ah, so much going on!

So much to tell everyone about! Where to begin, where to begin???

First off, the other volunteers and I went rafting last weekend and it was amazing! We got a super good deal because we were volunteers (and awesome, really) and had a blast. The river we went on was a mix of class III and IV rapids. The first day we rafted for about two hours and then came to our camp site. We had lunch and then went on a hike to a waterfall. After getting to the waterfall, a few of us decided to hike up and around the waterfall. The guide said it was dangerous because it was so slippery so only a few of us went - and it was worth it! We hiked through a couple of other waterfalls and saw the most amazing wildlife ever! After our hike, we went back to the camp site for dinner and free drinks (told you it was a good deal). The next morning, we played cards all morning and then another couple of hours on the river. It was my first time ever rafting and I have to say, it is something I wouldn't mind doing again!

Today I also had my first "surf lesson". Basically I went to the beach with a couple of girls from TEFL that I had met over a month ago. We were laying next to the surf school and I decided to go into the ocean. I had been in the ocean for about 5 minutes when one of the surf instructors comes out with a board and tells me to get on it. I "surfed" for a little while after that with a little (ok, a lot) of help from the instructor (found out later his name was Justin). I only was able to stand up on the board a couple of times and definitely got thrown around by the waves more than once, but it was awesome! Best thing is, I didn't have to pay him and he told me to come back tomorrow for more! I'll be sure to keep you updated on my progress, although I have a feeling it might be slow.

After my surf lesson, there was a cafesito (basically in Costa Rica, people drink coffee and eat a lot of pastries for about an hour every afternoon) at my school. I went and witnessed a four year old giving one of my fourth graders the finger. Ah, gotta love it! haha.

That's it for now. I guess I didn't have a TON to tell you all! I'll keep you updated!!!

Sunday, Sunday

So, this past Sunday was the first time I went to church since I was in Orosi (my first month here...yikes!). I woke up super early on Sunday morning and decided to go for a run. While running, I had a sudden urge to go to mass. This is weird, I know. Although I would go every Sunday while living in the States, I think it was sometimes more out of habit than anything else. After looking at my watch, I realized I would have time to finish my run, take a quick shower and catch the 8:30 bus into Quepos in time to make the 9:00 mass.

When I arrived at the church, it was a lot bigger than I had expected. The pews didn't all match, which I loved. It gave the church a very "humble" feel. There were also a bunch of white plastic chairs on the sides of the church. These chairs were needed too! By the time mass started, every seat was taken. Mass was packed! It was definitely nice to see such a full church, especially after many months of attending a not even half full mass at SSJ.

I knew that I had made the right decision to come to mass after hearing the first song. It was very simple, and accompanied with clapping (as most of the songs were that morning). The words went as so:

la misa is una fiesta muy algre
la misa is una fiesta con Jesus

Translation: the mass is a very happy celebration/the mass is a celebration with Jesus

I just loved the simplicity of the song and the fact that it was sung by three women who really did not have the greatest voices in the world. The clapping made it perfect. As I was riding the bus back into Manuel Antonio after mass, I was thinking that this song would make a nice little prayer is you replaced the words "la misa" with "mi vida".

My life.

Fire on the Field!!!

I don't know if my mom and dad have shared this story with very many of you, but it is a funny one so I thought I would post it on the blog.

While my parents were here, we had another assembly at school. The first part of it was similar to our last assembly with kids from different grades giving little speeches and the English department singing songs that no one knows the meanings to. Towards the end of the assembly, some of my 6th graders put on a skit. They had dressed up in jeans and t-shirts and brought plastic toy guns to school. They re-enacted a battle of some sort. The entire re-enactment took place around a big fort-like thing they had made that morning with the help of the 6th grade teacher. The fort was made out of cardboard boxes and black plastic trash bags. Towards the end of their "battle", after almost all of the people had been killed (although Tico children have a hard time laying still so many of the "dead" people did a lot of moving around), the few remaining warriors doused the fort with gasoline. Then, they lit the end of a mop on fire and stuck it in the middle of the gasoline drenched fort. It went up in flames, everyone cheered, walked away and left the fort to burn to the ground.

There is a large, black, charred piece of land marking the area of such a heroic battle in the middle of our playground today.

My Scorpion Experience

So, I have quite the story for everyone. During Semana Santa my host family went to San Jose, so I had the house to myself. I was sitting at the kitchen table one night writing in my journal and happened to look up towards the ceiling (deep in thought I am sure) and saw two of the hugest scorpions I have ever seen in my entire life! They were sitting right where the ceiling and the wall meet. I did not know what to do (and didn't want them crawling through my bedroom window which is right below where they were) so I went across the street to my host aunt and uncles house and told them about it. They came over to see them and told me exactly how dangerous they were. Great. Then my host uncle and some other guy (I am still not sure if he is related or not) went back to their houses to fetch these long poles with small pitchfork things attached to the end. They, evidently, were going to try and spear the scorpions. After standing on the kitchen table and stools and an "uno, dos, tres" countoff, they lunged towards the scorpions with their pitckforks. And missed. The scorpions scurried back into our roof (we have hollow beams that run through our roof) dissappearing out of sight. Fantastic. There are two monster scorpions running around the house and I am home alone. Luckily, my host uncle sprayed the crap out of the roof with a very toxic bug spray (I ended up having to leave the house because it smelled horrible) and closed my bedroom windows. I have not seen them since, but I walk around with shoes on all the time now just in case they are waiting on the floor and constantly look up towards their "home". I have not doubt that they will return. I think I need to make a pitchfork...

