Thanksgiving

¡Feliz Día de Acción de Gracias!  Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Even though it´s been five years since I was last in the US for Thanksgiving, I still like to honour the holiday by having a feast and giving thanks for all the people, places and things in my life.   I feel like this is a good place for me to put this so that everyone I mention can read it.

Most importantly I am thankful for my parents and the rest of my family for always supporting me and caring for me, even if I live far away.  Without all of you I would not be who I am today, and I certainly would not be where I am today.  For this I will always be grateful.

Secondly I am thankful for my education and all the opportunities it has brought me throughout my life.  Were I not fortunate enough to be able to go to school without incurring debts I would not have the liberty to work abroad over these last few years.  I am also thankful for everyone who has taught me over there years, whether formally or informally, especially those who taught me Spanish, because that was the biggest obstacle to achieving the life style that I have today.

As always I am thankful for my friends all around the world who are always there for me, even if I don´t know where they all live anymore.  I will always cherish the unique bonds I have with each of my friends.

I am also thankful for my job and the opportunity to come live here in Monteverde, because it is allowing me to work full-time and still explore a new country and a new culture.

También les quiero agradecer a mis compañeras de casa, compañeras en la escuela y mis estudiantes porque sin vosotros no podría vivir tan lejos de mi familia.  Os quiero mucho y os agradezco muchísimo porque me apoyan.

Costa Rica vs. Spain en la vida de Fishy

I can´t believe how much my life has changed in the last year, or even the last few months.

A few months ago, I lived in Granada, Spain.  I taught English to 3 year olds - 6th grade as the assistant to the English teacher.  There were 25 kids in each of my 8 classes (5th grade was the only class I didn´t work with).  All of my co-workers spoke Spanish as their first language, and only a few could converse in English.  The ones that could were the English teachers, and wrote English very well, but had rarely had a chance to practice speaking.  Almost none of the students could converse in English when we started.  My school was named after an important woman in Spanish history.  Our school was directly controlled by the government.  They decided how many hours a week of each subject was taught, they prohibited differentiated lessons, gave the school options of 3 text books that could be used for each subject, chose the school´s budget AND how it was spent.  They even chose which teachers taught in which schools and which cities.  The school couldn´t even hire the people they wanted to!  I was contracted to work 12 hours a week, but opted to work 20 hours in the school and I taught about 5 hours a week of private lessons to earn me some extra cash to travel.  My co-workers were contracted full-time at 25 hours a week.  School was 9-2 M-F with a 30 min recess and 15 minute breakfast break for everyone.  And my commute to school was a mile walk to the bus, then a 30 minute bus to the school that was 3 towns away.  But at least I met another bunch of teachers from the other schools on that bus and we´d go out once a week for a drink and a tapa after school.

Outside of school, well I lived in a decent sized city.  Granada is home to about 250,000 people, plus 80,000 students, 10,000 of which are internationals, mostly from Europe and the US.  Granada had a busy nightlife, and my street was right in the middle of it.  I would go out for tapas (cheap drinks with free food) at least 4 times a week because it was almost as cheap as cooking for myself.  I would go to an intercambio to practice English and Spanish with other people. I would also eat Kebabs (aka Schwarmas) a couple times a week, and I think that they are my favourite food.  A night out with friends would usually consist of a kebab around 11 or 12, and or tapas from 9-12.  Then to a different bar for drinks until 2, then a club til they close at 6 (I often would go home before the club and call friends from the states thanks to the 6hr time difference).  After the club closed we´d get churros for breakfast and head to bed around 8am and I´d wake up by 1130.

I lived in a small flat with 2 roommates who were filthy and I didn´t get along with.  Rent was 200Euros a month, (about $260) which wasn´t bad, because we had internet and I was making about 1000E a month with my private classes added in. 

In Costa Rica...

I live in Monteverde, o mejor dicho, I live in the district of Cerro Plano, which is largley Tico.  I live in a nice house (I often compare it to a cabin) with 2 of my co-workers.  We get a long very well and all help clean and cook.  We each pay $100 a month for rent.  Our neighbors are our landlords and the parents of some of our students.  We rarely go out for dinner, and if we do it´s usually a pot luck at another co-worker´s house.  I regularly cook and bake for the 3 of us and bring the left over baked goods to friends. If we go out “late” I would still be in bed by midnight.  Sometimes I´ll babysit for our friends.  Their 6 year-old is one of our best friends here.  On the weekends I can sometimes sleep in until 730, but I am usually awake between 5 and 530.

