Lately I have started doing my work outdoors on my laptop which I think has led to me feeling a lot happier and less cooped up but also less self-conscious about doing things like updating my blog during work hours. Today I have a million resumes to read; we are hiring a new hotel manager and I am in charge of paring down the applicant pool for interviews. Steven has also given me a laundry list of administrative work that needs to get done which means I will have to leave my machete in the shed for awhile. I don't mind too much.

In other news, I am constantly being offered jobs here. We had these absurd American jacuzzi repairmen staying here and trying to fix the solar heating on our jacuzzi and they told me that if I ever wanted to come back to Costa Rica they needed more Americans to work at Solar Costa Rica. I don't think I'd want to work for them but it was a nice offer. More importantly, I just had a really pleasant phone conversation with somebody who at the end of the call revealed to me that he was the CEO of New Chapter and that he was very excited to meet me and needed a new intern. He also just got back from Portland where he was spending some time with his good friend, the CEO of New Seasons (a quickly growing local organic grocery store chain), and mentioned the prospects of work for me in Portland as well. I knew this job could lead to some potential job opportunities, but I have plugged into a crazy network of environmentally friendly corportations, the owners and CEOS of all of which are old friends of my boss!

And, on a personal note, I made a birthday cake for Walter and Giselle (they have the same birthday and it was yesterday) and we had a really nice birthday party where lots of their family members came to visit for a few days and we ate a lot of food and played cards. Emilie and I caught some tadpools and she is very excited to watch them for proof of the fact that they are baby frogs and not fish. My family took me to Fortuna, where there is an awesome active volcano that you can see from the tower at Luna Nueva, and I saw it up close and also got to spend some time in a popular tourist area. I got a phone call in the office a few days ago and Daniel, the younger brother of an old friend, is living to Costa Rica and moved to Fortuna this weekend for work. It is the closest big city to me and I can take a single, short bus ride to visit him. I am honestly a little nervous about traveling alone, but the trip is short enough and I am going to make sure to do it during daylight hours in both directions. I will probably go next weekend.

I hope everybody is doing well and I have started taking a new batch of pictures (we have some really cute baby chickens right now) which I will get up within the week.

Kelly