Thursday 11/6/08

Today I didn’t have to be at the school until 8:40 because on Thursdays we don’t teach English during the 7 am block of time. I woke up around 6:30 (it’s ridiculous, I don’t even have to set an alarm because I can no longer sleep in at all) and headed out for a run. Since I headed out a little later than usual (5am) the one and only main road was busy with big trucks beginning their day. To play it safe I went to the local soccer field and ran sprints. It was an extremely hot and humid morning so I returned from my workout covered in sweat and redder than a tomato (something ticos get a kick out of). I made my way to school after some banana pancakes (seriously, Maria thinks I’m obsessed with these and won’t stop making them for me). I started with the 6th graders (a group I usually don’t work with) and we worked on the verb “to do”. It is very difficult for me to explain English since I didn’t learn it by applying rules and strict patterns and that is the way it has to be explained to a non-native speaker. After the sixth graders, I headed back to my usual classes (grades 1-3) and we spent the day working on nature vocabulary (sun, moon, star, river, lake, etc.). It’s really hard since we only have 40 minutes with each class. At times I get a little discouraged by telling myself that the kids are going to forget. I’m always encouraged though when the kids seem to be truly trying to remember. Kids are so much better at this than adults. After finishing school around 4:30 I was greeting with some pineapple bread. I spent some time before dinner working on homework. It’s tiring going to school to be a teacher all day and then becoming a student by night. After homework, other than a nice visit from some extended family we did the usual dinner while watching the news and headed to bed around 9.

Wednesday 11/5/08

This morning I went on my first run in La Virgen. It was a little difficult because the only decently paved road is the main road that runs through town and is a main route for truckers, making it difficult to run (since I have to get off the paved road every minute or so). After my run and a quick shower, I ate a huge breakfast of gallo pinto, eggs, a pancake and some fruit (I’m still not quite sure how I’m going to get my point across to feed me a little less). On Mondays and Wednesdays the English teachers have to go to a class/training and so we’re still trying to figure out what I’m going to be doing on Mondays and Wednesdays. Today worked out perfect because a 6th grade class was going on a field trip and invited me to go along and get to see another part of the Sarapiqui region. We went to Tirimbina (which is a touristy rainforest conservation). It was awesome because I got to see a touristy type place from a much different perspective. Words cannot explain the rainforest. It’s absolutely beautiful. We spent the first half of the morning learning all about photosynthesis and plants before making our way out to explore the rainforest. In order to get into the rainforest you have to cross a huge and ridiculously long suspension bridge. Suspension bridges are held by cables and a rather rockety. The first suspension bridge we crossed was about 200 feet over a river. When you look down you can see the river below your feet as you are rocking back and forth (especially with a wild group of sixth graders). After the long long bridge we journeyed through the rainforest, saw toucans, bats, and millions of unique plants and trees. We finally headed back to the main center for a nice lunch (again, this was all free since we were locals! Things are so much better when you’re not a tourist!). After lunch the kids finished up their worksheets, played futbol and we jumped on the bus to make our 5 minute drive back (it’s amazing how close I am to such beautiful creation!) When I came home, I worked on some homework. Around 4, Maria informed me that a former teacher of the school had died in a motorcycle accident and invited me to come to Puerto Viejo (another part of this region) with her and some of her work friends. Before we left she made me banana pancakes (for some reason she thinks these are like my comfort food that make me think of home or something because she’s made them so many times for me) After pancakes Maria, the other lunch ladies and I headed off to Puerto Viejo for the evening. They said my presence made them feel young and free again. We went to the house and the women spent time at the open casket. This is the second time I’ve had to go to an open casket visitation (as I did this with the other Maria in Nicaragua). Maria suggested she and I go down to the river to chat while the other ladies spent time with the family and friends. Maria and I had a nice time chatting on the dock at the river and we met a nice chatterbox of a man who told us all about the beauties of this region. He thought that I was Maria’s real daughter (I love when people mistake me for a Tican). We headed back to the man’s home, picked up the other ladies and headed back to La Virgen.
We did what we seem to do every night which is eat and watch the news. After dinner we watched CSI Miami (first time we watched something other than the news) which is Maria’s favorite show. After Maria’s “date with Horatio” (that’s what she calls CSI: Miami. Horatio being the main character she likes) we headed to bed around 9. Something I love about not having ceilings in each individual room is that we can continue to talk even after we’ve climbed in bed. So last night, even though we were already in bed, we talked about the plan for tomorrow and said our goodnights once again without moving an inch.

