Category Archives: Life abroad
Lunch with Maestro Carl St Clair
The first time I saw Carl St Clair conduct the National Symphony Orchestra of Costa Rica, (Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Costa Rica), the performance was held at Teatro Meliko Salizar, just a few blocks west of the National Theater, the … Continue reading
Is Progress our most important product?
Lancaster Pennsylvania, west of Philadelphia, is home to some 237,000 Plain people, including the Amish, Mennonites and Brethren. These folks eschew modernity in favor of keeping the old ways and traditions. You’ll see them, if you visit, as I used … Continue reading
Of bees and boobs
We’ll call him Jose, though that isn’t his name. He’s a diminutive man, even for a Tico, I thought, the first time I saw him, and from his clothing and high rubber boots, a farm worker. Out here in rural … Continue reading
Forget the friendly skies, try agony and insult in the air.
I thought I knew the antidote to the agony of air travel: avoid stops in the US and the collateral tyranny of the TSA; and snub its airlines, whose operators often confuse people with cattle, or chickens, and now charge … Continue reading
Bovine bliss
As a child growing up in Philadelphia, I neither knew nor cared much about cows. When the family piled into our car and headed west through the dairy states towards Minnesota, my dad’s home, I enjoyed seeing them, and idly … Continue reading
Rejecting conventional wisdom
San Juan de Dios Hospital, in San Jose, Costa Rica is a place I’ve come to know fairly well since my breast cancer diagnosis in June of 2012. Or at least I know the places that have to do with … Continue reading
Bitch-slapped by life
Life reached out and gave us a bitch slap recently. We’d taken an overnight trip with friends to Puntarenas, on the west coast of Costa Rica, a couple of hours away from our Puriscal home. At eight that morning, we’d … Continue reading
The Sting
I had a big day planned yesterday: lunch and a movie in the city (Escazu, Costa Rica) with girlfriends. We may be seniors, but we’re still girls, right? But I begged off, due to a headache and upset tummy. The … Continue reading
Batty over bats
In general, I’m not a fan of bats. They simply don’t conform to my notion of cuddly critters. And there’s that whole vampire thing. Not that I believe in them, but it happens that I’ve been binge-viewing season one of … Continue reading
Clean, or happy?
Before we moved to Costa Rica, we learned that we could find someone to clean the house for about a dollar an hour. I was ecstatic. Back home, I cleaned when company was coming. It’s not that I don’t love … Continue reading
