Thursday, February 27, 2014

This morning started off with a political debate for the student council.  There were three parties that each had to have at least one student from each grade that were involved in the debate.  One of the other teachers was explaining the background to me.  One party called “Beso” or “Kiss” is run by a girl whose mom is a former Miss Costa Rica (she was at the debate, I may have sat close to her on purpose).  Apparently this girl has been a wallflower for most of her time at school, but has recently broken out of her shell.  This girl’s mom now works at a news station and was able to help make all the campaign videos very official.  They were also endorsed on Facebook by a TV commercial celebrity and have bought bounce-houses for their political campaign activity.  Another party is called “Pie” or “Foot.”  This group consists of some of the students who are on scholarship and are not exactly floating in money like the other party.  They’re really mad at the other party because the campaign activity was not supposed to be more than $20, but they were able to get around it.  According to the teacher explaining things to me, this group has big ideas, but they are probably too big for them to accomplish.  The third party was created as a joke.  They’re called “Gallo” or “Rooster.”  They had two chickens on the table on the election stage.  Their political campaign activity consisted of them releasing chickens out on the field nearby and giving KFC to anyone who caught and brought back the chickens.  They made the campaign promise that they would give a chicken to everyone as a parody to a recent socialist presidential candidate who was just eliminated from contention.  Their campaign slogan was “Vote Beso” telling people to vote for another political party.  Their closing remark consisted of one of the students holding their phone up next to the microphone and playing and dancing to the Chicken Dance.  It was an interesting debate to be sure.  My only other obligation of the day included the 10^th Grade US History class.  They also had presentations that they did an excellent job with.  After school, we caught a bus to San Jose.  There was this little old lady who was sitting next to me who kept falling asleep on my shoulder.  This seems to be a thing in Costa Rica, sleep on the gringo.  Unfortunately, when we got to the bus station to buy tickets, it was closed.  There was even someone inside the ticket booth to tell us that it was closed.  This is stressing us out just a little bit because we will be cutting it close to catch the bus tomorrow after school.  That was two and a half hours of my life that I will never get back.  Oh well, Pura Vida.  When we got home, the water was out, which was lovely.  After dinner, I finished up some of my homework for OSU and hit the sack.  It was definitely a day that reminded me that I am in Latin America.    

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Today’s my momma’s birthday, so one of the first things I did this morning was write a facebook post to her.  I think that I was rewarded by the higher beings with a delicious Omelet that had ham, cheese, onions, and beans in it.  School was good today because I had a full day of kids in the class.  They presented the PowerPoint Presentations that they created on Monday.  I was thoroughly impressed with the quality of the presentations; they looked significantly better than I could have ever done with a PowerPoint.  We stuck around afterschool for a meeting.  I’m not entirely sure what it was all about, but we were rewarded with a cupcake for sticking around.  When I returned home, I facebook messaged my grandma about the trip they are going to take to visit in April during Semana Santa.  Entonces, I went for a run around the neighborhood, trying to find a new route to enjoy.  At the tail end of the run, it started to sprinkle.  That was the first time I have seen rain since our forgettable trip to Puerto Viejo.  After getting all showered up, Zoe and I had a dinner that consisted of a chicken lasagna and broccoli.  I then was a good son and Skyped my mom to tell her happy birthday and spent the rest of the night feeling sleepy.    

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Today was the longer day of the week because I did not have the kids in class for most of the day.  We started off with the 10^th Graders who worked on a PowerPoint presentation for most of the period.  Afterwards, I went to one of the middle school teachers’ room and observed that class as they worked on a European Union assignment.  I spent the rest of the day planning, entering grades, and reading the textbook.  We have some cool stuff planned for the rest of the week, so those kids better be ready.  After school, McCall, Katie, and I stopped at an area about halfway home from school.  They went to a place that made copies, while I went across the street and got USDs for rent and some PB&J supplies for lunches.  Afterwards, the other two split a pasta for a snack and I had a coke.  Today I noticed that I had to tighten my belt by a notch, so I decided to keep the movement going by going for a run.  Towards the end of my run, I ran into Zoe and we checked out this mysterious building next to our morning bus stop to discover what it is.  It turns out, it’s like an afterschool fine arts center.  There are practice rooms with pianos, percussion equipment, and stands; pretty much like your typical bandroom.  There is also a dance studio on the second floor, along with conference rooms and a computer lab.  On the third floor, there is a stage that made the room seem like a theater.  We were curious, so it was good to finally have discovered the answer to that mystery.  After dinner, Lilianna sat with us and talked about how she is afraid of water and drugs and other random topics.  By golly, I can feel my fluency pick up a little bit every day.  And apparently I don’t snore like I did when I first arrived here anymore.  There’s never a dull moment at our dinner table conversations.   

