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
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