Saturday, May 3, 2014

I woke up this morning and did my last minute packing such as my toothbrush and whatnot to ensure that I was ready to go.  Naturally, I was ready to go much earlier than anyone else so I sat on the front porch trying not to seem too anxious to leave.  At 9:00 our taxi arrived and we said our good-byes to our host moms and Zoe and hit the road to the airport.  We were able to pay our departure tax and get through security with no trouble at all and waited for a couple of hours near our gate to get on the plane.  We finally got on the plane at about 11:45 and left San Jose right on time before making our way back north to the United States.  The flight felt longer than going down there based off my anticipation of finally seeing my parents again, but was otherwise uneventful.  We actually got to Houston a little bit early and had to wait for our gate to be ready for us.  Katie and I only had a 90 minute layover to catch our flight to Tulsa, so we booked it.  First we went through the automated scanner to get our passports scanned, then the line to get our luggage and give them the piece of paper that the scanner shot out, then we had to get our luggage sent through the machine as it went to its new gate, then we had to go through the deceptively long line to go through security again, and then we had to take the train to the complete other side of the airport.  It took 85 of those 90 minutes that we had to accomplish this feat.  As we got on the plane to Tulsa, we almost had a reverse culture shock as we came across some very obvious Oklahomans coming home from a trip to Cancun on the plane. We flew into Tulsa right as the sun was setting (which is weird when it sets at 8:15 now…) and got off the plane.  As I exited the doors, I saw my parents and gave them a hug.  It was good to be home again!  They even brought my Jeep with them and let me drive home, something that I had missed and amazingly still remembered how to do.  Overall, I had a fantastic experience in Costa Rica and would do it again in a heartbeat.  Now it’s time to go graduate.  Pura Vida.  

Friday, May 2, 2014

Today the four of us Zoe, Katie, McCall, and I took a day trip to Volcan Poas.  We started off my riding the bus to a nearby hotel so that they could pick us up from a familiar landmark.  Then we went and picked up another lady from a hotel in Escazu before getting to a designated spot where we switched busses again to catch the one going to Poas.  We were in a tour with 10 people and made our way through Alejuela and towards Poas, stopping at several spots up the hill to take pictures of the view and several different coffee farms along the way.  Once we got to the top, we walked up as a group to check out the crater.  Naturally it was so cloudy that we could not see it.  We were literally up in the clouds at that point.  All we could see more than 10 yards in front of us was white.  So we hiked towards the lagoon to see if we would have better luck there and try the crater afterwards.  We made it to the lagoon and it was likewise pretty cloudy.  However, we were a little tired from the uphill hike so we chilled for a little bit.  As we were chillin’ the clouds moved on a bit and we were able to see the lagoon.  I had already seen it on a clear day before, but this was pretty darn cool with the clouds just coming off of the lake.  After some pictures and the clouds rolling back over, we hiked back towards the crater to see if our luck would change.  As we were standing at the cloudy crater once again, we were chatting with this couple from Israel who had just gotten here and were asking for suggestions (the guy was actually a big NBA fan and was like “oh, the Thunder are pretty good”).  And then it happened.  The clouds rolled on and we could finally see the crater.  It was pretty majestic and a work of beauty.  And I have pictures to prove it.  Afterwards, we walked back to the Visitor’s Center to catch the bus back down the hill.  On the way down, we stopped at a neat little strawberry place to sample a little thing of their strawberry wine and check out the souvenir shop.  Afterwards we stopped at this delicious place for lunch.  It was a $12 meal that included a Casado with a fresa fresca and cake for desert.  Our guide said that they use coffee wood for their fires to give it a better flavor.  She was right, because that was one of the best pieces of grilled chicken I’ve ever had.  There was even a hummingbird farm across the street which had a giant strawberry that I of course had to take a picture in front of.  Full and ready for a nap, we drove back towards Santa Ana, got dropped off at the Quality Inn and then caught a bus back to Santa Ana Central, our last bus ride of the trip.  During the afternoon, I spent time uploading the Poas pictures and packing up my stuff.  Just one more sleep in the Pura Vida land.       

Thursday, May 1, 2014

I woke up this morning and I was a free man.  Now I am just killing time before my flight back home.  I twiddled around and uploaded pictures from the previous night when I first woke up, getting a chance to see how cool they turned out.  While I was here over Semana Santa, they did not really do lunch at the house.  So at about noon I thought, hey I’m hungry for a hamburger, I’ll walk to Wendy’s because it’s a beautiful day for a walk.  So I walked to Wendy’s and then caught a bus back.  Naturally, when I got back Liliana was like “where’d you go, I made lunch and then you we’re there.”  Oops.  My bad.  But I did catch the girls while walking back from the bus stop.  They were about to go to the Multiplaza to catch a movie, so I went with them.  Unfortunately, the movie they wanted to see, Divergent, didn’t play until three hours later, so we settled on seeing Captain America (for the second time for me).  After dinner, I Skyped home to watch the Thunder game as they put the computer in front of the TV for me.  The Thunder finally looked like the Thunder, which was refreshing.  Then it was time to retire for the night.  

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

The last day of student teaching had finally arrived.  I got up with a skip in my step.  My kids are super sweet and they threw me a party for my last day.  They brought a lot of cake, chips, and white tea; it was the works.  One of the classes actually went around the room and said something nice to me, saying that they wish me luck or that they hoped that I would come back.  It was really nice of them.  I also got a picture with the different classes.  I really am going to miss these guys because they were a blast to work with, but I’ll have to find my own set of kiddos somewhere else.  School actually got out early for Parent Teacher Conferences, but nobody actually showed up to ours.  However, one of my kids’ mom works in the office and she stopped by and said some very nice things to me.  Pan-American School was an awesome place to student teach.  For the evening, Neena got me a ticket to a soccer game as a good-bye gift.  This was excellent because this was one of the few things that I really wanted to do in Costa Rica before leaving.  We went with the middle-school coordinator Frances and her tico boyfriend Alejandro.  We drove to Alejuela and picked up our tickets from the gates before eating dinner at La Liga Bar.  I also bought a knockoff Liga (the team in Alejuela) jersey from a street vendor (for a knockoff, it’s actually pretty nice).  After dinner, we made our way to the stadium.  Apparently, you can’t have coins on you because people will throw them onto the field, so we had to hide our coins.  I just put them in my wallet and was good for the pat-down, but that was an interesting phenomena.  Upon entering, there were some very pretty promotional Tica girls.  Neena’s a good Cooperating Teacher, because she was like, “you’re getting your picture with them.”  I didn’t put up much of a fight.  Afterwards, we found our seats and they were pretty darn good if I do say so myself, close to mid-field.  The game itself was a semi-final between Liga and Heredia.  The winner would play in the final, so the stadium was pretty excited.  The players were playing all-out, with two red-cards for a fight and a bunch of yellows.  Also, the chants were pretty entertaining.  One was “Que equipo es mas mayor?!?!  Liga, Liga, Si Senor!”  Another involved the fans yelling at the refs telling them some mean things about their mothers’ profession.  And the last one involved the fans yelling at player who were “injured” and told them in sing-song fashion that they needed to get some “huevos.”  The game was tied until Heredia took the lead with about 30 minutes left or so, causing the tension in the stadium to rise.  Liga finally broke through in about the 85^th minute with a goal to tie it.  The stadium erupted and there was an incredible amount of excitement.  A couple of minutes later, Liga scored the go ahead goal, making the stadium go even more loco.  Then Liga got a breakaway goal in the last minute to seal it for good.  That was about as cool as it gets, rivaling when OSU beat Kansas in basketball a couple of years ago at home.  On the way home we stopped at the Beach House and had a nice time before I got dropped off late into the evening.  The soccer game was an absolute blast!             

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Today was my last lesson to teach by myself as a student teacher, which was exciting and a half.  The lesson was on yellow journalism, so I had the students act as yellow journalists, writing a report about their favorite celebrity, adding exaggerations to the truth.  It turned into a really interesting assignment as the kids came up with some pretty crazy stories.  During the rest of the day, I spent my time filling out reflective papers about my experience for OSU.  After school, it was day two of the rainy season.  It was actually raining buckets when we first got out, so we waited for 10 or 15 minutes for the rain to let up a little bit.  When we got home I spent time tagging McCall in many Facebook photos that I thought were appropriate for the PowerPoint Presentation that we will give next week.  During the evening I found the Thunder game on television and watched it.  It was funny because I got the game, but my brother did not get the game in Fayetteville.  Anyway, I am too emotionally invested in the Thunder and a fourth straight overtime game was not what I needed.  I don’t really want to talk about the result because it was worse than being blown out by 20 points.  Oh well. 

