Getting Stuck, No Quicksand Required

Let’s keep this chronological. I’m gonna start with two weekends ago before I tell you how I feel about being home.  This is going to be a long one, watch out.

Two weekends ago, Nurse Jessica and I made the trip to Dominical, one of the top 3 places I wanted to visit in Costa Rica. Lonely Planet, which has been unbelievably reliable, said that it was a hippie surf town full of surfers, artists, hippies and “do-nothings,” and I was excited to be a part of that. Jess planned this one, so I was just along for the ride. We hopped a Nature Air plane early Saturday morning that landed in Palmar Sur, about an hour outside of Dominical. There was only another couple on the plane once we got there, and one taxi at the airport, which we needed badly to catch the supposed public bus to Dominical that left in 15 minutes. The lady in the couple was like “Oh, your hotel didn’t arrange transportation for you??” LOOK at me, lady, do I look like I have a hotel that arranges everything for me?? I don’t even know where I’m staying tonight. Guurrrl, please. Regardless, called a taxi with minutes to spare, rushed to the “bus stop” and caught a bus to Playa Uvita (close enough) as it was pulling out. We didn’t even really ask, we just flagged them down and got on, and turns out it went to Uvita, which was about 10 miles down the beach from Dominical.

Once in Uvita, we decided spur of the moment to see the beach/marine/national park there in Ballena/Uvita. So, we squeezed into a 2 door, ghetto truck taxi and threw our backpacks in the bed of the truck. Off we go. The national park was BEAUTIFUL! It was almost deserted, and lined with palm trees and lush coastal mountains. The water was clear for once too! If Dominical was going to be anything like this, we were in business. Lonely Planet also said that this is one of those places you have to be careful not to love too much and get stuck there. So far, they’re right.

Later on, we hopped back in the truck cab and headed to Dominical. Dominical has dirt roads, and our hostel was beach front. For $10 a night we got a mosquito-netted bunk in an open air, covered deck/patio above a restaurant where you could hear the waves as you went to sleep. However, you did have to watch out for iguanas – they thought it was a pretty cool place to stay too. I don’t blame them. It was a SWEET DEAL.

We also met a bunch of pretty cool people with pretty cool stories from our hostel. Jess and I, the pyromaniacs that we are, decided to start a fire on the beach and throw a beach party. That was the hardest fire I have ever started, and MAN we worked hard. We were super proud of our fire too, knowing that you have that human success of making fire is so satisfying. About 20 people from our hostel and other places up the beach came to our fire, and we even had a guy who brought his Ukulele.  Again, LP (Lonely Planet) was right when they said the town was filled with hippies and surfers!!! It was wonderful to meet people from all over the world and just relax on the beach by a kickin’ fire.

The next morning, we woke up, tried to find a waterfall with some of the guys from our hostel, and only ended up getting eaten alive by mosquitos. No waterfall. No worries either, Pura Vida, because we were going SURFING at Dominicalito, the beach down the road! Jess and I got out there, and it too was absolutely gorgeous. The waves were perfect for us, and even though Jess’s foot had a little run in with a sharp rock, we looked like pros. I was thinking about letting LP be right again and love it so much there that I got stuck there.  After getting robbed the weekend before, this was the perfect place to renew my faith in Costa Rica and the human kind.  Plus, of all the places I’d been in CR, this was #1 hands down!

But no, I had to go back to school for my last week of internship….I was NOT happy to be counting down the days. I tried to teach and observe other classrooms as much as possible, and to not think about leaving my kids. While I was out of the classroom observing, Mrs. Calderon was up to no good. She was scheming – my class threw me a SURPRISE going away party Friday afternoon. I am a hard one to surprise, and they pulled it off! I went to return some books for Mrs. Calderon Friday afternoon, and I passed Kelly on the way back to my classroom. We were tempted to go play ultimate Frisbee with the 5^th graders, but I said no, I needed to get back because I didn’t want to be away from my kids. I had attachment issues. Good thing too, because when I walked back into the class, they all had a little party set up and yelled “SURPRISE!” We had cake and things that the parents had snuck into another classroom earlier that morning after the Africa Fair, and the kids made me a little book. The cover was mango paper, and then each student had a page of coffee paper that they decorated or wrote on, and Mrs. Calderon put it all together. OH man, I LOVE IT. It’s SO me. I love little crafts and I am a complete sucker for student artwork, so this was perfect. I couldn’t have asked for a better placement. J

Friday night was a beer tasting at the director of the school’s house with some of the other staff (yes it was a blast), and Saturday morning, Jess and I jumped on a place to Mal Pais (Bad Country) to stay in the little town of Santa Teresa on the north Pacific. This is normally a 7 hour bus-ferry-bus transfer from San Jose, so every told us not to go, but we went anyway. BOOM that’s why Jess is a great travel buddy. And it’s a darn good thing we went too, Santa Teresa was even more beautiful and awesome than Dominical, just by a hair though. White sandy beaches that stretched as far as you could see lined with more palms and lush green mountains. Dirt roads, surfers galore, and a warm ocean breeze. AHHhhhhhhhhhh……We just laid on the beach all day Saturday, relaxing and soaking it all in. What a wonderful place that we were so lucky to be in! The water was cool and clear, and the sand was so soft. I definitely wouldn’t mind getting stuck here either.