Monday, February 24, 2014

I woke up before my alarm today, but that did not mean that it did not feel like Monday, because it did.  During class, the kids spent most of the class period working on a PowerPoint presentation over a section of the text that they read and will present to the class on Wednesday.  Most of them did a super job, and therefore, there wasn’t much I could do to help them.  As a result, I spent most of the school day grading the homework that they turned in and making copies for the US History class tomorrow.  As we were walking out to the street after school, we could see the bus make a stop at the bus stop that we normally catch, so we started running to the next stop on the line.  We had great fortune and got picked up, making our get home time much earlier than normal.  When we got off the bus, McCall really wanted a Coke, so we went inside a little convenience-type store.  As we were all paying for our afterschool munchies, a pigeon got stuck inside of the store and couldn’t get out.  On top of the ordeal, Katie is terrified of birds, so she made her way to the other side of the store as this guy cornered the bird, picked it up with his own hands, and took it outside to let it fly away.  We’re definitely in Central America.  We changed clothes and then started to plan our adventure to Monte Verde for next weekend.  We already have a hotel booked and a plan of action on how to get there ready to go.  I spent the rest of the day eating, shooting the bull with Zoe, and trying to keep the people happy by updating the blog.   

Sunday, February 23, 2014

Naturally, I woke up at 6:15, so I went and sat outside of the pool for a little bit and made use of the wifi that I neglected the night before.  I found out that my Pokes beat Texas Tech for the first win since I left for Costa Rica.  There was much rejoicing in my heart and soul.  Katie’s parents woke up a little later, so I went to enjoy the free breakfast with them.  I had pancakes.  After a little while longer, Katie and McCall came to breakfast, too.  We decided to go to the Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio so that Katie’s parents could check out the trail while we forged ahead to get to one of the private beaches that had a shower that we could take advantage of when done with our beach going.  While hitting the trail, we saw a lot of raccoons this time.  They were everywhere and tried to get into our backpacks.  Joke’s on them because we did not have any food.  The waves were vicious on this fine morning.  They did their best to make us look silly, but we prevailed victorious.  After a bit, we took our showers and went to lunch.  We went to “The Avion” which was a restaurant that is built around an old airplane.  The bar is inside of the fuselage, but the best views are where we sat.  We were high up and had a terrific view of the ocean and all the forestry that surrounded it.  I had some delicious fettuccini alfredo.  After some breathtaking pictures, we headed back down the mountain to catch the bus.  While on the bus, Katie had an interesting incident.  When we stopped for people in Quepos, a lady pointed at the seat next to Katie indicating that that was her seat.  Katie got up and let the lady into the seat.  The lady’s friend proceeded to sit right next to her.  When Katie tried to explain that that was her seat, the lady shook her head up and down and proceeded not to care.  Katie just sat in the seat behind where one of the ladies was supposed to sit (which actually turned out to be closer to everyone else), but it was a strange encounter nonetheless.  We got home a little before 6:00 and took a taxi home.  For the third time of the trip, we made McCall sit on people’s laps during the taxi ride.  We passed by Estadio Nacional which had a big soccer match between Alajulea and Deportiva Saprissa.  The place was packed.  When we got home, we dropped off our stuff and went to a little Italian place nearby.  We had some delicious pizza that included some fresh pineapples.  Afterwards, we walked Katie’s parents to their hotel and checked it out.  It was a really neat little shindig that they really enjoyed.  We said our farewells and went back to our houses.  It was a great weekend and I was ready for some shuteye.     

Saturday, February 22, 2014

We woke up early to be picked up by a van from Katie’s parents’ hotel that took us to the bus station in San Jose.  We got there plenty early, so we had a little bit of time to kill.  At the station, there was a guy from California who was trying to get to Panama so that he could work in the air-conditioning business there or something.  We wished him good luck with that and boarded the bus to get to Manuel Antonio.  The bus ride was about a four and a half hour trip that consisted of a 15 minute stop in the middle.  It’s always better when they announce a time frame for those stops.  Finally, we stopped in Quepos where we got out to catch a taxi to our hotel which was halfway between Quepos and Manuel Antonio.  The hotel was very nice.  It had a pool, restaurant, bar, and wifi.  We changed into our bathing suits and hit the beach.  Actually, we ate some lunch on the beach before we actually laid out/ challenged the waves to a battle.  The beach was plenty fun.  There was a parasailing station right next to where we set up shop, so we enjoyed watching people take off into the wild blue yonder.  After several hours, we headed back to the hotel.  I embraced my inner 10 year old self and swam in the chilly pool water for an hour or so while the two girls made use of the wifi that reached the pool area, but did not reach our hotel room.  Katie’s parents did a clean-up/enjoy happy hour combo.  We had dinner reservations at the restaurant attached to the hotel at 6:30, so we were all cleaned up by then.  Dinner was cooked by an authentic Italian chef and it was delicious.  We spent most of the rest of the night sitting around the table before retiring to the hotel where we found the last night of the Winter Olympics on television.  We all slept very well that night.  