¨Spring Break¨

I have been hearing lots of wonderful stories about everyone´s Spring Breaks and I am jealous! I have been on what is kind of like a Fall Break for us this past week but have been taking a class the entire week so it has not been all that relaxing or fun. A few of the other volunteers came down for the course, though, which has been nice. It has been great getting to talk with them and hear of their experiences in the classroom. It has also been difficult hearing of their experiences because they are so different from what I am experiencing due to the difference in site placements. The other sites are much smaller and do not have near the amount of discipline problems as the bilingual sites. One of the other volunteers that came for the class this week is from the other bilingual site. It has been nice to talk to her; I felt like she and I could really relate with one another.

The parentals are coming on Sunday and I am super excited! It will be nice to have them here and be able to show them around my ¨home¨. It will also be interesting to hear their opinions of Manuel Antonio and the school. I feel like my opinions are a little bit biased - it will be cool to be able to hear the opinion of an outsider/tourist.

Looking at my calendar, life is going to be busy until about July. Michelle and I get to go visit the other bilingual site in La Fortuna and the two volunteers at that site will come visit us. We also may have a possible rafting trip coming up and then mid-service at the end of May. My sister and Pat may be visiting in the beginning of June and then I have two weeks off in July. After July, things slow waaaay down and I have a feeling this is when I will start to get really bored. Until then, I am enjoying not having to teach this week and plan on hitting the beach all day tomorrow and then again on Sunday with my parents.

I hope everyone is doing well back in the states! Send me your updates - I love hearing from you!!!!

paz.

Hola mi amigos

First off, I am going to answer a few questions you guys have been asking:

Ellen - No, we do not have any earthquake drills. You would think we would seeing that they happen quite frequently here in Costa Rica, but no one seems to worry about them until they come. It's somewhat the attitude and lifestyle here. There is not a ton of thinking ahead. You get used to it for the most part...

Dan - I am jealous that you are continuing to lose weight! I think that I am finding all the weight that you are losing! haha. I am glad to have introduced you to halfzies and take at least partial credit for the healthier, thinner Dan!!!

Who won the ASU UofA game? Do I want to know?

This past week has been fairly normal. I didn't have classes on Tuesday because we had a meeting in Quepos with the other English teachers in the surrounding areas. It was a pretty interesting meeting, from what I could gather (it was all in Spanish). We made a SWOT chart (FODA in Spanish) which brought me back to my days in Hubbard meetings. I also found the granola bars that I really like considerably cheaper at the Pali in Quepos which was exciting.

Last Friday, the school had an assembly of sorts. My second graders and I sang a song in English which was pretty cute. We have been studying sea animals and had been practicing a song with hand motions and everything. They did a really good job, but as we were singing, I had to laugh because I knew that no one else (parents, aunts, uncles, etc) really knew what we were saying.

Next Monday we are having a field day at school. As all other "school events", it is sure to be an adventure! I will have to let you know how it goes next week!

Next week is also the start of "test week". The students are stressing out big time about their tests. They don't seem to take school seriously until test week comes along (not much different then students in the States I suppose) and then they freak! I am hoping my students do well just because it is what I want for them, but I am not stressing like I would be in the states. Nothing happens to me if my kids don't pass - much different! If the kids don't pass the test, then they have a hard time passing the class. If they don't pass the class, they do the grade over again the next year.

Well, I need to go a type up some rubrics - yuck - to get ready for next week. Hope everyone is doing well and I miss you all! Please continue to keep me updated on the happenings in your life! Paz.

I have an address!!!

FYI - I wrote this blog post about a weel ago but have not been able to post it because the internet went down in the middle of writing! It took a few days for the internet to start working again, so...

Hello to you all! Well, today officially marks the end of my fourth week of teaching here in Costa Rica. It feels weird to already be done with a month of teaching. I have learned a lot about the culture and about myself in those past four weeks. There have definitely been a few times when I thought there was no way I was going to make it through my 80 minute class and there were also a few times when I thought my class could go forever (although these times happened significantly less often). Either way, I am glad that I now have a month of experience and am looking forward to the future.



As you all know, I asked for help in my previous post. I need "cool" school items for my disciplinary plan in my sixth grade class. At the time, I was unsure as to whether I could receive mail at my house or not. I received a package from my mom on Wednesday (about two weeks after she sent it). So, here is the information you will need when sending me things:



Address: Rocio Porras Selva

c/o Lizzie Manos, maestra de ingles

100 metros norte del super papi

25 metros oeste de las cabinas Guarias

Manuel Antonio, Quepos

Costa Rica

- you will need to send things in a manila envelope - if you send a box, I won't get it!

- On the front of the envelope you need to write "materiales de escuelas" - this helps in that the post office is less likely to open the package and go through it.

- It will probably cost you around $25 to send the package. I know this is a lot especially since you already bought school supplies. If you do not want to pay the shipping fee, my mom and dad are coming to visit the week after Easter. If you could get the supplies to her (or to Jen Pitera and she can give them to her) within the next couple of weeks, she will bring them down to me when she visits.

- If you do send a package, please include your e-mail address because I would like to let you know when I receive it!



Thank you again for all of your help!



On another note, these past couple days we have had a lot of earthquakes. Most of the time they only last for a couple of seconds. The other day we had quite a few of them. The first was while we were school and then there was a series of them while I was laying on the beach. It was definitely an odd sensation to be laying on the sand and feel the earth shift beneath me. Although they are nothing like the earthquake I was greeted with upon my arrival here in Costa Rica, they are still kind of shocking when they happen.



I know a couple of you guys have mentioned wanting to see pictures. I have taken quite a few pictures but failed to remember to pack my cord that connects my camera to the computer so I can not upload any pictures! I am so sorry! I will have my mom and dad bring my cord down to me when they come. You will have to wait until the week after Easter for pictures! Sorry!