green beer, green backpacks & (kind of) green mountains

I could just have easily entitled this post "Catch Up" or "Oh yeah, I have a blog", but the green theme seems to be working nicely. I have been quite busy living, but apparently not so busy blogging. Sorry friends. :(

In an effort to fill in some of the gaps from the last week, here are some updates:

• On Wednesday, I did find green beer on St. Patty's Day...or rather my friend Scott made green beer with crappy Colombian beer and food dye, but it was fabulous none-the-less. I celebrated the day with friends, Catie, Scott, Caleb and Angie, and enjoyed the green beer as well as fish and chips. Not quite the same as spending the day in Naples, Florida with my grandpa as I have the past two years, but still a successfully "green" holiday.

• Thursday, we had our annual girls book club. I haven't finished my book from last month yet, because it is really intense and also non-fiction, so hard to get into. However, I did keep that book to finish, as well as bring three more home to keep me occupied until next month. Here are my new titles to read:

Say You're One of Them by Uwem Akpan

Make Him Look Good by Alisa Valdes - Rodriguez

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Til Death Do Us Part by Ingrid Betancourt

The Heart That Bleeds by Alma Guillermoprieto

• In preparation for our Spring Break trip to the Amazons in less than a week, I bought myself a backpacking backpack that I spotted at Totto on Thursday. Ever since I used my roommate's on my Ciudad Perdida trip I have been wanting one of my own, I just thought they would be difficult to find in Colombia. Turns out they sells them in several places, but I just loved this green one, probably because it matches my hiking shoes & I feel the need to be fabulous even in the jungle. (Or at least camouflaged so insects/snakes/bugs/animals in general do not recognize me enough to eat me) My roommate Hana also bought a new backpack, so we are all set to travel!

• Friday at school we finished up the week by showing the movie Sandlot to the students, since we still only had half the 8th grade class present as a results of the binationals tournament. They loooooooooooved it. Which I knew they would, cause its amazing, but still - so great seeing them enjoy it. Despite going to an international school many of them have not seen "classic" English language movies, so I love sharing movies with them. As a baseball lover, this is definitely one of my all-time favorites - check out this scene for some Sandlot memories - enjoy!

• Friday night I headed over to Caleb & Angie's to catch some of the March Madness games. Caleb streamed them thanks to CBS Sports and we watched them projected on the wall of their apartment thanks to a school projector. I love watching basketball again, and it makes me so excited for baseball this summer! I started a bracket pool at school with 11 other co-workers and I am loving watching the games and keeping track of points. Summary of my bracket so far - thank God I didn't pick Kansas to win it all. Go West Virginia!!
• Saturday - read my book outside & realized you can still get burnt even under cloud cover. Thanks equatorial sun, we are no longer friends.
• Monday - climbed Tres Cruces for the second time; you can read my more detailed account of the first time here. The second was much like the first, but it was Kelsi's first time climbing it, so I am glad I went again! Once again it was very hot, I drank lots of water, but was again stunned with the impressive views of my city.

View of the Tres Cruces (Three Crosses) hike from halfway up.

Hot & sweaty at the top with Hana, Steph, and Kelsi.

P.S. (Did you even think I wasn't going to mention it?!?!?!) THE Minnesota Twins, you know the baseball team I love that is going to contend for the 2010 World Series, yeah that one. Wellllll they signed this guy yesterday, not sure if you have heard of him, but his name is Joseph Patrick Mauer and I sort of love him. Annnnyway, he will be staying in Minnesota thru 2018 for $184 million. LOOOOOOOOVE. One of the top ten largest contracts in the MLB and one of the only ones for a non-NY Yankees player. Hip hip hoooooooray!!!! :) Can't wait to see him play at the new stadium this summer!!

Could he be any more adorable?