Saturday night we hung out with some Aussie’s from our hostel, and there were so many stars that I couldn’t pick out a single constellation! The number of stars here rivals those in Bocas del Toro, Panama. Sunday, we tried to surf, but the waves were too big and the whitewater was too slow, not to mention the undertow was incredible. Still a great day on a great beach, but I was not ready to make that 7 hour bus-ferry-bus transfer I told you about. Turned out to be pretty cool though, the ferry ride was right at sunset, so Jess and I drank a bottle of wine and enjoyed our sunset cruise. (She likes to carry a wine bottle in the water bottle holder in her backpack. Class ACT J ).

Home safe, Sunday night, trying to figure out when I was gonna pack. UGH. I SO did not want to leave Tuesday!!!

However, I think this story will have to be continued. I’ve already written a lot, and I think maybe I’ll wait a few more days to see how I feel about coming home and graduation and such. I think I’ll keep writing just another post or two to document my reverse culture shock and adjustment from this whole journey. But for now….

PURA VIDA,

Jessica

La Ultima Semana

Okay so it's not THE last week yet but pretty close!! And I'm not quite sure how I feel about it. I was borderline  having panic attacks about leaving and after this last weekend, I'm kinda getting ready to go home. 


In case you were curious about this huge change, it's because I got mugged last Sunday. YES, I know, AGAIN. My luck is awesome. Two guys followed and snuck up on Lauren and I two houses down from ours and grabbed us from behind. It didn't register to me that they were robbing me, I thought they needed help at first, but then once I realized he wasn't letting go of me, I threw my coke in his face. I went to kick him, but kicked the asphalt first (I now have no skin on my big toe), and fell down. Yay now I'm on the ground too, part flailing part fighting. While this is going on, Lauren smacked the other guy in the face with her purse, then threw her purse so they would go away. Thankfully a motorcycle was coming up, so they were satisfied with just one purse and ran. Unlucky for Lauren though, because it had the house keys and gate clicker in it, plus it was a nice gift from her boyfriend. :/ So, now the both of us are pretty over the whole "you're gringas and you have a huge target on your backs" thing. We were lucky though, and it could have been way worse. 


That aside, I haven't updated in a looonnggg time! Mostly because I have been turning in my final work and papers for my internship (I have one more thing to do and then I get to just hope and wait!!) and because one of those weeks was Semana Santa (our spring break). As you know, my mom came and visited, and I had planned a trip for us to jetset all over the country! I am proud to say, the whole trip went off without a hitch. I even forgot my passport once, and didn't have a copy (well I didn't think I did until I got home and found one unpacking! Haha) but that even went smoothly. We didn't miss any flights, we saw everything we planned (and more!) and we had a few adventures along the way. I think the most fun things for me were staying in the treehouse in Montezuma, going ziplining at Arenal Volcano and Lake, and discovering La Fortuna's crystal blue jungle waterfalls. The scariest thing was flying in a little, teeny-tiny twin engine through 2 huge storms in which the weather was so bad that I saw little splashes of water/rain/hail coming through the cracks into the cabin!!! We also landed in some pretty tiny airports, even one that had runways that literally ended on the beach and others that had only a pavilion to wait under. We saw monkeys and iguanas and toucans, and went on a pretty cool jungle hike around Arenal Volcano too. The best beaches were at Montezuma, and we enjoyed collecting shells that got caught in the tidepools. We had a great time, and I'm glad my mom could come visit me and see why I love traveling as much as I do. My mom even got addicted to the Tico breakfasts here, Gallo Pinto, which is basically rice and beans with fried eggs! It sounds gross, but it's really, really good! I'm also glad she got to meet Oky, my host mom, so that she knew I was in good hands. And since "pictures are worth a thousand words" and since I don't want to write a thousand words for each of the gajillion pictures we took, you can check out the pictures in my Facebook album here:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3304606406236.2136749.1000260093&type=1&l=a50dd15a60

Kelly and I also went to Volcan Irazu last weekend, which turned out to be super pretty. Luckily, we got there early. Irazu is Costa Rica's largest and highest volcano, and in the morning, we were ABOVE a blanket of clouds! The whole crater was clear, and you could see the little turquoise lake in it SO well! The water is full of minerals that make the crater lake bright blue, but the color is said to change with the weather! Kelly and I said it was like Mother Nature's mood ring haha We were lucky to be there on such a clear morning because after the clouds came in early afternoon, you almost couldn't see 10 feet in front of you. The landscape was barren, with barely any trees, and the soil was only volcanic ash. There was a fence with several signs telling you not to cross it, but we couldn't resist. We got some amazing pictures, and we climbed way back on the side of the crater where you weren't really supposed to go, but we went anyway because we saw other people doing it (I know, I know, "if you saw other people jumping off a bridge would you do THAT too?" Yes, maybe, if the bridge wasn't too high so hush). We were then notified by two guys with us that there was a park ranger's truck waiting for us at the fence. Surely, a country like Costa Rica that has basically no police force wasn't going to get us in trouble for crossing one little fence. Nope, they didn't, the guy just basically told us we were stupid and to get on the other side of the fence. Haha the pictures we snapped are in this album:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2713345305078.2125129.1000260093&type=3&l=f911e8c988

