Blessed Walpurgis Night!

Well, finally I'm posting ON a Pagan Sabbath. Well, is Walpurgis Night a Sabbath, or should only Beltane be considered the Sabbath. Be it as it may, hey! It's Walpurgis Night! I would have loved to be home and "celebrate" it all by my own - as my pagan celebrations usually go like - with, you know, some pagan music, a little makeshift altar to celebrate, a glass of wine (I'm out of Blue Moon and Samuel Addams, so no beer, and I can't find any kriek in here), and maybe a slice of bread for cake or something of the sort. Some meditating, so goofing all by myself and so on. I wonder if my Pagan friends are celebrating this night on some fun way, like bonfires, lots of booze, some naked or half-naked dancing and goofing. I'd totally be into celebrating with a bonfire on the beach, at night, with the low rumble of the waves humming all around us.

Then again the weather isn't very gracious these days in here, with the rainy season coming in and bringing afternoon showers and hail sometimes. Oh, you know what would be awesome? Celebrating taking a loooong bath surrounded by candles! Or maybe I just want to soak in a little, surrounded by scented candles and either listening to music and reading some, or watching TV while sipping some wine.

Walpurgis, well, Beltane, is all about fertility, happiness, enjoying and celebrating life and "prosperity", not in the sense of richness - or at least I don't interpret it that way - but the abundance of what we do, what we make, what our work produces. These couple of weeks and days have been hard and busy, full of work both at the office and with the University, with hardly a moment to do anything else. In a way, I'm kinda thankful my brand new tablet broke, so I don't have to be bothered by e-mails and messages when I had to deal with more pressing matters. Yeah, I've been neglecting social media and friends quite hardly, but then, that's the heat of our work, and that's the fire of Walpurgis, the celebration of Beltane. Wouldn't you agree? Better busy than bored!

Summary of the week

The process of writing a post starts sometimes with the picture I select for that post, something I caught with my phone and around which I'd like to talk about. I had a couple of thoughts around in my head now, and was checking my latest photos when I thought: damned, did I wrote last week? (Yes, I did.) The doubt came after finding on my phone a few pictures of my two new diplomas, which I didn't remember sharing with you. Yes, last week I graduated as a "diplomate" in Business Administration and as Bachelor in Accounting. In the university I go to, this "diplomate" (like a technical degree) in Business Administration is the base for all other careers such as accounting, finance, marketing, leadership (yes, so stupid, I know), Human Resources and such. I'm quite please, truth to be told, that I've finally managed to get those diplomas, and am already on the final stage to get my licentiate degree in accounting.

But that was last week. This week has been hell. My brand new tablet stopped working. I mean, all of it worked, except that it refused to get on the internet, and I've got it with a data plan, so I want my money's worth on internet access. So I had to take it to the agency where I've got it and have it sent to the workshop for fixing. It didn't please me much. Maybe the acquiring of a tablet might have been excessive on my part, as I already have a Kindle and a smartphone (and a netbook), and admittedly, the purchase was a whim-purchase (and the purchase wasn't the tablet, that came "for free" with the data plan, which is a two year plan), but I kinda like it better for surfing than my Blackberry, and - what's more important - it was much more manageable for working with university related stuff than my Blackberry, so I was counting on it to do my stuff.

Oh well, in three more weeks I'll have it back. Naturally, the company will deduce those weeks from my bill, as they should.

Work was piling up a little, specially since my boss left us to deal with some requirements from auditing, and then my boss went to a week-long seminar at the UIT, and my boss' replacement pretty much dunked the whole thing on me.Well, it wasn't much, thanks Hyne, but some things were clearer for other members of our team, who have worked with it. A new revision of the Roaming fees also came through, and naturally it came to me. I would have been crossed if it would have been given to someone else, as Roaming is my turf, and honestly, no one has worked as much it it as I have.

Things were coming along, I met with a dear friend, discovered a fabulous beauty product store - The Face Shop -  and got a dear friend of mine a perfect gift for her birthday. I sent her gift to her with her husband, and then she sent me mine with him too. Wow, her gift was grand!

My friend, Skylar, and I, know each other from quite a long time. We used to work at the same process, but under different bosses some time ago, but then, thanks to a restructuring shift, we got separated. We haven't stayed in contact the same as before, but we still think of each other very fondly, and consider each other friends, nearly best friends. She had been getting presents for me and saving them until our next meeting. I felt bad because I don't do that. Maybe I should try and be more attentive.

