Jaco and the start of a new week...

So it's already Tuesday night, but still technically the beginning of a new week! My roommates and I went to Jaco this last weekend. It was very fun! (Pictures below). We took a long and windy busride through the mountains to get there, some of it in pitch black, on Friday night. Took longer than usual since there was an accident on the way out of San Jose. Which, if you saw these roads, you would realize how backed up traffic can get very quickly. We got there around 7:00, found our hostel, and headed off to get some dinner. 

Sidenote: For those of you that may not know what a hostel is, it is essentially a hotel with the absolute bare minimum of necesities. They usually have a bed with a sheet and pillow, shower, toilet, sink, and maybe a fan. Ours was $10/person/night and was actually very clean and well-run. There was a kitchen to make food, and a nice pool! We were also about half a block away from the beach. We will definitely be staying there at the Hotel de Haan again if we go back.

Back to Friday night--had dinner and went back to hostel to hang out and go to bed. Not too exciting, but we had all been up since 5:30. We did, however, eat at a restaurant where I was able to see some football and watch the Twin's game against Seattle! I was pretty excited.

Saturday morning, we got ourselves some breakfeast to fuel our surfing lessons. The guys who work at the hostel got us signed up and taught the class with a few other people. It was incredibely fun and certainly something I would want to do again given the opportunity! The water was so warm, and it was great to be in the ocean again! I was able to get up during the first half of the lesson, but then we stopped to rest and have a drink. The other people in our group were 7 guys down there for a long weekend for a bachelor party--rough, huh? That's a pretty amazing bach party! They were from New Orleans and were certainly there to party it up.  When I went out for the second go around, my arms were tired, and I had a drink in me--didn't go as well, but was still very fun :) I am still sore today--no wonder surfers all have amazing bodies! That is cardio and lifting all in one!

Afterwards we relaxed and watched the other surfers (the ones who actually know what they're doing) for awhile, we grabbed a bottle of wine (sans corkscrew--explained below), and went back to the hostel to hang out and get ready for the night. There were a group students from Germany and a  few from the States that are down here doing missionary/volunteer work for 6 months or a year. In Germany, apparently that is required after high school before you go to college. They all had various positions, but two of them got to work with the sea turtle rehabilitation in Toruguero on the Carribean side of Costa Rica--for a year!! How freakin' cool would that be? We played cards and hung out with them and left to go to the out as we were feeling a little old :) However, they ended up finding us out and we all had a lot of fun dancing and had a good time. They were very entertaining and certainly had us laughing all night.

Sunday I woke up without a voice (weird, right??), and not feeling great, but made it through. Hung out at the beach for a few hours while we waited for our bus, and headed back to Tres Rios!

Fast forward to today. I haven't gotten to do a ton at school yet. They are still dealing with grades and tests for the end of their 2nd trimester, but I was able to sit and talk with a group of like 7 girls in one of the 8th grade classes for awhile today. They had lots of questions for me--we practiced our 2nd languages and talked about the US, school, places to see in Costa Rica, Twilight, movies, etc. Very awesome to sit and talk with them :)

Did my second spin class tonight. It was great, and it feels good to workout. This time went much faster because I wasn't able to see a clock! Definitely something I will be doing a few times a week while I'm here.

I am exhausted, as usual, so I am heading off to bed. There are still a few of you I'm looking for on Skype, where are you?? :) I hope everyone is doing fabulous and life is good. Take care.

Getting ready for the busride to Jaco! We were lucky and got seats in the back with all kinds of leg room!

Yummy smoothy to get the day started before surfing!

I did it! My roommate Linsey has a picture of me actually up on the board...will post later!

Huge boards! Apparently they are easier for beginners, but wow were they hard to maneuver against the waves to get out to where we needed to be!

The kitchen at our hostel. We walked for 20 minutes in the downpour you can see in the background to get a wine opener for our wine--probably should of thought of that when we bought it and there were sunny skies!

Me and the roomies at The Monkey Bar.

Me and Meghan

Playing in the water and relaxing on the beach before our busride home!

And we're off!

So I FINALLY had my first day of actually meeting my students and getting to know Alexandra. The kids are fun, and seem excited to have me there--especially the 8th graders. I will be working with 7 different classes while I'm here. For the first week, it will be all about remembering names (students and staff), which is going to be one of my biggest challenges. I'm horrible with names in general and usually forget them 5 seconds after I meet someone, so this should be interesting :) An obvious skill that I need to work on as a teacher!

We are off to Jaco tomorrow afternoon! I am done with classes at 11:15 and we're jumping on a bus at 2:30. Much needed time away from Tres Rios for all of us to see the sights! And maybe have a drink or two :) We aren't really supposed to go out in Tres Rios, which is fine with me considering one drink would put me out right about now. But this weekend....