Monday, April 28, 2014

To conclude their lesson on the Mexican Revolution, the students participated in a celebrity death-match Mexican Revolution style.  Each group represented a different character and then they essentially debated who would survive between the two people (the Mexican Revolution was full of double crossers and backstabbers, so it was interesting).  The kids even made fake bets on who would win.  It was an interesting lesson to say the least, capturing the students’ favorite passion, arguing with each other.  At about 1:00 in the afternoon the rainy season officially started here with a bolt of lightning and clap of thunder right next to the classroom.  You could barely hear what people were saying because of the tin roofs of the school; it was an interesting experience to say the least.  The really interesting part was walking from the school to the bus-stop.  I was glad that I had my umbrella because I managed to keep my computer dry, which is all that matters.  The rain let up right as we got home, because that’s how life works.  So I went for a run in the rain cooled air.  It was super refreshing and the after-drizzle was the way to do a run.  That evening, I walked over to Mas por Menos to pick up gift-bags for my gifts to give to the people that made this experience what it was.  Afterwards, I Skyped my parents before finding the Avalanche hockey game on television.  The things I find on television here are always unpredictable.  I probably should have went to bed early, but hey, it’s my last week.  Pura vida.    

Sunday, April 27, 2014

We woke up and promptly hit the beach.  We were there pretty early and the tide was out, so we got a pretty good spot near a stereo that was blasting Shakira.  After chilling at the beach for a bit, we went back to the hostel and jumped in the pool and I took a shower before we checked out of the hostel.  Afterwards, we took a bus up the hill and ate at El Wagon.  I had a delicious Pineapple Pizza.  We even saw a baby sloth there hanging out in a tree next to the restaurant.  After a bit, we walked back down the hill to catch the bus home.  We made it back to San Jose and then back to Santa Ana.  When we got home, Liliana sat and chatted with us for a bit before we were both ready to crash.  It was a fun last weekend trip to the beach.  

Saturday, April 26, 2014

We woke up and actually paid for our hostel.  They’re not always very picky about when you pay for hostels here.  Afterwards, we ate some breakfast at a little joint next to the hostel that gave us a discount if we were wearing the bracelet from our hostel.  I had some delicious French toast.  While we were eating, there was this Toyota Yaris parked underneath a mango tree that had three pieces of fruit drop on it while we were sitting there.  I guess they do say more people are killed by fruit falling on their head than are eaten by sharks.  Afterwards, we entered the national park to check out some monkeys.  And check out some monkeys we did.  We saw a ton of them, including some that had little baby monkeys on their backs.  ‘Twas pretty cool.  We also hiked parts of the park that I had not hiked before, finding some really cool lookouts towards the ocean from higher up.  After tiring ourselves out, we went back to the hostel to get into our beachwear before going to relax on the beach.  Unfortunately, right as I was drifting into a nap, the tide came in all the way to where I was sitting.  That was a rude awakening from the ocean and made my towel all dirty.  Not long after, we got hungry and went to this place near the beach to find some lunch.  I enjoyed a quesadilla, which hit the spot.  We furthermore enjoyed a relaxing afternoon at the beach, catching a nap or two.  We went back to the hostel afterwhile to jump in the pool and get all of the sand off of us before getting dressed to enjoy a little bit of happy-hour.  We finished the day off with dinner before watching Ironman at the hostel.  I had not seen that movie and really enjoyed it.  A spent the rest of the evening stressing out about the Thunder as they went into overtime yet again.  Heavens to Betsy.  But they won, so I slept peacefully; pretty much.      

Friday, April 25, 2014

After teaching a lesson on the Gilded Age by showing a video a discussing it (because it is better for all parties involved if we just get through the Gilded Age), I spent most of the day enjoying life and helping out the 9th Graders in their continued quest to learn about the Mexican Revolution.  After sitting in on the teachers’ meeting which featured a couple of police officers coming and talking to us about drugs, I caught a ride back to Santa Ana to pack up and go catch the bus to Manuel Antonio.  After taking the bus to San Jose, we walked to the Tracopa bus station.  Zoe was busy dropping off loafs of bread that she did not want to random homeless people along the way.  We walked through an area that I had not seen before which was actually a lot nicer than what I had previously seen of San Jose.  We even passed by the Teatro Nacional which is their national theater, which was a really cool looking building.  At the bus station, we had to wait for quite a while because the bus was running almost an hour behind, but that was ok.  That just meant that it was major snoozeville when we did finally get on the bus.  Zoe and I found our hostel at the bottom of the hill in Manuel Antonio and got all checked in.  The hostel was pretty cheap, in a great location, had a pool, and played movies on a projector, but the rooms themselves were pretty outdated and the bunkbeds had some of the thinnest "mattresses" I have ever experienced.  But hey, we were in paradise.  

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Today I had the opportunity to teach the 10th Grade US History class so that I had a chance to teach a different grade level and subject.  I had the opportunity to talk about the era of Reconstruction, mentioning people like the carpetbaggers and scalawags and the Civil War Amendments.  After my PowerPoint lecture, we reenacted the different stages of technology during the Civil War.  Even though I was bs-ing these different stages a little bit, it was a good opportunity for these guys to throw paper wads at each other like the 9th Graders did.  After a little bit of tutoring this afternoon, I was on my way home.  When I got home, I finally got the last document that I needed for my Student Teacher Work Sample over email.  As I was excitedly opening up the email and downloading it to my computer so that I could include it, the internet went out at the house.  Just my luck.  So I waited five minutes for it to come back up and then hurriedly saved the document, included said document, and then submitted the portfolio.  Praise the Good Lord, that was a big weight lifted off of my shoulders.  I did my best happy dance before dinner.  That night, I had my baby brother Skype me in to the Thunder game.  He put his computer in front of the TV and went to Buffalo Wild Wings while I watched the game.  It was quite the ordeal, turning into another OT game.  After the disappointing loss, I gave Kelsey a lecture over the causes and consequences of World Wars I and II because she is about to teach the novel Remember the Stars.  It was definitely a lot of information and hopefully she got some of it, but it was a good indicator that I have a good understanding of WWI because I was spouting off dates like crazy.  It was like I just taught a unit on the subject or something.   

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

I watched Neena start a lesson on the Mexican Revolution.  That means that it was officially time to turn the 9^th Graders back over.  I had a nice time watching the class learn about the Mexican Revolution.  The cool thing about this school is that there are people here from many different countries and one of those countries is Mexico, so several of the students were super excited about the lesson and one student was even related to one of the key figures Carranza (or so he says).  That evening after school, I enjoyed life in Costa Rica by sitting outside and enjoying the weather.  Zoe picked up our bus tickets to Manuel Antonio, so we were good to go (it´s nice having a roommate who gets out early and is willing to go to San Jose to pick up tickets while seeing her friend). 

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

After watching Neena teach a lesson on the Civil War, I spent most of the day grading essays.  Because that’s the natural consequence for a teacher who assigns essays.  In addition, I also worked extremely hard on my Student Teacher Work Sample.  The end is near on that and now I just have a couple of editing spots and conclusions to make and then I can send that in and become a super happy man.  Unless you want to hear about my reflection of my job teaching as a result of the statistics of my students’ unit exam, I will conclude this day by saying that there was a lot of typing of questions that I essentially waited to answer until the very end for probably several different reasons.  

Monday, April 21, 2014

It was really nice to see my kids again after the long break!  I don’t know how excited they were to be in school again after the break, but I know that I had a good day.  This also happened to be my last lesson that I designed and led for the 9^th Graders, so that was very bitter-sweet.  We did a primary source document assignment in which the students found two primary sources to read and write a description over before comparing and contrasting the two articles.  That concluded their exploration of World War I.  Hopefully they learned a lot and can be ready to describe the war to their parents when the 100^th anniversary of the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand comes up in about two months.  In the after school period of the day, I did my best to grade some of these assignments, but the Thunder game was going on.  So I Skyped my brother Jordan and he put the computer in front of the TV and we watched the game together and yelled at the TV and all that jazz.  Even though it was an OT heartbreaker, it was fun to watch it with my brother from 2.000 miles away.  

Sunday, April 20, 2014

The first thing that I heard this morning (aside from the shower running and my breakfast being devoured) was a series of fireworks to say “He Is Risen!”  So Happy Easter!  The firework/ cannon-bomb things were fired from the Catholic Church nearby and seemed to say “Hey, come to Church!”  It was kind of a neat Costa Rica-ism.  I did very little for the rest of the morning and afternoon; it was mostly just a good relaxing day, perfect for watching soccer and working on livetext.  Zoe got back into town right before dinner, so it was nice to see her and hear all about Guatemala and Belize.  Zoe had run into Sarah at the airport who told Zoe to come over after dinner, so over we went to hang out and see everyone after the Semana Santa trips.  

Saturday, April 19, 2014

Once again, I did very little on this fine day.  I did work on my Student Teacher Work Sample, leaving me with only eight more short reflection essays.  I will be incredibly relieved when this assignment is finished, acting as the last major hurdle between me and a degree.  But don’t worry, I did spend a good chunk of time relaxing while watching TV.  I found the Astros game on television.  It was even on the Houston sports network that my grandparents can’t get in their Houston suburb, but I got 1.500 miles away.  On top of that, I got the Oklahoma City Thunder game on the tube, too.  Both of my brothers are home for Easter, so we Skyped and provided commentary to the action for a little bit while the Thunder played very well.  Interestingly, their TV was on a 15 second delay compared to mine, so I knew what was going to happen before they did.  So Ha.  I watched my Thunder get a huge halftime lead, blow most of the lead, only to finish strong and clinch game one of the series against the Grizzles.  Oh, and Katie and McCall got back from Oklahoma at halftime, so I’m not alone and afraid anymore.  Seeing how the splendor of my day runs with if the Thunder won or not, it was a pretty good day.   