Now off to Dominical with Nurse Jessica this weekend. Dominical is known as a small little surf town on the south Pacific full of surfers, hippies, artists and "do-nothings" according to Lonely Planet, and it sounds like paradise. I have wanted to go there SO BADLY and I'm glad we are finally getting a chance. We will be flying in with Nature Air Saturday morning early, spending the weekend, and then shuttling back Sunday afternoon. I hope to take surf lessons or maybe just rent a board Sunday morning if the waves are not too big. It should be a good weekend, and don't worry, I won't take so long to update about my travels this time. :) I just hope I don't get stuck there like I think I will haha To all my Ecuador/ISV friends who went to Montanita, I left a little piece of my heart there and I have high expectations that this will be a place just like that. 

Now that everyone is updated on my travels, I should probably write about the final weeks of my internship. The week after Semana Santa, I gave up teaching Language Arts, which I was happy about because it's my least favorite subject. I was nice to have one extra period of free time too since I was still teaching all the other subjects. This week, I gave up Math since we were starting a new unit and MAN I am not happy about that. Monday it was cool because I needed a little break after a stressful weekend, but now I'm so BORED!! Today is my last day doing all the little things like handwriting, spelling, etc, so next week I am ONLY teaching ONE lesson on Africa, and then we are practicing for the Africa Fair on Friday. Then next weekend is my last weekend, Monday is my last day at school, and I fly home on Tuesday. Wednesday is for catching up with my wonderful friends, Thursday is for running errands for graduation, Friday Kamden comes home, Saturday I'm taking pictures on campus, and Sunday is graduation and grad party!! So I guess I won't be bored for long! I can't believe I graduate in 2 weeks!!! 

The rainy season has officially started here. It decided to start on Monday, and everyday now it is beautiful and sunny until about noon. Then it gets cloudy, starts thundering around 1:00 or 2:00, and starts pouring from 3-5ish in the afternoon. Go figure since I sent my rain boots home with my mom last week. 

Well I hope you enjoy the pictures, and I'm sure I will update about Dominical soon now that I have no life haha See you, USA, in 10 days! 

PURA VIDA, 

Jessica

Engage Panic Mode

I ONLY HAVE 6 WEEKS LEFT IN COSTA RICA? I GRADUATE 6 WEEKS FROM TOMORROW?? I AM DONE WITH MY 20 DAYS OF TEACHING??? There's no way. This is fake. 

I have literally started having bad dreams about leaving CR/going home and it makes me feel soooo guilty. I mean I DEFINITELY miss my friends and family a whole lot, and I do occasionally crave things from home, but I have not had that whole homesickness stage that I think I'm supposed to have.......I know how bad it was when I came home from SIX weeks in Ecuador, much less SIXTEEN weeks here - I thought about Ecuador and the people I met and the things I had done literally every day for at least a few months, and the nagging feeling that I needed to do something like that again never went away. I am literally panicking and looking online everywhere I can to see how I can get paid to do something like this abroad for a little while this summer, but no luck...yet haha. I have gotten used to this lifestyle and culture here that is so different from ours at home. It may be small things, like feeling like you're always outside because there is no AC here or having to rely on your legs or public transportation to go everywhere or constantly trying to think and process in another language and currency - those changes are the things that will bug me the most at home. The whole concept of walls and closed spaces has become foreign to me, and I don't think I'm going to readjust to those things well anymore AT ALL. Having a cell phone again will be a whole new thing all over again too, and a car has become such a luxury. People take their time here, they stop and smell the roses I feel like, and they really enjoy what the land around them has to offer. I'm afraid I will get frustrated with many, many of the ideologies that I was once so used to, and I'm even more afraid and positive that very few people will understand my frustrations. 