Friday, February 21, 2014

Today I got a lot more honey-melon for breakfast.  And it was jeans day, so it had the makings of a good day from the very beginning.  Today was quiz day for the 9^th Graders and Jeopardy for the 10^th Graders.  I got to play a review game with the 9^th Graders before their quiz.  The game was basically candy-land, only with a snake-like figure on the board.  The teams got to roll the dice for each question they got correct.  Afterwards, they took the quiz, graded it, and had free time.  During their free time, a couple of the kids were playing volleyball with a balloon.  That gave me a great idea for a review game.  I could have a representative from each team play one-on-one volleyball with a balloon and the winner of each point would be given the chance to answer a question for a point.  After the 10^th Graders finished their warm-up, I had my computer hooked up to the projector.  I ran a Colonialism Jeopardy game.  Unfortunately, we ran out of time, so its’ fun level could only be so high.  After school we had a meeting, the first part of which was actually pretty cool.  One of the teachers talked about a chapter in a book that the school is assigning a chapter to each faculty member to talk about.  This one was about how to be a favorite teacher.  We also got a little bit more information about a soccer tournament that the school is hosting in a week and a half.  The rest consisted of bickering about trivial things like whether grade level meetings should be during lunch or after-school.  It concluded with instructions about turnitin.com, instructions that were in Spanish, about something I’ve been using since 9^th grade, and something that I couldn’t even access anyway.  On the bright side, Katie’s parents had gotten in to the country once we were done with the meeting, so a happy Katie is a fun Katie.  We walked around Santa Ana and went to dinner with them at a place called “The Old West.”  It was probably the most Americanized food that I’ve had since I’ve been here.  Then I found out that I passed my OPTE, which means that I am one step closer to becoming certified.  I finished the night off by Skyping my parents and brother Jordan.  That was Skype date number three with them.  Look out world, I’m on pace to hit double digits by AprilJ  We’re off to Manuel Antonio bright and early in the morning tomorrow.   

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Minimal onion breath today.  Or so I think.  For breakfast I had a tortilla that had cheese and beans inside of it.  It was an interesting concoction.  The first event of the day was an awards assembly for outstanding students from last year.  It was interesting to see which students accepted the customary kiss on the check when they got the awards and which students were staying the heck away from the scary teachers.  Afterwards, we played a short review game in my one short morning class.  I spent the rest of the morning finishing up homework for OSU and planning.  The US History lesson was about the Slave Trade.  I had the students pack in a “ship” like sardines and had them see if they could last five minutes.  They mostly struggled with the boredom.  After school, McCall, Katie, and I went to buy our tickets for the weekend trip to Manuel Antonio with Katie’s parents who will be in town.  We made it without issue, a stark improvement to the last time the three of us went to San Jose to buy tickets.  I also had my first experience with a Costa Rican ATM today, which when swimmingly.  During our dinner of Spanish rice with chicken, Liliana entertained us with many different interesting conversation topics.  One of which was that she is getting a breast reduction in October; a disappointment to her husband.  Other topics included her views on the Catholic Church, marriage, kids, and all kinds of other things.  Zoe and I also showed her pictures of our siblings and parents.  She thinks my brothers are very handsome.  I also showed her the Beatles Show that I was a part of with the OSU Marching Band.  She loved it.  It’s unlike anything that goes on here, so the formations were like eye-candy to her and the music was excellent, of course.  I finished the night off by finding the Thunder game on a channel called Space.  I am feeling a little bit nostalgic of all the pictures they keep showing of Oklahoma.  All-in-all, it was a good day and I get to wear jeans to school tomorrow.  You can’t beat that! 

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Today was significantly more exciting.  I started the day off with probably the best omelet I’ve ever had.  The bus ride even seemed shorter than normal, getting us to school by 7:00.  We were talking about Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great today.  I spent the morning prepping an activity over the 1649 Russian Law Code that I was exposed to in my lovely Russia to 1865 course in the fall.  McCall called me a nerd because I was getting all excited about how fascinating the laws were.  I’m a sucker for interesting primary source documents.  In the classes themselves, we started the class off with a map activity over territorial expansion.  They struggled with it a little bit, so I had a great time going around and helping them out.  I saw several light bulbs click, which was an awesome part of my day!  Afterwards, we read through the chapter.  And by we, I mean I read the chapter aloud and asked questions.  I got to pronounce words like the “boyars” and “Visily” to the class.  Finally, I got to have them analyze the Russian Law Code and answer whether or not they thought the laws were fair.  I had them focus on laws related to whether or not the death penalty should be enforced because there were many discrepancies.  Some of those kids really got into the debate about the laws’ fairness; moreso than I could have hoped for.  That was the first lesson in which I felt like I had the spotlight and I had a blast going through it.  Funny story interruption:  I had a student ask what bonus was, only instead he asked what a “boner was.”  I may not have kept a straight face.  English as a Second Language kids can be entertaining.  Tonight was Parent Night for the high schoolers, so Katie and I had to hang out until the first part of that at 6:00.  It was interesting to see all the different parents.  Pan-American is definitely a private school.  When I got home, Liliana cooked up a steak with a bunch of differently cooked onions.  She likes to cook onions.  It was really good, but I think I might have onion breath tomorrow.  I’ll let you know.     

