Amber´s Visit Part I of II

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to have my friend Amber come pay me a visit from New York.  It was so nice to have someone from "back home" come visit.  Amber is one of my friends I still visit with every time I go back to New York, but it has still been about three months.

Her visit started off in a very chaotic and stressful way.  Amber took a private shuttle from San José to Monteverde that was supposed to get in around 6pm (about 10 minutes after sun set).  Instead, I think she said the shuttle got in at about 8pm.  My friends and I were planning a BBQ for that evening, but I told them all to go ahead and that Amber and I would catch up later.  I figured she´d get in, we´d get a cab and drive out to my co-worker´s house, because Amber wouldn´t want to walk an hour in the dark through the woods right when she got here.  So I waited around my house by myself.  Around 8 o´clock I started to get really nervous.  She only knew that I lived "50 meters in front of the Hotel Sapo Dorado on the other side of the street in the house in the shape of an A" (The translated version of my official address) and my phone number.  Unfortunately, that morning, our phone broke, so I figured she was trying to call us, but we´d never know.  So at about 8pm I went to our landlords house to borrow his phone.  We called the Hotel Sapo Dorado (again, right across the street and up, supposedly 50m).  They said that no one by her name had arrived, and that if she did, they´d send her to our house.  So, I went home and started to stress some more.  My landlord and I called the shuttle company, but no one answered.  Finally, I sat down and started to watch Law and Order SVU.  I figured whatever happened to Amber couldn´t be as bad as what happened to the victims on the show.

Around 11pm, my roommates came home and were worried that Amber was not yet here.  So at about 12-midnight my time, 2am Eastern Time, I called her parents house, to see if she in fact got on her plane earlier in the day.  I turned on skype and went to the restaurant across the street that has wireless.  I figured I´d have a great connection at that hour.  Well, I talked to her dad and I said "Hi Stan, it´s Bob Bartlett," and the internet cut out.  I tried calling a few times after that without any luck.  So I went to bed, far later than I ever had before in Costa Rica.

As usual I woke up at about 5am.  I went next door to use the internet, and there was a message from Amber saying that she had arrived and tried to find my house, but eventually gave up and stayed at the Hotel Sapo Dorado.  So I went around 6am and found her as she was about to get breakfast.  She was safe and in one piece, but we were both very relieved and tired.

Sámara

A couple of weekends ago,  I took a trip with some of the other teachers to a beach town called Sámara.  It was an absolutely beautiful beach that I highly recommend to anyone who comes to Costa Rica.  We took private transportation down (so we crammed 11 staff members in a van and drove down to the beach).  We relaxed on the beach, played beersbie, a horseshoe-like game where you throw a frisbee at a stick that has a beer can on it.

The bittersweet part of the trip was that Bob and Linda, who were 2 volunteers at the school returned to the US at the end of their trip.  They are a married couple who celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary with us and stayed for a couple of months.


The highlight of the trip for me was that we rented kayaks and snorkeling equipment and kayaked out to an island near the beach and snorkeled around for a while.  I´ve been told that sometimes you can see different types of rays there, and that my one co-worker saw a turtle the last time she went to this island.  Unfortunately, we did not see either of those, but it was a lot of fun to see lots of different fish and plants under the water that you usually cannot see.  I want snorkeling to be a part of my next few beach trips, and at $10 an hour, the equipment was very cheap to rent.

I also really enjoyed that our hostel had boogie boards for us to use, and that the person working at the hostel was from Madrid, so I got to reminisce about my time in Spain.

Happy Birthday Dr Seuss! and a note on Samara

It has been a couple of weeks since my last entry.  So today I am going to try to summarize two fun events from the beginning of the month. 

March 2nd was Dr. Seuss´s birthday and to honor the amazing author the Creativa decided to celebrate his birthday that Friday.  We started the day with the whole escuela getting together as we would for sing, but this time it was with crazy clothes and crazy hats in memory of the fun drawings from Dr Seuss´s books.  

(picture of me from the celebration to come)

Together with Tera, the kinder teacher, I read Oh, the Places You´ll Go by Dr Seuss to the school.  From there each class went outside and had a read-in of their favourite Dr Seuss books, a parade of the crazy clothes and hats.  Finally we took a tour to see how each class had decorated their door to represent one or more of Dr Seuss´s books.