Tuesday 11/4/08

Today was yet again a truly amazing day. Words cannot describe the things I learn, think, feel and do each and every day, but hopefully some of my scrambled thoughts make sense a midst the rambling of this blog. I woke up around 5:20, not to an alarm clock, but rather to everyone in the family getting ready for the day. Even though the rooms are divided, each room does not have a ceiling therefore you can be heard anywhere in the house. Therefore, I fall asleep and wake up to noise. I ate an amazing breakfast of gallo pinto, an egg, toast and fruit (I’m still trying kindly ask Maria not to feed me so much, but this seems to be the hardest point to get across to Latina women). Maria and I headed to the school around 6:40 for my first day on the job. I met Junior, the English teacher for grades 1-3 who I’ll be assisting. His English is mediocre and I’m a little concerned that he thinks my time here may be a time for him to slack off (as he simply let me do the teaching and answered his cell phone during class). This means that I was basically thrown into the mix right away, with no plan, lesson, anything! I was teaching within minutes of my arrival. There are lots of differences between schooling the States vs. schooling in Latin America (a conversation I would love to have on a later day, as everyday this blog seems to be increasing in length). Junior and I jump from classroom to classroom and teach in 40 minute intervals to all the 1-3 grade classes. There are tons of 1-3 grade classes due to the fact that this is the only school in La Virgen and school is split up where half the children come in the morning and half in the afternoon. Throughout the entire work day (7-5) we teach in 9 different classrooms, with a short break for lunch (which is awesome because I get to go see Maria and eat the same food she prepares for the kids). I spent most of my day frantically quickly creating engaging activities at the drop of a hat to keep the kids interested and excited about what we were learning. I definitely learned how essential it is to be an organized and plan-ahead teacher (which seems to be something Junior lacks). If I had more time I would love to invest hours in lesson plans and be just like my daddy back home (who, in my opinion is the best grade school teacher I know!). Although this would be my ideal (making lesson plans, finding creative learning tools, etc) I know that my short time here is not meant to be one where I “correct” the system that is already in place, but rather incorporate myself into the system and understand how I can be of assistance. I also learned a lot about what a privileged learning is when you have tools, educated teachers, a library, etc (something that seems to be lacking in the school I am working in). After what seemed like eternity (yes, I learned in one day how hard and exhausting teaching is and am eternally grateful for the people who invest their lives in such profession), I finally headed home around 4:30 and was greeted with a plate of banana pancakes (delicious, but I obviously haven’t got my point across about feeding me less. This may be difficult considering cooking is Maria’s profession). After delicious banana pancakes I worked on some homework for the rest of the late afternoon. After homework, we watched the news (the only form of TV we watch all the time). We ate dinner, continued watching the news, and ate some ice cream with granola before calling it a night at a whopping 7:45.

