Oleeeeee... Ole. Ole. Ole... Oleeeeee. Ole. It's World Cup Time!!!

Hola Amigos! Pura Vida from Paradise on this lovely Wednesday morning. It is that special time that occurs every four years or so, where I pretend to like soccer. It's great! The US did not make the last World Cup, so Monday when they played (and tied blah) was the first time (outside of the Olympics of course) since 2014. It was a very cool experience being in Costa Rica watching the United States with pride surrounded by an international community. We had Canadians, Costa Ricans and Americans all getting rowdy and getting their soccer hooligan on. I would post pics from that day, but if we are being totally honest, I got kinda lit lol and didn't take any (Classic John). So here is a pic of an Eagle man in an American Flag instead!

Costa Rica plays in 2 hours here (10 AM Central Time) and this town is about to get cray. Pretty much everything outside of bars and restaurants will shut down and this country will show its pride and patriotism by doing nothing other than supporting their National Team. I love it. I feel very honored to be here on such a special day. My only concern is trying to NOT day drink during the game, because I have stuff to do later. Come on, John, you can do it!! If they win this place is about to get twisted considering Japan upset Germany an hour ago (they are in the same World Cup Group for all you WC novices).

Part of the fun on Monday for the US game was hanging with our friends from Denver. If you remember back on our 2nd blog "It all started with a Penn State Hat... WE ARE!" (you can refresh your memory here), we met a Family from Denver who we hit it off with quickly. I mentioned that they had just gone under contract on a home in Coco at that time and we were planning to spend Thanksgiving together. Well it's Turkey Week now, and they are back to close on the property. We look forward to doing our first Thanksgiving in Costa Rica with them on Thursday. Rebecca has the turkey brining in the fridge as we speak and I cannot wait to drink wine, eat turkey and watch American Football (while looking at the ocean) on Thursday. New traditions are being made with the Murray Family and WE LOVE IT.

Rebecca also got to spend her first birthday in Paradise. For those who do not know, her birthday is 11/17, but historically it is celebrated for most of the month of November (which is sooooooo fun for me). If you forget, she quickly and kindly reminds you that it is her bday week, month, day before, day after, first Saturday before her bday or first Saturday after her bday. We had a lovely dinner at Ginger Restaurant Bar in Playa Hermosa (walking distance from where we just bought our casita - YAY!). It was a great night out and was the first time that we utilized a babysitter in Costa Rica. Mommy and Daddy had a night out with 18 of our closest, oldest, newest and dearest friends lol. We have known one of the couples for almost 5 whole months :).

It was a great time and the food was wonderful. The service was outstanding, and as any server knows a table of 18 is tough...let alone when it is 9 separate checks. Our bartender was a man named Astua and he taught me my new favorite Costa Rican slang Spanish word. The word is "akachete" pronounced like AHK-A-SHET-TAY. It was a spectacular night where I had a whole speech written out that would have easily made every person in the whole restaurant cry. Unfortunately, I had 4 IPAs before dinner and nerves got to me...I started my speech and immediately had a "EFF IT, WE'LL DO IT LIVE" situation and abandoned my written speech and gave an off the dome version. This improvised speech is gold...and available on only the deepest darkest parts of the interweb or here (sorry the one is all wonky).

That is it for now amigos!!! I will leave you with some more Costa Rican slang. Feel free to use it regularly in conversations with anyone you meet. We already discussed Akachete above (PS, no idea if the is spelled correctly). Akachete, like Pura Vida, means "All good, Happy Life, Full life - all in one. Slang #2 is Tuanis (pronounced TOO-AH-NEES). It also pretty much means all the same things as Akachete and Pura Vida, but is a little more surfery. I'll save some more slang for another time.

Akachete mis amigos! Hasta próxima semana!