oh spring, you are good to me

Did I move back to the west coast?

yes

Does that mean I will stop taking pictures of pretty flowers and blooming trees?

nope!

The season of spring...there are too many things I like about it. I love having more light and how the day feels differently with each morning dawn breaking a little earlier and the sun setting a few minutes later. I love the smell of orange blossoms where my car is parked and jasmine over the neighbors' fences. Trees are indeed blooming and flowers popping up from the ground. I notice the birds chirping louder and I find myself walking around the house more often with bare feet.

I certainly miss the east coast season changes. In college I practically dug up the crocuses and tulips from the ground when I saw them starting to peak and I sometimes went on bud-searching runs where I specifically tried to find trees who were making the most progress getting their buds a'ready for spring time. And when those crocuses did bloom, when I could hear the crickets chirping loudly at night with my window open, when those tulips and daffodils came up in their full glory, MAN OH MAN was I in heaven. Like almost tears in my eyes, gotta-run-all-over-the-neighborhood-to-see-every-flower-in-the-city-of-Wenham-type excitement. I'm telling you, flowers and seasons became a new passion of mine.

And I think that excitement has given me more observant eyes to see that spring happens here too. It happens differently, much less dramatically, and it's not as vivid of a change from white snow to purple crocuses, but spring does come to Santa Barbara. And spring still makes my heart happy and thankful. 

a psalm

surely your 

goodness

and 

unfailing love

will pursue me

all the days of my life

[psalm 23:6a]

I'm thankful that God's goodness and love pursue me...

through the green buds on trees, the warm cup of coffee after a too-short-night of sleep, the shared laughter of friends, the delicious lick of strawberry and chocolate ice cream, through the sociology class that reminds me that I have to believe in a big God, through the text messages from friends far away, through the breathtaking beauty of spring in new england

Each day, He pursues me 

and does so with unfailing love and goodness

manchester - by - the - sea, massachusetts

happy 1st day of spring!!!

if you didn't know already...

i'm a little obsessed with spring. and flowers. and birds chirping. and tulips and daffodils and crocuses and trees blooming.

 the crocuses are BACK!!!

 and this year i found a new friend to enjoy blooming crocuses with! :)

the massachusetts winter....that wasn't

 singing beach, manchester-by-the-sea

 marybeth & i at singing beach

dane street beach, beverly

so remember that post i wrote about having a very difficult time adjusting to massachusetts winter? for some reason right after that post, the winter got quite a bit warmer. and it's honestly been one of the most glorious things i've experienced the past few weeks.

friday afternoon:

took my little bag of M&M's to singing beach in manchester-be-the-sea and walked along the beach while watching the sunset and eating chocolate

saturday afternoon:

coffee at essen with marybeth and then walked along the same beach and watched about 50 dogs running around on the sand chasing each other (made me miss my dog tanya)

sunday morning:

made chocolate-chip pumpkin pancakes with my friend alyssa and took them and freshly brewed coffee to dane street beach and enjoyed the marvelous beauty while indulging in a delicious breakfast.

IN.... FEBRUARY (!!!)

"get outta town!" as my dad would say

i can't explain how excited i get with this winter - i went to the beach and enjoyed climbing on the rocks and smiled so widely to myself, i got sand in my shoes which i usually don't like but i was like "what a great problem to have!!" and any beach view in the morning is one of the most beautiful things you can ever see. 

i am 

so. 

thankful. 

manuel antonio

[la playa]

[zip lining crew]

[sarah, me, and allison at dinner]

[sunset]

just got back from a beautiful and fun weekend at manuel antonio, a national park about 3.5 hours from san jose.

after getting back from nicaragua on thursday evening, i had friday to lay low and then saturday i took the bus into san jose, taxi to the bus station, and the bus took us directly to our hostel! my friend caleb got us reservations at "backpackers manuel antonio" - an awesome hostel which cost us only $12/night and included pancake breakfasts in the morning! it was clean and had a nice lounge area as well as a pool and hammocks. that afternoon we headed to the beach and laid out, went in the water, and watched the sun set. they talk a lot in costa rica about being super careful when you go into the ocean because of the rip tides and sometimes the waves are really strong but thankfully we didn't have any troubles and the water was really warm!

on sunday, a group of 5 of us went zip lining with La Sevitra Tours and had a great time. the tour picked us up at our hostel and we drove about 45 minutes to a forest where we first enjoyed pineapple and juice and then started the zip lining! there were 10 lines, some were short and two were really long. it was awesome to zip over the green trees and we also got to walk a little bit in the forest going from one platform to another. while walking, we saw a poison green and black dart frog and some really cool trees and other plants. after zip lining, we had a delicious typical "Tico" meal which included chicken & rice (arroz con pollo), black beans, tortillas, yucca, salad, and pineapple. we enjoyed eating on a nice deck and then headed down to a small waterfall where we got to swim around for a little bit which was a lot of fun.

on monday i headed to the beach and soaked up the sun (unfortunately that included sun burn) and we left in the late afternoon. it was a really great weekend and i felt like i was in the US - manuel antonio is a high tourist attraction and you didn't really need to speak any spanish to get around. having said that, i need to get back to work on my español!

la belleza

gardens at ICADS (where we take our Spanish classes)

i'm living in a beautiful place with beautiful people.

with love, new england

for those wondering why i love living in new england... look no further

can these colors BEEE any more vivid and wonderful??

i think not, chandler bing

dear new england, i love you back