Finally, on Friday, I had a car accident. Noting serious! Really, just pulling out of the garage here at home, Nate rolled gently into another car. Yes, it was my fault. Lack of coffee early in the morning. No, I won't make that mistake again. Today at night I'll prepare the coffee maker to get me a cup of coffee right before I leave the house. Haven't decided, of course, if I'll take one of dad's cars or if I'll use public transportation, but I won't take Nate, as dad's taking Nate to an authorized workshop (authorized by my insurance company) for valuation of the damage (basically just the frontal bumper) and then it will stay at home until it gets fixed. It was good in the sense that I've got to the office late, but didn't have to worry because it was justified, and then left early - also justified - because I had to go to my insurance company to authorize the damage of the other car to be charged to my insurance. :-) It wasn't pretty, and I was quite nervous, and it might cost me (depending on how much it costs, because I have a full on coverage, but only above a certain amount), but other than that, hey, I had a short Friday at the office! And I did a lot of work with the Roaming thing, so all is good.

Well, no pictures for today, but it wasn't that bad a post, was it?

A Matter of Letters: The Mojo To Write

Yes, I'm fully aware that I owe you a post about scarfs, but currently it's so hot I rather not wrap anything around my neck (though my friend Andrea, and now my dear Arjen, have a beautiful string infinity scarf I'd love to wear! And it would be perfect, even in this weather), so that post will be postponed until whenever I feel like writing about it. Not fair? Hey, not like you are paying to read this blog, so deal with it. Besides, if I manage to get my hands around that lovely scarf, rest assured that in 24 hours of it's first use you'll have the scarf post.

Picture taken at Thon Hotel EU, Brussels.
Letter half written and my first
Lamy fountain pen.

Today's post, however, it's about a penpal situation: the lost of the mojo to write letters.

Basically, when you have penpals and you engage in snailmail conversations, they are that: long conversations thrown on paper with the aid of a pen or a pencil. (Mostly a pen, I have yet to find a penpal who writes with pencil... at least once.) Seen this way, the process of writing letters is simple, just like a talk: your friend writes something to you, you reply and say some more, and your friend replies and says some more... and it goes on and on and on. The fun about penpalling is that some topics can go on and on for ages. I remember a friend of mine - very dear - with whom I wrote for many years about the topics of love and freedom/independence. If we would have kept writing letters to each other, I'm sure we would still be developing those two subjects. Letters with penpals also often include the most delectable details of each other's lives and our environment. The ongoing office stories of which you can't have enough, the family stories, the friend stories, the latest purchase, the books each are reading, the TV series each like the best... it's like a very long and lovely coffee break with a friend, full of just about everything.

Letters open you to the chance to have the whole story, not cut because it's late and the coffee shop is closing on the two of you, a constant conversation not interrupted by cellphones and mobile internet, people passing by... it's a one on one, full disclosure, no interruptions communication experience, even if you stop while reading or while writing: it's a perfect channel.

However, it might happen that you suddenly don't feel it in yourself to engage in that sort of conversation. Not because you don't love it, or you don't want it, but because suddenly there's something inside you stopping you. You might enjoy very much your friend's letter and you want to reply to it, but the words refuse to flow down your pen. Maybe you even feel like your soul is a bit heavy when you think about writing, and that sensation keeps pulling you away from the pen&paper. For a penpaller, that's horrible. Soon letters from their different friends start to arrive and they don't even dare to open them because they can't still bring themselves to write. What used to be something awesome - getting a letter - is suddenly something dreadful, because the penpaller don't want to let down any of their friends. So what to do? Force the words out and write gloom, blah letters or wait?

I've been through a spell like that, and maybe I'm still not fully recovered. In my case, what I found useful was to wait it out, take letters little by little, and often send postcards to my friends to let them know that I've received their letters but can't reply to them just yet.

I don't know any secrets to defeat the loss of mojo, and if someone has a tip I'm all ears. My advise for anyone in this situation would be to be honest, wait it out and send a postcard. Postcards are small, so sure you can squeeze a few lines onto them out of yourself to explain the situation to your penpals, right? If they are good penpals (like my penpals), they'll be supportive and understanding. If they are not, well, what better chance to find that out.

If you are on the other side of this equation, and I've been there too, hey, be supportive! A penpal is a friend, and if they don't have it in them to write at the moment, don't force them. Drop them a postcard or an e-mail, let them know you are thinking of them, but don't rush them. They eventually get their mojo back and things will go back to normal. :-)

Time to Fly Back

My photos - the few I've made - are still in my Blackberry, far from being organized in albums in my facebook profile, or to try and do something with them on my +Google (or is it Google+?) account or anything. I don't have a Pinterest account, so that's why that's not even being neglected. So what has been happening? Well, here it goes in a few, quick points.

The first week we were pretty much booked with errands and a couple of trips. After the whole ordeal of the cancelled flight - oh yes, and I still have a conversation pending with KLM, because I'm so sorry, they are not AirFrance, and I'm not that lenient with them - I had stuff to do, like make sure my yearly Social Security tax was paid and all in order, cancelled my Hungarian bank account, and started looking around for the things my family asked me for. Quite the next day after my arrival, my boyfriend and I went to spend a night in Vienna. I didn't had it planned, but he insisted, particularly because my planned abroad trip didn't include him. At Vienna, we went to the Schönbrunn, as usual, and then visited the Easter Fair and Sigmund Freud's house.

