Friday 11/28/08

Today was my last full day in San Jose. It’s crazy to think it’s been months now since that nerve-racking arrival in the San Jose airport when people, places and the life ahead of me was foreign. Now I look back and smile at those times as Costa Rica has become home and a place of familiarity, family, and friends. When I woke up, Mami and Papi had to head to the hospital and so it was just Pamela and I for the morning. I spent the morning packing and sorting through all my stuff. I needed to go to LASP to drop off some money, but had to wait until Pamela woke up because she wanted to come with me. She didn’t wake up until 12:30, so we got a bit of a late start to our trip. We took a taxi to LASP, quickly dropped off my money and then headed into San Jose for a nice lunch together. We headed to the open market so I could buy some last minute items, ran into a bunch of my friends doing the same thing, and then headed home. Pamela really wanted to bake something with me and so I taught her and some cousins how to make sugar cookies. Later in the evening we had a nice last family dinner and reflected back on these fast last 3 months. After dinner my family asked if I would like to go to a “mirador” (a look-out spot up on a mountain that looks out on the whole valley of San Jose). I of course said yes and we made the commute up the windy mountain. We got to the lookout spot where we went to this amazing bar/restaurant that was decorated in all these old Costa Rican antiques and overlooked the entire city. It was amazing! Everyone ordered hot drinks (except myself, yuck…hot drinks!) and just enjoyed our time together. We finally made our way back to the house around 11:30 and called it a night.

Exit Survey

Exit Survey
Thanks to Kelly Glenn, I am using this survey (with a few of my own revisions) to help me process the last 3.5 weeks I spent teaching English in La Virgen (as it was an experience much more profound than sitting in the classroom in San Jose). Again, thanks Kelly! This survey really helped me personally reflect on and sum up my time in La Virgen

Name: McKenzie DeBow

Site: La Virgen de Sarapiqui, Costa Rica

Nicknames: “Niña” (this is what the kids call a teacher), “profe”, “teacher”, “gringa”, and my favorite was“McKenzie, la trailera”

Biggest accomplishment: keeping classrooms of 30+ first through third graders entertained in a language they don’t even speak for 3.5 weeks

Biggest disappointment: the Saturdays we spent watching movies all day instead of getting out and doing something

Biggest regret: I don’t like regrets; I just like to think I learn from my mistakes

Biggest fear: That I would get hit by a truck on my way home from school (there was only one skinny main road in town and trucks zoomed through town inches away from pedestrians)

Defining moment: Of course there were many defining moments, but to mention one, my mom, Maria, looked at me and said “I truly feel like you’re my daughter. I feel like I’ve known you your whole life” in the sweetest most sincere way ever

Things you will miss most: all the kids at school, being greeted at school by swarms of girls ready to give me kisses and hugs, being crazy with my family (dancing, singing and just being silly), deep conversations with Maria, knowing everyone in town, listening to Maria sing while she cleans, being able to have conversations in bed due to ceiling-less rooms

Things you will miss least: eating when I’m not hungry but to be polite, watching massive amounts of TV, walking up with itchy bug bites

Biggest Irony: we locked the front door, but hung the key on a nail right next to the door (so much for a “hide-a-key”)

Worst illness: I didn’t get sick, just occasional bouts of the squirts

Biggest freak-out: There were no major freak-outs, but I was always on edge during recess because the kids would run wild (no such thing as recess duties) and I was convinced I was doomed to see a broken bones or a kid run through the glass window of the library. Thank God somehow none of this managed to happen!

Most useful things I brought: camera, computer, umbrella, and knowledge of how to bake cookies and cakes

Least useful thing I brought: sweat pants (it’s freakin’ hot and humid!),

Favorite activity when bored: solving the hardest puzzles in the Sudoku book my sister gave me

Weirdest thing I did when bored: used the macro setting on my camera to take close-up pictures of anything and everything including my eyeball

Favorite Costa Rican slang: ¡Que toque! and “juey pucha”

Greatest lie I told at my site: I convinced some snobby tourists that I was a Tica who simply learned English in school. They even believed me when I told them that Licho and Maria where my real parents even with my blonde hair and blue eyes (which I told them came from my grandma). My whole family thought it was hysterical!

Favorite Costa Rican inquiry: "How did you learn English?”

