Sorry for disappearing for about two weeks, but Sarah and I
have been two busy gals! Here are some of the places we have been…
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Student teaching full time (Yikes!)
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Basilica of Los Angeles
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Church ruins
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Volcano
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Waterfall
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White Water Rafting (Ahhhhhh!)
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Insane in the membrane…insane got no brain!
*Name that movie!*
Karen and Carlos, Papi’s sister and brother-in-law, brought
us on an adventure along with Papi! Sarah and I learned so much stuff, I wish I
could remember all of it, but it helps by starting at the beginning. J We got up around 5 to
leave for San Jose where Karen and Carlos picked us up to go to their home in
Cartago. There, we had your typical LARGE Costa Rican breakfast with lots of
yummy pan (bread), eggs, rice and beans, and yucca patties. After we ate our
adventure began!
We started by walking around the basilica by their house,
which was really cool because it had some stuff about the Virgin of Los
Angeles. The legend has it that on the rock that the basilica holds, there was
this doll that a little girl found and brought home, but it was gone the next
day. When she went back to the rock, there it was! This went on for a little
while, so she brought it to a priest and the same thing happened. He named this
a sacred place, because of this and a church was eventually built there.
We also went to las Ruinas de la Iglesia Parroquial de
Santiago Apostol—that was beautiful! It was supposed to be a church, but was
never finished because an earthquake did a lot of damage. The inside was turned
into a courtyard/garden type thing and we were lucky enough that it was open
when we went!
Finally, we got to go to the Volcán Irazú! It is an inactive volcano in Cartago, which is (fun fact) also the highest point in Costa Rica! The climate and farming and…really everything is completely different there, so that was really interesting to see. The landscape was absolutely breathtaking on our way up. 
We knew we were getting close when our ears started popping more! We only went to one of the two craters, because the other crater was a long walk and not everyone was up for it. I honestly don’t have words to describe how gorgeous the crater we saw was. The pictures don’t do it justice! After this fabulous day, we finally got home a little before 9…needless to say we slept great!
White water rafting the next weekend was by far the most fun
I think I’ve ever had in my life. We needed six people, so Odie, Sarah, and I
teamed up with three men from Michigan (what a small world), who were really
funny. The guy sitting behind me was the only person who fell out, but he was a
good sport about it! When you’re going through rapids, it’s such a rush. Sarah
and I have our mouths open with huge smiles in every single picture (they took
over a hundred of them haha)! We got to lead our team, so we took the brunt of
the splashes and stuff, which made it super exciting! Every time we made it
through a rapid, our guide had us lift our paddles up together and yell, “Pura
Vida”, which literally means “pure life” in Spanish. Here it is used all the
time when people ask how you are, because it basically means life is good, and
that’s the attitude this culture has. It’s so refreshing. I don’t even know how
many waterfalls that we saw while we were on the river. All of them were huge
and pretty. I even got to go under one! We were on the water for 3½-4 hours, so
we were pretty pooped after…and slightly red. Gloria Ines, our sister has been
calling us the “talking tomatoes” ever since. Mami has been the most amazing second mama Sarah and I could ask for (from the start). Every day she makes sure our sunburn is getting better and that we have some fresh aloe! Hopefully that passes soon!
;)
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| ¡Sí Podemos! |
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| "Pura Vida!" |
On Tuesday this week, Dr. Delano came to visit us at school!
It was great to see her and be able to talk to someone about teaching and
strategies and school in general. It was really cute because the kids kept
trying to use their English with her and she asked us how to say things in
Spanish to them sometimes, too.
Teaching full time has been a rewarding, challenging
struggle every single day. I’ve really been struggling with classroom
management. Respect is something that a lot of my students don’t understand,
and it’s not just with me. It makes me sad, because I have so many fun lessons
and activities I would like to do with them, but the teaching style is so
different here that I can’t. As soon as we start doing something fun, I feel as
if I lose total control, so I’ve only been doing pretty basic stuff lately. I
made a bulletin board type thing on the wall to remind them that we are a class
and how we can/should act, so I’m hoping that helps! Today I had them sit down and read a children's book (Thanks, Aunt Sue!) that had a focus on division and it was the first time I didn't have any problems getting them to listen to me, so that was an absolutely wonderful feeling! It was great being able to read to them, too, because that doesn't happen here. We're hoping to get them books so that changes! :) Until next time, Pura Vida!
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| Time to add some color to the walls! |
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| Nuestros Compañeros ~ Our Class |
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| We respect each other! I have photographic proof! Haha |
