Monday 11/10/08

This morning I woke up and got ready for my run, but as I was tying my shoes I began to hear the rain pounding against our tin roof. The rain here is not quite as bearable as in Oregon and Washington and when it rains, it pours (I’ve played soccer in it and it is not pleasant in any way shape or form). I remembered that Maria had a small elliptical type machine in her bedroom and so I decided to give it a try. I watched the morning news to distract my brain from the fact that it was working out on a stationary machine (not my favorite thing). There aren’t English classes on Monday so I didn’t have to get to the school until 10 for some personal tutoring I had set up with a couple small groups of girls. I headed to the school after a relaxing morning and met up with the first group of girls. They informed me that we were going to meet at one of the girl’s house (basically, the girls were inviting me over with the excuse of homework). We worked on their English homework (forming sentences with –ing verbs) accompanied by a little snack (it was quite cute to see how intricately they had planned their time with me). I eventually had to head back to the school because I told another girl I would meet at 12:15. She had forgotten about previous plans and couldn’t meet so I just ended up heading to the cafeteria, eating some lunch and hanging out with my host mom, Maria, and Jessica (the other lunch lady). I made my way to the internet café to upload more pictures and send birthday wishes to Wes (since I can’t make it to the internet café tomorrow due to a busier schedule). I came home and spent the majority of the afternoon writing a paper. Before dinner we watched Shrek 3 and post dinner we watched Wall-E. They asked me if the “tranquila life” (tranquil country life) was boring me and I said “no”. Although I do get rather bored watching movie after movie, I do enjoy the calmness and the people much better in this small town of La Virgen as opposed to the chaos of San Jose. Besides the massive amount of TV I’ve watched, I’m extremely happy here in La Virgen. I love teaching and watching kids learn and grow every single day. I love the way my family here has made me feel more at home than anywhere else in Costa Rica. I love walking down the street and getting waved at by toothless first graders who call me “Niña”. I love listening to Maria’s stories and her laugh that accompanies them. Even amongst the daily challenges that arise and the occasional times the familiarity of my real home, I love my life here in La Virgen.