Schönbrunn was a bit changed, with more rooms opened and the audio of the audio guides chopped in half. It was enjoyable, but I did miss a lot of the information we used to get before. The Easter Fair was quite small. Lovely but small. Sigmund Freud's house was quite interesting, as it was in the flat where he lived and held his practice. Sadly, though, the tour was quite poorly organized and very little to no information was given to the visitor about how to proceed about the exposition. There's a lot of room for improvement there.

Then, that same week, we went to Mezőkövesd to visit very dear friends of ours, with whom I had a very, very comforting conversation. I came back from it feeling awesome and soundly supported. We also went to Gödöllő, another place we simply can't leave out of our trip. We went on Sunday, with the awesome surprise of finding they were holding "Violet Day", which is a fair of sorts held in Spring, honoring Empress Sisi's favorite flower. (I would upload pictures, but my connection is quite poor. Maybe in a later post.)

This week I met with a dear friend and then went to Bruxelles to meet with a dear friend and penpal. She and I met for the first time and I had a blast! I promise I'll tell you all more in a later post, because I have a lot of lovely pictures that need to be shared along with the story.

Anyway, in two weeks with so many plans, I barely had any actual time to breathe. I'm returning home feeling a bit exhausted, if I must tell you the truth, but happy. I accomplished several things I wished to accomplish and managed some others I had to manage. Now it's time to go back home to my daily duties and tasks.

First Week in Europe

I don't really have much time to blog today - I'm about to go to have lunch with my Grandpa and my Aunt - and, well, my boyfriend needed the best part of an hour to clean up the desk so I could set my netbook on it to work. I won't go into that right now, but my penpals will sure hear about the whole thing. (Yes, my relationship with my penpals works in a kind of "exclusive" way where they pretty much got to know just about everything and anything about me and my life. They are, after all, my penpals ^_^).

My trip started... well, it started nice but it has had a couple of bumps on the way. The flight to Panama and then from Panama to Amsterdam went without any trouble. I actually made friends on the plane to Amsterdam with a couple of adorable brothers, José and Ernesto, who are also Costa Rican, study or are already electronical engineers and were sooooo adorable! We spent the entire trip gaping about animé, talking of Dragon Ball Z and then sharing tids and bits about life and what we thought of this and that. Really, an adorable, amazing pair of brothers. Then, as all went well, suddenly in Amsterdam my flight to Budapest was cancelled. As in CANCELLED. I didn't worry, thought they would surely put me on another plane and get home, maybe two hours later. No. Shiphol was taken over by an absolute chaos, lack of proper communication, no reasons as to why all flights were being cancelled, no indications as to what would happen with us, and I ended up tagging with a group of Hungarians and making a 6 hour queue. Yes, a 6 hour queue. It wasn't funny.

It had a nice part, which was that suddenly our tiny little group started behaving like a family. We shared food, looked out for each other, guarded our luggage, listened to each other, helped each other find out what was going on and so on. At one point - after standing in line for two hours - there was a rumor that we could go to another queue in the Baggage Hall so we would be issued tickets for the next day as well as cupons for a hotel and food and whatnot. I wasn't particularly happy about that because I was traveling with no clothes. The point of my travel was to settle some accounts, pay my aunt my tax money (which she had paid out for me) and fork up clothes and books of mine to bring back to Costa Rica. So why would I bring anything other than the clothes on my back (which were very thin), my phone, my netbook and my filofax? Half our group decided to go for the other queue and the other half stayed. It was good we did. Around 5 hours and 30 minutes into the line, we learned that there was a plane flying to Budapest at 20:55 (we were supposed to be on the plane of 14:20). We started asking questions about whether there was any chance we could get on that plane. The first person told us no, but then we caught a second person who looked at us and asked us:

"Are you all together?"

We didn't even bat an eye when we replied "Yes, we are." She was gone and did her best. Soon she was back and said that the flight was completely booked, but it seemed that there were ten no-show passengers, so she would do her best. Five minutes before the take off of the flight we've got our tickets. Thanks Hyne the gate was close to where we were, so we ran and got on the flight. We tried to help other people as well, but had to run before we've got to know whether they've got on the flight or not. They did.

The days then, on Budapest, were hectic, to say the least. Honestly, I haven't been able to rest just yet. My boyfriend wanted also to get a night at Vienna, so after a day in Hungary, we went to Vienna, and did our rounds. All kind of fast, no time to call up on friends, visit or anything. Not to mention, that there was snow and rain and cold.

Next week I'm flying to Bruxelles for three days to meet a penpal. Maybe then I'll be able to rest a little. We shall see about that.