The school here will also be hard to get over. No hallways, open classroom doors, outdoor classroom space, recess, being able to talk in line, the availability of resources, and the smart, young, adventurous group of teachers that work here will all be things that I strongly miss when I start teaching in the states. Thankfully, this school and my teacher ended up being a wonderful match for me, and there are so many little things that go on in this school that make such a big difference for the teachers AND the kids! I feel like I have such a freedom here to teach the kids in a variety of ways and expose them to so many interesting things that "may not fit into the curriculum" in the states. For example, for all you non-teachers out there, in the states, so many teachers "don't have time" to teacher social studies or science. AT ALL. All because of standardized testing. They only teach math and language because those are the only things being tested. CDS teaches kids to actually be independent thinkers, and lessons are incredibly integrated, that I feel like there's no way that students could miss out on a subject. I have a wonderful variety of students in my class that speak a multitude of languages and think in so many different ways, and it is simply enriching to be in an environment like that. I'm not saying this school is perfect by any means, but it is definitely a good fit for me, and I feel like I am almost getting spoiled teaching here! I can't believe that I have already taught for 4 weeks straight all by myself!!! I teach this coming week, the last week before our spring break (Semana Santa) but there really aren't any normal days, so I won't be really teaching too much and I don't like it one bit. Monday is Literacy Day, so we will be attending skits and going on a scavenger hunt for the principal that day, Tuesday and Wednesday are half days because we have parent conferences, Thursday is "Camp Day" that the kids "saved up for" with their good behavior so we will be doing fun stuff and arts and crafts, and Friday is Field Day. I have to start giving up certain subjects after the break so that my teacher can transition back into teaching full time and I'm already dreading giving it all back. I am itching to have my own class like this NOW, right NOW, but I know that my expectations for a classroom like this are somewhat unrealistic in the states, at least until they cut back on some of the testing and give teachers a little more freedom. I am too afraid that I would be so disappointed with my job in the states if I got one right now, so I'm sticking to grad school. We'll see though, maybe CDS (or a school like it in Tampa!) will find me again in 2 years. Raincheck anyone?!?

Another thing that makes me panic is the fact that I have 6 weekends left to see the rest of the country and I am not quite close enough to crossing off all the places on my list for me to be comfortable with that! Thankfully though, I have enlisted Jessica, the school nurse, to help me with my list as I help her with hers. We went to Puerto Viejo last weekend, and although it rained a lot, we all had a great weekend. Stephanie and us two Jessicas left early Saturday morning, St. Patrick's Day, and it rained the whole 4 hour bus ride there. Nonetheless, I wore my green shirt and shamrock beads that my mom sent me, and at least it stopped raining once we got there. We found a great hostel once we got there, and we happened to get the last 3 bunks at Pagalu Hostel for $11 each and MAN was it worth it. Hot water so hot that we all almost burned ourselves, SUPER comfy bunk beds, great location, free coffee, and the staff was really nice. We explored that afternoon and found an awesome little beach that was COVERED in a wide variety of the most beautiful, perfectly shaped seashells of all sizes and colors. We were picking up picturesque spirally seashells by the handfull, and I even found a shark's tooth with the root still attached! There were tons of creatures in the little tide pools that lined the shore, and we had fun exploring each and every little area! 

We had daquiris as we enjoyed this sunset from our beachside hammocks, and at dinner that night, I ordered octopus for the third time in the country, but this time it was a little different from the rest..............

Yeah, it was basically whole, but no worries, it tasted good! I just couldn't handle the texture of the part with the suckers on it. And that wasn't our only animals encounter for the weekend.....When we woke up Sunday morning, it was raining pretty hard, but we decided to rent bikes anyway, make ponchos out of trashbags, and bike the 8 miles down the coast (16 miles there and back) through the little towns to Manzanillo, which is literally the end of the road. As we were biking down the road, we noticed a lot of cars stopped ahead of us which seemed unusual, since we hadn't seen many cars passing. And guess why they were stopped?!?!? To watch a SLOTH cross the road!!! HAHAHA what a random thing to run across! SO we watched as the sloth finished crossing the road, and he made it through the barbwired fence on the other side. I didn't realize how long their claws actually are, and this one was also green from all the moss he had growing on him! 

We finally met the end of the road in Manzanillo, a little tiny beach town almost all the way to the Panamanian border. The road ended, crossed a little river, and turned into a rainforest path along the beach. We decided to ride back, but not before I bought the most amazing pair of pants ever. Anyway, we were all glad we decided to bike in the rain, it turned out to be totally worth it!!! 

Next, Jessica and I want to cross off Dominical, a tiny surfer town, from our list, as well as a few other places. Also to help me with my list will be my mom, who is coming for Semana Santa. We are going to have lots of awesome and exciting adventures to say the least. We will be taking a tiny puddle jumper plane all over the country, stopping in La Fortuna/Monteverde first to go rainforest ziplining on one of the fastest ziplines in the country. We will also be hiking on an active volcano, Arenal, where we hope to see actual lava flow. After Areanl and the Monteverde cloudforest, we will fly to Tamarindo, one of the biggest and most popular towns on the Pacific. There we will enjoy Playa Conchal, which is a beach whose sand is made entirely of crushed up shells. We will spend a few days relaxing here before we pitstop in San Jose on our way to Montezuma, which is located on the southern point of the Nicoya Peninsula. We get to stay in a treehouse-like cabin in the coastal rainforests, and it sounds like we will get spoiled with breakfast up in our canopy room!!! So cool. After a few more days of exploring and beach going, we will return to Escazu to rest before Mom flies out on Saturday. Whew we are going to have a fun filled, action packed week and I AM EXCITED. 5 more days until I pick her up and 7 more until we leave on our adventure! YAY. 

Well I think that is enough for now, no adventures this weekend so that we can rest up for Semana Santa! More to come later, and check out all my pictures on Facebook!

PURA VIDA, 

Jessica 

Who Needs A Taxi.....