Friday, April 18, 2014

I did absolutely nothing productive today.  I will spare you the details of my nap and Netflix watching.  On top of that, most things are closed today for Good Friday and the town feels almost desolated.  I guess that happens in a mostly Catholic country.  

Thursday, April 17, 2014

We woke up early and partook in the hotel’s continental breakfast before Grandma and Grandpa drove me back to Santa Ana.  When I got back to the house, there was a little bit of awkwardness as there was a big ole lock that I did not have the keys to on the gate.  And I’m pretty sure Liliana was still asleep.  Luckily the grandma was outside sweeping leaves and gave Liliana a call, so I was saved.  I hugged Grandma and Grandpa goodbye before plugging in the rent-a-car place into their GPS for them.  I spent the rest of the morning finishing up my livetext Submission III portfolio assignment and sending it in for review.  That was a huge relief to have done and off of my shoulders.  I spent the rest of the day doing absolutely nothing productive.  I watched a lot of Netflix and took a nap.  Hey, I’m on vacation.  

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

We packed up our bags and bid our goodbyes to Manuel Antonio.  On the way back to San Jose we got stopped by police again on a random check for IDs and passports.  I haven’t seen anyone get pulled over in the two and a half months I’ve been in Costa Rica and yet my grandpa gets pulled over twice in two days.  We did however make it to San Jose without any further problems.  Grandma was feeling less than stellar, so Grandpa and I drove towards Santa Ana to get gas and find some lunch.  Because I have a big portfolio assignment due tomorrow, I spent a good chunk of the afternoon working on it in the lobby because I finally had decent wifi.  (It wouldn’t be an official break if I didn’t have some sort of big homework assignment hanging over my head).  At least the championship of the Copa del Rey was on television and I got to see Real Madrid beat Barcelona on a clutch goal with five minutes left.  And there were cookies in the lobby.  I got to skype my dad for his birthday, which was a fun event in the day.  We went to El Rodeo Hotel for a steak dinner; eating fantastic Argentinian steak.  To conclude the day, I worked a little bit longer on my portfolio while CNN played in the background.    

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Grandma and Grandpa went for a short drive up the hill, getting stopped by one of the random police stops wanting to look at IDs and passports, while I did the whole getting out of bed and waking up thing.  We spent the rest of the morning exploring Manuel Antonio National Park.  We saw fun things like monkeys jumping from tree to tree across the trail and a pretty good view of Bigfoot (aka a sloth).  When we finished, we deserved ice cream.  Even though it was a bit of a cloudy day, I spent the afternoon at the beach.  We spent the early evening driving around Quepos, exploring a new part of the world before having dinner at a pizza by the meter place that Katie and McCall recommended.  I spent the rest of the night trying to get motivated to start my homework, but failing miserably.  So I did other things like read and watch Netflix. 

Monday, April 14, 2014

We woke up and had breakfast at the little restaurant attached to the hotel.  I had some good gallo-pinto.  After that, we drove the car up the hill to find a bank and check out what we could find towards the pier in Quepos.  After stopping in several little shops, we tried to go to the national park in Manuel Antonio, but apparently the national park is closed on Mondays.  So we called an audible and grandpa and I went to the beach instead.  After a nice little siesta out there, we loaded back up in the car and went to El Wagon for a lunch that consisted of pizza and allowed us to sit in rocking chairs.  After lunch, I went back to the beach and was eventually joined by grandpa.  After a little while, grandma came down to the beach and sat at a restaurant on the beach.  We joined her for a little bit before getting our last little bit of sun out of the day.  After a quick shower, we ate at the restaurant on the beach, consuming Mexican food in Costa Rica.  Afterwards, we went back to the hotel and I worked on some homework, because that’s how I like to spend my vacations.        

Sunday, April 13, 2014

We woke up this morning and enjoyed a delicious continental breakfast at the hotel before packing up and heading for a little bit of a day trip to Poas Volcano.  We passed through Alajuela (seeing the soccer stadium) on the way up towards the national park.  It was actually a pretty short trip up the mountain taking only about an hour or so.  After peaking in the Visitors Center, we walked up the short 600 meter trek to see the Crater.  It was really cool (actually warm) because we saw it shooting out steam.  While standing at the observation deck, I could feel the warmth of the steam compared to the crisp morning up in the elevation.  After that, Grandma walked back to the Visitors Center while Grandpa and I hiked the 800 meters to the lagoon.  The lagoon was super cool, too.  It was green in color and surrounded by the green trees and plants that beautifully decorate Costa Rica.  After making the trek back down to the Visitors Center, we caught up with Grandma and checked out the souvenir shop.  I finally found a full-sized Costa Rican flag that I bought (which will be going up in a future classroom or office when I accentuate the fact that I lived in Costa Rica) and they bought something that they told me will be a graduation present.  I wonder what it could be.  Anywho, we drove back down the mountain towards the airport and then past the airport towards Santa Ana.  We stopped at my school and took a picture (from a distance) and continued to on towards a lunch at Wendy’s.  I think the Wendy’s here is better than the Wendy’s in the States, but that could just be me really enjoying a little taste of home that I do not normally get.  We filled up the tank and then were on our way to Manuel Antonio.  The trip was pretty uneventful except for the sights of palm trees, bits and pieces of the ocean, and the little towns along the way.  When we got to the hotel, our room was not quite ready so we moseyed on down to the beach to drink something cold since Manuel Antonio is a little bit warmer than the high reaches of the volcano.  We also went down to a supermarket at the bottom of the hill and picked up a few things like a pineapple, watermelon, and other essentials.  Eventually the room was ready for us, so we got our stuff inside of it and went to dinner at “El Avion” a place that has an airplane’s fuselage acting as the restaurant’s bar.  At dinner, we saw several monkeys playing in the trees.  They were monkeying around, I guess.  At the conclusion of dinner, we drove the car to try to explore the hill between Quepos and Manuel Antonio that all of the hotels and restaurants sit on, but it was a little too dark for us to gain much from it.  So, we returned to the hotel and enjoyed the air-conditioning for the rest of the night.       

Saturday, April 12, 2014

I woke up in the morning and had an omelet for breakfast; because omelets for breakfast are delicious.  I went ahead and packed my bags for the long awaited arrival of mis abuelitos and spent time working on my Submission III Portfolio for OSU, because I have the misfortune of having it due while I’m on Spring Break.  I even had a smoothie.  At about 2:00, I caught a taxi to the Hampton Inn close to the airport to meet up with my grandparents.  After waiting for about 20-30 minutes I saw my grandma walk over to the hotel while my grandpa finished up the arduous process of getting a car rented.  Before too long, he had arrived as well.  We got their luggage up to their room and then headed back to Santa Ana so that I could show them my house and town and have them meet my host mom.  After a little bit, we took Liliana out to eat at a restaurant called the “Old West.”  It was a lot of fun to have Liliana at dinner with us.  Afterwards, I grabbed my bags and we made our way back to the hotel.  We hung out at the hotel room for a little bit and watched some of the Saprissa and Alajuela soccer game before retiring for the night. 

Friday, April 11, 2014

I heard Zoe leave bright and early this morning before I had the courage or fortitude to get out of bed.  That means I’m the only American left in my neck of the woods.  As such, I got a hearty breakfast before being lazy all morning doing things like working on my computer and watching Netflix.  By the late morning, I figured I might as well do something fun to start off the break so I told Liliana that I was off to the Multiplaza.  While there, I ate some Mickey Ds and walked over to the Cinemark.  I saw Capi’tan Ame’rica: El Soldado de Invierno.  I’m sure that’s what it’s called in the States.  The theater was pretty nice with reclining chairs and assigned seats.  The movie was even in English with Spanish subtitles.  This was good for me, but it created a lot of talking from others, especially the three little guys next to me who may or may not have been able to read all of the subtitles.  In addition, it is apparently acceptable to answer your telephone and carry on a conversation in the movie theater here.  Despite these grievances, the movie was really pretty good and I feel somewhat up to date with at least a little bit of popular culture, having seen a movie that’s only recently come out.  I even had good timing with catching the bus there and back.  Since it’s my first day of break, I managed to be rather unproductive the rest of the day besides updating this and writing a TEACH reflection prompt (OSU homework, don’t worry).  Like I said, Netflix has been my friend today and that’s not a bad thing.      

Thursday, April 10, 2014

The first thing in the morning, I got to cracking on the rest of the exams.  By 11:00, I had finished all of them, making for less than a 24 hour turn-around.  I let the kids come by and see their grades throughout the rest of the day.  I was happy to have that task done and felt brain-dead and ready for a nap by lunch-time.  But lucky enough, it was the last day of school before a nice break.  I got home and laid down until dinner.  After dinner, I went with Zoe to a carnival at a park on the outskirts of San Jose Central.  I was almost more like a craft fair that had live music as much as anything.  After listening to some music, Zoe’s friend Taylor found us and hung out until it was time for us to catch a bus back to Santa Ana.  It was a pretty fun night before Zoe goes to Guatemala for break.  