Best Costa Rican gesture: puckering and pointing with the lips instead of the finger when you want to point to something or someone

Favorite CD/song during my service project: “Marinero” and Maria’s mariachi music

Song I would be content to never hear again: crappy North American pop music kids listen to

Favorite book(s) during my service project: Unexpected News (I had to read it as homework, but it was good)

Favorite Costa Rican fashion: actually I loved the fact that in the country people care way less about fashion than in comparison to San Jose. I could wear whatever and just be comfortable (and barefoot!)

Best drive: The amazing family road trip to Volcan Poas (the views the entire road trip were indescribable)

Worst bus ride: The bus ride back to San Jose on my last day (I hate goodbyes)

Favorite food: Maria’s banana pancakes (even though she fed them to me all the time) sweet bread she made the very first day I was there, and fresh pineapple from Licho’s pineapple farm

Worst thing I ate: flan and rotten papaya

Worst thing I smelled: farm animal manure

Stupidest thing I did: I forgot a book I need to read for class in San Jose and had to go all the way back to San Jose to retrieve it

Untrue fact told to you as undeniable truth:

You know you’ve been in La Virgen too long when…: you know everyone in town, untamed classrooms seem normal and you assume bathrooms won’t have toilet paper

I never thought I would…: be able to feel so at home and part of a family in 3.5 weeks

When I grow up I want to be…: someone who loves God and loves people

If I had to do it all over again I…: would have planned better daily lessons for each class session

Favorite Ropa Americana T-shirt: A little boy wearing a shirt that said “Don’t you wish I was your girlfriend?”

Favorite animal story: One day, I was in the kitchen baking with Maria when suddenly a gecko fell on my head. I felt like Meredith in the Parent Trap if you know what I mean.

Best habit acquired: Being flexible and going with the flow, learning to be “tranquila” about everything, eating everything I was served with a smile

Worst habit acquired: going to the internet café on my breaks

Thing you missed most from San Jose: my San Jose family and my friends from LASP

Thing you missed least from San Jose: wasting hours on the bus, the loudness and chaos of the city, and always guarding my stuff as if I’m about to be mobbed

Favorite location in La Virgen: the property behind our house along the river

Things you’d wish you had known before you came: When schedules change no one will advise you about the change (one of the moms told me this, unfortunately it was the last day I was there. If only she would’ve told me on the first day and not the last!

Best advice for others coming to La Virgen: It’s all about being “tranquilo” and “pura vida”. You’ll have to come to figure out what that means

Thursday 11/27/08

Happy Thanksgiving! I celebrated by going to class from 8-5 (what fun!). That’s right, Thanksgiving isn’t celebrated here at all and so we had class all day. It actually ended up being quite an interesting day as we spent the morning reflecting on all our different experiences and then in the afternoon having a class dedicating into orienting ourselves for our trip to Cuba. I came home and Mami was the only one home. She left within minutes of my arrival and told me she was going to pick up Pamela and would be right back and that afterwards we would head to her mom’s house because it was her birthday. Sadly enough, I ended up spending most of my Thanksgiving evening home alone and hungry (a stark contrast to how I have spent every other Thanksgiving in my life). There was literally no food in the house, but it was already dark and knew that Mami wouldn’t want me to be out in the dark by myself. They finally came home much later than the told me and then disappeared again to go pick up the birthday cake. After sitting around waiting for Mami to come back with the cake we finally just decided to go to my aunt’s house, where the birthday party was supposedly supposed to take place. When we got there, my grandma had already left to go home and everyone was in bed ready to go to sleep. This is where I have yet to understand Latin American culture. Mami finally showed up around 10 and made my grandma come back to my aunts house so she could blow out the candles, even though everyone else was already asleep. It was somewhat strange and immediately after they scarved down a piece of cake, Mami said it was time to go. We came home and waited another 1 for dinner. We didn’t sit down for dinner until about 11. Afterwards Mami and Papi said they had to go to a candlelight service for the owner of our house who passed away. So, Pamela and I had a sleepover and talked and talked and talked knowing that this was our second to last night together. If you’re at all confused about the second half of my day and this entry didn’t make any sense, don’t worry, I was just as confused as you all evening!