Monday 11/3/08

What a day, what a day! Generally a day with new beginnings is a day full of crazy stories and today was one of those days (so a pre-apology for today’s novel). I woke up at 4:51 (random fact: I never set my alarm for a normal time, e.g. 4:45 or 4:50, always an odd number you wouldn’t think to set an alarm to). I ate a quick bowl of Corn Flakes, said goodbye to Mami and headed to the bus terminal via taxi. Immediately upon arriving at the station I realized that I had left one of my most important items at home. I left the three envelopes LASP had given me for my trip. One that included the money I needed to give my new host family, the second with money for any emergency purposes and a third that had my evaluation sheets I was to give the director of the school. I called Mami and Papi (feeling terrible knowing that I was walking them up) in a panic and Papi kindly raced to the station as fast as he could and brought me the envelopes. Luckily, due to Papi’s crazy driving, he made it in plenty of time before my bus’ 6:30 departure. Calling Mami and Papi in a panic made me really feel like a daughter and made me realize what a relationship we have build over these last few months. The bus drive was amazing yet at the same time felt like my death bed. The windy and insanely narrow road that is not adequate for a bus our size was full on the amazing sights (huge waterfalls, big beautiful green hills, cattle, cute small towns, etc), but also extremely dangerous. At one point we thought we were going to have to turn around due to a terrible mudslide. We had to wait forever for things to get cleared up, but luckily didn’t around and head back to San Jose as everyone in the bus was encouraging the bus drive to do. Due to the unexpected waiting I arrived in La Virgen later than expected but was soon greeted and led to the director’s office. I met the director, Maria Elena, who will be my advisor for my internship. She then introduced me to Maria, who will be my host mom for this part of my trip. Maria works at the school as the cook. Every kid in at the school gets a free lunch. Maria gave me some fruits to munch on as she served the kids lunch. I’ve decided I really don’t like papaya and it is a very hard fruit to “smile down”. I headed back to the director’s office and we discussed what I’d be doing for the next few weeks. I’m going to be working with Junior, one of the two English teachers. I’m going to be working with grades 1-3. He was at a conference for the day, so I won’t start working until tomorrow. I went to an assembly and was introduced and expected to give a short introduction in front of the whole school. After the assembly I headed back to the cafeteria with Maria and she served me a nice lunch of arroz con pollo and a salad and papaya juice (once again, difficult to “smile down”). At lunch I met Jose Manuel, the youngest of my three new brothers. I headed home with Maria at 1 (when she gets off) since my co-teacher wasn’t there for the day. Never in my life have I felt more comfortable in someone’s home. She showed me to my room and I spent the afternoon with my oldest brother Miguel (17), his cousin Elisa and her 3 month old daughter Luna. I got to hold Luna all afternoon and Maria and Miguel seriously made me feel at home within a matter of minutes. Even though it had only been a few hours I was beginning to feel like I was going to like the way of life here a little better than the way of life in San Jose. As Ticans would say it is much more “tranquilo” (literal translation: tranquil) I took a quick power nap since I was exhausted from the stresses of a day full of change and the unknown and started on my homework (yes, even though I’m here doing an internship, I still have homework, readings and three papers to write). After homework, I met my host father who everyone calls Licho and my middle brother Andres (14) and we had our first dinner together. Other than mystery chewy meat, the meal was great. I was especially happy with how well the boys have taken me in as part of the family. When I originally found out that I would be living with three teenage boys I was a little worried how the situation would work out (since it’s taken me months to develop a relationship with David, my brother in San Jose). Here in the campo (country) life is much different, especially how people open up. The entire family wouldn’t stop encouraging me to do whatever I want around the house and simply live as if this was my own house. Maria was so cute. She put all 3 forms of silverware by my plate because she wasn’t sure what silverware I used for specific foods. After dinner we spent the evening getting to know one another while watching the news. I can already tell these are truly going to be a great 3.5 weeks, as my family is so nice and live a life much different than what I’ve become accustomed to in San Jose. After a good few hours of conversation about anything and everything with all 5 members of my new family it was off to bed. If you’ve made it through this novel, I’m seriously impressed. I promise I’ll keep it shorter in the days to come.