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Today was exam day.  The exam was a little lengthy, but I knew that the kiddos were ready for it.  They kept asking me questions for clarification before school and obviously did not actually need the clarification because they knew it already.  During the actual class period, I spent my time walking around the class, helping answer questions and seeing how students were progressing.  I also started grading some of the tests during the later class periods to get a jump on it.  At lunch, I played basketball with a half-dozen of my students.  That’s always fun because no matter how bad you are that day, they just think it’s cool that they got a teacher to play and take them to school.  I went home at the end of the day with a stack of exams to get through, long essays included and all.  By the end of the night, I had gotten through 2 of the 3 classes exams.  I’m either a stud or have no life for getting through that accomplishment.  By 10:00 it did not take much for me to fall asleep.

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

With the exception of observing a class, I spent most of the day doing the non-teaching part of a teacher’s job: copying tests, stapling tests together, and grading papers.  I would love to fill you in on the details, but I assume you can use your imagination.  The papers were from the Treaty of Versailles assignment from yesterday and I was very impressed with what the kids came up with.  I may have a future treaty writer from the United Nations in my class.  Except for dinner and sanity breaks, that was essentially what my day consisted of.  The definition of excitement. 

Monday, April 7, 2014

I started each class off my reminding the students of the main points of the Treaty of Versailles and showed them a picture that made it explicit that the peace was built on quicksand, meaning that it would only last for 20 years before Hitler would rise to power.  Afterwards, I had the students get into groups and we made our own revised Treaties of Versailles.  I had the students research some positive aspects of the treaty and some negative aspects of it.  From there, I had the students keep the positive aspects in their new treaty and rectify the negative aspects of the treaty.  The treaties turned out fantastic.  After an afternoon run and some supper, I got to do what every full-blooded American man wanted to do: watch the NCAA National Championship.  It was even in English.  It was nice to have that taste of home of watching sporting events that the rest of my fellow Americans have the ability to keep up with.  

Sunday, April 6, 2014

Sunday was a shorter day because of the Costa Rican elections.  Glen, Neena, and I were in charge of seeing the kids finish the conference strongly and see students come up with resolutions to their conflicts, even if they did kick us out for secret balloting.  The closing ceremony saw several of our Pan-American students get honorable mentions for top-delegate of their committees and even one received the honor of being the top delegate.  Overall, it was a great experience to see what the Model United Nations was all about and see students passionately participate.  We got back to Pan-American at about 3:00 and I wanted a hamburger, so I finally got my Wendy’s fix.  Afterwards, I walked to the grocery store nearby and picked up some bread, jelly, and two bottles of wine.  Katie and McCall went to Manuel Antonio this weekend to celebrate their birthdays by going white-water rafting.  I tried to go incognito and leave their bottles of wine on their beds before they knew what hit them, but they beat me home by two minutes.  In the evening, I finished making test corrections and hung out with Zoe.  I also watched a little bit of the political coverage over the presidential elections here.  One of the presidential candidates stated that he did not want the gig anymore a month ago or so, so the election was a foregone conclusion.  People were still happy and it was still a big deal with people driving around, honking their horns late into the night.  

Saturday, April 5, 2014

Today, it was just Glen and I with 60 kids.  During the day, I had the chance to meet and chat with teachers from schools from throughout Costa Rica, as well as observe the different councils.  I was able to take plenty of pictures of all of my students as they got to make substantive points and contribute to solving a world problem.  Many of the topics included were fascinating.  For example, one council tried to solve the issue of organ trafficking, another looked at bio-ethical problems, another looked at child labor, while another was set in 1982 and tried to prevent the Falkland Island War.  It was fascinating to watch.  It was set like a United Nations conference in which they had an agenda and each student represented a different country.  They would have to raise their placards if they wished to speak and had to be called on by the committee chair.  From there, they could attack other countries’ positions on the issues and fight for how their particular country would want to solve the conflict or problem.  I’m pretty sure I saw a future delegate to the United Nations in action today. I even participated in a world trade game in which the room was almost set up like a stock market where students could buy, sell, and trade goods and bonds.  I was at the trade table where students bought bonds, which was crazy busy and quite a rush to participate in.  I really wish that there was something like this in Owasso when I was in high school.  I got home at around 6:00 that evening and was out like a light pretty early.  

Friday, April 4, 2014

Today, the rest of the classes made their own gas-masks out of the paper plates and paper bowls before I gave a lecture on the eastern front and the end of the war.  I was super impressed with the creativity that the students exhibited.  I had kids add on the tube at the end of the gas-mask, making for extremely authentic looking creations.  After school, I attended Model United Nations Conference at Lincoln School.  On Friday night, I went with Glen (one of the middle school global studies teachers who runs the program at the school) and Francis (the middle school coordinator) as chaperones for about 60 students.  We saw the opening ceremony where the Costa Rican ambassador to the United States Muni Figueres gave a speech where she talked about Costa Rica's diplomatic history and told the students that charm is key in politics.  After that, we had a teachers meeting while the students started their councils.  Over the course of the weekend I got to meet some really interesting teachers and school directors from the different American schools in Costa Rica and even one in Honduras.  

Thursday, April 3, 2014

I had the one 9th Grade class that I had today make gas masks.  We made gas masks out of paper plates, paper bowls, tape, and markers.  I thought they would be hokey, but they turned out really cool.  During the rest of the morning I helped out with position papers again for the Model United Nations Conference and worked on writing an exam for the 9th Graders.  During the afternoon, I finished up the exam and worked diligently on finishing my portfolio checkpoint for OSU.  I will be very satisfied when the portfolio is finished.  Since it is both Katie and McCall’s birthday this weekend, their house-mom, Maricruz, made them a birthday cake.  Maricruz came and got Liliana and I and we set up around the cake to sing Cumpleanos Feliz to them after we knocked on their doors and told them to come to the dining room.  They were super surprised and the cake was delicious.  I spent the rest of the night in Andy sports heaven.  Both the Houston Astros and the Oklahoma City Thunder were on television here.  I did not think that I would have to make a choice between watching the Thunder and Astros while here, but sure enough.  This made for a happy camper. 

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Today we talked about World War I Technology.  The students spent the first half of class (or more like most of the class) finishing their test-corrections.  When they wrapped that up, I put up several pictures of technological advances during World War I and we explored things such as blimps, airplanes, tanks, machine guns, etc.  Afterwards, I put up a BBC online computer games in which students are given a scenario and they must choose the correct combination of technology in order to successfully complete the mission.  I had the class agree on what they wanted to choose and then give it a try.  I think the kids liked the computer game and had fun when I told them that their homework was to go home and play the computer game.  During the afternoon, I did my homework as quickly as possible so that I could spend my evening watching the USA v. Mexico soccer game.  The cool thing about living in a Latin American country is that the game was on about three different channels.  The not so cool thing was that all of the commentators were convinced that Mexico was going to win 2-0 or 3-0.  As I watched the American in their bomb pop uniforms, they played a brilliant first half and led 2-0 at halftime, then I got sleepy and fell asleep.  I don’t think it was 2-0 anymore when I woke up the next morning.  

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

So I quit today.

Not really.  That’s just a lame April Fool’s Joke.  This morning I observed Neena teach a lesson to the 10^th Graders about the events that led up to the American Civil War.  After class I worked on a lesson plan until I had an early lunch.  At the conclusion of my peanut butter and jelly time, I went to one of the other teachers’ room to help students with their position papers for the Model United Nations conference that a lot of them (myself included) are going to this weekend.  I’m actually pretty excited for it.  I have heard some pretty neat things about the conferences and have seen my kids debate in a similar fashion before in class, so I have high confidence that they will do fantastic.  I essentially spent the rest of the afternoon getting a run-down of what the Model United Nations looks like and helping kids prepare for the event.  Katie and McCall went to buy their bus tickets for their weekend trip to Manuel Antonio, so I even stayed around after school for an extra hour to help out.  After school, I kept working on lesson plans and prepared for tomorrow’s lesson on technology in World War I.  My Houston Astros even won their first game today, so it was a pretty darn good day.  

Monday, March 31, 2014

Class was exciting today because I had the students focusing on trench warfare.  First, we watched a short youtube video that depicted what World War I looked like.  It included soldiers marching, digging trenches, soldiers going over the top, tanks, gas masks, and everything else associated with the war.  Next, we played around with an interact map that showed the troop movements during the western front before looking at an interactive BBC website that showed what a day in the life of someone living in the trenches looked like.  Finally, I gave the kids pieces of paper to wad up and gave them five minutes to build trenches before they reenacted a trench warfare battle (essentially a glorified version of dodgeball).  It was loud, chaotic, and awesome!  After school, I had a rather uneventful day of working on homework and updating the blog.  At about 8:30 or so, Zoe returned home from Nicaragua.  I think Liliana’s heart is full again with all her kiddos back home.   