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Today was actually kind of a boring day.  During school, I had a class right off the bat.  It was US History so we started the year off right by talking about American Colonialism and how the different regions had different colonial experiences.  The students did a little bit of popcorn reading and did really well with it, I thought.  The rest of the day was devoted to planning.  I’m sure once I’m in control of the class, it will be a welcomed time, but right now it’s not the most exciting part of my day.  After school, I collaborated with McCall on some of my homework for OSU while Katie went to the gym.  I spent the rest of the afternoon reading about the mental state of Preston Brooks before he wacked Charles Sumner in the head multiple times in 1856.  It was an interesting angle of the topic.  For dinner we had a grilled chili pepper with meat in it, along with frijoles and macaroni.  Luckily, I have three classes with the kiddos tomorrow, so it should be a much more interesting day.  

Monday, February 17, 2014

I woke up early to shave my 4 day beard.  Shaving sucks.  After a breakfast of papaya and cereal, we caught the bus.  I wore one of my OSU polos, and got several “I like your shirt” comments from my kids, so Go Pokes!  During class, we dove into a lesson on absolute monarchies in Central Europe including Maria Teresa and Frederick the Great.  Did you know that Frederick the Great was a bit of a sissy while growing up and when he ran away from his strict father, his father made him watch the friend that he ran away with have his head cut off to toughen young Frederick up.  Bet you didn’t.  Anywho, I really like my students.  They’re really bright and I can teach them new English phrases like “you betcha.”  My Mondays are actually a lot of fun because I have students for most of the day and they’re much more fun than planning.  After school, I went on my first jog in Costa Rica.  McCall went with me and neither one of us died, so that was a positive.  I spent most of the rest of the afternoon uploading pictures of the weekend and updating the blog.  There was a lot to say.  For dinner, we had this Spanish rice with chicken, carrots, cut up chili peppers, along with a fresh tomato and chips.  Delicious as always.  I also had my second Skype date with my parents.  We’re all caught up on each other’s lives.  The rest of the night was spent recovering from the weekend.    

Sunday, February 16, 2014

I know I was lame for going to bed before 10:00 on a Saturday night, but I was up at the crack of dawn again so I got to go to the beach for the morning.  I read some of my book and got my tan on.  I managed to burn the front of my legs, which I don’t think I have ever done.  The tide was really low and the surfers were in full force.  The girls got to the beach at about 9:15 or so and got to enjoy at least an hour of morning sun.  After showering and checking out of our hostel we made our way to the bus stop.  Naturally, the bus was not running until 12:00, so we had an hour to kill.  I walked back towards a grocery store and bought a 2 liter of water.  It was gone by 2:00.  Then we all got some delicious smoothies.  Don’t Mess with Texas is about littering.  Don’t Mess with Costa Rica should be about its fruit.  Finally, the bus got there and we hit the dusty trail.  Literally.  Miraculously, we also made it just in time for the 12:30 bus out of Cobano and hit that crazy road, too.  By the time we got to Paquera, we were cutting it close to catching the 2:00 ferry.  And there were a bunch of cars parked on the side of the road that the bus couldn’t pass.  Eventually, everyone realized that bus>car, so we made it to the dock.  They held the ferry as our bus-full of people bought tickets and embarked on the ship.  It was nice and toasty onboard the ship, so Zoe and I found the inside part of the ship that had a café.  I had a burrito and my first carbonated beverage since entering the country.  After disembarking the ship, we walked towards the bus stop.  After a quick bite to eat, we got on a bus home to San Jose.  The kid that sat next to me on the bus was this teenager who was dressed like he was too cool for school.  He definitely kept putting his head on my shoulder.  It was awkward.  When we got back to San Jose, Zoe and I walked a couple of blocks to the bus that took us back to Santa Ana.  Zoe has a baby phone, so she called ahead to Lillyana to hook us up with some dinner when we got home.  We got off the bus in Santa Ana at about 7:45, a little under an 8 hour journey.  Good thing the journey’s half the fun!  I came back a little bit tanner and a lot ready for bed!