Sunday 11/2/08

This morning I woke up and began packing for my upcoming adventure. Tomorrow morning I am jumping on a bus and making my way northeast to the small rural town of La Virgen to Sarapiqui to help teach English for the next 3.5 weeks. I’ll technically still be in school myself as I have plenty of assigned reading and 3 papers to write during my internship. After packing and organizing my room we had a nice family breakfast of gallo pinto, eggs, sausage and bread (much more than our usual breakfast of Corn Flakes or eggs and bread). We decided that since I’ll be gone for Pamela’s birthday that we’d have a girl’s day and take her shopping for her birthday. While Mami and Papi did some errands, Pamela and I got ready for shopping. Papi was our chauffer and dropped us off downtown. We shopped ‘til we dropped. We stopped for lunch at Taco Bell (unfortunately my family loves Taco Bell and frankly it makes me want to vomit) and continued to shop all afternoon. I had my family cracking up as I would overexagerrate the proper way to cross a busy San Jose street. We finally made our way home and everyone took an afternoon siesta except me. I spent my afternoon getting ready for my trip tomorrow and making a phone call to a certain novio of mine to wish him a “Feliz Cumpleaños” since I’ll be gone on the 11th. We had a wonderful last family dinner together full of laughter…and more laughter. It was sad knowing that I would be leaving them for 3.5 weeks, but also a great time to reflect back on the last 2+ months we’ve had together. After dinner we all got a chance to drive the moped up and down the street. I had never driven one before, but Papi was very nice and let me give it a try. I said my goodbyes and goodnights and had a hard time falling asleep as my mind was filled with excitement of what was to come and sadness of what I was leaving behind.

Saturday 11/1/08

Wow. I never thought November would come this fast. This morning I woke up and headed on a run. I met up with Mami and Papi at the feria (farmer’s market) after my run and we bought a bunch of fruits and vegetables I’m sure you’ve never even heard of. Afterwards we headed to Moravia to buy all the necessary ingredients for Mami to make chocolate. She sells it to all the local pulperias and she’s also making a bunch of an upcoming chocolate feria. We were back to the house by 8:30 and a family breakfast of bread, eggs and coffee (which I thankfully do not have to drink like I did in Nicaragua). The first half of our day was pretty chill. I was extremely cold for some reason so I laid in bed covered in layers of clothes and blankets and watched part of Twister. I hate wasting Saturday mornings like this, but for some reason I wasn’t feeling that great (but don’t worry, I’m not sick) After lunch Pamela and I started to get ready to hit the town. That’s right. Some friends and I who have younger female siblings planned a day to go take our sisters to go see High School Musical 3. We left the house around 1:15. I could tell Pamela was so excited because she got all dressed up and couldn’t wait to get there. We met up at the National Theater. Pamela ended being the only sibling to show up so Pamela had the love and attention of a bunch of gringas. We headed to the movie theater. Unfortunately the soonest showing only has 4 seats left and there were 5 of us, so we had to wait an extra unplanned hour. Luckily my friend, Kayla, had some cards and we played cards in the food court and ate all our snacks that were supposed to be for the movie. We headed back to the theater and had to stand in line forever. Pamela was getting a little tired of waiting around, but was an overall good sport. We finally got into the theater around 4:45 and waited for the movie to start. Pamela was smiling the entire movie and I could tell she was very happy with her “movie date” with the gringas. We all made our way back to San Jose via bus, called Mami to let her know we were safe and then took our bus home to Tibas. Pamela was whipped and fell asleep on the way home. It was a Kodak moment to record the day. We came home and waited for Mami and Papi to arrive home for dinner. We had sandwiches and somewhat of a quiet dinner since we were all extremely tired. I did the dishes (I have dish duty on Fridays and Saturdays) and fell asleep to SNL.

Friday 10/31/08

Happy Halloween. Halloween here is different. Some people have adapted the Halloween customs of dressing up, but there’s no trick-or-treating. On my way to school I decided to stop by the store and buy candy for my classmates, as missing holidays is something we all admit that we miss about the States. My candy was the highlight of the day (as our guest speaker was a little dry). After class I headed into San Jose with some friends and wondered through the Mercado (a little market full of crafts and other “Saturday market-like” trinkets). Around 3:30 we met up with some other friends to head to dinner and a movie (only in reverse order). We indulged and went to the VIP Theater (where I’ve mentioned before. The theater with reclining lazy boy chairs. The movie was so-so. Around 7 we made our way to what we called our “dinner date”. You know you’re college students when this means you simply walk from the theater to the food court of the mall and call it a date. We eventually hopped on the bus and made our way back to San Jose to catch our respective buses to our various suburbs. I came home and sat with the family as they finished up dinner and made a few Skype calls before bed.