Sunday, March 30, 2014

After a walk into town to buy some omelets for breakfast, we were ready to start our day.  We spent a little bit more time in the town going through shops before hanging out at the hostel for a little bit before it was time to check-out.  I enjoyed my last bit of hammock time while Katie and McCall enjoyed their last bit of trampoline time.  After a bit, we were packed up, showered up, and ready to hit the road.  We went for a Vegetarian pizza at a place called Latin Pizza.  It was really a pretty good pizza.  The two girls went on a mission-like hunt for more souvenirs and ice cream, while I stayed back and enjoyed the main park in the town that has the view of the Catholic Church in the foreground of the volcano.  From there, we went and got in line for the bus home.  I really don’t like when the bus company does not put the assigned seat numbers on the bus tickets, because then it becomes a bit of a mad dash to get on the bus and avoid having to stand.  Unfortunately, they are not shy about overselling the bus tickets, so there were a whole slew of people standing in the aisle.  One of these people (at least after she got picked up in a nearby town) was a bigger lady who essentially sat on my arm rest and was holding herself up on the chair in front of me.  She also smelled very strongly of hair gel.  In case you did not know, personal space is not exactly an important aspect of Latin culture.  Luckily, by the time we got to a town called San Carlos, most of the people in the aisle had gotten off the bus.  Unluckily, not long after we got past San Carlos, the bus tried to take a sharp turn and done broke itself.  After a little bit of traveling down the road to a safer place to stop, the bus driver stopped the bus and called a mechanic.  We sat at the side of the road next to a tiny town for half-an-hour until another bus came and rescued us.  Eventually, the bus stopped at the San Jose Airport (which is not too far from our house), so we hoped off and caught a cab, saving us probably an hour or so.  When I got home, I think Liliana was excited to cook for someone (neither Zoe nor I had been home for dinner since last Wednesday).  Aside from dinner, I spent the rest of the night skyping home, unloading photos, and preparing to teach tomorrow.  Not a bad end to the weekend.        

Saturday, March 29, 2014

The three of us awoke at precisely 8:00 and headed to town to find some breakfast.  We ate at this small coffee shop that served breakfast.  I enjoyed some pancakes and orange juice while the two girls enjoyed cups of vanilla tea and eggs.  After that, we went further into town and actually did the souvenir shopping and purchasing of gifts for friends and family.  We also purchased our bus tickets for the next day and enjoyed a very cool view of the Catholic Church in the middle of the town with the volcano in the background.  After returning to the hostel, Katie hung back and relaxed for a little bit while McCall and I got a taxi to take us to the waterfall close by.  After paying our $10 admission, we climbed down the 480 stairs to get to the waterfall.  I didn’t actually count them, but I trust the person who told us that statistic.  Despite feeling some fatigue in my legs, we enjoyed the green journey on the way down.  When we finally got to the bottom, the waterfall was absolutely worth it.  It was probably 50-75 feet tall and just plain magnificent.  The water came down in a thunderous roar that filled the almost enclosed valley.  The mist from the water’s impact reached further than Shamoo’s Splash Zone at Sea World.  McCall got in the little pool of water while I enjoyed the beauty from a relatively safe distance (mostly, I didn’t want to hike in my swimsuit).  When the beauty of the waterfall became such that we could not take it anymore, we made the 480 stair trek back up to the summit.  After that, I took a nap in the hammock, and I didn’t even feel lazy or bad about it.  It was justified hammock time.  For our afternoon adventure, we had a hike/ hot-springs combo closer to the actual volcano.  We had a guide named Jesús who was quite a character.  We admired the different ridges of Arenal, learning that it was inactive for thousands of years until 1968 when it erupted and killed 83 people.  With the eruption, the landform changed completely, creating ridges and crests where rocks had spewed out from the top.  In my non-scientist way of explaining this, Volcan Arenal did not spew out lava from the top like you think of from the Super Mario 64 video game volcanoes.  Instead, it would spit out really hot rocks.  Unfortunately (for the tourist, and maybe for the residents), the volcano has been dormant since 2010.  The first part of our hike consisted of Jesús showing us cool views of the volcano and other things surrounding us such as this cool lagoon just underneath us.  After showing us a colony of ants carrying leaves to their momma ant, and explaining to us that the area that we were looking at used to be flat farmland, but is now rock rainforest, Jesús started us on the hike.  We saw some toucans, which apparently they call corrers here because the sound that toucans make sounds like someone saying the Spanish word “correr” (I had no idea that’s what sound a toucan makes).  We also found some wild guayaba that Jesús picked off of a tree for us.  They were quite delicious pieces of fruit.  I felt like a wild monkey, picking wild fruit from the tree and eating it.  We continued on through the rain forest and learned all kinds of things about plants and birds and rocks and things that I probably haven’t heard since like 8^th grade science class (ok, that’s probably an exaggeration, I do have a Geography minor and we talk about this kind of stuff in the science-y geography classes).  We even saw a couple of wild monkeys in the rain forest.  Jesús told us to be careful of the monkeys because they might throw their feces at us.  How rude of the monkeys.  At the conclusion of our hike, we waited for an hour or so as our driver came back to pick us up and take us to Baldi Hot Springs.  This place was a huge resort type place with 26 hot springs pools and other things that resorts have such as restaurants and whatnot.  After a buffet, we checked out the hot springs.  The first one we went to was just not quite warm enough for our tastes, so we went to another one.  This one felt amazing at first because it was hot tub and a half hot, but after a while it was too warm for us, so we went to yet another one.  The last one was just right.  It was the perfect temperature to just relax in.  It even had a cool pool that was 20 degree Celsius (68 F) to help out on those tired muscles before you put them back into the warm pool.  After our Goldilocks and the Three Bears story of finding the best hot springs pool concluded, we caught the shuttle back to the hostel to enjoy the rest of the night there.  At about 10:00, they lit candles and put them in paper bags before killing all of the electricity at the hostel so that we could see the stars and probably to keep the electricity bill down.  After a little bit of that, I took the dark area as my cue to hit the sack.  I listened to a McCall and Katie verses the bugs episode, but I was on the top bunk and already half asleep.  My last memory of the night was someone yelling “Die bug, die.”              

Friday, March 28, 2014

Even though we had to say goodbye to Di, today was a lot of fun for me at school.  On top of what we did for the first half of the lesson for the 9^th Graders as described in yesterday’s blog post, I got to finish the lesson.  So for the first half of the longer classes, we reviewed some of the things that caused the war such as Imperialism, Militarism, Nationalism, and the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand.  After that, the students were placed in their countries and given the chance to research and strategize before issuing a statement to the entire class.  Each country then had to stand and give a brief statement about what their country felt about the ultimatum that Austria-Hungary placed on Serbia and what they planned to do to keep the peace.  Afterwards, the students were given time to act as diplomats to come up with ways to keep the peace and prevent World War I.  They could form alliances with each other, negotiate territory, and offer bribes, but they were forced to follow through on their secret underlined instructions.  When the negotiating died down, I had each group return to their desks and we had a formal UN-style debate where only one person could speak at a time and they could ask questions of each other, offer their positions, and more-or-less debate.  The kids did brilliantly with this and they kept the debate moving forward.  I even think they learned a lot about the Crisis of July 1914.  I had the opportunity to film myself teaching today as part of a project with my portfolio for OSU.  It was neat to go back and watch the debates and see a lot of light-bulbs go off when different ideas clicked.  After school and after a meeting, McCall, Katie, and I caught a shuttle taxi to La Fortuna/Arenal Volcano.  I was pretty exhausted, so I attempted to catch a couple of Z’s during the trip, but the roads were pretty crazy for such a feat.  At just about sunset, we arrived in town.  It was actually pretty clear, so we had the chance to see most of the volcano as we got close to town.  We checked in to our Hostel (Backpackers Arenal) and got settled into our 8 person dorm-room style room (aka four bunk-beds in a medium sized room).  Dinner was calling our name, so we went into town and ate some gourmet style pizza at a place called the Lava Lamp (get it, Lava. Volcano. Tee-hee).  After our scrumptious dinner at the Lava Lamp, we explored a couple of the gift shops for souvenirs and then returned to the hostel.  We met some of our Dutch and Swiss roommates in the hostel room and enjoyed the things the hostel had to offer such as hammocks (me), a trampoline (McCall and Katie), pool, eating/sitting area with tables, and all kinds of fun stuff.  After a bit of hammock sitting, I retired to bed on account of it having been a long day and I was exhausted.         

Thursday, March 27, 2014

I had my conference with my university supervisor (Di) and Cooperating Teacher (Neena).  It went really well and I got some good feedback that I can use going forward.  Di also stayed for my split in two, first half of a block, class.  For the first half of the alliance game lesson, I gave a PowerPoint Presentation about the different alliances and forces behind World War I.  After that, I gave the class the instructions for the Alliance game.  I explained that they were each assigned to a different country and that they were expected to do whatever they could to keep the peace and prevent a war.  They could form alliances, negotiate land deals, use money as bribes, whatever was needed.  The class had the rest of the class period to research their country’s stance in July 1914 and formulate a strategy.  It was interesting to watch them at work.  The middle part of the day was spent working on lesson plans and grading exams.  The last part of the day may have been my favorite.  The 10^th Grade US History class was given an early-middle 19^th Century topic to research and present over, with the instructions being that they needed to be creative.  The students did a fantastic job and I had a blast listening to and participating in their presentations.  One group did one of those RSA whiteboard presentations where they had a topic and drew a map of the US and drew other drawings to depict Manifest Destiny.  It was really fascinating to watch.  Another group had the Oregon Trail.  Instead of playing the Oregon Trail computer game (which you can’t find online anymore), the students created their own Oregon Trail by putting tape on the ground and timing each other doing wheelbarrow races while following the tape trail.  I must say, one of the students and I had the fasted time, so boom!  Not long after school, McCall, Katie, and I had an early dinner with Di at The Old West.  That was fun!  After dinner, Kelsey, Sarah, and I planned a surprise party for Zoe to celebrate her getting a job in Shanghai.  Naturally, Zoe went to San Jose to hula-hoop for the evening, so we had to wait for her to finally get back home to enjoy the surprise party.  Kelsey and Sarah also invited some of their Marine friends who guard the US embassy over as well.  We played Cards Against Humanity and had a jolly good time.  