Wednesday 11/26/08

Today was the heart-wrenching goodbye to the small town of La Virgen, a beautiful place filled with beautiful people who have become family in the short time of 3.5 weeks. The morning began with a trip the piñera (pineapple farm) where Licho works transporting pineapple to the port city of Limon. I said my goodbye to Licho and we headed home for my last breakfast of pinto. Jose Manuel didn’t go to school (although I tried to tell him he should being the teacher I am) because he wanted to stay with me until I left. We spent the morning switching my room back into Maria and Licho’s room (as they had all shifted rooms for my visit. I wasn’t aware of this until today) Around 10, we headed to Puerto Viejo so I could catch the 11 o’clock bus to San Jose. The car wasn’t starting but the muscles of Jose Manuel, Andres and I pushing finally got it to start up. We stopped at my cousin house and she gave me a small souvenir-like gift of a frog on a leaf she had painted. Since we couldn’t turn off the car at the bus station, my goodbyes were very simple. Maria was having a really hard time with the fact that we were saying goodbye, so she just had to tell herself I was going to San Jose to run an errand and would eventually be back. The bus ride was emotionally tough, but luckily safe. We were a little concerned because the road had been closed for the last few days due to the flooding (which is now being considered a “national emergency”, but don’t worry San Jose isn’t affected at all, which means I’m now away from the flooding). When I finally got back home in San Jose, I was greeted by my family in San Jose and we had a nice lunch together. Although I love my family here in San Jose and am extremely grateful for the love they’ve shown me over the last few months, I was having a little bit of a difficult time transitioning back into the city life (as it is so much louder and chaotic and less personal, intimate and “tranquilo”). My time in La Virgen was much more down to earth and fit extremely well with my personality. I have never felt more at home than I did during my time in La Virgen and I already miss my family in La Virgen a great deal. Hopefully at some point in life (either this one of the next) we will find ourselves back together again. The afternoon was very low key. I took a nap even though I was more emotionally drained than physically drained. My family was gone for the rest of the afternoon so I simply hung out alone (checking my e-mail, listening to Christmas music, and reflecting over the last 3.5 weeks). Even as I write this I still cannot process what an amazing experience I have had these last few weeks. I eventually showered up because I was informed that we were headed to my grandma’s house for Papi’s sister, Tatiana’s birthday. My parents eventually came home and we headed to the party in our new car. Tatiana’s new puppy was the center of attention at the party and it was a nice time to catch up with everyone in Papi’s big extended family. After the party we ran a few errands for Pamela’s school project and made our way back to the house. My parents headed out yet again to pick up a Guatemalan pastor who has been staying with my family for the last few days and is spending his last night here tonight. I said my goodnights and prepared for getting “back to the grind” of school.

Tuesday 11/25/08

It’s extremely bittersweet to be saying that today is my last full day in La Virgen. I absolutely love my life here. I’m teaching, I have family and friends who loves me, I walk around town and am known by name, and I live in the tropical rainforest. Yet at the same time I’m freakishly excited to be back in the States where I have family and friends who love me, independence (and a car), and I live in the most beautiful part of the country (I know, I’m biased) I told my family last night that I feel like all my limbs are being tugged by different parts of the world where I have made such beautiful connections and how I have several places I feel I can call home (Costa Rica, Mexico, Seattle, Eugene, etc.). After an elliptical workout due to the flooding/intense rains and some pinto and pancakes, we made our way one last time to the school. I worked with my classes on last time, said goodbyes throughout the day (with plenty of kisses and notes and gifts). We had an assembly and I said my official goodbyes and an overall “thank you”. I came home content with the hard work I’ve put into my time at the school, yet also said to think that this chapter of my life is coming to a close. It has truly been an experience I can say no one else has had (since I am the first gringa ever to work in the school). I spent the afternoon simply enjoying my last afternoon with my family. The boys and I played cards and Licho finally came back from Limon (he’s been working for days straight and I was worried I wasn’t going to be able to say goodbye. We had a nice last family dinner, took family pictures and I gave them some gifts I had brought from home. I showed off my magic tricks and had the whole family in awe and/or convinced I was a witch. We had a bittersweet evening reflecting on the last 3.5 weeks. We eventually said our final goodnights knowing that the morning would be a difficult goodbye.

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)

For Wes...(on Nov. 25th!)

