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