Nearing the end

¡Pura vida!

As the holiday season is now upon us, I am especially thankful for so many things---for my family and friends back home (and around the globe!), for my health and safety, for an incredibly blessed year as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar, and for upcoming travels here in Costa Rica and then to Nicaragua with my dear college friend, Amber, and THEN a much awaited return home to Iowa! Before then, there are papers to finish writing and a "gringo" potluck Thanksgiving Dinner to feast upon! Now if we can just find ourselves a turkey....!

It´s truly amazing how it seems like just the other day that I was arriving to Costa Rica, just in time to celebrate the new year with my new host family; and now, almost 11 months later I am a busy girl trying to "wrap up" the year, finishing all of the final term papers and projects of the trimester, final Rotary and Rotaract club projects for the year, scheduling in "goodbye" dates with friends and "family" here, and making lists of what to bring home.

The exciting part is that my Costa Rica journey will continue!! I am all set --thanks to the support from my steadfast family and close friends as well as receiving permission from the Rotary Foundation-- to extend my stay in Costa Rica in order to complete my Master´s degree program in Human Rights and Peace Education.

I will arrive to home in Iowa on December 15th and will begin accepting visitors the following day! ;) I will be freeeeeezing cold in the Midwest winter wonderland until January 17th, when I will then hop back on a plane to head south again....back to the warmer climate I am meant to reside in! I´m looking forward to spending time resting and relaxing, visiting and yes, studying some as well----there´s a thesis to be writing, people! :)

Please do be in touch---- by email, phone calls, personal visits!!

Thanks for all your support and love this year!

Have a Happy Thanksgiving---be thankful, and make sure you eat some turkey for me, just in case it is unable to be found here!!

With love, Megan The following is just for fun---a ´Top 15´ list put together by a former Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar about some likely clues to identify those who have had "the amazing experiences, tried the weirdest foods and danced to the songs we all have come to love while living in another country through Rotary International." Anyone who has lived abroad can surely relate! ::

1. You ask for some type of food/snack/drink to be care packaged to you as your Christmas present.

2. You have problems understanding people in your native language because you instinctively assume they're speaking your host language and listen for words in that language.

3. Back home, you watch lame documentaries on the History channel in the hopes of seeing your host country or hearing your host language.

4. You speak the wrong language every time you open your mouth for the first few days you are back home after the first few days of speaking the wrong language, you speak your own language with a strange accent.

5. You always got out of punishment or being yelled at, or got out of school work because you didn't understand the language or pretended that you didn't.

6. You can sing all the Top 20 songs from your exchange year...even a year later....

7.You buy everything in sight with the name of the country you went to visit so when you go back people are bound to ask you about it.

8. You get letters and emails in a language that no one else can read.

9. You've have attempted to fit all your worldly possessions into 2 suitcases and a carry on. (And have succeeded, more than once!)

10. You cringe at the mention of 'baggage weight limit'.

11. You have 20 siblings and 8 parents.

12. You can describe in perfect detail every symptom of traveler's flu, but still travel anyways.

13. You worship Pepto Bismol.

14. People mistake you for a local until you speak (sometimes even after).

15. You help tourists because you know where the nearest bank is, how much it costs to mail a letter, how to use the pay phone, what bus to take, local customs, etc.