Sunday 11/23/08

This morning I woke up to the heavy rain pounding against our metal rough. It is such a loud noise that you cannot even carry on a conversation. It has been pouring rain for quite some time now and unfortunately ruined our hopes of making a trip to the river this weekend. We ate pinto and watched the Mulan and the Lion King. When my family popped in Lion King 2, I decided to go for a walk (as the rain had somewhat stopped). I came home and they were already done with Lion King 2 and watching Over the Hedge. We had lunch and the rain began pouring again (thank goodness I took advantage of my short gap of time to walk). I helped my youngest brother, Jose Manuel, study for his English test (as he is also my student). Licho, my dad, came home from a work party and had won a blender. My family here is extremely lucky when it comes to winning things. Earlier in the week my mom, Maria, won 50,000 colones (approx 100) worth of products at a beauty shop in Puerto Viejo. She is claiming all her winnings and then selling everything to people here in La Virgen. She also won a karaoke contest (but that wasn’t luck, but her amazing mariachi/ranchero skills). In the late afternoon we made a pudding/yogurt-ish treat made from pineapple (including the outside parts!) and lemon bars that Maria had wanted to make while watching Bruce Almighty. Baking with me has become one of her favorite past times. In the evening we had yet another night of great conversations. While showing everyone some more pictures on my computer a gecko managed to land on my head. Just a little later while climbing in bed I found a cockroach stuck in my mosquito net. It also jumped on me and almost managed to fall into my sweatshirt. Apparently all the baking must have made me a sweet target for small creatures.

Saturday 11/22/08

This morning I woke up and finally learned how to make pinto. I’m sure you’ve read the word pinto several times now if you’ve been so kind to actually read my “chatty Kathy” blog. Anyways, pinto is a traditional breakfast plate that we eat all the time. It’s a simple plate in which you cook the rice and beans together rather than separate. I eat it almost daily. After learning how to make pinto and letting it digest, I hopped on the elliptical while my family watched Beauty and the Beast. There is a certain innocence of the people here in La Virgen (the campo, aka the country). I think the fact that three teenage boys still watch Disney movies (by choice) and the fact that my middle brother Andres who is 15 looks like he’s 10 best explains this innocence (although, it is still difficult to comprehend if you are not here). There life is simply different than what I’ve been exposed to and their experiences have left them with a sweetness and innocence that is indescribable. I headed to the internet café (as I could tell it was going to be a movie marathon day) and finally had the chance to talk to my parents via Skype rather than e-mail (I can tell I’m getting anxious to see them as it almost brought me to tears by simply hearing their voices). While at the internet café, I copied a basic sugar cookie recipe so that I could teach my family to make Christmas cookies (something they’ve wanted to do). We spent the afternoon making sugar cookies. I couldn’t find cookie cutters anywhere in town and so we had to use a cousins, Karen (aka la loca), play-do cutters, so our cookies were “mini-cookies” to say the least. Everyone enjoyed being creative and making their own shapes with simply a knife. After making homemade frosting (since there is no such thing as pre-made here) we all frosted cookies and licked our fingers like 5 year olds. We spent the rest of the day watching Rocky, eating dinner and working on a 500 piece puzzle. If you didn’t already know this about me, I’m somewhat obsessed with puzzles and so I didn’t go to sleep until we finished. The boys were shocked at how fast I worked (as I had my sections done 10x faster than they’d finished a small section). Andres, my middle brother, would continually look at me and then tell his brothers, “She’s just lucky”.

Friday 11/21/08

Happy Costa Rica’s Teacher Appreciation Day! Hey, that now includes me! We didn’t have school today in order to do exactly what the day entails, appreciating ourselves. I ran on the elliptical while my brothers watched some weird Eddie Murphy movie and we all ate pinto and banana pancakes for breakfast. After breakfast, it was off to getting our chores done. Luckily I convinced Maria to let me help with the household chores. I swept the house, washed the dishes, and cleaned the kitchen while listening to Maria belt out some amazing Mexican mariachi music. We had a nice lunch and afterward (due to the fact I could tell it was going to be a slow going day due to rain and my family’s TV and movie watching consumption) I decided to go for a walk around town and stop in quickly at the internet café and buy a bag (as I know I won’t be able to cram everything back in the way I packed it. Does anyone else have that problem of being able to pack for a journey and then never fit your stuff in on the way back?) I came home, ate my daily snack of pancakes and then I headed to Puerto Viejo with Licho, Maria, Andres and my grandma (Maria’s mom). We were going to visit a friend who has stomach cancer. We delivered fruits, breads, meals and ice cream and did what we Latinos do best, “platicar” (simply sit around and talk and talk and talk). We eventually headed back to La Virgen and ate dinner, watched part of Harry Potter (thanks to our new TNT) and headed off to bed.