Saturday, February 15, 2014

Well, I have turned into my parents because I was up at 6:15.  Wide awake.  I got a start on my book about the caning of Charles Sumner (I wrote a research paper on the topic in college, so I am excited to read this book) while my travel companions slept in a little bit.  By about 8:00 the two girls were awake so we set off for the ferry!  The walk to the ferry was by far the longest one kilometer in my life, but we made it just in time to catch the 9:00 ferry.  The ferry ride lasted about 70 minutes and was a pretty cool experience!  Aside from cool shoreline/ocean views, I saw several things jump out of the water; I’m sure that they were giant whales trying to greet us to the Nicoya Peninsula.  Eventually, we made it to Paquera where we jumped on a bus headed towards Montezuma.  We were packed in like sardines.  There were people hanging on from outside the bus.  ‘Twas crazy.  We rode this bus for about 90 minutes until we got to Cobano which was a small town in the middle of nowhere.  We had to wait there for 2 ½ hours for the bus that got us the rest of the way to Santa Teresa.  We stopped in a little soda to wait it out.  I had a very interesting hamburger.  While waiting for the bus, we met some people from Slovenia, Germany, and England.  The last leg of the journey consisted of an extremely bumpy road that took 30 minutes to go about 15 kilometers.  (It’s weird, only two weeks in and I think in kilometers).  Once we finally got there, it was about 3:30 in the afternoon.  We tried to check into one hostel, but it was full (which was weird because it was a small little town).  We tried a different hostel.  We walked toward the check-in area and found one guy.  We asked “Tiene espacio por anoche?” and the guy was like “Dude, do y’all speak English.”  It was a neat little hostel with a pool and pool table, along with other things like hammocks, common living rooms, and kitchens.  My only problem with it was that almost everyone staying there smoked, which was unpleasant in my opinion.  We made the trek down to the beach.  It was a really pretty beach during the daytime with lots of big waves and surfers making use of the waves.  Plus, there were people with their dogs out playing on the beach and even people who passed by who were going horseback riding on the beach.  However, the best part of the weekend, and the thing that made the long journey there worth it, was the sunset!  It was magnificent and I could not take enough pictures of it!  The pics are on my Facebook page.  I now have a new background for my phone.  On the way back from the beach, we walked by a bonfire that was happening on the beach.  I hope those people at least roasted marshmallows.  We took a quick dip in the pool and grabbed something to eat.  I had a casado which is a traditional Costa Rican meal of rice, black beans, meat, macaroni, and salad.  I was beat (because of the whole awake at 6:15 thing) so I chilled in a hammock for a bit and then went to bed.  The two girls went to some fancy party shindig.  

Friday, February 14, 2014

Today was Valentine’s Day, so I played the part of a Valentine’s Day fairy with bags of chocolate.  This scored big points with my host mom (who is apparently already trying to marry me off…) and hopefully brought a smile to some young ladies who are far away from home during the holiday.  At school we had the students work on a pre-assessment to see what they know about the different subjects to figure out what we can skip since it is an abbreviated class.  I spent most of the morning going through each of the answers trying to depict trends about the students’ knowledge.  After school, I grabbed some lunch at a local ‘soda’ and waited for Zoe to get back to the house.  From there, we packed up our stuff and headed to the bus stop to get to San Jose.  In San Jose, we caught up with Zoe’s friend Taylor and headed off for Puntarenas.  The bus ride was approximately two hours long and by the time we got there, we knew that we would not have much luck crossing the Gulf of Nicoya at night so we grabbed some dinner on the beach.  We tried to find our hostel, but the guy we asked sent us towards a hotel with a similar name, but in the complete opposite direction.  Luckily, there was a festival going on in Puntarenas so we got to take in things like the bumper cars and all kinds of loud music.  There was tent called “Go & Fun.”  I’m not sure if they knew that made zero sense.  There was a plethora of police in Puntarenas, so we were able to have them point us in the right direction eventually.  Unfortunately, our room at the hostel did not have air-conditioning.  And the Pacific side is significantly hotter than San Jose.  So we sweated off a few pounds during the night.  

Thursday, February 13, 2014

I finally got the tip on how to make to shower warm, so I had my first warm-ish shower in Costa Rica!  That made for a good Thursday morning.  After a breakfast of cereal and fruit, we could see the bus, so we made a run for it.  It was in the spirit of the Olympics.  During school, I had the chance to observe a 6^th grade geography class.  It was really interesting because he tied the concept of latitude and longitude to how the EU works.  Plus with several students from the EU, the lesson seemed relevant to all.  We did our same lesson plan with the 10^th grade US History class that we finally got to meet.  This was an interesting class because it consisted of 12 girls and 2 boys; completely unlike all the other classes that seem to be male dominant.  They really enjoyed playing 7-up.  After school, I went with Zoe to San Jose to buy bus tickets for this weekend.  We bought tickets to Puntarenas where we will catch a ferry to take us to Santa Teresa.  Getting to and fro San Jose was significantly easier today than last week!  After our escapade, we came home to a dinner of jamon, potatoes, cucumbers, and tomatoes mixed with red onions.  Muy delicious.  I spent the rest of the night finishing homework for OSU and watching the last episode of “Numbers,” a show that I watched during the month of dead time between Christmas and my trip.  Tomorrow’s Friday!  

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Today was super exciting; I got to be the teacher for a bit!  After doing the whole morning routine of eating breakfast, catching the bus, walking to school, and reading about Napoleon until my class started, it was finally 9:20.  We greeted the kids outside of the classroom as they entered.  There were a bunch of really tall 9^th Graders, along with a bunch of really short ones.  We started the class period by having students write their name on a notecard and then draw something that represented them.  While going around sharing, one girl said that she liked to ski and I asked “where do you like to ski?”  She replied in a rather sassy voice, “I am half Norwegian.  I go to Norway to ski.”  That put me in my place.  We also had them play People Bingo and set up a facebook group for the class for their bellwork and whatnot.  Then I was in charge.  I had them make a human timeline with a series of events that they will be learning about in class.  Everyone has a laptop in class, so they looked up the events before I could say no.  However, that was probably for the best because then they learned a little something while looking it up.  They did pretty well on the timeline and I had a chance to watch to see who the class leaders were.  I also had them play games just for fun as icebreakers.  We played a murder game where two people have a disease and have to make eye contact with the others and wink at them to infect/kill them.  That was fun!  The last class finished really early, so they wanted to play 7-up.  I did not realize that kids still play 7-up, but 7-up we played.  Overall, I had a blast with my kids at school!  After school, we had an IB meeting which got me home late.  Dinner was delicious as always with chicken, rice, avocado, fried bananas, and a banana bread pudding thing that smelled and tasted amazing.  Afterwards I chillaxed with Zoe, Kelsey, and Sarah while Katie and McCall stayed for McCall’s meet the teacher night.  ‘Twas a fun day!      

