El Plato

Today I had to make some imporant decisions about money. We found out yesterday that the trips we're going to take are going to be a lot more expensive than we thought, though less expensive options are still being looked into. I've been putting myself on a really strict budget because I had a lot of unexpected expenses towards the end of the Spring semester, and I will have more when I get back. There was a certain amount in my savings account I didn't want to go under, but I have changed my mind. I'm here and I knew it would be expensive to come here, but I'm not going to burden myself with the preocupation of money (does that even make sense? I don't even know how to speak English anymore). I don't deserve the financial help I've received from my parents, nor my uncle who saw a couple posts ago when I mentioned I was running short on cash (THANK YOU MOM AND DAD AND UNCLE ROG!!!). But after budgeting everything out and doing some math, I've decided to not worry as much about the money I'm spending because it's only causing me stress while I'm here. I have always believed that  there is a lot more to experiencing and enjoying life than counting pennies, and now I need to practice that. Not saying I'm going to go crazy and spend my savings account! I'm just not going to be as stringent. The money is too pretty to not have in my wallet :)

Pura Vida: literally means Pura = pure and vida = life, but "Pure life" in Spanish would be "Vida pura" instead, so the real meaning is closer to "plenty of life", "full of life", "this is living!", "going great", "real living", or "cool!" It can be used both as a greeting and a farewell, to express satisfaction, to politely express indifference when describing something or even to say "thank you". The phrase has become widely known; this highly flexible statement has been used by many Costa Ricans, and expatriates, since 1956 (Wikipedia)