Thursday 11/20/08

Typical school morning (elliptical, a pinto breakfast, and out the door by 6:40). Today I again worked with the 4th through 6th graders and led somewhat of a review session because their English final is next week. Around 10, my professors came from San Jose to visit and check in with me. They told me I look “very content”, which is of course very true. It is hard to think I will have to leave this life in just a few days. After a nice school day I headed home and hung out with Maria and Jessica (the other lunch lady). They are two of my favorite ladies and so we had a wonderful afternoon of laughter and silliness. Jessica had figured out to get TNT (a cable channel) on her cable-less TV and so she came over and showed us how to wire our TV likewise. It worked and Maria was jumping up and down she was so excited to add a new cable channel onto or 4 other non-cable options. My oldest brother went to mass (first time someone in my family has gone) because Nancy, his major crush was going to be there. We all made fun of him for the rest of the night. Before dinner I helped my brother, Andres, with his homework of translating the story of Sleeping Beauty he was given in English into Spanish. We had a nice late dinner while watching Lord of the Rings on our new favorite channel TNT. The boys and I got into a pillow fight and laughed the night away. Our silliness even continued as we all climbed in bed as we retold our many inside jokes from ceiling-less room to ceiling-less room until eventually quieting down and falling asleep around 10.

Wednesday 11/19/08

Today was yet again a day where there were not English classes. I came at an unfortunate time of the year where the English teachers are gone at a training every single Monday and Wednesday. I slept in (aka 7am) and worked out on the elliptical while watching Battle of the Sexes with my brother (basically today was exactly like Monday morning). After spending the morning making final touches on my three essays, Jose Manuel and I headed to the school around 11:30. After lunch since I didn’t have classes to teach, I offered to help Maria in the kitchen. I became the new dish washer and enjoyed my time with Maria and Jessica in the kitchen. Afterwards I headed to the internet café to send my 3 essays back to my school via e-mail (Technology these days!). When I came home I hung out with my brothers and Maria gave me my daily afternoon snack of pancakes (if my pancake consumption doesn’t show up in a daily entry it is simply because it has such a daily event that that I forget to add it in). Later in the afternoon I helped my middle brother, Andres, by teaching him to bake chocolate chip cookies and chocolate cake. He and his classmates will sell them tomorrow as part of a school project. Other than a minor burn on my middle finger (which became the joke of the night due to its placement) my cookies were a huge hit and the family was addicted. Before dinner we all got out our school notebooks and compared handwriting (I won!). This eventually led to tons of doodling and drawing, which we did until dinner. As usual, dinner was accompanied by amazing conversation and plenty of laughter (especially about our first impressions of one another and laughing about how much more comfortable we are now in comparison to that first day together). We played checkers (which entails a few different rules here) and eventually headed off to bed.

Tuesday 11/18/08

The morning began with a workout on the elliptical while watching Wall-E. Unfortunately, it has been raining non-stop which makes it nearly impossible to go for a nice run in the mornings, so the elliptical will have to do. Today at school I worked with the 4th through 6th graders because my younger classes were taking final exams all morning. I had a small gap of time that I used to catch up with Wes and Becca via Skype. After the school day, I came home and watched Blade with my brothers. The afternoon was as the ticos would say “tranquilo”. Later in the evening my uncle Alvaro came over and talked our ears off about every conversation topic imaginable. Much of the time was spent listening to his perspective on the US. It was interesting to hear his perspective and the assumptions he was making about all the US based on his short trip to Florida. It was also a good opportunity to simply be quiet and listen to an opinion, rather than get defensive (our natural human response). We watched some of CSI: NY and Grey’s Anatomy and headed off to bed.