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Today should have been a super exciting day because I should have had my first class, but it was not.  While reading the textbook during our first period, Neena and I heard quite the commotion outside so we went out to investigate.  They were having an assembly and the senior class got to be showoffs.  They had vuvuzelas, air horns, fancied up pineapples, and a donkey.  I did get to pet and take a picture of the donkey, because where else would have a donkey at an assembly.  If you want proof, I have a picture on facebook.  One of the teachers told me “Welcome to Latin America!”  I should have had my first class at 11:00, so I was outside the door helping greet students.  All of a sudden, one of the Spanish teachers walked into our room and started teaching.  Apparently, somebody done messed up the scheduling and there was much confusion.  Oh well.  I spent most of the rest of the day reading the textbook, and there was a fair amount of boredom.  Luckily nothing that I read about was completely foreign to me.  When I got home, there were people working on the concrete.  Since I’m related to my mom, I more or less hid in my room and watched Netflix.  At dinner we had chicken soup.  It was good for the soul.  Afterwards, Lilliana sat and chatted with us for a while.  She talks to us at the perfect level of understanding and pushing the envelope.  Overall, it was a low-key day.       

Monday, February 10, 2014

It was back to the school routine.  After breakfast, I caught the 6:30 bus with Zoe while the other two girls caught the 6:45 bus.  I’ve been trained too well in the “10 minutes early is on time” mantra.  After an uneventful ride to school, I worked on a People Bingo ice-breaker game.  I’m sure the kids will be all over it!  Afterwards, we had a welcome assembly for the 9^th Graders as they enter high school.  We were a little early to the assembly, but as the students entered they exclaimed “iHola, profe!”  I could definitely get used to being called a professor!  The assembly itself was incredibly boring, but I had a good time watching the students interact with each other and perform skits that I only partially understood.  Nonetheless, I’m looking forward to working with them later this week.  I spent most of the rest of the day just reading the world history textbook.  I tried to sit through a technology meeting, but it was in Spanish and about an email that I don’t have, so I was told to just keeping reading.  At the end of the day, I did have my first experience printing and making copies at the school though.  I think that qualifies me as a teacher.  Katie had gone with some other teachers to print things off on a more professional scale, so I rode the bus home with McCall.  There was a stray dog that followed us from the school to the bus stop (minus the crossing the street).  The dog was cute, but I was a little reluctant to pet her.  There are a ton of stray dogs in Costa Rica, which is a travesty.  Anyway, McCall talked my ear off during the bus ride, so I take that as a sign that she is feeling better!  She even got her nametag today and they spelled her name “Micall,” like how they pronounce it here.  The mistake made her laugh.  I’ll have to find a way to get my nametag made tomorrow.  I’m a little jealous.  When we got back to the house, I read my last article review and wrote up the brief summary, which was cause for a happy dance.  Dinner consisted of rice, broccoli, and this manicotti-es food, only instead of the cheese inside, there was meat.  It was super delicious.  After dinner, Zoe and I watched an episode of “Numbers” on Netflix, because I like hokey crime shows like that.  Then it was time to get mentally prepared to be a teacher tomorrow.      

Sunday, February 9, 2014

I slept in all the way to 9:15 today, by far the latest of the trip!  While I was eating breakfast, Kelsey and Sarah peaked their heads in from the street and invited me to join them at the farmer’s market that Santa Ana has every week.  After a quick shower, I met them and Katie there.  It was definitely a neat experience and even had someone playing the marimba in the middle of the street (which always reminds me of my brother Tyler, the fantastic marimbaist).  Kelsey and Sarah showed us their house near our homestay and then Kelsey showed us where the nearest ATM and gym is, while Sarah left to go shopping.  By the time we got back, McCall was awake and feeling much better!  I spent most of the rest of the day working on homework for OSU and watching soccer on the TV in my room.  I even skyped my parents for the first time of the trip!  (I should get a gold star for that.)  After dinner, I went for a little walk to explore Santa Ana and found all kinds of neat things such as the public library, sodas (which are small cafes), and barbershops nearby.  Overall, it was a relaxing Sunday before the 6^th and 9^th graders show up tomorrow and the rest show up to school on Tuesday!

