i've been here a month, really?!

(Oops! Had some computer trouble, now this is a week late! Owell!)

It is hard to believe it has been a month already! Time is flying by, but we are so busy down here! Really a month is nothing when you have 2 years! Everyone keeps telling me the first year will be over in no time and I will soon be deciding if I want to renew a contract! I don't believe them... a year can't go by that fast!

Anyway, another great week under my belt. I am still happy, loving it, enjoying making new friends...some say it's the "honeymoon stage"... I am hoping it lasts a long time!

As far as work goes, it is busy and the schedule is crazy and I am trying to learn new curriculum (which I don't really love that much, because it is SO different from what I know and so one size fits all) Anyway... I am going to try to work around it and teach what I believe in while working in the required curriculum... wish me luck!

The students are pretty adorable- but SUPER chatty. Cultural, I know... but really they never stop talking! However, their schedule is super hectic and we are constantly transitioning... so I feel like that plays into it too... it may take me awhile, but I am determined to whip them into shape!

On the social side, I am having tons of fun meeting all of the new people! Loving my roomie, Elle and my new sobrino, Billy Moo! This Thursday we did not have school for Mother's Day in Costa Rica! Feliz dia de madre, Costa Rica! I went to the beach! We had a caravan of 4 cars and about 20 people at the beach and it was SO fun!! Turns out there were just a few bad apples on my first beach trip who managed to really spoil it for everyone, and they weren't on this beach trip and all was well!! I handled this group of 20 just fine! We had a great time and it was fun to get to know some of the other people I hadn't met yet! It is really nice to have a community of gringos here to relate to and spend time with... it's like instant friends!


The photos below are the gringo group and the Crocodile Bridge on the way to the beach! You can stop and see all of the crocodiles under the bridge! 


Gringo Group!

Crocodile Love!

first week of school

Once again another week has gone by and I have barely had time to breathe! This past Monday the entire staff, veteran and new teachers, came together to prepare for the school year. There are so many teachers at Lincoln, I am not sure I will ever meet them all! With the school being PreK-12 grade, it is a large group! However, I did get to meet most of the elementary staff and have already found some people I really enjoy spending time with! It was a relief after my weekend in Manuel Antonio with the other new teachers! I was happy to find some people I can relate to a little better!

Monday-Wednesday were filled with meetings... we barely had any time to work in our classrooms which was pretty stressful! However, the kids came Thursday I a jumped right into teacher mode and had a great day! These kids (so far) are pretty great! They are very sweet, respectful and bright. Coming from a class that was 75% below grade-level in reading, this group seems to be very on top of things! When I ask them to do something, say, writer's work shop, they all cheered and started writing almost immediately! It was nice. I know I will need to work on a few things, because culturally they talk a lot... but we will get there :)

As for my social life, meeting the entire staff has been wonderful, but kept me busy! My roommate, Elle, is great! She knows the ropes around here and is very helpful! Every night this week I was invited to join people for dinners, birthdays, beach trips... and I just can't say no so I kept busy! I had a great week though! Like I said, I have found some nice people in the veteran group and I wanted to make the effort to get to know them! Yesterday, I headed off to the beach  for the day with a few people from school. It was beautiful!! We went to a beach outside of Jaco and it was empty and wonderful! The sun was shining, the water was warm and the company was great!

Crocodiles on the way to the beach!

 Playa Esterillos- all to ourselves!

It was a busy, but wonderful week! I am looking forward to a quiet Sunday to catch up on work and relax a little before work tomorrow. Thanks for reading!

manuel antonio

Hola!
Well here I am at the end of week two! I realize it has only been two weeks, but it seems like time is flying by! This school week was full of meetings and on Thursday night some of the other new teachers and I headed to Manuel Antonio for a long weekend.

friday:
We woke up EARLY and headed into Manuel Antonio because we wanted to go to the National Park. It was a rough start because we had a few beers the night before... but we couldn't waste time, we had to get to the beach! We ate breakfast at hostel lindo (I think) and it was 2 mil for an entire typico Costa Rican breakfast! Eggs, beans and rice, fruit, pancake, coffee... YUM!
Next, we bought our tickets and headed into the national park. It was AMAZING in there. We had about a 15 minute walk to the beach and it was through the rain forest! On our way in we saw a huge snake (maybe a boa), spiders and a sloth! When we got to the beach we found a place to spend the day and went swimming! The water was calm and warm, I could have spent all day swimming! While we were at the beach we saw monkeys, lizards, another sloth, and amazing views. It was great!

We left the beach at about 3pm, exhausted, sun-burned and starving! On our way home we ran into some of the other teachers and made plans to meet them for dinner later. Our evening consisted of dinner, a few drinks and an early night!

                             

  

saturday:
Once again we got up pretty early as we had to head into town to buy our bus tickets to leave the next morning. After that, we headed back down to Manuel Antonio to grab breakfast and hit the beach. We spent the day with our crew of ten on the beach. The public beach is different from the beach in the park. There are many locals trying to sell you things like tours, food, drinks, cigars, drugs...you get the idea. However, I was able to rent a surf board and try it out again. It was not as easy for me this time as I have tried it 3 years ago when I came to Costa Rica. The waves were big and I am not as strong as I once was! After nearly drowning and only getting up 3 times I decided to call it a day. It certainly was not as easy as I remember, but I will try it again some day soon. Saturday was also a pretty low-key evening. After 2 days at the beach most everyone was exhausted. The sun sure takes it out of you! After dinner and a few drinks, we called it a night, and boy was I ready to come "home".

lesson:
I learned a lot about myself and others on this little weekend trip. One, maybe I shouldn't travel with large groups because I really don't like taking care of adults on trips. Many people were unhappy with the living situation (it was 20 bucks a night, it was by no means fancy!) and some had issues with eachother. I learned that I need to choose friends carefully here, but it is hard when the school community are your friends! So much to learn....