At school, we are contracted to be there from 730-400 Monday - Friday.  Our students are in school from 8-250 on M-Th and 8-1220 on Friday.  I get paid 350,000 colones / month before taxes, so about 289,000 colones (about $600)  after Costa Rican taxes are paid.  This year I teach 5th graders reading, writing, spelling and math in English.  As well as 6th grade math.  Most of my co-workers are bilingual (English-Spanish).  One is bilingual (English-French) and some Hindi, Korean and Mandarin is also spoken.  The teachers who are not bilingual (or want to improve their 2nd language) receive free classes Mondays and Tuesdays after school either by the Spanish as a 2nd Language teacher or the 6th grade teacher.  The students receive most of their education in English from kinder (3-4 year olds) on, so by the time they get to 5th grade with me, the ones who have been here speak English well.  Our school is very different from any other school I´ve worked at or attended because of our unique situation.  We are a private school in the cloud forest of Costa Rica.  Our school was designed originally by parents   Our school has 2 official names and 1 name that everyone class it.  Officially we are the Cloud Forest School in English and the Centro de educación Creativa in Spanish.  That translates to the school of creative education.  And locally everyone calls it La Creativa. We don´t really use text books, except as occasional resources to see that we´re teaching everything the public schools get, and to give the students the vocabulary in Spanish.  The education we provide is aimed to be holistic and to teach the whole student, not just their academic needs.  Students receive Special Ed for emotional, behavioural and academic issues.  We also provide ESL (English as a 2nd Language) and ESI (Spanish as a 2nd Language) for any students who need it.  Our school is mostly tico, but has a couple gringos (international kids from the US and UK) in most classes.  And unlike last year we are not required to teach religion in school.

The best part about the school is that we are right in the cloud forest.  One important part of campus is the fact that we are spread out with most buildings only having 2 classes in them and the primary and secondary schools being separated by the meadow where kids play basketball and fútbol.  But our campus is much more than the classrooms, offices and recess areas.  We also have a composting building, 2 green houses, an organic garden, 2 kiosks, and miles of trails through the forest.  We can see a lot of wild life on the campus, enough so that people pay to take tours on campus at night.  I often see hummingbirds outside my class window, coatis outside the office.  One of the trails is called the Monkey Palace because you can usually find monkeys all over.  But the only time I´ve been I only saw my monkey students.

--- one addition I forgot to put in, thanks to Chelsea for reminding me, ---
My commute this year is also significantly shorter, only a 10 minute walk straight up hill this year.

Trip to Puntarenas

Puntarenas FC "Sharks" Stadium

On Sunday the 6th of November I took the 6am bus to Puntarenas so that I could watch the last match of the season.  Once I got there I learned that the games had all been postponed due to landslides throughout the country, so I was not able to watch the game, but I got to walk around Puntarenas.

Catedral de Puntarenas

Puntarenas is a port city on the Gulf of Nicoya (Western Side of Costa Rica). Puntarenas is the capital of the province of the same name, which is the province in which I live.  It is one of the 2 cities where I´m told I shouldn´t drink the water, but has some unique things about it.  It is surrounded by towns known for their beautiful beaches, but Puntarenas´s beaches aren´t that impressive because they are in the city. 

But Puntarenas is only a 3hr bus ride away.  And it only costs 1235 colones (about $2.40) each way.  The bus comes back around 2pm, so you can spend about 5hrs on the beach for under $5!

Also, Puntarenas is known for a dessert called a churchill, named after Winston Churchill.  A Churchill is a snow cone with powered milk, fruit and condensed milk on top.  My co-workers say you haven´t been to Puntarenas if you haven´t had a churchill.  The story is that Winston Churchill came to Puntarenas and was providing support and aid for the area.  He ordered a dessert and so the community decided to name it after him.

A fun weekend

I finally hung my hammock in front of the house.  

Paulina is modeling the hammock

Diego climbing the strangler fig, from the inside

Our Saturday started off rather slowly.  For the first time ever none of us went to the feria (farmer´s market) so later on in the weekend Paulina and I had to go to the Mega Super and get our groceries.  It was nice because it´s much closer to home, but the market offers about the same prices and more organic food and a chance to see people from town including the parents of out students, but this weekend we opted out.