Saturday, February 8, 2014

After being sick all week, McCall woke up this morning feeling awful.  It was raining anyways, so at about 10:15 we decided to buy bus tickets and go back home.  We got to the bus stop and bought tickets at about 10:30, bought the tickets, went back and packed up and paid for our room, and made our way back to the bus stop before the bus left.  We were able to get seats on the bus (as opposed to being forced to stand) and made the trek back to San Jose.  This time we were not fooled by the stop in Limon.  However, we did experience some sketchiness when a police officer stopped the bus and asked to see everyone’s passports.  The three of us definitely only had copies and did not have a copy of the stamp that proved we were in the country legally.  Luckily, he did not really look at ours very carefully, but he did pull someone off the bus.  I know that my heart was racing during the incident.  After a nice little nap on the bus after my heart stopped racing, we were back in San Jose where, with the help of a map, we found a bus going back to Santa Ana much quicker than before.  The bus even stopped right next to our house.  McCall called her parents who had researched a hospital in Escazo, which is about 6 km away, so McCall and I went to the hospital to see if they could figure out what was wrong.  While she was hooked up to an IV and getting blood-work done, I watched a Jason Bourne movie, the news, half of a soccer match, and some bulls attacking people (which I thought was ironic at a hospital).  Eventually, they let me go back there and I had the pleasure of trying to figure out how to get her some soup.  They were nice enough to give her nasty soup, rice, and fish, which pretty much went to waste.  By 11:30, they let her go home and called us a taxi.  It was definitely an experience being in a Costa Rican hospital.   

Friday, February 7, 2014

After a breakfast of eggs, papaya, and cantaloupe, we caught the bus.  I feel like I’m starting to get the hang of the local buses.  Today was a short day at school because we got out at 12:00.  I spent most of the morning mapping out some of the curriculum for US History and finding links and whatnot.  I also set up the game that I’ll have the students play during the first day of school.  At noon we took the bus back to the house and packed for the weekend.  I stopped at a pizzeria near the house to have a jamon y queso pizza, along with a refresca that tasted like orange soda with a little bit of a twang to it.  Plus, it was really cheap, only 2000 colones or about $4.  After a little more dilly-dallying, we took a taxi to La Estacion de San Carlos to catch the bus.  We waited at the bus stop for about an hour and then loaded up to go to Puerto Viejo.  We rode through a bunch of beautiful scenery as we made our way to the Caribbean.  After about 3 ½ hours, we stopped in Limon for a break, only we did not know that we were stopped in Limon and proceeded to walk outside of the bus station and start looking for our hostel.  After a couple of blocks, we got to a sign that said Puerto Viejo was 50-some km away.  We quickly said, “wait a minute…” and turned around to race back to the bus.  Luckily, it was still at the stop and we got back on it, a little bit stressed out.  After another hour on the bus, we arrived at Puerto Viejo and found our hostel called Cabinas Larry.  It had a full-size bed, bunk-bed, and hammock outside to fulfill the claim that it sleeps five people.  I watched a little bit of the Olympic Opening Ceremony while the girls skyped home.

Thursday, February, 6, 2014

After breakfast, it was time to give the bus to school a try.  It was like being in the first grade all over again.  But we made it there.  After getting our visitor passes for the day, I worked with Neena and Steve (another social studies teacher) to map out what needs to be covered and when for US History.  Since it is just a one semester class, it will fly by.  At 10:30, we all took a bus and went to a park nearby to have a picnic.  At the picnic, we got to talk with many different teachers about the country and about themselves while we ate.  Then, we got to experience an epic game of Dirty Santa and lasted 90 minutes.  After the schoolday, we found one of the student teachers from last year and got directions on how to get to San Jose to buy a bus ticket for this weekend.  Afterwards, we embarked on a three hour adventure that involved a bus and a taxi to the bus station, being more or less lost trying to find a bus to get us back to Santa Ana, riding said bus, and getting off and riding a different bus to the house.  It was definitely an experience.  After a dinner of spaghetti, our group attempted to map out where we are staying for the weekend and all that jazz.  After a lot of searching, we called a place in Puerto Viejo that had rooms, but they told us that we needed to call back again the next day to confirm, and so is the life in a foreign country.  I worked on a little bit more homework and then passed out. 

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

For breakfast, I had papaya, cantaloupe, and pan con avocado.  Afterwards, Di took us to the school.  We had to get visitor passes for the day and then went inside to meet the principal.  Mr. Miller was very nice and offered us a tour of the facilities.  All three of us were amazed at what we saw.  We started off by crossing the bridge (because what other school has a bridge?) and walked by the elementary area on our way to the cafeteria, science lab, and then soccer/basketball gym and soccer fields.  Apparently the school is hosting a soccer tournament next month with 30-40 teams from throughout Central America that will require some work to help with the reception of the other teams, but should be a neat experience.  We continued the tour and saw some of the classrooms that we will be using and got to meet our cooperating teachers.  Mine’s name is Neena and she has quite a bit a spunk, but is very nice!  I spent a bit of time researching icebreaker games for the first day of school and then sat through several meetings such as planning the welcome assembly for the 9^th graders, an IEP meeting, and something that I couldn’t quite understand because all the meetings were in Spanish.  Afterwards, Neena showed us how to ride the buses in Costa Rica, helping us get home safe.  We arrived at the house just as Di got there to take us to the multi-plaza; only we ended up going to the Walmart instead.  The two girls wanted to buy fans for their rooms, while I got a soccer ball pillow.  It’s orange, and it’s cool.  I then had dinner, which was Picadillo de papas con charizo, arroz, ensalda con avocado y platinos fritos.  It was delicious and made me sleepy after a long day.     