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

So I got observed first thing this morning.  That was fun.  I also taught all three classes the first lesson in my official unit for my OSU portfolio.  By the end of the day, I was pretty exhausted.  So I went for a nice little run and then sat on the new porch chairs with the nice cool breeze and graded the unit-pretest.  Di drove up and told me that I looked like a teacher whilst grading papers.  I also had the longest conversation that I’ve ever had with my host-mom’s husband.  He chatted with me for over half an hour about soccer, basketball, the personality of gringos verses ticos, and all kinds of interesting topics.  I think that he thinks that now that he’s taught me how to properly open and close the gate, we can have a real conversation.  After dinner, Zoe had an interview with a school in China and got offered a job that she’s super excited about, so the mood of this house is a happy one.  I too did productive things like prepare for my lesson for tomorrow and Friday.  It’s got an alliance model-UN type game associated with it and it’s going to be awesome!  That’s your cliffhanger.      

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Today was a one class day, of which I actually mostly observed that class, so the school part of my day went pretty quick.  After I had that class, I made all my copies for the week and worked on some lesson plans.  I’m pretty sure I’ve heard my mom say that last sentence before, so I don’t know what that says about me.  Since Di was here and was free, I chatted with her about some career advice before and during lunch.  Can’t beat some good information!  For the last period of the day, there was a band concert from Snow College in Utah.  They weren’t the OSU Wind Ensemble, but they were pretty goodJ  I even got to point out what a Euphonium was to everyone around me that would listen.  For the last class period, Neena was also subbing for a “rock band” elective where the kids figure out how to play songs based on listening to them.  Sort of like a cover, I guess.  It was actually really cool and I got to help lead that rehearsal (even if it was short that they spent 10 minutes tuning a guitar and another 10 being drummers, banging on everything).  After school, I went and got a smoothie from the place by our house, because I really wanted one.  I went with the mango, strawberry, and guanaba choice.  You just can’t beat those delicious under $3 smoothies.  After that, I did some job research and mostly did a good job at not being very productive for the rest of the day.   

Monday, March 24, 2014

I woke up on this fine day to an omelet for breakfast.  You can’t beat that.  At school it was test day for the students, so I spent a lot of the day helping my kiddos with big words like “ballot” and whatnot.  But it was fun to help them out.  They got super excited when we went over the answers and they learned that they got them correct.  One kid even hugged a pillar next to the wall in the back of the classroom.  By the end of the day, our awesome university supervisor Di had arrived and gave us a ride home.  Afterwards, we got our schedule all hammered out and chatted for a little bit before she made the arduous journey back to the hotel.  I went for an adventurous jog and then had an early dinner before spending the rest of the night taking a vacation from this weekend’s vacation.   

Sunday, March 23, 2014

I woke up and promptly enjoyed the hammock for a little bit before we all got ready to head back to Santa Ana.  At around 10:00, the property manager Jorge showed up and we took a bunch of group pictures and were ready to go.  Katie’s parents and grandparents rented a car to go to Arenal and Monteverde while the rest of us rode in the van back home.  It was another long and relatively uneventful ride back.  I came home to Spongbob Squarepants sheets, so that was interesting.  The rest of the day was spent doing fun things like uploading photos and working on the blog.   

Saturday, March 22, 2014

Today I was a “sun goddess, err I mean god.”  I spent from about 9:30 to 4:00 outside either at the beach or by the pool enjoying the sunshine.  I took several catnaps and got through some more of my book.  I did go inside for important things like food and water, but I was getting some sun today.  Being ever observant of things like what cows look like, I have noticed that cows in Costa Rica do not look like the cows that I am familiar with in good ole Oklahoma.  They have weird humps on their backs and kind of look like Jar Jar Binks from Star Wars in their faces.  There were some cows nearby our beach house, so I walked over and took a picture of them.  Well, when I got back to the house, it wasn’t but 30 minutes later that a group of cows were on the beach.  (Different cows, I swear!)  So of course I walked out to get better pictures of the Costa Rican cows.  There was one cow who was eating leaves and whatnot from our property, so I got a pretty great close-up of him.  Unfortunately, he was ready to keep moving with the herd before I was done getting my picture of him.  The cow started walking right at me.  I started to back up, thinking that I could outrun the cow, so he kind of chased me in that regard.  What it really turned into in the end was one of those instances where you’re walking straight at someone and in an effort to avoid each other, each person goes one way, then you both try to go the other way, then finally someone says, “after you” and the situation resolves itself with words.  The cow did not know any words, so I just did my best to get the heck out of its way.  I may or may not exaggerate the story someday.  I enjoyed the sunset on the beach tonight and got some pretty good selfies with the sunset in the background.  After getting all cleaned up, we went to a place that was even moreso on the beach and enjoyed its deliciousness.  When we finished, there was someone sending fire-kite-balloon thingys into the air.  They went impressively far up into the atmosphere until they fizzled out.  While watching the balloon, you could not help but notice the brightness and clarity of the stars up in the sky.  It was amazing.  We were all exhausted and retired to bed shortly after.    

Friday, March 21, 2014

After waking up and enjoying the hammock for a little bit, we had a self-serve buffet style breakfast where I had some toast with peanut butter.  Tasty.  Next, I went out to the beach to read my new book that I got from the school library.  It’s called “Historia de Costa Rica.”  I may have also burnt the top of my head while sitting out there.  Thanks for that gene, dad.  I sat by the beach for a spell and then went and sat and swam at the pool attached to the house.  Around lunchtime, I came inside and took a shower and got cleaned up before eating some lunch and then trying to stream the OSU men’s basketball tournament game.  I almost wish that I had not done that because it was frustrating and painful to watch as they lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament for the second year in a row, cutting short a trip to California.  At least I was at a beautiful beach in Costa Rica to suffer through my sorrows.  The sunset today had a little bit more cloud cover, so it was pretty in a little bit of a different way with the different colors in the clouds.  We finished the day off with dinner at a place a couple blocks away and then some table games late into the night.

Thursday, March 20, 2014

I spent the first part of the morning finishing up what I needed to finish for my Student Teacher Work Sample while the students were still in their extended homeroom class.  Thankfully, I got that turned in and done with.  The 9^th Grade class did a cool new review game in which they were divided up into groups.  There were four sets of review questions that were cut along the piece of paper to make a grass-skirt looking paper.  The students had to come up and tear off a review question, take it back to their group, answer it, bring it to the teacher to be verified, and then either take it back and correct it or get a new question.  The kiddos seemed to enjoy that review game.  When we were done with classes, Katie’s parents and grandparents picked us up in a tourism van with their guide Arturo and we were off for Guanacaste.  After a lunch stop near Puntarenas and 4 1/2 -5 hours in the van, we were at the lovely Casa Surfside beach house in Playa Potrero.  Once we were there, I met Katie’s cousin Yvonne and the family friend Kathy.  Both of them were very nice and fun to be around.  We all watched the beautiful sunset on the porch and then went off to dinner.  We ate at a neat little place near the beach and had a grand ole time.  It was a great first day of the mini-vaca.   

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Today I led another review session.  These kids better be ready for their exam next Monday, because this has been a lot of reviewing.  I also passed out a letter for the students to have their parents sign saying that they can be included in my portfolio video and have some of their work included.  I offered them Oreos for bringing it back signed.  It turns out that Oreos work as a great motivator for students because they were super excited to get Oreos.  It was also fun for me to be the one who gave them the Oreos.  I also sat through a very interesting meeting after school to listen to the process of becoming IB certified.  The meeting ran late and Katie’s family had gotten into town, so she and McCall headed back early and I just met Katie’s family when I got home.  I spent the rest of the night working on my Student Teacher Work Sample which is due tomorrow (hence why this was actually written on the following SundayJ).  It was a busy night of homework.  

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Neena was sick this morning, so I ran the show one more time for the 10^th Grade class that we had today.  They had to take a quiz, so I am sure that they were super excited about that.  The rest of the day I spent working on my lesson plans and other aspects of my student teacher work sample portfolio that I need to complete.  The unit that I will be teaching for this project will be over Imperialism and World War I.  I have some pretty awesome ideas ready to go that I can’t wait to try.  I’ll save describing these cool ideas as a teaser for the coming weeks.  With the exception of eating lunch, riding the bus home, going for a run (jog is probably the better description), and eating another delicious meal, I was working on this project in some form or another for the rest of the day.  Needless to say, I made some significant progress, making for a productive day! 

Monday, March 17, 2014

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!  Especially considering that the Pride of Owasso Marching Band was marching in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Dublin, I was wearing green.  Neena was on her last day of her mini-vacation, so I was the main guy again.  We finished reading the chapter and then started reviewing for the upcoming test.  Katie’s boyfriend got here today, so I probably won’t see her again until Thursday.  So McCall and I went to the bank and grocery store after school.  We even stopped and got smoothies at the smoothie shop next to our house.  They were super delicious, so I will be back again for sure.  Later in the afternoon I worked a little bit on homework for OSU and did other things to occupy my time.  Liliana sat and chatted with Zoe and I during dinner, so that was nice.  Finally, I gave myself a haircut, so I am back to sporting the buzz-cut.  The shaggy hair was starting to get warm.  Then it was bedtime.     

