessed.  The problem?  The only tag on my backpack was the sticker they put on it when they check it.  I forgot to put any extra identification on it.  So I´m thinking, great, I´ll probably never see my bags again.  AND that it was an hour and a half later and my friends probably thought I missed my flight and left.  But I´m like whatever, worst case scenario I just tell a taxi driver to take me to Bethel, haha.  So I head outside, with my purse and a small backpack, and look for my friends.  It was 1:45.  I finally find them and they said, wow we´re glad you´re here, we thought you didn´t come and said we would leave at 2:00.  Phew.

So I explain what happened and we all thought it was pretty funny and just laughed it off and I said, who cares, I´m in Costa Rica.  I´ll buy clothes if my bags don´t turn up.  Later I called the airline and my "who cares" attitude was fading because they said they didn´t know anything about my bags, where they are, or when they will arrive.  The plane I had to change in Miami went on to Aruba so who knew!?  We went to the meeting last night and I went fully dressed in Grethels clothes.  Good thing I had all my shoes AND everything for the meeting and service in my carry ons!

That night I kept calling and no more answers, finally I went to bed in the only clothes I had, the shirt I wore on the plane and a pair of boardshorts.  The next morning my bags turned up and amazingly they both were there at the airport.  Now I guess I can relax.

Today I´m enjoying the city, went to the mall with my friend Michelle and tomorrow morning Joel and Roxana are taking me to Nicoya, so that´ll be great.  I´m so happy to be here!!!  The coffee is SO great.  Yum!

I´ll post pictures if I can and send an update from Nicoya.  Saturday we´re going to the meeting at the group in Nandayure so I´m excited to see how they have grown.

Hope all is well in the states,
Chao!