I'm starting to get a cold I think so I am currently downing my 4th bottle of agua con limon. Apparently the juice from the fruits that grow in a tree in our backyard are like a cure-all. We'll see in the morning!

I'm off to take a luke warm to cold, light-trickle shower. Love it. Have a great weekend everyone, and I will update on here about our adventures when I get back on Sunday!

Chao!

Roomies...

Top-down: Meghan, Linsey, Kelly, Me, Sarah

My roommates and our host mom, Emilia, and Natsu of course :)

No puedo dormir...

There is a Mariachi Band playing a few doors down right now. It's somebody's birthday, and they are really whoopin' it up over there! So, since I can't sleep, I thought I would write a bit. If I didn't have to get up at 5:30, I could have joined!

Did my first spin class ever tonight -- music and instructions in spanish! It was very fun, but I am going to pay for it tomorrow. It's in a little room a few blocks away and is only $2.There is a disco ball hanging from the ceiling, and they turn the lights low and we spin away under the disco lights! Very fun, and the locals were excited to have us there. It was nice to finally work out. Will probably do that a few nights a week now that we found it.

It hasn't rained since about 3:30 this afternoon, which hasn't happened since I got here! Lots of thunder though -- it set off a few car alarms earlier. Absolutely beautiful out tonight. Even on the chilly side. It's their winter, so the Central Valley is rainy and cooler, but apparently that's not the case on the coasts! Which is why we are heading there this weekend, to Jaco (hocko) on the pacific coast. It will be great to get out and see some of the country side and beaches. My teacher, Alexandra, is awesome and is totally fine with me taking Fridays off or leaving early to travel--we are planning our weekends away and they are filling up fast! Monteverde and the Cloud Forest next weekend :)

I'm tired, so I am going to turn my i-pod and try to get some sleep. I have an increasingly greater respect for the english language learners in our country. It is absolutely exhausting to try to understand and speak a language in which you aren't fluent all day every day.

5 Days in Costa Rica...

Hey everyone! (the maybe 5 people that will actually read this :o) )

So the other student teachers I am living with are doing this blog thing, so I thought I would give it a try!

To catch everyone up on what has been going on since I got here: (I promise the rest will be shorter!)

I got in on Friday night, and found myself crying a lot. For those of you that know me well, that isn't too far off of the usual when I'm stressed :) I was placed with a family that spoke absolutely no english, and although they were wonderful and amazingly kind, I was very isolated and frustrated for my first few days here. My school also called to tell me that they didn't want me to start until Thursday! Those are some long days to fill by yourself when you don't know where anything is and get stared at whereever you go on the street! People are very friendly, but I seem to scream "American" and am tall, so I get a lot of looks. At least I have dark hair! My room mates are blondies.

So...I moved to Emilia's today who is another host mom that has been doing this for almost 20 years. Three of the other teachers live here too. They are great! Meghan (from MN), Sarah (from WI), and Linsey (from WA). It's nice to have english speakers to hang out with at night after a long day of trying to speak and understand spanish. Emilia is our house mom and is awesome--very feisty and outgoing and you can't speak english in her house, which is also good to help me with my spanish. We have out own little area in an add on to the main house, where english is allowed, so that's nice. My room is the size of my closet at home, but I have wireless internet, and my own bathroom--I'm good! We have a little schnauzer dog named Natsu--she's very sweet. So I get my animal fix! LOTS of homeless dogs though, and my heart breaks whenever I see them.

I haven't started school yet, but I met my teacher Alexandra today. She is very friendly and welcoming and seems to be genuinely excited to have me there with her. School starts on Thursday because the students are testing in the mornings and then done for the day. But I got to go yesterday and hang out with Meghan and her 1st grade classes (she's at the same school). Talk about some of the cutest little creatures in the world! But starting Thursday, I'm with the big kids :) The english (obvie) and science at this school from K to 12 are taught in english, and all other classes are in spanish. I will be teaching my students in english, but oftentimes they will answer me in spanish. Should be interesting, but even in my first 4 days here, I have learned a ton. I have 8th (life science) and 10th graders (biology).

So that's my story so far. I haven't been able to get into teaching yet, which is a bummer, but I am doing MUCH better than I have been the last few days. My poor mom has been watching me cry over Skype and feels so bad cause she can't do anything!

If any of you do skpe and try to find me, my home town on their right now is Tres Rios, not B'ville. Now that I have wireless, I can be on more and hopefully catch you! I am an hour behind MN.

That's all for now. Miss your faces!!