(picture of Oh the Places We´ll Go to be uploaded shortly)

Samara

That previous weekend my friends and I went to Samara, which is a beach on the Pacific Coast and we went snorkeling, kayaking, boogey-boarding, swimming and played frisbee.  It was a very enjoyable and relaxing weekend.  Unfortunately I wasn´t able to get any pictures because I didn´t want to bring my camera onto the beach.

Pesto!

Pesto pasta is one of my favourite dishes I´ve learned to make here, and one of the first I was trusted to make on my own...

Ingredients:

• 2 bags basil
• 4 small cloves garlic
• 1/4 Cup olive oil
• 1/2 Cup parmesan cheese
• 1/2 Cup walnuts
• 1/8 Cup water

Instructions:

1. Use food processor to chop walnuts
2. Add 1 bag basil, oil, garlic. 
3. Blend
4. Add Cheese
5. Blend
6. Add remaining ingredients
7. Blend
8. Add seasoning to taste

Gallo Pinto

Gallo Pinto is one of the most traditional dishes here in Costa Rica.  There are also other variations that are common around Central America.  It is one of the many dishes here that is made up mostly of rice and beans.  Here in Costa Rica we tend to use black beans and serve it with fried plantains (as seen above).  In Nicaragua they tend to use red beans and have a higher beans to rice ratio.

To make it...

• 4 cloves garlic, crushed with garlic press or something similar
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 red pepper, chopped
• 1/2 tsp basil
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1tsp black pepper
• Salsa Lizano (a local condiment) to taste
• 1 lb tico cheese (the local cheese, swiss might be a good substitute, or mozzarella)
• 2 cups beans, soaked overnight, cooked 45min-1hr
• 2 cups rice cooked

Sauteé garlic, onion and pepper in large skillet until onions are translucent

Add beans and rice, stir in hot skillet

Pour on Salsa Lizano a gusto

Serve with fried plantains for lunch or dinner.

What a crazy week in Monteverde! Part 1

As usual the last week at la Creativa and elsewhere in Monteverde has been interesting.  I had one student who was suspended for cutting another student´s wrist with a rusty nail.  Luckily it was only a superficial cut, but since this was not his first problem in school he was suspended, for the second time this year.  I found out on Monday that his mother had decided to pull him out and to put him in the public school, where she works.  This was sad for me because he is a student who needs help and was making great progress, especially with learning English, and it´s sad to see him leave.

Later in the week we had a pot luck at school on Friday that was in honour of our High School Spanish teacher and her last week before going on maternity leave.  We had a baby shower that was decorated by the 5th and 6th graders!  It was the first baby shower I had ever been to.  We played a game where we had to guess how big María´s belly is by putting toilet paper around us and estimating.  I was pretty close, but someone luckily, was right on, because supposedly whoever guesses correctly will have the next baby.

After the baby shower when we got ready to leave, Gloria (the HS Social Studies and Civics teacher) got in her car and tried going up the hill from the parking lot to the exit of campus where the battery died.  It took 8 of us about 20 minutes to push her car up the hill so that she could then coast half way down the main hill and intentionally off the road until a mechanic could help her out.  (Photo to come).

Later that day we had another pot luck for some teachers to meet with a board member.  At this pot luck everyone except for my roommate Paulina and I brought leftovers from lunch´s pot luck.  Paulina had made banana bread for lunch which was quickly devoured, so I made a second one for dinner.  The dinner was great, Beth, who is a member of the board and a former teacher of my students hosted the meal so that the teachers could have their voice heard by the board.

that´s all for now, more to come later

Escazú

This school year I have had the great opportunity to spend quality time with my Uncle Tom and the newest member of the Bartlett family, my Aunt Terri.  They live in Guachipelin, Escazú, San José, Costa  Rica.  That means they are only about 50 miles (or 5 hours) away.  

Not only are my aunt and uncle extremely hospitable (hosting me and so far 3 of my friends, sometimes even when I´m not accompanying them) they are amazing chefs and know Costa Rica´s sights well as they had an 18 month jump start on me, and the means to travel more.

