Monday 11/24/08

Today was my last Monday here in La Virgen, as I will be leaving for San Jose on Wednesday. Since the school year is finishing up and the English teachers don’t come on Mondays, I didn’t really have that much to do in terms of working at the school. I woke up late (7am), worked out on the elliptical and enjoyed having the entire house to myself (as everyone had morning classes or work). I ate pinto and eggs my mom had left for me and sang at the top of my lungs (somewhat forgetting that we don’t have glass windows. Therefore, I’m sure the neighbors were well entertained all morning). I made a final trip to the internet café and then eventually made my way to school for lunch. When I came home, I watched the news with my brothers while helping Jose Manuel study for his English test tomorrow. The national news highlighted our area of Sarapiqui because we’ve had so much constant rain in the last 72 hours that many areas are beginning to flood and people are having to evacuate. Luckily, we have not experienced any flooding and my brothers said that due to our location on the river, we won’t experience flooding. The news said that it has rained more in the last 3 days than the usual average for the entire month of November. The only thing I’m beginning to worry about is my journey back to San Jose as both my options may be struggling with mudslides (something I had to deal with on the way here). We finally found a deck of cards (something we’ve been looking for) and I taught the boys Shaft, Speed, and Spoons. I then taught Maria to make Snickerdoodle cookies. She’s been asking me to show her as many recipes as I know before I go so that she can bake lots of Christmas treats. We had our “cafecito” (a part of the day in which everyone sits down and drinks coffee, usually around 3 or 4) with our fresh Snickerdoodles (I of course substituted my coffee for water)