When you can roll up in a handpainted OX CART!

Today we celebrated Dia de Boyero, which is a festival in Escazu that celebrates the handpainted oxcart tradition of Costa Rica. Caballeros (cowboys/ranch hands) hitch up their best oxen to the oxcart painted by hand to represent the family. They pull the carts all the way uphill to the church in San Antonio de Escazu where the ox, carts, and caballeros are blessed by the priest to ensure a good crop and harvest season. There are also weird dancing characters that supposedly scare off the spirits!

We got there around 9:30 today since we heard the festival started at the church by our school, and we walked around admiring the intricate carts and big oxen. Everyone was in good spirits, and the caballeros were very nice. They let us take pictures holding their ox pokers and we even found one who let us ride in the festival in his oxcart!!! Our ox were dark black, and they were hooked to a beautiful yellow oxcart, just big enough for the three of us (Erica, Lauren, and I). We were especially excited to not only be able to partake in the celebration, but we also didn't have to walk alllllll the way up the mountain! People were waving and taking pictures of us gringos in an oxcart, sticking out like sore thumbs, but we were having a blast! It was wonderful to be able to see a culture and even better to actually get to participate in the celebration! As we climbed higher on the mountain, the views grew even more beautiful. Once we finally reached the church at the top, there was a priest blessing the parade by slinging holy water on everyone with a handful of herbs, and since we were part of the parade, we got blessed too! And I definitely got super blessed since I was RIGHT in front of the priest! Haha words and pictures really can't describe it, but I'm trying.... you'll have to see my facebook for pictures, there are WAY too many. 

Yesterday was a pretty good day too! Stephanie and I went on a tour which covered a medley of things. First we stopped at Poas Volcano to see the second widest volcano crater in the word and to see the smoking fumaroles and turquoise acid lake in the crater too. It was super cloudy, but we were lucky enough for the clouds to clear for just a few seconds! 

Next was a tour of Doka coffee plantation, with its over 4000 acres of coffee plants. It was beautiful outside, perfect for a walk around the plantation, which included a butterfly garden, and our guide was very knowledgeable. The plants were not producing right now, but we still got to see how they process the coffee berry, which is actually a fruit, all the way to a cup of brilliant coffee from Tres Generaciones brewers. Did you know that, according to our guide, one coffee bush makes only 14 cups of coffee in one year?! I really enjoyed this relaxing tour. For more info, check out their website, I totally recommend them! http://www.dokaestate.com/coffee_tour/tour_coffee.html

Lastly, we had an impromptu tour of the wood factory where all the wooden souvenirs come from! We saw how they polish the native wood so that it shines with its natural color, and they created so many awesomely unique pieces! I REALLY wanted to bring home this hand carved wooden chest, but 1. I couldn't even THINK about paying for it! and 2. I couldn't have fit it in my luggage even if I wanted to! 

The whole tour ended up being super relaxing, informative, and very enjoyable! Very worth the money! 

This week has been a great week too! It was my first official full week of totally all by myself teaching, and I am LOVING it, if you haven't noticed on fb! Everything is going well, and I am suprised with (and proud of) my thinking on my toes skillzzzz. I have come up with a few very successful lessons on the spot, and it has been so much fun! My favorite lesson this week though was my lesson on culture. In case I haven't told you, I started a unit on heritage with the kids to see where they come from. To introduce their research on their cultures, I showed them a bit of mine. We decided that a culture was made up of 6 things : Food, dress, symbols/flags, literature/arts, language, and most importantly, traditions! So, I showed them those things from my culture - the AUBURN culture!! I got to show them what we wear to football games, what we eat at tailgate, our symbols and creed, and again most importantly, our traditions! I showed them videos of Aubie, the Toomer's corner timelapse video after the National Chamoionship last year, and I showed them how the eagle flies around the stadium. I explained the history behind our traditions and why these things were important in our culture. The kids had to research how to say "hello" "goodbye" and "family" in their own language and I told them that WAR EAGLE means all of those things! I EVEN got them to do a "Waaarrrrrrrrrr Eagle! HEY!" at the end of the lesson, and they have been telling me "War Eagle Miss Issiac!" all week! FABULOUS lesson, probably one of the best and most fun I've ever taught, probably because I love the topic so much, and luckily, this lesson was the one that the principal observed! I also FINALLY got to play volleyball competitively last week, which was just the cherry on top. :) I hope the rest of my on-my-own-teaching weeks go just as well! 

Now on to grade more papers and get a good night's sleep for the week to come! I hope everyone is having a good spring break, only 2 and 1/2 more weeks until my mom comes for my spring break! 

PURA VIDA, 

Jessica

TGIF!!!

What. A. Week. I think this is the first week out of my entire semester where I've actually counted down to Friday...This week has been so much work!

Before I talk about this week though, I need to update you on last weekend!

me being a sloth....