Sunday, March 16, 2014

Katie and McCall wanted to have a little bit of a weekend from the weekend, plus Katie’s boyfriend gets here tomorrow, so she wanted to get stuff done; therefore, we got up early and were checked out of the resort by 8:00.  We got the front desk to call us a taxi to drive us over to Jaco where we had perfect timing as we caught the 9:00 bus as it was loading up.  Unfortunately, this bus was not direct, so it took a while to get back.  Because we were so early, we were still able to catch the bus back to Santa Ana and be home by 12:30.  I walked over to the Onion Festival and took some pictures, because people need to see what kind of spectacle this was.  After that, I was able to watch some basketball, including Selection Sunday (Go Pokes! Beat Gonzaga!), fill out a tournament bracket, and work on stuff on my computer.  Also, I survived the fireworks for the Onion Festival during dinner.  Other than that, it was a less productive day than I would have liked, but sometimes you need those kind of days.    

Saturday, March 15, 2014

I woke up and sat outside by the pool where I got better wifi and could cause the least possible disturbance while I waited for the other two to get breakfast.  After I ate, we went to one of the private beaches on the property.  It turned into a little bit of a dud because there were rocks everywhere both on the beach and in the ocean.  After about half an hour, we decided that we were paying for the pools and they were not something that we encounter every day, so we went to the pool.  Katie has a knack for befriending older people, so we met this lady from Atlanta at the pool and chatted with her for quite a while.  The lady told us her life story and we told her about student teaching in Costa Rica.  It was quite the exchange of storytelling.  We worked on getting our tan on, swam some, and watched this massive five foot long iguana climb the small trees behind us and eat leaves.  We saw a lot of iguanas and monkeys at the resort.  I bought a hot dog for lunch.  It was an interesting hotdog because they put chips on it.  Eventually, Katie and McCall were ready to get their sandwiches, so they walked back to the room.  Only, they forgot a key, so they walked back and I decided to go back with them this time and change locations to the pool close to our room.  An hour or so later, I was ready to get all the sunscreen off of me and face any and all sunburns.  While resting, we watched a movie and ate PB&honey sandwiches.  We finished the day with a couple of drinks from the bar and another movie.  

Friday, March 14, 2014

Neena was taking the day off, so I was the main man today.  Unfortunately, the kiddos were riled up because they were going on a fieldtrip later on during the day.  They were crazy.  While the other classes were on the field trip, I worked on some of my OSU homework and did a few other things to keep myself busy.  After school, McCall, Katie, and I walked over to the bus stop to catch a bus to San Jose.  We were going to a resort called Punta Leona which is about 10 km from Jaco on the Pacific side.  Once we got to San Jose, we got tickets for the 4:00 bus to Jaco and enjoyed the bus ride.  We were able to get the bus driver to let us off at Punta Leona, so we were there by 6:00.  Naturally, since we got to the gates pretty early, it took forever for the shuttle to come pick us up at the gate and take us to the reception area and to get checked in.  It almost took as long to get into our hotel room as it did to get there from San Jose.  After that, we had our lovely $20 dinner and then walked around the resort.  There were about 6 swimming pools, a couple of bars, beach volleyball, an enclosed turf soccer field, supermarket, and two private beaches.  It was like its own little community.  We got some bread, peanut butter, and honey to make some sandwiches to avoid paying $20 for dinner tomorrow.  Before you knew it, it was bedtime after the walk around the resort.  

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Today was my brother Tyler’s birthday, so I woke up and wished him a happy birthday on Facebook.  During my first class period, I tried to get the kids to play the volleyball review game, but it turned into a little bit of a chaotic mess, which was unfortunate.  During the day, we did all kinds of grading and other administrative stuff before the 10^th Grade class finished up Last of the Mohicans.  After school, we sat in extremely heavy traffic on the bus.  It took us a full hour to go the five miles to get home.  When we did finally get home, I walked over to the start of the onion festival that was starting in Santa Ana this week.  There were a lot of onions there and they also had people carving chunks of wood with chainsaws.  After that, I FaceTimed with Tyler.  That was the first time I had talked to him since I’ve left, so it was good to catch up.  After a dinner of spaghetti, I went with Zoe, Kelsey, and Sarah to meet up with Neena and her cousin who just got into town at a rooftop bar in Escazu.  The bar had a great view and it was a lot of fun!  Unfortunately, I got home a little bit past my bedtime, so I was ready to hit the hay.  

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

I woke up and put on my OSU shirt because Go Pokes, Wreck Tech! and I wanted to be part of America’s brightest orange, in an international scope.  During the first period, I finished grading and doing other plan type things with my time.  During class, we did a speed-read activity where students have 2:00 minutes or so to read a page of the textbook then they stand up, then we give them a question that they answer and then stand up again, and the cycle continued.  The students did ok with it for a little bit, but after a while, they seemed to get bored.  90 minutes is a long class period.  During one of the classes, four or five of the boys walked in late, and Neena went all bad-cop on them.  I got to be the good cop for that class.  I think Neena scared them.  After school, I watched a little bit of Netflix until dinner as it rained away outside.  For dinner, we had yucas, which tasted like potatoes, along with hot links, rice, and tomatoes.  After dinner, I walked to a store called Mas por Menos where I found exactly what I was looking for.  I needed a beach volleyball or a balloon to play a volleyball review game.  I found the beach volleyball, which was exactly what I had in mind when I made up this game in my head.  I can’t wait to play it later this week and next week.  Oh, and the Pokes did destroy Tech, so Go Pokes! 

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

I woke up a little later than I would have liked to this morning, and it was just one of those mornings.  I forgot my school nametag and watch; it was like a Monday, only it was Tuesday.  We only had one class period and it was the very first one of the day.  We watched Last of the Mohicans which is about the French and Indian War.  I think some of the students were confused since the Americans were allied with the British, and they couldn’t figure out who was wearing the red coats.  It’s the little things of the American culture that you take for granted.  I spent the rest of the school day helping grade stuff and do other outside of class teacher duties.  After school, I went for a run.  During this run I encountered a chicken free on the loose near the street.  I really wanted that chicken to cross the road, just so I could ask him the classic question of why the chicken crossed the road.  I have faith that I will have the opportunity someday.  I spent the rest of the afternoon finishing up my book while enjoying the cool breeze outside.  We had fried chicken (I feel like I had a chickeney day) and two types of picadillo.  When my mom was teaching me how to cook, she always told me to include something green on the plate.  My favorite green thing to find on my plate is avocados, which we also had.  Overall, it was a pretty good day.   

Monday, March 10, 2014

I woke up to a cold shower because the hot water heater wasn’t working, but that’s ok, because I have ice-water in my veins (not really, don’t worry mom).  We had the very traditional gallo-pinto for breakfast (white rice and black beans).  I even wore my purple shirt today, so it was safe to say that I was ready to lecture.  I finished up the final touches to my presentation during my morning period and then got myself ready.  We started class with a warmup where I had the students tell me what they knew about Capitalism.  Some knew too much for their own good, others were pulling up Wikipedia.  After the warmups, we finished up the newspaper article presentations as we learned about the happenings in Egypt, Syria, Venezuela, and the Ukraine.  Then it was my turn.  The lecture was about the Industrial Revolution.  I did my best to ask questions to keep the students engaged and drew on some pretty clever references if I do say so myself.  I talked about Kevin Durant shoes being better than LeBron James shoes when discussing the law of competition and how they have to compete with each other to make the coolest shoes.  After that, my kid with a broken arm challenged me to play basketball when he gets his arm out of its cast.  He’s on.  I had joke breaks in the middle to divide up the material.  For example, what’s the difference between a school teacher and a train locomotive?  The teacher tells you to spit out your gum, while the locomotive says Choo, Choo, Choo!  I even got to make a supply and demand chart during class.  The problem was that trying to get through an entire chapter in one class period was a little ambitious and it turned into an hour to an hour and ten minute lecture, much longer than the average attention span of 9^th Graders.  Next time, I’ll have to be less ambitious with getting through as much content, but that’s what student teaching is for I guess.  After school, I was exhausted.  I sat down to take off my shoes and change clothes, but that quickly turned into a 90 minute nap.  Oops, oh well.  For dinner, I had some steak and onions and they were delicious.  Liliana must be prepping for the Onion Festival that starts here in Santa Ana this week.  She’s super excited for it, and I am too just to say that I’ve been to an onion festival.  Well, that was just another exciting day in Costa Rica.   