So later on Saturday I went to the Friends School (the Quaker school in the zone) to play frisbee.

After frisbee, around 2pm I went to Cybil and Soraya´s new house, which is named, "the villa" which is beautiful and has been compared to drug lord´s housing in Colombia.  They have a beautiful view with statues, ponds and two fire places, one inside, one out.  It was nice to finally see their new house, and nice to celebrate Cybil´s birthday.

From there we all went to Maté Caña, one of the four bars in town, to listen to Jesse, the 6th grade teacher play on his guitar.

On Sunday our friend Diego came over and we hiked the strangler fig tree by school.  The tree I´m guessing is about 100 feet high and we climbed up from the inside.  The way strangler fig trees grow is that they attach to another tree, somewhere above the ground and they start growing vines up and down and eventually invade and take over the original tree.  After a while the other tree is eroded, or something of that sort, leaving a hollow opening in the middle.  Sometimes, like with this tree you are able to climb.


In the evening we decided to make tres leches, which is one of my favourite Costa Rican dishes.

Nicaragua Part III: Granada

Now, finally the last leg of our tour of Nicaragua was to the city of Granada.  I was most excited about going to a place named after my beloved Granada.  It was a nice small city that used to fight for control of the country with León.  

Catedral de Granada

Paulina and I went a day earlier than the rest of the crew because we preferred to see more cultural sites than relaxing at a lagoon.  Our friend Michelle came along too because she wasn´t feeling well and needed to see a doctor.  

Once in Granada we settled in and took our own tour of the city.  We went to the Poets´ Park and the old train station, then we went off to explore the old hospital, the military fort that we couldn´t enter and the churches and other cultural parts of the city.  

Old Hospital

The following day we finished our tour and saw the last few sights we hadn´t seen the day before and then took a boat tour of the Isletas de Granada (small islands near Granada in the Lake of Nicaragua).  It was a fun hour long tour that included seeing isletas that had houses, bars and one isleta that was only inhabited by monkeys that a vet had brought there years before.  There were the white faced capuchín monkeys and spider monkeys.  When our tour ended we returned to the shore as the next group got on.  This group contained 2 strangers, one of my 6th graders, his brother in 2nd grade and their parents.

Isletas

After the boat tour we met up with the rest of the group, took an official tour of the city, had dinner and in the morning we returned to Monteverde!

Xateva and La Maria Churches

Nicaragua Part II: Laguna de Apoyo and Masaya

Laguna de Apoyo

The second leg of our trip was to the Laguna de Apoyo and Masaya.  The Laguna was a beautiful, quiet place to relax and swim.  I was glad to swim in a natural body of fresh water.  Since I grew up going to the Otsego Lake every weekend during the summers, I have always preferred natural bodies of water to pools and fresh water over salt water.  At the small resort we were able to relax because aside from us and a handful of other visitors at the same hotel there was no one within sight.  This meant we could take the kayaks and row around the laguna, swim and enjoy the sun and water.

Mercado de Masaya, Masaya Market

On our second day at the laguna we took a day trip to the town of Masaya where we went to the two biggest flea markets in Nicaragua (or so I´m told at least).  They had a lot of wood and leather products, but mostly touristy and rather kitsch-y.  But it was fun.  We also go to see the national baseball stadium, named for Roberto Clemente as he was on his way to bring aid to Nicaragua when his flight went down.  We learned that in Nicaragua, baseball is more popular than fútbol (soccer).  On the day trip we also went to a hammock factory where most of us bought hammocks.  Most of them cost 400 córdobas (about $20)!  We also got to try out nice swing hammocks that we call chairocks (chair and hammock, a word coined by our friend / 1st grader- Logan) that stretched out to be long enough that I could lay down and have the hammock wrap around my feet past the toes and still support my head!

We then went to a lookout on the other side of the Laguna de Apoyo and Laguna de Masaya, from which we could see the city of Granada, Nicaragua from a distance.  It was beautiful, and I am still waiting on the pictures from that I took with a friends camera.

Nicaragua Part I: León

On Saturday morning we took a journey to the Costa Rica - Nicaragua boarder, crossed the boarder on foot with our bags and took another van to León, Nicaragua.  León was beautiful.  It had most of the things I think every city should have, including kebabs!  

León is a beautiful despite all turmoil they have seen over the last few decades.  It was a lot of fun to walk around León because we could see a lot of their history in their statues and churches.