 Kelly, Stephanie, and I went hiking on the Tres Cruces (Three Crosses) trail here on Alajuelita Mountain. The hike got its name from the two crosses that you pass on your hike up to the third cross, which can be seen perched on top of the mountain from most of the valley. We didn't have much information about the hike except for the location for the trailhead (which I had found on a former CDS teacher's blog I stumbled across) and the warning of gypsies. Yes, gypsies, the kind that supposedly take you and you're never seen again. Well, after asking just about everyone that spoke English and after I scoured the world wide web, we decided the gypsy theory was bogus. First thing Saturday morning we caught a taxi to Restaurante Valle Azul, which is known for its patio dinners overlooking the lit up San Jose valley. From there we took the trail up off the road, jsut to the right of the restaurant. Once on that trail though, there were several foot paths and cattle trails, none of which had signs (natually, it's Costa Rica, they don't even have NAMES, much less SIGNS, for their ROADS for crying out loud). After exploring a few, we decided upon the first trail that branched to the left and went uphill because 1. it was uphill and 2. it looked the most traveled. After hiking with no clue for about 45 minutes or so, and after pretty much scaling a dirt wall with foot holes, we spotted the first cross, which was more of a plus sign cross than a normal cross. Next we passed wild hot red and yellow baby orchids (which I couldnt resist digging up on my way back down so that I could plant them in my room....) and the vegetation was quickly changing from arid mountainside to hilltop cattle fields.

It was a cloudy morning where the clouds hung upon the peaks, and since we didn't pass many travelers, we weren't sure how much farther the second cross was. Everything was masked in cloud cover, and you could even see the clouds swirling over the land! Very cool. The trail was getting harder and we were getting tired. We started to follow the barbwire fence in a random cow pasture and then out of nowhere we saw the outline of the second cross, in the clouds, only about 30 feet ahead of us! FINALLY. This cross was a wire cross atop a step pyramid. The views here were limited because of the clouds, but we knew coming back down, the view would be beautiful once the clouds had passed. We took a break here, and discovered that there was a bunker type hollow in the base of the corss....that's where the gypsies must live, I thought. No gypsies sightings to far though.....

Yeah SO FAR. After a steep climb through the now cloud forest vegetation, we broke out into a clearing on the mountaintop that surrounded the third and final cross. In the clearing, there were about 5 men, laying on the grass around a fire (at 10am) with minimal bags and dirty clothes. THE GYPSIES. I knew it. Haha there they were. (Kelly and Stephanie tried to tell me that they weren't gypsies because they had cell phones but then I reminded them that when my phone was stolen, where do you think it ended up?!?! WITH GYPSIES. Also, I didn't have a phone and I wasn't a gypsy so that theory was totally busted.) Anywaayyyyyy we explored the area around the big cross a little, still unable to see the valley due to the clouds, but happy we had made it all the way up a pretty challenging hike. Oh the way back down, we passed more hikers, and as the clouds cleared, the valley began to reveal itself. Our predictions about the views at the second cross on the way back down were right, it was beautiful, and we climbed the first cross on our way back down too. Safely to the bottom, and home, we were happy with our hike, and happier that the gypsy myth had been a tall tale. 

third cross at the top

second cross on the way back down

climbing the first cross on the way back down! WAR EAGLE!

So, like I said, this week at school has been bonkers. We had the third grade science fair Wednesday that we had to cram, cram, cram for, not to mention all the other grades' science fairs every other morning that the kids begged incessantly to go to. Thursday (yesterday) was supposed to be my first full day teaching every subject all by myself, and it  went okay, but just okay, not good enough. My class is a little wild, so they have issues with self control, and since I came in the middle of the year after rules were established, I had a hard time drawing the line between okay chaos and not okay chaos. Therefore, my class and I had a little chat this morning and we established some new guidelines, one of which I learned in my 6th grade placement at Opelika Middle School. Thanks to OMS, I was able to implement the voice level system in which voice levels  and appropriate settings for each type are clearly defined. A "0" voice is a voice that is OFF, a "1" is whispering voice, 2 - partner work (two people), 3 - group work (three or more people), 4 - presenting voice, and 5- recess voice. We practiced and practiced, and they responded very well to it today (YAYYYYYY!!!!) and now I'm just hoping we actually remember that next week!! Also, when I want the kids to raise their hands to answer a question, I raise my hand. When I want them to all volunteer out loud, I use my hands to make a "tahdah" sort of gesture, something I may have seen on a classroom management video, something I may have made up on the spot, I don't remember (haha!) but that's working too....SO FAR. Key words there. So. Far. I have faith though, as long as we have a refresher course Monday and really stay on them and be consistent for the first few weeks.

Oh, my class is also playing the the elementary soccer world cup tournament, and we tied today in an overtime 5 round shootout (or whatever the actual soccer lingo is). Regardless, my 12 boys (and a few girls lol) are complete junkies. 