Also, their amazing house has beautiful views of 3 of the cities in the Central Valley

View of one of the volcanoes from their house

Also their house is beautiful.  They have what they call the "El Rancho" to hang out, read and relax, complete with a sink, electricity and a bar that overlooks the city.  I would like to say that it is a home away from home, but it´s much more modern and comfortable than the homes I´ve had since I left my parent´s house in 2004.

Unfortunately, there was a break in at their house a few weeks ago, and another attempts shortly after.  As a result they have hired a guard to watch the house whenever they are not around.  His name is Marley

Marley

Cartago

Back in December, I visited my aunt and uncle for a few days.  While in the Central Valley we took a trip to Cartago.  Cartago was one of the places in Costa Rica I had been most excited to visit, because it´s name shares roots with Cartagena (see note below).  Cartago, the former capital of Costa Rica is a beautiful city filled with stories and traditions dating back to the pre-Columbus era.

One important story about Cartago is the story of the ruins (seen above).  The ruins are the remains of several building attempts (therefor they are not actually ruins by definition) to build a cathedral on this one plot of land.  Locals will tell you about how an earthquake in 1910 and a few other earthquakes later in the 20th century each destroyed attempts to build on this site.  After a few attempts, they decided to abandon their efforts and leave the area as a park.

The other highlight of Cartago is the Basílica de Nuestra Señora de Los Ángeles.  Every year on the 2nd of August thousands of Ticos (and I assume some foreigners) make a pilgrimage to the Basílica.  The Basílica is well known for the legend that surrounds it.  Legend has it that a young girl found a small object that looked like Mary holding baby Jesus.  She brought it home and left it at her house.  The next day she was wandering and found the same object.  Again, she brought it home and locked it in her box.  She went back to the area where she found the object a third time, and a third time it was there.  She then brought it to her pastor and explained what had happened.  Legend has it that this "Black Madonna" was repeatedly found on the spot where the Basílica now stands.

------

Cartagena is a city in Spain.  It is the 2nd largest city and formerly the main city of the Autonomous Region of Murcia (where I studied in 2007).  Cartagena is a beautiful seaport city that had such a claim to be the sede of the province over Murcia that the administrative part of the government is actually in Cartagena. 

Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies

I´ve decided since I don´t always have internet access these days, and we don´t get off the mountain to explore that often that I wanted to add some other aspects of life in Monteverde to the blog.  First I want to put up some recipes.  Most will be of tico (Costa Rican) food, but the first I think is the biggest crowd favourite.  Several students have told me that these cookies are the best they´ve ever had, and I figure 10-12 year olds are good judges of cookies.

We made this recipe sort of by accident when the pulpería was out of normal chocolate and we had to get mint chocolate instead.

Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies

Dry ingredients

SIFT TOGETHER:

• 2 1/3 Cups flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda

Wet ingredients

MIX TOGETHER:

• 1 3/4 sticks softened butter
• 3/4 Cups white sugar
• 3/4 Cups brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 tsp vanilla

Mix wet ingredients, add in dry a little at a time.  MIX

Add mint chocolate chps

Bake on ungreased cookie sheet 8-10 min at 375´F

WELCOME BACK

Well, I´m back in Costa Rica!  Actually I got back about 2 weeks ago, but we´ve had very little internet access in the last couple of weeks.  It is great to be back, the rainy season is officially over, so it´s warm weather, clear skies and sun burns from here on out.  I´ve been very happy to be back, and I was very excited about the little things.  I was even looking forward to garbage day.

My aunt and uncle picked me up at the airport in Alajuela (just outside of San José).  The next day we drove down to Monteverde and my friend Sarah and I took them to the famous strangler fig tree by our school.

Common Cup

The first week of school was nice because it was a little bit more laid back than other weeks because we had two days of staff development before the students came back (por dicha).  Also, the best coffee house in town (not just because it´s run by my student´s family) started their longer hours, so now Paulina and I try to go at least once a week to enjoy the hot chocolate,  internet and we play pass the pigs or card games.

Pues, there´s not much else to share right now, because we have just been getting back into the routine of things, but I´ve very glad to be back.

-Hasta luego