The Long Way Home

Maybe you've heard, maybe you haven't. Maybe you're excited, maybe you're confused, maybe you don't care.

The kid is moving back home.

It has been a helluva adventure out here in The Golden State, but it's time to cash in my chips and head home. Time to wake up where the Orange Blossoms grow.

There are certainly a number of emotions surrounding this decision, but overall I feel excited to get back to my old haunts and humidity. Maybe the humidity is a bit romantic at this point, but still, the thick air will no doubt feel like a warm hug from an old friend.   Trading Pacific Ocean sunsets from the desk for coming up 18 as the sun dips below the oak trees. Tourist(and vagrant) packed beaches for the unadulterated (save for an oil spill here and there) white sands of the gulf. Packed freeways for lazy mangroves. Hollywood-speak for southern drawls.

I have no idea what the next step is, but I do hope it will be as interesting as the ones I have left behind. Without question, I have learned more in the last three years than I have in any other professional setting. In addition to things related to the workplace, I have had a unique opportunity to learn about people. From audition waiting rooms, to country club members, to VCs and and interns- I have met them all. Some are great to interact and create with, some decidedly less so. But both provide life lessons, both positive and negative, which will no doubt help shape my future, whatever it may be.

While I don't know what level of success I achieved while being out here, I certainly have no regrets. I'm not going to get into details on what led to my decision to leave because I don't want anything I say to come off wrong.  It was just time. Time for me to return back from whence I came.

There are a number of things I think I'll miss, but I'm not really sure to what degree. I mean, the beach is great, but we've got that. The food is great, but we've got that. The friends are great, but I've got that too. So, maybe the thing I'll miss is the sense of adventure. I knew this wasn't home, so every day was a new challenge. I probably have enough material to write something about the adventures, so maybe that is part of my new challenge.

This is certainly one of my shorter posts, and I imagine some of my cohorts will cry "cop-out", but I'm heading home, and the rest is just for me right now.

"Well in the end we can all call a friend

well that's something I know as true.

And then a thousand years and a thousand tears

I'll come finding my original crew

cause to me throughout eternity

there's somewhere where you're welcome to go

I said it's something free that means a lot to me

when I'm with my friends I feel home"

- O.A.R

A New Continent... Sort Of

In the "always be adventuring" sense, I chose to go to Costa Rica for Spring Break. Costa Rica had been on my mind before my Chile trip as a way to check off South America, but now I would get South America and start on the "not really continents, but distinctly different geography" which include Central America, sub-Saharan Africa, and the sub-continent of India to name a few that I haven't been to. But now, save Antarctica, I've visited all the continents.

We had an incredible, relaxing, and adventurous time in Costa Rica. To start off, we rented a house in Playa Hermosa for the group as a whole, where we enjoyed a swim-up tiki bar, vast black sand beaches, refreshingly cold Pacific water, and a few local surf spots, and post-surf watering holes. Our housekeeper even made us a homemade dinner, which was both delicious and rancorous with our fun-loving crowd.

The tiki bar is open. Great daiquiris and fish tacos

Our homemade Costa Rican meal followed by Cards Against Humanity

Trying to chill by the beach while reading about Pakistan

Our evening walk to the post-surf watering holes

After Playa Hermosa, which is just south of Jaco on the Pacific side, our group split up as planned, with some exploring the underwater treasures of the coast through scuba diving, and others, including me, off to explore the Monteverde Cloud Rainforest and Arenal Volcano.

Our first stop was the Monteverde cloud forest, where we embarked on an awesome zip-line canopy tour and jungle swing adventure; I was skeptical, but this one outshone my Australian experience by far. That evening we took a guided night coffee plantation and jungle tour. We learned some pretty interesting things about coffee and how is grown and processed while running into night animals, including three huge sloths high in the tree tops, and had a great view of the stars and constellations.

Our zip-line / Tarzan swing crew

Some very long and very high zip lines through the rain forest

Coffee!

SLOTHS!!!

After dinner and delicious Chilean wine in a treehouse in Monteverde we headed to Arenal Volcano via Jeep and boat. At the Volcano we treated ourselves to some hot springs pools and relaxing dinner as we all tried not to think about our thesis projects which were due Tuesday upon our return. Rain the next day alleviated the need for more adventuring, so we succumbed to Harvard stereotypes and each worked a little on the last day waiting for the plane, though we did walk a couple miles to the nearby town to enjoy a last dinner with some soothing Costa Rican chocolate.

Inbound to Arenal Volcano

Margaritas under refreshing hot springs waterfall

The springs at night were surreal

Our crew, relaxed and well-fed

Sunday church service in town next to the chocolate shop

We had a great trip that, as always, was too short. I'd love to go back to experience the Gulf Coast or even spend more time on the Pacific Coast, so I wouldn't be surprised if Costa Rica becomes a repeat adventure spot in the near future.