This coming week, I am very excited to delve into the heritage project we just started. These kids are from ALL OVER the place, and their parents are from even MORE places! We charted our heritage on a map in class today using star stickers and yarn to track each child's lineage, and our map is way cool. I also collected data about where they were born and where their ancestors are from, and I'm in the process of making some pretty neat posters/bulletin board stuff to go with our lineage tracking map. With only 17 kids' birthplaces, we represent 8 different countries!!! In case you're curious, my kids were BORN in Costa Rica, USA, Columbia, Honduras, Mexico, South Korea, Denmark, and Guatemala. SO COOL. That doesn't even come close though, to the countries these kids have LIVED in all together!! On Monday, we will be reading a book about family traditions and oral history that is written in both Spanish and English, and it tells many differnt family stories. We will then discuss why telling stories and oral history are important before they will be asked to write a favorite family story of their own. Tuesday we're discussing cultures, Thursday making a coat of arms, and the cover will be decorated in a traditional cultural art style from each of the kids' individual cultures. OH THIS IS GONNA BE SO FUN. They will be making an entire book when it is all said and done, and I can't wait to see the finished project. Mine is going to be so boring next to all of theirs! Very fun project though, and I will be getting observed by our principle next Tuesday during this subject so cross your fingers it goes well! 

That's all for now really....Tuesday elementary volleyball is going better, now that we have established yellow/red cards like in soccer, and I am still having fun with Thursday middle school boys volleyball. This weekend we are headed to Manuel Antonio (beach/national park) for Saturday, and I'm hoping to see all the wildlife right up on the beach like the articles in my travel guides say. I am in much need of a nice beach day. Ahhhhh... :) Gettin mah relaxation and tan onnnnnn....

PURA VIDA,

Jessica

Taxi-Bus-Hostel-Bus-Footbridge-Taxi-Watertaxi-Watertaxi

Yes, that's how we got to Panama. 

Asap on Thursday after school we caught a taxi to the bus station, where we hopped a bus for Puerto Viejo on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. We didn't get there until late, and our hostel was becoming more and more challenging to find with each step. Eventually, our hostel was deemed nonexistent by us and the locals, but luckily, we ran across a nice little hostel with the perfect amount of beds just in our price range. Puerto Viejo was BEAUTIFUL, definitely worth a weekend trip back, and it got me even more excited for the beaches to come at Bocas del Toro. 

Just to get this straight in the beginning, Bocas del Toro is an archipelago of islands off the Caribbean coast of Panama, pretty close to the Costa Rican border. It is made up of several islands, such as Isla Colon and Isla Bastimentos. Bocas del Toro is also a town on Isla Colon, but it is referred to as Bocastown. We stayed on Isla Bastimentos, which is a 10-15 min water taxi ride away. 

However, before we got to Isla Bastimentos, we had to brave a bus to the border, which was probably the sketchiest border crossing I'll ever come across. We bought a bus ticket on the CR side of the border in Sixaola, but after waiting in the immigration lines, we found out you had to buy the bus ticket on the Panamanian side of the border! UGH! So we bought another bus ticket and stood in line again! The sketchiest part though, was the fact that we technically left Costa Rica on one side of this SUPER rickety wooden bridge, had to walk across the planks over a pretty wide river to the other side, where the Panamanian immigration "office" was located. So technically, we were TOTALLY unaccounted for by any government while walking across the most unstable bridge ever. Awesome. Thankfully though, we made it.

After the border crossing, we took a "collectivo" which is like a van taxi with random people to Almirante, where we caught a water taxi. One interesting thing we saw there was outhouses that were at the end of little docks out over the water. Think about it....yeaahhhhh....yum. Other than that though, we saw where our Chiquita BA-NAH-NAHs come from! Right there in the bay near Bocas on a big barge! 

Once we finally made it to Bocastown on Isla Colon, we were bombarded with offers for snorkeling trips and boat rides and ziplining! We caught a quick taxi to Isla Bastimentos, where the dropped us off on a dock in the mangroves, were we followed a path to our hostel in the jungle. 

The entire island is protected forests ringed with crystal waters, beautiful beaches, and coral reefs, so the first day was spent being complete beach bums. We laid in hammock under the palms, basked in the sun, played in the water, and explored the beach. We even saw some wild green parrots eating berries on a bush by the sand!

Oh yeah, and I climbed the rail at the little lookout deck on the point and pretended to be Pocahontas. I couldn't resist. Rail shmail. Ooo and I found a perfectly white little sand dollar on the sand bar as the tide was going out! :) Other than Kelly's INTENSE sunburn (he was almost purple he was so burnt), it was a very relaxing day. 

 The next day, Erica and Lauren went spelunking while Kelly, Stephanie, and I went snorkeling in Coral Cay. You were not allowed to wear fins since they can kill the coral ( I loved this - they really cared about preserving the nature's beauty) but we really didn't need them. We saw coral of all colors - mostly NEON colors!!! Electric purple and hot pink and neon yellow coral was everywhere! You think I'm kidding??

Yeah, it was some weird lookin' stuff (the coral, not me and Kejee duh)!! After diving here, our little boat driver took the three of us to another spot to play with starfish! We picked up starfish of all sizes, and there was even a HUGE starfish off the dock from where we ate lunch. I also couldn't resist sneaking in to pick it up too! It's the little adventures that get me.

