Fin de semana y mis amigos

When I first arrived in Costa Rica I had no idea what I was getting myself into and what I was going to encounter-who would have known that a beach house was going to be involved. So far, things have been unreal and I have been truly blessed with everything that has taken place. I have attached some photos of the people I've been hanging out with and where we were this past weekend. 

I spent the last 48 hours laying on a coleman inflatable raft in a pool, drinking rum and coke, and being fried by the sun-I'm using SPF 70 and I'm still fried. The days consisted of what I previously stated, and Saturday night we built a bonfire and just partied until about 3 in the morning. The photos can pretty much sum up this weekend.

Remember though, there is a good amount of English being spoken during this time but most is in Spanish. My head really hurts at times trying to figure out what they are saying. There are points too where I forgot things in English because I focus so much on Spanish. This language thing is tough. 

I can't believe how lucky I am. This truly is something that I can't even express in words. I am so fortunate to have this experience and I wish everyone could come down here and enjoy as well. With that being said, let me know, we'll start making plans.

Pura Vida Mae!

Terremoto de Costa Rica

Hey everyone,

This weekend I was able to get to a little town called Poasito which is a little town next to the active volcano of Poas. This was the epicenter of the 6.2 earthquake which took place on Jan 8th and created a devastating situation for many people in the north central part of Costa Rica. The country is trying to figure out what to do with the victims as many people lost everything they owned. The land is torn and they only thing that can be done is to demolish what stands and possibly start over-if the land permits it. Much of the land is so unstable that they may not be able to ever build again. It was quite a seen and experience.

I was able to go and help Saturday and like usual, I was the only Gringo there. Everyone was very appreciated of my contributions but it was funny getting to know everyone as I do stand out like a sore thumb. You'll never truly understand being the minority until you're someone living in a foreign country, with a different color skin, for an extended period of time-it's quite the experience. Yeah, I'm working on the tan. We're going to the beach on Friday for the weekend so I'll be able to get more sun then.

Anyways, back to the earthquake, it was a lot of work. The houses are built out of cement walls so they don't rot from all the moister, (wood would just decompose), and taking a sledge hammer to the walls gets quite tiring after a while. And lets just say that walking on the roof of that house was pretty sketchy too. The roofs are all metal panelling and we had to rip all that of and bust through the roof with the hammers too (while still on the roof). Lucky I have insurance because when you're a volunteer, no one really is going to help you out with medical bills. I'll post photos of it later, as my camera died and a friend of mine was taking the photos, the photos are pretty cool. 

*** Side bar topic, remember when I talked about that guy Eddy in the 2nd or 3rd posting? I ran into him downtown San Jose when I was down there. People here say to just blend in and try not to look like a lost Gringo. Eddy was walking around in a bright yellow Hawaiian shirt alone and he looked like the stereotypical turisto. He was so gringo that I wanted to mug him. Anyways, it was just good to see that he got out of that immigration mess too. 

Finally for this entry, school has been going well, however I busted one of my students cheating on one of his book reports. I knew it wasn't his work so I typed the first paragraph of his report into google and it came up with a WW2 website and the whole thing was there. I had to give him a 0/50 and I let him know that this stuff is not going to fly in my class. I think it was a real wake up call for him because he's been known to do that a lot and no one has done anything about it. He better learn now rather than later, I'll be the one to teach him.

Later everyone and I'll keep doing my thang... 

I'm feeling more pics...

Gold, Crocs and Palm trees!

    

             

     

 

Hey everyone. 

I survived my first trip to San Jose and everything was real cool; quite the experience though. I took my camera, about 25 bucks and an ID and that was it. I was followed by a bum for about 2 blocks asking for money and the clown in this photo patted me down in front of everyone because I gave him 2,000 colones (4 bucks). After that, I felt like a target and I was wondering if anyone was going to try and get more. Anyways, we went to the Museo de Oro and saw more gold than I've ever seen in my life, (I'll post some of those photos later) and checked out el Centro Mercado. El Centro Mercado is like a giant maze with meat markets, tourist gifts, and everything else you can think of. You can easily get lost in there as the walkways are about 2 feet in width and hundreds of people. Everything was cool and even got a little sun. My head also hurts, not from the hangover from yesterday, but from trying to speak Spanish for 8 hours yesterday. I'm really putting myself out there to only speak Spanish and it's a lot of work but that's what you have to do. 

The weather here has been real cold and a lot of rain/wind. You think of Costa Rica being this tropical paradise, and it is when it's sunny, but damn, it's freaking cold right now. Everyone says this is very unusual for this time of year and usually it is really sunny and warm but for now I'll just have to wait for that. 

We're going to the earthquake site next weekend for the first time and I'll let you know how that goes then. There's a lot to do down here and there's never a boring moment. However, I am enjoying this lazy Sunday right now because I haven't left the house all day for the first time and I'm trying to just relax from everything that is going on. I'm gonna keep on going so I'll have more to tell you all next time. Take it easy!

First week of school is done.

I survived everyone. I made it through my first week as a teacher. Baby steps. Everything is going real well and the students aren't that bad. Ha, they're good kids. I remember when I was that age and I made my teachers lives a living hell and now I'm the guy tell the kids to knock-it off. How would have ever thought that would ever happen? 

Anyways, I have the sixth graders write a history report between 500-600 words with a outline built and a bibliography, that's going well. The fifth graders are probably the most cooperative of the grades, and the fourth graders all need Ritalin. I haven't sent anyone to the principles office yet but it's only a matter of time. Ha. Anyways, only 17 more weeks of teaching and I have 5 weeks off, not bad considering I was only getting two weeks off a year with C.C. "Keep it real guys and girls of C.C. you all rock!" 

To sum up with past week, it was a success. However, independent transportation is a tough situation but Stef keeps telling me "Paciencias"= Patience. The family has been more than helpful with everything and I've been pretty fortunate to be setup with them.

Later everyone,

The last few days have been......

Pretty unreal.

Friday=Finishing setting up my classroom and putting together the curriculum for school to start tomorrow . The classroom looks good but now and I'm going to have to whip these little kids into shape. Ha. it's going to be all good. 

That night, Stefany and I went to her friends house and partied with some of her friends who are all pretty cool but it's tough when you're trying to figure out the whole espanol thing. They're all helping a bunch and everyone gets a kick out my spanglish, I'm catching on pretty quick though.  The funny thing that happened that night was having them drive me through downtown San Jose at 1:00am in the morning. Tranny's on the corners, homeless kids knocking on our window for money (the kid look pretty cracked out). Hookers in the park, it was quite the scene. I ask Stefany and her friend to drive me through and they were cool with it but once we actually got there, you could see that Stef's friend was pretty stressed out. Bienvenidos Costa Rica.

Saturday= we went to Punta Leona located about half was down the western side of Costa Rica. Palm trees, Parrots and a lot of people. The beach was real cool but I had to use SPF 4,000 otherwise I would die from lobsterization; I got some sun but I need to slow roast so I don't fry. The ride there and back was about 2 1/2 hours each way when it the states it would have taken about an hour. It is about the same distance as Truckee to Auburn. Here you also have to take into considersation the traffic, the condition of the roads and the mountain sides you have to climb, driving here is unreal. 

Don't worry family, we did almost get into a head on collision but we're still alive. I had to tell you but it's all good. That's how it is here.

Today= a great day for sleeping. I slept until 1:00pm and haven't really done anything. I writing this while I'm watching the SuperBowl but I'm one of about 100 people in this entire country watching it. No one cares about Football, only Futbol. I need to look over the science books for tomorrow because I'm not entirely sure what the plan is. It will be fine though.

I'll keep you all posted.