Stupid things I've done this week

I do stupid things every week but this week probably takes the cake. I’ve been a little stressed this week because of exams coming next week, trying to get all my students’ workbook pages corrected, parents sending me tons of messages because they’re worried about how their kid will do on exams, and the pressure of making a decision about next year. I’m not really sure that my “stupid moments” have to do with stress or not, but for now I’m going to blame them on that.

1. I spent 2 days thinking my toilet was broken because I saw a loose metal piece down in the bottom of it only to find out from our landlord/coworker that it was a metal flashlight that Luna (our cat) must have dropped into it. (still have no idea where the flashlight came from)

2. I lost a set of quizzes and spent the good part of an afternoon looking for them at the school, came up and looked all over my house and even asked other teachers to look for them only to find out that I had already handed them back to the kids just that morning. Talk about short term memory loss.

3. After having a nightmare about having a nasty confrontation with a parent I woke up at 5:50 this morning and realized that I had either forgot to set my alarm last night or had slept right through it. I skipped the shower, got dressed, packed up my books and was out the door in 15 minutes and made it to devotional on time. Thankfully I had the first period off today so I snuck back to my house and grabbed breakfast and made a lunch after devotional. There are definitely some perks to living about 30 feet from the school.

4. I was all prepared for my 2^nd phonics lesson today and headed down to room 3B only to find my whole class was missing. I stood there pondering it for a while then walked back to the staff room to check my schedule and found my 5A class waiting for me for English class. I wasn’t super prepared but was able to pull of the lesson without too much of a problem.

5. On Wednesday morning I had just taken a shower and was in the kitchen waiting for my oatmeal to cook. My hair was very wet from my shower, and like I do every morning I bent over shook my head/hair to help my hair dry faster. I found out this is a bad idea to do when you haven't eaten anything because when I stood up again I got super dizzy. Thankfully I didn't completely pass out, but I fell backwards and crashed into the oven and one of our kitchen chairs resulting in several scrapes and a bruise on my arm. :( Leslie didn't hear all the commotion because she was blow drying her hair, but I had to explain my little embarrassing moment to her later when she asked about the scrapes all over my arm.

I still have another day to the week, so it’s very possible I’ll have one or more stupid things to add to the list after tomorrow but I’m hoping for a low key, relaxing Friday. J

Independence Week

Yes, I know it’s been a while since I’ve caught you up on life down here in this rainy but beautiful country, but I’ve decided that I don’t need to treat my blog exactly like a journal and you don’t need to know about what happens here every day. So, I’m just going to tell you about the wonderful but extremely exhausting events surrounding Independence Day. I’ve come to call it “Independence Week” because these guys go all out with their celebrations. We’re talking like 6 assemblies, band practice every day for over a month, cheerleading practice, dance practice, choir practice, the whole works. The final Acto Civico (assembly) was held last night at about 5:30. Because all the students had to be here for the Acto Civico in the evening the school day was shifted to start at 1PM and go through the afternoon until the assembly. The assembly included dances, songs, and dramas presented by students from all grades. At 6:00 we all stopped to sing the national anthem because everyone in Costa Rica stops whatever they are doing and sings the national anthem to commemorate the time when the runner arrived in Costa Rica with the torch to declare their independence. The assembly last night lasted until almost 8:00 and parents and teachers stayed around for a while after enjoying food served in the cafeteria and other food provided by the families. After a long crazy day yesterday Leslie and I came home and crashed and woke up to report at the school decked out in our LPDV gear. (we’re talking, matching school polo shirts, school bags, school hats, and jeans) We loaded up in the busses with the kids in the band, the cheerleaders, the baton girls, and the flag bearers for the big independence day parade in down town Belen. Since I was not in charge of any of the groups performing in the parade, my job, along with many other teachers was to carry large bottles of water to pass out to the kids to help deal with the heat. The parade itself was only about 20 or 30 minutes, but we spent about 3 hours standing around waiting for the schools in front of us to get into formation. It wouldn’t have been that bad if we weren’t standing in direct sunlight on a hot day, but no one passed out or got heat stroke so it was a pretty successful day.

Although the last few days have been super crazy, a little disorganized, and I feel like I haven’t gotten much actual teaching done, it has been a really good time to get to know the kids better. Especially last week during Dia del Niño (kid’s day) when we basically spent the day hanging out and playing with the kids and the parents. (that is me and some of my students decked out in our class color)

The busyness has also kept me from feeling quite as homesick which I’ve been feeling more the last few weeks. I can hardly believe that I’ve been here for two months now! I must honestly say I’m not a whole lot closer to making my decision about staying for another year than I was when I first got here, but I know that God will direct me and that He will reveal His will to me in His time.