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

After waking up and having my first experience with the shower at the homestay, I had a breakfast that consisted of watermelon, rice and beans, and pan.  The watermelon and juice was delicious, but I am still getting used to having rice being a main staple of my diet.  After waiting around for a little bit and helping Lilliana sweep the leaves, Di arrived from the hotel with the car and we were off to Manuel Antonio.  Manuel Antonio is a national park on the Pacific side of Costa Rica.  Upon arrival, Di bought a Pipas Fritas which is essentially a coconut that you drink the water out of and then scrape the white guts out of to eat.  I got to taste it and it was delicious!  Afterwards, we entered the rain-forest-y part of the park.  In this section, we walked through a path that was approximately 10 feet wide that cut through the trees.  We looked for and found a couple of sloths as we were in the forest and as we got to the end of the forest part, we saw several monkeys.  The monkeys were right up next to us and offered the opportunity for some photos if they would ever keep still and not have their backs to us.  After having our share of monkey fun, we changed into our bathing suits and checked out the beach.  The beach was beautiful and the water was even better.  It was a fantastic 80 something degrees and allowed us to just float and ride the waves as they came in.  This lasted until we were ready to rinse off, change, and find something to eat.  We ended up choosing this restaurant that cooked their pizzas over an open fire.  The three students had a different kind of 12 inch pizza, while Di had a hamburger.  We ended up sharing food.  In addition, I had my first chance to try a Costa Rican beer.  I had an Imperial Cerveza and found it to be quite tasty.  It reminded me of something like a Budweiser.  Also, the chairs at the table were rocking chairs, adding to the relaxing and laid-back atmosphere.  iEs la Pura Vida!  We finished up and hit the road back to Santa Ana.  On the way, we stopped at a bridge overlooking a river.  In the river, there were 10-15 fully grown crocodiles that we had a bird’s eye view to see; cool pictures followed.  Finally, we made it back.  I was still full, so I did not eat, but I did sit with Zoey and Lilliana while they ate and got to listen to and interject when I could the many different stories that Lilliana had to tell.  She’s very sweet and reminds me of one of my Spanish professors at OSU with her expressions and stories.  Exhausted, I started this journal and went to bed.     

Monday, Feb. 3

We tried again.  Luckily it was only 40 degrees and foggy in Houston this morning, allowing us to get off the ground with no problems whatsoever.  I even got to start the morning off right with some Dunkin Donuts from the free meal vouchers that United gave us for our troubles.  The flight went swimmingly with only partly cloudy skies once we got to Central America, allowing for fantastic views of the ocean, coast, and landforms.  I was able to see several volcanos from the window.  After going through immigration fairly easily (except for McCall, who got grilled), we found our luggage and finished the journey through customs.  Afterwards, we caught a bus to the rental car place where we spent two hours as Di went through the bureaucratic red tape process of renting a car in Costa Rica.  Luckily, Katie is a hoot and kept us entertained with stories galore.  Next, we stopped at a bank and exchanged money.  This was my first real Costa Rican experience because I had to try to figure out what they wanted me to do in order to exchange money.  Poor McCall messed up with the decimal/comma system in the Spanish language with their numbers and only got $12 US worth of Colones.  We found this out as we visited the local grocery store.  I made my first purchase of fried plantain chips and water.  The chips were mighty tasty!  Finally, we were off to meet our host families and take them to dinner.  I am with Lilliana with a roommate Zoey who lives next door.  Katie and McCall live with Maricruz.  In addition, we had two student teachers from last year come eat dinner with us, Kelsey and Sarah.  We all walked to a restaurant called “Ceviche del Rey” nearby that the host moms recommended.  I had a dinner that consisted of bisque, rice, onions, and dried potatoes (which were delicious, and probably my favorite part of the meal).  Finally, McCall, Katie, Zoey, and I played a quick game of cards as we got to know Zoey, before all crashing.  

Sunday, February 2, 2014

After playing at my last OSU Spirit Band gig, my parents, one of my brothers, and I spent the previous night at a hotel near the airport in OKC.  I met my group inside the terminal at Will Rogers Airport for our flight.  Unfortunately, it started snowing as we went through security and by our scheduled departure time, the plane was frozen and needed to be de-iced.  This process took a little over an hour and by the time we got to Houston we were cutting it close to making our flight.  We could see our plane as we taxied into Bush International and attempted to run through the terminal.  After a dead sprint that resulted in my backpack deciding to be embarrassing and unzip, along with some sudden realizations that we were all out of shape, we missed our plane by just a couple of minutes.  After getting the options of being split up and having two people catch a flight that had a layover in Panama City and the other two catching a direct flight to San Jose that would get in at midnight or 1 AM, we decided to try again the next morning.  This unfortunate occurrence did have its positives.  We were taken in by my grandparents in Houston for the night and got to watch the Super Bowl.  Even though the game was awful, it was nice visiting.