Cathedral in León

The cathedral was a lot of fun because there were a series a paintings depicting Jesus´ struggles, death and resurrection.  When we went on a city tour we got to go to the top of the cathedral, climb around and see the entire city.

View from our hike of volcanic ash and the lowlands between volcanoes

In and around León and the rest of Nicaragua there are over twenty volcanoes (and I thought Costa Rica had a lot!).  As a group we took a journey to one of the youngest volcanoes and went "volcano boarding" which is similar to sledding on a toboggan on volcanic ash instead of snow.  We went, along with some people from The Netherlands and Australia.  We took nearly an hour hike up the volcano, put on orange jumpsuits (but I got a blue one for some reason).  2 by 2 we took off and down we went.  It was fun, much faster that I felt I needed to go, and we got a lot of rocks thrown into our faces, but I would recommend it to anyone.  Below is a picture of someone from our group going down at about 30km/hr (18mph)

Beautiful Friday at School

WHAT A BEAUTIFUL DAY AT THE  CREATIVA

After more than 2 weeks of almost non-stop rain here in Monteverde we finally got a sunny day again on Friday.  I had spent all afternoon Thursday making plans for something to do with the 5th and 6th grade classes for inside recess and inside PE class with very limited space, and we get up the hill and this is what we see!  The mountains of Costa Rica (from here we´re almost a mile high) straight to the the Gulf of Nicoya and the Nicoya Peninsula.  (If you look at a map of CR it´s the big peninsula on the Northwestern part).  It was a beautiful day and a pleasure to get to see our view once again.  So I went inside and started to get ready for the first part of the day... SCHOOL SING!  

School Sing is a tradition at the Cloud Forest School (yes, we call it the Cloud Forest School, but the Creativa in Spanish.  The name´s don´t translate, but it´s fun that way.  The legal names do translate and include both names, so don´t worry it´s not too confusing once you´re down here).  Every Friday morning the classes from Kinder ( 3, 4 and 5 year olds) all the way up to 6th grade get together to sing a few songs.  Usually we sing the school song and one class leads us in that and about 5 other songs.  This week was the 5th grade´s turn.  So that meant that my crazy kids who struggle with English more than some of the younger classes, who are all very stage shy got to sing the school song, The Littlest Worm, a song from the World Cup, Primavera (by Carlos Santana, which they signed the chorus to!) and The Duck Song (from youtube, thanks to my friend AnnA Monkey)  They were amazing and adorable.  I was very thrilled with their performance because we´ve come such a long way as far as behaviour and because I was the first of the new teachers to go.

Oh yeah, and we enlisted our friends in kinder to be the ducks in our duck song performance.  The lil ducklings are right here... 

So after school sing, I was thinking, we haven´t seen the sun in ages, the kids haven´t played outside in almost a week, let´s go on a hike!  What a muddy hike, since it had rained for weeks, but hey, we´re in Costa Rica, we practically live in the mud.  So the kids lead me (because I had never been there before) past the spring, up to the Monkey Palace.  We didn´t see any monkeys this time, but that didn´t stop us from acting like monkeys the entire trip!

The monkey palace is one of the students´ favourites places because it´s very difficult to climb up the side as you can (possibly) see below

Coming down is another story, it´s not just difficult it´s almost impossible.  The students have done it several times and failed to maintain control all the way down.  I on the other hand just sat in my urban surfing pose and slid down like you´re inching down a ski slope in your skis, but faster.  After this we went to snack, PE which was a fun game of 5th vs 6th grade kickball!  GO 5TH GRADE, WIN 5-4, (although I was hoping for a tie or a 6th grade win because my kids tend to be good about defeat).  Then the kids ran off to their Spanish class and we cleaned up, they went home for the weekend and I went to my staff meeting.

The weekend started off well with a beautiful morning for the feria, and then we went to play frisbee in the mud at the Friends (Quaker) school up the road.  As much fun as it was, I should have taken the day off because it set off a 102´F fever that made me stay home on Monday.  I went the the Dr who said I had a bad sinus infection, gave me meds and I got a shot at the pharmacy, my temp dropped below 93´F and somehow Tuesday it was more stable so I went to school, still not feeling great but went because today, Thursday was round 1 of the parent-teacher conferences (my first ever).  Part 2 is tomorrow and the first quarter will be done!  Then off to Nicaragua on Saturday for a week journey!

