Learning the Hard Way

Just wrapped up my 2nd day of teaching some middle schoolers math and I gotta say I think I'm gonna love it! Even though half the city had no power for the entire day and we taught with generators that were only powerful enough to insure we had water, not electricity, I made do! I think my poor little 6th graders are still to nervous to do anything too rebellious yet though! I was rather shocked today when the start of my class went something like this: As kids trickled in I just pointed to the white board and told them to start the warm-up problems. I looked around and, get this, they were ALL doing it!!! AMAZING!

This weekend was Mother's Day in Costa Rica. Here, it is a holiday. If it would have fallen on a weekday, we wouldn't have had school! Molly and I celebrated by visiting la feria in the morning and purchasing some fruits and veggies! (We desperately needed these. Case in point, our first "meal" was a disaster! "We better start the rice first cause it'll take awhile," I said. "Doesn't it only take 10 minutes?" Molly ever so innocently replied. "Uhhh, Molly, I don't think they have minute rice here." So then we also noticed they do not put cooking directions on the package! Apparently if you are Tico, you are born with the knowledge of how to properly cook rice! Well, instead of doing the obvious thing and look it up, we went with the initial idea of equal parts. Wrong! We ended up with 'rice al dente' but heavy on the dente. Then, I also decided to cook the pork we just bought. Molly bathed it in olive oil cause "that's how her Senora does it" (she used to live in Spain.) The meal ended up like this: a mixture of pork and rice which had no flavor so we decided to wrap it in our tortillas. Still sucked so we added some mozzarella cheese. All in all a big ole pile of white nastiness.) After the fair, we hung out at the pool with the families celebrating Mother's Day! We totally fit right in...

So I went on a hike the other day with some teachers from the school. Let me remind you that this is rainy season in Costa Rica. We start scaling away and all is good until the 'paved' part disappears and we are attempting to climb up a mud hill, which is at about a 60 degree angle. Seeing as how I was up in the clouds, I imagine someone heard my pleas and I was able to make it up. This, I thought, was the hard part. Then we had to go DOWN the damn mountain! I stupidly volunteered to go down the mud hill first. Let's just say I brought a small piece of the mountain back home with me! My booty was a little sore the next day. Whether it was from the fall or the actual climb, I'll never know.

And now, as I type, Molly and I are sitting in my room quite content. We have visited one of the most amazing places thus far, Price Smart. It is basically Costco but in Spanish! I came back with two wonderful jars of pickles! Although I am slightly bitter that Molly wouldn't let me buy the ginormous container of cheese balls I wanted! (I let her get her box of brownie mix that could feed a small army!)

Oh, one last thing. Some inquiring minds have wanted to know: I have yet to use any of the meds Marsha prescribed to me! Until next time...

Gecko!

First let's start out with this: How is one supposed to distinguish between Tico Time and, well, being on time? For example, we were told to be ready at 9, bus came at 9:30. Next day, be ready at 6, bus shows up at 5:50. Ay Dios mio!!!

Ok, ranting aside, the most wonderful thing happened in our apartment! We had a short-term pet! He was the cutest little gecko! Molly did not find him too cute when she woke up to him by her head one morning though! The next day I was recruited to remove the little tyke. Scenario went something like this: "Oh my god, Kelsie, he's in my closet! Get him! AGHHH...he moved."
"Alright, fear not, I've got this. Holy S***, he's a speedy little dude!" So, 20 minutes later and after completely clearing out Molly's closet, I somehow managed to scope Geiky into a ziploc bag and set him free on our balcony...minus part of his tail. Now, to those of you who know how deeply I care for the Geiko Gecko, you can imagine how much this meant to me! I miss him already.

I shall finish with one of my upstanding Spanish moments thus far. We all went out Thursday night before some of the group left to go to their campus up north. Well, we get to the bar and I peruse the menu. I've gotta get my fav drink on my first night out. Looking at the menu I spot it: Tequila Runrise. Interesting translation, I thought. The waiter comes to take my order and I had forgot to practice saying it in my head so it came out something like this, "Tequila RRRRRRRR-un-rrrre-saY" "Tequila Sunrise" the dude says and moves on. So apparently Runrise is NOT Spanish, it is simply a misprint on their menu! Glad I found that one out the hard way! Until next time...

I'm Heeere!!!

Ok, so I made it! All my luggage and all! When I went to check in the woman immediately knew where I was headed cause 2 other girls went through before me. "Did they have a lot of luggage?" I asked her. "Oh yeah. (Seeing my 5 pieces) Oh...not that much!" Luckily, Molly, my roommate, checked 4 pieces too! Were def the most luggaged roommates of the bunch; it took two cars to deliver us!

My place is so beautiful! I have the master bedroom with my own bathroom and balcony overlooking San Jose! At night it is so pretty all lit up! I have already broken the door off of my closet in attempts to slide it aside. Fear not, I have successfully learned how to tell the maitenence man, "My door is broke and it is under my bed. Sorry!" Oh, don't ask why it's under my bed, Molly and I thought it sounded like a good idea. Turns out it's about 2 feet longer...

So all of us arrived, expect for one...he is lost. All I can say is thank god it's not me cause I'd prob be curled up in a ball somewhere praying to the gods!


Ok, so we went shopping today. "It's sorta like a WalMart" we were told. Hmmm, maybe a WalMart circa 1985! My taste has dropped substantially and Molly and I were forced to remove ourselves for fear of being brainwashed when she tried telling me a floral pastley ugly thing was "kind cute" and maybe I should just get that for my comforter.


Apparently I am also the only one with a shoe problem. Case in point: "I brought a lot of shoes," I said to one of the girls. "Me too," she replied, "I brought 6 pairs." (I actually had this convo with 2 other girls as well!) But on a side note, I have noticed some very cute shoes from the Ticas who work at the school!


Lastly, I am happy to note that I will not completely melt away while here. Although...I can feel my hair expanding as I type! Until next time...