HEY everyone!! I'm standing on a street in San Isidro waiting for my host sister to finish up at the bank right now, so I'll try to type fast enough to fit in everything I have to say...
Wow! After my last post, my host sister, her two year old son, and my host mom all came to pick me up. It was raining pretty hard, though, so we stayed at one of their relative's houses in Alajuela, not too far from San Jose. In the morning we stopped by a market to get fresh fruits and vegetables and then made the long drive out to Coronado de Osa.
Coronado de Osa isn't really a town. It isn't big enough. I'm not the only one who thinks this - even the national government hasn't created a post office there yet, and my host family once laughed and corrected me: it is a village. It consists of a pulperÃa, a bar, two restaurants, a clothes store, which my host mom owns, and a school, where I work. But it's all located right on the main road that runs down the Pacific coast.
I work at the kindergarden and nutritional center in Coronado de Osa. It is a one-room schoolhouse where I have about 25 students, all age 5, in the mornings from 7 to 10:30. Across the street is a bigger building with about 4 or 5 classrooms where the older children go, but the only kitchen is in the kindergarden so between 10:30 and 12 they all come across for lunch. Then, from 12 to 2, a group of about a dozen students ranging in age from about 7 to 10 come for a sort of after-school academic enrichment where they learn about nutrition and receive help with their homework. I assist the teacher, Jacqueline, who doesn't speak a word of English, and my Spanish has been so bad that we've been playing a lot of charades.
That's all I have time for now, more later!
Friday, September 10, 2010
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Imperial
Last morning in the hostel! Although I'm sorry to say it wasn't my last night here, technically, since we didn't get back until around 4:30 and at that point there was really no point in going to bed, as two of us had to leave about 15 minutes later. Not that it was even an option for me in the first place - someone's sleeping in my bed, Goldilocks!
It hit us around Thursday that we only had a matter of hours left together and we haven't wasted any time since. I've gotten a solid three hours of sleep in the last two nights, which may be more than some of the others. While I've been a bit anxious to get out of the hostel and into my own bedroom at least, I hadn't really thought about how much I would miss everyone! But now it's 6:40 AM and within the next 5 hours and 20 minutes we'll all be gone, and even though I know we all made the most of our time together, I can't even imagine facing big bad Costa Rica without Silvia's British humor or Elke forgetting I'm American and starting conversations in German.
My host family should be here to get me between 10 and 11 and I still need to make a trip to the market to get them a housewarming gift, plus I'm freezing my butt off right now (who would have guessed?), so I'm going to sign off now. Thanks to everyone who's been following me so far! I know that from this point forward I won't be able to post as frequently as I have been, but at this point I have no idea what frequency that will be. So try to stick with me... and I'll talk to you all soon!
It hit us around Thursday that we only had a matter of hours left together and we haven't wasted any time since. I've gotten a solid three hours of sleep in the last two nights, which may be more than some of the others. While I've been a bit anxious to get out of the hostel and into my own bedroom at least, I hadn't really thought about how much I would miss everyone! But now it's 6:40 AM and within the next 5 hours and 20 minutes we'll all be gone, and even though I know we all made the most of our time together, I can't even imagine facing big bad Costa Rica without Silvia's British humor or Elke forgetting I'm American and starting conversations in German.
My host family should be here to get me between 10 and 11 and I still need to make a trip to the market to get them a housewarming gift, plus I'm freezing my butt off right now (who would have guessed?), so I'm going to sign off now. Thanks to everyone who's been following me so far! I know that from this point forward I won't be able to post as frequently as I have been, but at this point I have no idea what frequency that will be. So try to stick with me... and I'll talk to you all soon!
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Tenemos recuerdos, mi arbol y yo
Like I said, there's never a dull moment in Costa Rica.
I came down with a pretty bad cold Monday morning and was feeling miserable by the time I woke up yesterday so I stayed home from Spanish school and managed to sleep almost all day. A couple friends stopped by the the hostel after dinner so I sat out on the porch with them for a while. I was headed back to bed when a cat ran out from under my bed and into the bathroom.
For the past 3 days or so, we had been hearing a very loud meowing sound coming from the drain pipe in the common room, so we assumed that a cat had climbed into the gutter and gotten stuck in the pipe. I went out with a flashlight around 1:30 one morning when it was keeping me awake but couldn't do anything. So obviously the cat had found a way out of the pipe and was now free in our bedroom.
The next 45 minutes were spent trying to capture the cat. Finally, many scratches later, between myself, the cleaning lady (who doesn't speak a word of English), and Mikkel from Denmark, we were able to trap the cat in a trash can covered with Mikkel's coat and release it back onto the street.
Now I am sitting in the ACI office waiting for my meeting about my project. 3 more people have gotten sick, probably because of the close proximity in the hostel, but thankfully we only have a few more days left.
I came down with a pretty bad cold Monday morning and was feeling miserable by the time I woke up yesterday so I stayed home from Spanish school and managed to sleep almost all day. A couple friends stopped by the the hostel after dinner so I sat out on the porch with them for a while. I was headed back to bed when a cat ran out from under my bed and into the bathroom.
For the past 3 days or so, we had been hearing a very loud meowing sound coming from the drain pipe in the common room, so we assumed that a cat had climbed into the gutter and gotten stuck in the pipe. I went out with a flashlight around 1:30 one morning when it was keeping me awake but couldn't do anything. So obviously the cat had found a way out of the pipe and was now free in our bedroom.
The next 45 minutes were spent trying to capture the cat. Finally, many scratches later, between myself, the cleaning lady (who doesn't speak a word of English), and Mikkel from Denmark, we were able to trap the cat in a trash can covered with Mikkel's coat and release it back onto the street.
Now I am sitting in the ACI office waiting for my meeting about my project. 3 more people have gotten sick, probably because of the close proximity in the hostel, but thankfully we only have a few more days left.
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