Montezuma

Peace and Love Costa Rican flag out in front of the hotel

View from the Hotel Luna Llena

In honor of Costa Rican Independence Day we got Friday September 17th off.  So, 14 of the teachers from the school took off to Montezuma for the weekend.  Six of us stayed at Luna Llena (Full Moon) which is owned by the mother of one of the 11th graders.  It was a beautiful weekend.  It didn´t really rain at all, which was a change from what we are used to in Monteverde, where it rains daily, and lately it has rained almost non-stop.  Some of the highlights of our trip was the animals we go to see.  I got some great pictures of the white faced monkeys when they came to visit us at our hotel.

White faced Monkey

We also were visited by an iguana who was sun bathing on the roof outside our hotel room one morning

Sunbathing

But, without a doubt the best part of the weekend was the hiking.  We found some rivers, springs and waterfalls that were absolutely beautiful.  One of the interns and I hiked up to a spring we had been told about.  It was a very fun hike up stream through a few small waterfalls and lots of rocks.  We hiked up and back without a problem.  Then we started to walk back along the beach towards our hotel when we ran into a couple of our co-workers.

The Montezuma Coast

We decided to show them where we went because we knew that they would enjoy it.  We hid our belongings under a bush by the beach and hiked back up.  Again we trekked through the terrain without problem.  Then however, when we came back as we reached the beach I fell.  Beverly, the 2nd grade teacher was apparently convinced that I had died, until I jumped back up and ran into the water to wash myself off.  The 3 of them wanted to take pictures because I bruised immediately and as they thought that "my kidney was going to jump out of my body," and handed me the box of wine to ease the pain.  I walked back, bought some bandages and had a friend bandage me up.  Then I laid down because I was feeling lightheaded and started to black out.  But once I had a few minutes rest I was better.

The following morning a group of us went hiking up to a waterfall.  It was beautiful.  There were several layers of waterfalls.  From the first one Steve (the 6th grade intern) and I jumped from some of the larger rocks and then went behind the waterfall.  We later climbed up higher to see another 2 levels of waterfalls.  We also ran into a group of german students we had met a few weeks earlier at the volcano.  All in all, it was a great weekend and I would repeat it even if I knew I´d fall and get hurt again.

September 15th and Semana Cívica

Traditional ox cart

La Semana Cívica or Civic week is a very important week in Costa Rica.  This week represents the patriotism and unity of this small socialist nation.  Before Semana Cívica my school celebrated for a week.  Each morning started with an all-school assembly where we each presented un acto cívico.  Un acto cívico includes the greeting of the national pabellón (flag with crest) and school flag.  Then the school sang a few patriotic anthems (El himno de Costa Rica, Himno a la bandera, Himno al 15 de septiembre, ¡Oh Costa Rica! and the Himno patriotica).  After a few of these songs were sung we then saw presentations by the students on the history of the flag, history of Costa Rica, National symbols and heritage.  

Then during the actual Semana Cívica on Tuesday the 14th at 6pm people gather in the town halls in each of the towns in Costa Rica to sing the national anthem.  In theory the entire country is singing at that moment.  It was really fun to be a part of this because most people in the staff learned the words to the various anthems from our month of practicing with the students.  Some of us even realized we know more Costa Rican songs than we do for the US!  (I commented on how I sing the Andalucian anthem and the Costa Rican anthem much more often than I would sing the Star Spangled Banner)

After the anthem was sung there was a parade of lanterns in honour of the light that was brought to announce their independence from Spain 189 years ago.  Every year a torch is run (much like the Olympic torch) through Central America to re-enact the independence from Spain.  Most of the students in town as well as some of the teachers made their own lanterns out of patriotic symbols and paraded them around the main triangle in downtown (also known as the only block downtown, but more on that at a later date)

Patriotic lantern for the Sept 14th parade

Then on the morning of Wednesday the 15th (Independence Day) the whole town (well, more or less) gathered back in the gymnasium to celebrate independence day.  We witnessed another Acto Cívico which included the presentation by our 1st,2nd and 11th graders.  It was a fun, bilingual presentation.   The village was also visited by a representative of the MEP (Ministry of Education) as well as a few other speakers from town.

Crowd for the Acto Cívico on September 15th

After the Acto Cívico on Wednesday there was a parade of school bands and bastoneras (baton twirlers) that took a large loop around most of the town.

Parade on September 15th.  Featuring students from the Creativa