Another wonderful day in Panama ended with possibly the most interesting cultural celebration I have ever witnessed/participated in. I told you a little about what I had read about Carnaval, and it was all right. Big scary men dress up in red and black jumpsuits with huge bedazzled monster headdresses and run around the streets whipping "hostages" (who seemed to be all the men dressed in drag...) with Rap/Spanish/Jamaican/Jungle music blaring  in the background. The little girls all had braids with candies and lollipops tied to the ends too! Straight WEIRD if you ask me, but I'm definitely glad I got a taste of a very different cultural celebration.

This is the one where you can see the headdresses.

Look for the "hostages" in this video! 

  

And these guys got really close to us!!

On the water taxis back each night from the Carnaval celebrations, you could see more stars than I think I've ever seen! One night, we even saw a huge shooting star that was so bright that it's streak in the sky stayed for just a moment longer than usual. We also met some cool people along the way, including Brits and Australians who played Bananagrams with us, a guy from Hawaii who made us palm frond roses while we were sitting on the dock of this awesome waterfront, treehouse styled bungalow bar, a local who "taught us to dance" (using only Spanish), and even a few poi performers (fireballs-on-chains dancers). Everyone stayed safe, luggage intact, and made it home after a generally smooth watertaxi-watertaxi(in the rain)-bus-footbridge-bus-bus-taxi trip home! YAY! Mission of renewing our visas (which was actually an excuse for a great birthday weekend trip) = ACCOMPLISHED. 

Speaking of birthday, one last thing. I had a great 22nd birthday here in CR, thanks to the fact that 1. I finally got my box from Kamden (and I can't wait to get my next box from my mom!) and 2. My roommates surprised me in my classroom with a Tres Leche birthday cake and their rendition of "Feliz Cumpleanos." One of my students even brought me a little chocolate bar, and all my kids, family, and friends wished me a happy birthday! Yay, maybe 22 isn't so bad. (P.S. Can't wait for Al's 21st coming up soon!)

Hope you enjoyed experiencing Panama through me! :) 

PURA VIDA, 

Jessica

Panama Carnaval HERE WE COOOMMMEEEE!!

Mardi Gras? PPSSSHHTTTT We're leaving tomorrow for Bocas del Toro, Panama for our "visitor" status renewal trip/my Carnaval-birthday celebrationnnnn! I'm gonna look at it like that anyway ;)

In case you don't know what Carnaval is, it is basically Latin America's way of celebrating Mardi Gras. Carnaval is celebrated at the end of the festive season that started on Jan. 6 and it marks the beginning of Lent. The festivities go on all weekend, with extravagent parades and food and general merriment. The Carnaval celebration in Panama City, Panama is THE 2nd biggest festival IN THE WORLD, only following Carnaval in Brazil. I'm thinking Bocas del Toro, Panama will hopefully be full of a little Caribbean-influenced Carnval, which I will attend as my 22nd birthday present to myself. I AM SO EXCITED! I can't wait to see all the cultural influences that this place has - Caribbean, African, Spanish, and English being the most prominent. I know it will make for a good celebration with some most likely marvelously fresh Caribbean seafood, my FAV.

We found a neat little hostel to stay in on Isla Bastimentos, just a short taxi-bus-hostel-bus-walking-taxi-watertaxi-watertaxi trip from San Jose! HA! This is going to be so complicated getting there but SO worth it (I'm hoping). The entire island of Bastimentos is covered in national park rainforest, and our hostel is right in the middle of it all. The island is about .6 miles across where we are staying, and you can do anything from rainforest hike to snorkel!!! I'm excited to see the unique wildlife and people (but maybe this time we won't wake up to howler monkeys at 5am!). We leave tomorrow afternoon at 4, so I will be out of touch until Monday night, but I will try to update ASAP about our trip when we get back!

On a total side note....funny story. People here greet each other with kisses on the cheek, kinda like Italian people do. I am getting used to it with Oky of course, but the other day after school, I was waiting in the cafeteria when one of my sweet students came up to me. I thought he was going to whisper something in my ear when he kissed me on the cheek to tell me bye! I was so unprepared! Especially since you can barely even hug your students in the U.S. without getting a warning! Haha

Another totally funny random story. My goal when I came here (among many others) was to not look like a tourist at some point. The more touristy you look, the more of a target you are, so I didn't want to be a target. I figured I could maybe pull it off once I got a little tan. On my 1 month anniversary of being here (I know, laugh at me, I keep track) we went out to eat at pizza hut, which is actually really fancy here, and the server was super surprised when he figured out I didn't speak Spanish because HE THOUGHT I WAS A TICA (a local)!!! YAY mission accomplished! I don't look like a lame-o tourist with a "please steal my stuff" sign on my back anymore!! :)

Also, these are m sweet kids (minus one) after our Valentine's day celebration! :D :D :D YAY!

Alright, dinner's ready. Oky's made us "authentic" Chopped Suey hahaha Asian inspired Spanish food or Spanish inspired ? We'll see...I'm mighty honnngrryyy!

PURA VIDA,
Jessica