Monday 11/17/08

Today was somewhat like a day off because they weren’t any English classes and/or anything for me to do at the school. I woke up at the nice late hour of 7 and worked out on the elliptical while watching “La Guerra de los Sexos” (Battle of the Sexes) with my brother. I spent the morning doing homework. It was nice to have a huge chunk of time to dedicate to homework (since that is how I like to get my homework done). I wrote an entire paper, showered up and headed to the school for lunch (since Maria is the lunch lady). I spent a little bit of time at the school and eventually made my way to the internet café to update photos, blog posts and e-mails. When I came home I hung out with my brothers. Somehow we got into a conversation about music videos and so I showed them a Hives music video I starred in back in my younger years. We had a nice relaxing evening and the normal routine of dinner and news. After homemade plastic bag popsicles, we made our way to bed. For some odd reason I could not fall asleep and was tossing and turning until past midnight.

You know you've been living in Costa Rica when...

Zumba! Learning to Dance

Sunday 11/16/08

Today we were planning to go to the river, but the rain decided to spoil our planned river journey. Instead, we had a nice breakfast of pinto together and watched movies. Luckily, one of the movies ended making the morning a morning full of laughter. We decided to put in Zumba, which is a dance workout video. The rest of the morning was a sweaty workout (both from the dancing and the unending laughter). We all showered off and eventually had what I call “root soup” for lunch (a soup full of different vegetables that come from roots such as yucca) while watching Harry Potter. We all took midday “siestas” and spent the rest of the afternoon dinking around. I messed around on my computer and made a silly video with some of the footage from our morning dance routines. Before dinner we watched the news, as usual. The biggest piece of news was that the Chinese president is visiting. There are actually a large number of Chinese immigrants who live here in Costa Rica. We eventually ate dinner and finished the night by watching the Prince and Me (I’m telling, all these movies are wearing my eyes out). With the left over marshmallows from Rice Krispy treats, I taught the family how to make smores over the gas stove. The crackers weren’t quite the same as graham crackers so they weren’t as successful as I had hoped, but it was still fun watching everyone burn their marshmallows. We all headed to bed around 9.

Saturday 11/15/08

Today was family road trip day! I was so excited to hear the news because last Saturday we literally sat around and did nothing but watch movies. When I woke up and ate some breakfast I was notified that we were going to Volcan Poaz, one of the volcanoes I hadn’t visited during either of my trips here to Costa Rica. We headed out around 8:30 and made our way along the whindy roads of Costa Rica. We pulled over millions of times (to fix seatbelts, to move the noisy plates, to pee in the bushes. We pulled over for pretty much anything and everything). Two of our coolest “pull-overs” were at two different waterfalls. I had seen the waterfalls on my very first bus ride to La Virgen, but didn’t have the chance to get out, explore and take pictures, so today was exactly what I had hoped to do. We eventually hopped back in the car and finished the journey to Poaz. When we got there we realized that locals pay 1000 colones (2 dollars) and tourists pay 5000 colones (10 dollars). We did our best to pass me off as a tica and we succeeded and I got into the park for $2. We wandered down the trail and eventually made it to the look-out point. It was cloudy at first and I was concerned it was going to be like my first trip to a volcano earlier this trip (Volcan Irazu), but luckily it cleared up and we got to see the crater, take lots of pictures and enjoy our time exploring the volcano and smelling to strong smell of sulfur. One random thing is that we’ve recently been calling my dad (Licho) Santa Claus because of his big beer belly gut and the nickname has stuck. All day whenever we’d lose him or he’d be trailing behind my mom would simply yell for Santa. It caught quite a bit of people off guard as he would respond as if everything was normal. After spending the morning at the volcano, we headed back out by the parking lot, found a picnic bench and ate our homemade lunch of arroz con pollo. My family was fascinated by a little squirrel that came and ate near us and I told them to come to Oregon where there are plenty. As we made our way back to La Virgen, we stopped again for everything and anything including a small lagoon where we took some more pictures. We eventually got home around 4 and enjoyed looking at all our pictures on the bigger screen of the computer. While the boys watch Sylvester Stallone movies, I taught Maria how to make Rice Krispy treats and she taught me how to make arroz con leche (Kim, I think this is the treat you had mentioned a friend really enjoyed). Before dinner, Maria, Miguel and I went to the internet café to get their computer looked at because it wasn’t working. It took forever to fix and so we searched google for my family members (Mom and Dad, there are pictures of you when I googled your name) and used Google Earth to show them where I live. We came home and ate dinner and somehow got into an amazing conversation about millions of things. We finished the night by watching the grand finale of “Bailando por un Sueño” where Franklin and Viviana (our favorites) won! Today felt like how I would spend a Saturday in the States and therefore I felt especially “at home”. Prior to this trip I didn’t realize how much I love this feeling.