Today is only Thursday, but it almost feels like the weekend already. We finished the parade today around 11 and it has been so nice to have the afternoon off. I got to hang out with Leslie, Marijke, and KK and go swimming then take a nap. Pretty much the perfect afternoon. I don’t have to plan lessons for tomorrow because tomorrow is the entrega de notas (turning in grades) to the parents and we have parent teacher meetings all day. The nice thing is we only meet with the parents that specifically ask to meet with us and being a new teacher it is likely that I won’t have very many meetings. So I’m going to pack up my computer and books and try and crank out my lesson plans for next week because when we finish at 6:00 Leslie and I are heading to Heredia for Friday night and Saturday. She is going to stay with one of our teacher friends and I’m going to stay at the Whitworth Center. I am so excited to finally get to see them! On Sunday we are going to go to our first CR soccer game to watch La Liga (one of the two national teams) play our little town of Belen. I have a feeling that Belen is going to get crushed, but I’m excited to go. Right now I think I’m gonna go make some arroz con leche.

P.S. I’ve decided to start including some of the best quotes from my students because some of them are pretty comical.

1. Yesterday before the final Independence assembly.

Student: Teacher, are you going to dance with all the other teachers tonight?

Me: Nope, I’m going to sit with you guys.

Student: But why not teacher? Can’t you dance?

Me: Yeah, well kind of, but they’re dancing to the song Soy Tica (I’m Tica) and I’m not Tica.

Student: Oh…well just wait until next year, then you’ll be Tica.

2. Yesterday when I arrived at school yesterday wearing my hair down and straightened (for the first time since I’ve been at the school)

Student: Teacher!!! You are so beautiful! Like…like..a princess!

3. Last night while waiting for my last 5 students to be picked up by their parents.

Student: It looks like we might just have to spend the night here. Wait, Teacher Lynne’s house is just right up the hill! We could sleep there!

Me: Yeah and we’ve even got 5 extra beds! Sleepover!

(All of them start getting up and grabbing their backpacks)

4. I’m starting to get used to the Spanglish and I usually try and make the kids try it again using the right English words, but yesterday when one of my students was quickly trying to explain why she didn’t have her essay for me I couldn’t help but laugh.

Student: Teacher, no tengo the homework porque my mom dejarla in her trabajo and se fue very temprano esta manana.

When she stopped to catch her breath she realized how funny she sounded and she and the other students started cracking up too. It’s times like that when I love my job. :)

Tourist or Tica

September is here and so is the rain. I’ve been hearing from way to many people that the rainy season gets even rainier during September and October. Not really looking forward to that, but I’m looking forward to the beautiful “summer” weather that is supposed to follow in November and December. The last week or two I’ve almost been too busy to notice the rain. Thankfully things are starting to calm down a little bit now that we are starting into 3^rd trimester. I am very grateful to have less grading to do and a little bit more time to relax. Last night Leslie and I took a break from work and went out to dinner with some friends in Escazu, a little town about 20 minutes from here. We met up with the three German girls who went to Tortuguero with us and a few of their friends. It was fun to have 3 Germans, one Australian, one El Salvadorian, one Tica and 3 Americans all hanging out together.

I also got to take the day Saturday (between grading 107 exams and writing lesson plans for all of my classes) to go to volcano Irazu with Leslie and two of our friends. It turned out to be one of my favorite days in Costa Rica. (so far) We left somewhat early in the morning so we could enjoy the view at the volcano before the rain came. The drive was rather long, but so beautiful! We passed through the town of Cartago which is a picturesque little town near the base of the volcano. After passing through Cartago and fields of potatoes and onions, we just kept driving up and up until we were above the clouds. I thought we would have to hike a ways to get to the top of the volcano but we were able to drive pretty much to the very top. It was sunny and clear and we could see all the way down in the crater to the beautiful green lake in the middle. It felt like we were on the top of the world!

We spent a couple of hours walking around, enjoying the view, and taking lots of pictures. Then we headed back down stopping at for lunch at a beautiful little restaurant on a hill with a view of Cartago. After lunch we went to tour an old abandoned hospital for tuberculosis patients. It is known for being creepy and “haunted” and I must admit parts of it were super creepy, but it was also pretty cool. I looked like it had been a nice place for a hospital back in the day. After getting stuck in traffic in San Jose we made it back home around 7. My Sunday consisted of church and lesson planning on the back patio.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were pretty typical school days, but today was pretty interesting. 1^st of all, our water was off from yesterday morning until about 10AM today which meant we couldn’t cook much, couldn’t wash dishes, couldn’t shower, and couldn’t flush the toilets. The water at the school was also off for a while today and when it did come back on it took a little while to run out the nasty water so none of us could drink the water for a while. 2^nd, one of my sweet 5^th graders showed up at school with a broken arm today. I was impressed that she was at school because I could tell it was hurting a lot but she wanted to show it off to all her friends. Unfortunately I have a feeling the novelty will soon wear off. 3^rd, at devotional this morning I found out from another teacher that someone had tried to break into her classroom resulting in a big hole in the wall. It makes me wonder what kind of thief would want to break into a 2^nd grade classroom with nothing but desks and books in it. 4^th, I came out of my 7^th period class to find paramedics and an ambulance parked outside the offices. Apparently one of the teachers was having severe stomach pain and had to be treated and monitored by paramedics. Lastly, I came home to find a large puddle of water in our kitchen because apparently when the water was turned back on it burst the top off of our water heater. I’m going to mop up the kitchen, but we might not have hot water for a while. Just another exciting day in the life.