Sunday, March 9, 2014

Today was Daylight Savings Time, except Costa Rica does not recognize Daylight Savings Time, so I got to keep that hour of sleep.  The only problem is that my email system thinks I’m an hour ahead, so those emails from the future are pretty cool.  After sleeping in a little bit, I got up to have huevos rancheros that were unlike the ones I’ve experienced in Mexican restaurants in the States.  It had eggs and then had all kinds of different onions, tomatoes, cilantro, and crazy stuff, plus you eat it with bread.  Afterwards, I walked over to the farmers market to check out the different fruits and veggies that they had for sale.  It was a good thing I was not hungry because everything looked delicious.  I proceeded to come back to the house and work on the PowerPoint presentation that I am giving tomorrow during class.  I have cheesy jokes in there, so the kids will love it.  Eventually, Katie and McCall had gone to the gym and showered, so we went to Escazu to go to the Multi-Plaza Mall there and then run by Wal-Mart.  Our first stop in the mall was McDonalds.  That was my first experience of having Costa Rican McDonalds.  This dude cut me in line and they were really slow, but other than that, it was pretty good for McDonalds.  After that, we wandered around different stores, some more fun for me than others.  My favorite was an international book store that we came across.  There were books of all types, in all types of languages that I could purchase.  It was fancy-dancy.  I even got to watch some of the Thunder game because it was on a TV at a food court.  It was perfect, I watched the Thunder game while the other two went to Forever 21 and Gap.  We even found the movie theater inside the mall with its array of movie choices that we could possibly come back to enjoy later in the week.  The girls got all the things they needed and we were off to Wally-World.  At Walmart, I got all of our shampoo and toiletries that I needed, along with lunch supplies to add to the PB&J mission.  We ended up taking a cab home because we did not want to risk the awkward trip home on the bus with all of our groceries.  I got to feel like I was home after that because we had Mac and Cheese for dinner.  I spent the rest of the night Skyping my parents, working on updating this blog, and finishing up the PowerPoint for class tomorrow.    

Saturday, March 8, 2014

Today was the last day of the AASCA Tournament and the Pan-American School Festival.  I got up bright and early and put on my new PAS polo and caught the bus with Katie and McCall.  They had to work the festival in the morning, while I wasn’t scheduled until 11:00.  I went ahead and watched some soccer games and worked on my tan for a little bit while I waited.  By 11:00, it was time for my shift so I helped out with a photo-booth event where people paid 500 colones to dress up and have three pictures taken.  By the time I got there, business had died down and by 11:45, the professional photographer just up and left.  It was a little bit sketchy, and a lot Costa Rican.  Afterwards, I helped cover the bean bag toss as that started to die down.  After cleaning up, I went outside to watch the girls’ finals.  It turned out to be a pretty good game as an American school from Costa Rica won the tournament.  The boys’ final was full of all kinds of drama as it featured our boys team verses Mazapan from Honduras.  As the opening whistle sounded, it started to sprinkle, so I made my way to the covered incline that connects two buildings near the soccer field with most of the rest of the faculty.  Not long after, it started to pour, like Costa Rica rain forest pour.  Pan-American School was able to overcome the rain to take an early two goal lead, but Mazapan was not about to give up.  During the middle of the second half, the referee called a very mysterious foul on one of my students actually (they called a lot of mysterious fouls, but I kind of expected that based on the reputation of Central American referees).  Unfortunately, Mazapan scored on the ensuing free kick.  Then with just two minutes remaining, Mazapan earned a corner kick, which they were able to capitalize on to knock the wind out of the crowd.  The tied score meant overtime.  The overtime periods were shorter than normal, lasting just 15 minutes total instead of the 30 minutes that FIFA suggests.  Naturally, no goals were scored so they had to make us all nervous and have the game go into penalty kicks.  We have a stud goal keeper who blocked their first one, followed by us making our first one.  Each team made the second one.  Our keeper blocked the second one, followed by us making our third one.  At this point, I told Katie and McCall (who had just gotten there) that if they miss we win.  Sure enough, the kid kicked it over the crossbar, making Pan-American School victorious!  All of the students in attendance rushed the field to congratulate their classmates.  It was quite a scene, and something that made me be proud to be a part of the school.  After everyone finally made it to the gym, we had an awards ceremony to recognize all of the participants.  There was ironically dramatic music as the 9 place teams went up to get their participation pins and so on until they got the third place team for the girls.  The Pan-American girls’ team had won their third place game as well, so they got bronze medals.  Finally, they got to the first place boys’ team as they played ‘We Are The Champions” while our boys’ team got their gold medals and trophy.  They finished it off by giving out sportsmanship awards (pretty much to the last place teams… “you lost, but at least you were good sports”) and MVP/Leadership awards to one member from each team.  After the awards ceremony, I had to go help chaperone a pool party/ after party.  It started late, and the band could only play until 8:00, so there was only music on for about an hour.  The kids got food and danced some, but it was too cold for the pool after the rain.  After the music stopped, the place was almost vacant except for the faculty.  The kids probably went to their own parties.  Since it was dead, McCall’s Cooperating Teacher, the two girls and I walked towards the bus stop trying to catch the bus.  After waiting for half an hour, we gave up and flagged down a cab.  By the time I got home, it was almost 10:00, making for a nice long day.  Lilliana’s grandson was there, so when I got home, I sat with her as she rocked him to sleep outside, watching the moon and the stars.  It was cool to see her in full on grandma mood.  Finally, it was bedtime for me, too.    

Friday, March 7, 2014

The crazy week continued.  The 10^th Grade class had the chance to work on their breakup letter/ text messages project before they finally got to see our rap at the end of the class period.  They really enjoyed it.  The boys soccer team played a match during the morning as well, with a 1-1 draw with a school called Mazapan from Honduras.  The 9^th Graders finished up their newspaper articles and a couple of groups had the chance to present them before going out to watch the soccer games.  Eventually, when my day was done, I went out and watched the soccer games as well while I waited for Katie and McCall to finish up with their day.  When they were done, we went to the little pizza place that we went to while Katie’s parents were still here.  We had some tasty pepperoni pizza.  After some dilly-dallying, Zoe and I had dinner that for me consisted of some rice, avocados, and ground beef.  I watched a random soccer match after dinner until Zoe was ready to walk over to the Old West.  We got a couple of well-deserved drinks for surviving la semana loca. 

Thursday, March 6, 2014

Today was Sports Day at school.  So I got to wear my recently purchased Costa Rica soccer jersey to school, because I’m cool like that.  I spent the first part of school bagging snacks that the students get after games.  The snacks include a Gatorade, granola bar, and an apple and are now in plastic bags that are all tied up.  Those kids better enjoy their apples, because I worked really hard on putting them in their bags.  I essentially spent the rest of the day outside watching soccer games that Pan-American was participating in.  The boys’ team is really good and won their games 3-0 and 5-0 and will likely win the tournament.  The girls’ team struggled in their first game, but pulled out a win in exciting fashion during their second match.  There is one girl who scored from a corner kick and from a break away after a free kick and I’m pretty sure she is in middle school.  She scored her second goal with 3 minutes left to give them a 2-1 win.  When I home I took a run in the rain.  It was the first significant rain that I’ve been outside for since we got here.  Now the whole house and all of the outsides smell like rain.  Dinner consisted of some fried chicken and that made me happy.  It’s been a busy week thus far. 

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

I woke up knowing that today would be a long day, but at least we got to wear jeans.  In class, our students worked on a newspaper article assignment where they compared the recent revolutions in the Ukraine, Venezuela, Syria, and Egypt with the Revolutions of 1848 that we just studied.  I must admit, those newspaper article were looking fantastic; I’m excited to have the students print them off and display them in the classroom!  At the end of each class, we showed them our rap and we got a round of applause.  It’s been a crazy week so the kids are super hyper.  I kept hearing them blurt out songs that I have no idea how they know.  One kid sang asked if I was from Texas in the middle of singing “All My Exes Live in Texas.”  Another made up lyrics to the song “I’m Blue Da Ba Dee” (which is a very 90s song).  In addition, some of the students are Catholic and it’s Ash Wednesday.  Several of them mentioned that they were fasting, probably another reason for their hyperness.  After school, all of the teachers hung around until 5:00.  They fed us Subway, which was probably my first American chain restaurant meal in over a month.  At 5:00 (well, actually it was closer to 6:00, yeah Tico Time!) we had the Opening Ceremony for the AASCA Tournament that the school is hosting.  This is an International Soccer Tournament for teams from throughout Central America.  The Opening Ceremony was really cool!  They had the students dress in traditional white dresses and white collared shirts.  The dresses and shirts were accented with different colors.  These students brought in the different flags of each country that is part of this Central American Association, followed by the students escorting each participating team while epic sounding music played in the background.  It was almost like the opening ceremony for the Olympics.  After all of the participants had been escorted into the auditorium, the students took a sportsmanship pledge and enjoyed a couple of dance team and musical performances.  When the ceremony was over, the students had different ice breaker activities that they participated in as each team was divided up so that each student was with people from different schools.  Some of these events included Musical Chairs (which I helped with), Twister, Face Painting, Wii Dancing, and inflatables.  In the middle of Musical Chairs, one girl asked me frantically where the coaches were meeting because she had tickets to the Costa Rica v. Paraguay game.  I had to help her find her coach and once we found him it was a good reminder that Costa Rica was playing a soccer game today.  As our role in the shindig came to a conclusion, Katie, McCall, and I caught a bus home.  I was able to eat a quick bowl of cereal and turn on the Costa Rica game.  Costa Rica played really well and defeated the Paraguayans 2-1.  By the final whistle, I could barely keep my eyes open.