Friday 11/14/08

This morning I woke up and ran on the elliptical while watching the morning news. There happened to be 3 things on the local news channel that had to do with Oregon (the pregnant man is pregnant again; a little girl fell down a lookout on the coast; and a river flooding in Portland area). My mom was up making breakfast and was shocked at what a “happening place” Oregon is. After breakfast we headed to the school. One of the frustrations I’ve had at school is my schedule. Everyday the classes I end up teaching never match the formal schedule I was given and am told to follow. I arrived ready to teach at 7 and Junior was nowhere to be found. He failed to tell me that our first periods were cancelled and I didn’t need to be there until 8:40 (he does this quite often). Luckily I brought a book of Sudoku (yes, I’m a nerd) and solved a bunch of puzzles. After the first period, I decided I couldn’t handle sitting around anymore, so I went with Adolfo to the 5th grade class for 2nd period. For some reason many of our classes were cancelled today and I had a big gap between the morning and afternoon classes and spent the time catching up at the internet café and going for walk and exploring new parts of town. I came back to school, taught a few more classes and headed home around 3:30. It was a relaxing Friday as we spent the rest of the day simply hanging out, eating dinner and eventually making our way to bed.

Thursday 11/13/08

The mornings are beginning to become somewhat of a routine (it’s strange what a wonderful thing familiarity can be) and we left the house as usual around 6:45 to get to school by 7. This morning I went to the morning English classes with Adolfo, who teaches English to the 4th through 6th graders. Many of the kids in these classes (including my youngest brother) have been begging me to come to their classes instead of the 1st through 3rd grade classes with Junior. So this morning, I went spent the morning teaching simple sentence structures with “to do” and “to be”. There was a longer than usual gap between the morning and afternoon school session and so all the teachers ate lunch together in the “comedor” (small “cafeteria” like room). We spent the midday laughing about the upcoming teacher Secret Santa gift exchange. The teachers were creating their lists of what they would and would not like to receive as gifts. Their lists had everything from Victoria Secret to Pringles and I was the official “list reader” since I could probably pronounce the brands. I went back to my normal 1st through 3rd grade classes for the afternoon session and reviewed nature and animals. The kids got really competitive with a game I created to make the review more fun. Ironically, one of my 2nd grade classes did better than one of my 3rd grade classes in terms of memorizing the names of the different natural resources and animals. It was a beautifully sunny yet ridiculously hot and humid day. As hot and humid as it was, I simply enjoyed the fact that I was in the intense sunshine in the middle of November (knowing that back home it’d be about that time of the year in which I’m wearing the pea coat and a few layers underneath and still freezing. It’ll be a rough change in climate when I come home in December). I came home and began reading the book that I went all the way to San Jose to retrieve yesterday. Around 5, Maria, Jose Manuel and I headed to Puerto Viejo to run some errands. One of our errands was a failed attempt to find chocolate chips. Andres, my middle brother, wants to make chocolate chip cookies for a school project since they are a treat I’ve mentioned I know how to make. Unfortunately, chocolate chips are no where to be found here in La Virgen nor in Puerto Viejo (the barely bigger town 15 km away). We had a nice dinner together and spent the rest of the evening (literally hours!) sharing stories of bad accidents (e.g. broken bones, scars and stitches and anything and everything that entailed a good story that made the tummy a little queezy). Andres (middle brother) had the best stories to tell including four different incidences of broken bones. The night ended with the sweet words from my family telling me how much I’ve become part of the family. For my parents, Licho and Maria, I’m the daughter they never had (or rather they lost due to a stillborn baby girl). For the boys, I’m the “cool older sister” they claim “they’ve always wanted”. Although I truly love and feel loved by my family in San Jose, the way love is expressed and lived out in the “campo” (countryside of Costa Rica) is much much different and in my opinion much more profound. It was simply one of those nights I will truly never forget.