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.