Un Buen Viaje

Well, my kiddos continue to be as frustrating yet charming as always! Daily classroom experiences are something like: "Ms. K, say the word 'bag!'" (Apparently it's funny I say it 'beg.') "Ms. K, you remind me of orange"...no, not AN orange, just orange! He assured me this was a compliment (I didn't get to the fact I abhor that color.) Me-list some things you like about this class. Some responses: Your shoes, the way you say 'bag,' your accent, your patience (thank god someone noticed!) Also, some boys were playing around so I called them over: "Yes, Ms. K?" they ask, looking ever so angelic. "You have really cool eyes!" "Do not try and butter me up when I'm about to talk to you!" So, yes, they drive me crazy, but I love them for it.

So last weekend was Jen's birthday so we decided to go on a grand adventure to celebrate. Liz planned the tour to Paos, a volcano. The trip started something like this: Molly gets in with coffee and bagels for her and I. Tour guide Mike immediately freaks out talking for about 5 minutes (no joke) how he keeps his bus really clean, yadda, yadda, yadda. We promise not to drink it until we stop. Then, his OCD intensifies. We had to drop someone off at the bus stop first and he proceeds to go into grand detail as to all the locations Andrew could wait for the bus. At the coffe plantation we sat on some oxen! I'm going so save you some of the painful details and fast forward to Paos. It was a foggy day. "I don't think we'll be able to see the crater today. Hmmm, maybe we should just wait here until people leave and we can ask them if they saw anything." We tell him that we just want to leave and go somewhere else instead. OH NO. We park on the side of the road and stalk people as they leave! After flagging his second car, he is finally convinced we wouldn't be able to see anything. BUT WAIT, before he'll let us leave, he makes us get out to see "the poor man's umbrella." Apparently one has not lived until they have touched it. (It truly changed my life.) He kept wondering why none of us would sit in the front with him!

When we got to La Paz waterfall garden, we were SO excited to see he was going to follow us around! Liz and I attempted to go right but we were quickly corrected and told we must go to the left. While looking at the butterflies we were yelled at from across the room to start on the other side first! We saw some very cute animals: macaws, sloths, butterflies, leopards, lions, snakes....then we went to the waterfall. I was very sad that Mike did not descend the stairs with us. Finally left on our own, we enjoyed the peaceful beautiful of the waterfalls.

I am quite excited for my four day weekend coming up. We are renting a car and attempting to drive in this crazy country! Fear not Mom, we got the car with a GPS! Until next time...

Mis Erroritos

First of all, I don't even know if 'erroritos' is even a word but in my mind it is! (There I go, already making up words in Spanish! I have decided to give you all a laugh...at my expense of course. I have committed a few "tiny errors" aka, erroritos con mi Espanol.

Lucky for me, both errors have occurred with my Spanish teacher. (This actually just makes me wonder how many more blunders I've made and the person was too embarrassed to correct me...naw, best not to think about that!) El Primero: "Ok Kelsie, let's practice the preterit. Tell me when you spoke Spanish yesterday." So I was all prepared to tell him that, "Yesterday, I ordered food." (Ayer, ordeni comida.) What came out was, "Ayer, orini." So apparently, omitting a single 'D' will take you from 'I ordered' to 'I urinated.' Yep, that's right. I told my tutor, "Yesterday, I urinated." He was very happy to hear the news! Then he scooted further away from me...

That was last week. Today, I trumpt myself. We were talking about my swimming and I was telling him all about it. He asked me what the strokes were called. Now, I have a hard time remembering what you call the breaststroke in Spanish (can you predict where this is going?) I know it starts with PECH and I can never remember if it ends in an O or an A. Well, it being the breaststroke, I assumed it was feminine and put an A at the end. WRONG!!! He looked at me and asked again..then one more time...then was like, "OHH, pechO."  So I was like, "Ah, si, pecho." Then he asks me if I know what the other word means. Of course I did not, I thought it meant breastroke. He tells me it is a bad word, but he won't tell me what it means!!! I still don't know! None of my Spanish speaking friends are on Facebook for me to ask them either!

Then, I started thinking...I really thought I had had a similar talk with one of my students...then it hits me. I was talking with one of my boys about swimming and he didn't know the name of the strokes either...so I told him. Yep, probably called him a Vag-hole or something! PURA VIDA MAE!!!
Until next time...

November?!?!

Where has the time gone? I have already been in lovely Costa Rica for 3 months! Mi vida esta bien. (Life is good.) Mi espanol: poco a poco... School is good; kids are still sweet, for the most part! One of my favorite students (yes, all teachers have favorites just like all parents have favorites) told me the other day, "Ms. K, you're like a second mom to me. Besides her you're the only other girl I trust." (insert AWWWWWWWW here) The other day the students were writing down some steps for writing equations. While everyone is silently copying them down, this same student calls out, "Ms. K, are you my friend?" Ah 6th graders...

I was in my classroom the other day when another teacher comes in and tells me I have a package in the office! I rush over there and find a surprise from some of my lovely friends!!! I open it to find an array of purple products all perfect for Halloween! I was showing some students and I gave them some of the stickers. They kept saying things such as, "Wow, your friends are SO nice!" "I wish I had friends like that!" "Wow Ms. K, you have really great friends." It was darling...then we got on the subject of how much we miss Target! (Side note: my kids are totally right, my friends rock! For those of you 'friends' who have yet to send me a package, fear not, I won't defriend you until December. You still have 2 months! That goes for family members too!)

One of my fellow teachers swims on a team here. She was telling me all about it so Jen and I decided to check it out. We show up and ring the bell. The door is opened a teeny tiny crack and someone looks at us. "Ugh, we'd like to swim?" I say in my amazing Spanish. She proceeds to tell us it's closed. I try to tell her we want to swim on the team to try it out. She proceeds to tell me it's closed; come back tomorrow morning. My Spanish has run out so we say fine. Then I ask her to call us a taxi, "No puedo. Mucho gusto." (I can't; my pleasure/thank you) I looked at Jen and was like, "Did she just 'mucho gusto' us and then slam the door in our faces?!" We left in search of our own taxi. We did decide to return though and we were almost turned away again but this time I refused to stop talking to her. WE SUCCEEDED! We swam and I joined the team! An Olympian is also on this team; luckily she trains in the afternoons!

The weekend we went to Jaco to celebrate Guy Fawkes (look him up; I'm too lazy to type his background here.) A British family at CDS plans it and invites the teachers so I rounded up a group of 13 and we went! Our place was amazing; especially compared to the hostels we've stayed at every other time we travel. I never left the hotel! We had a great casita right on the beach overlooking the ocean. I played in two tournaments: darts and horseshoes. We also rented some surf boards. NOW, I don't know what happened between now and last month when I learned how to surf, but I came to the realization that I need more lessons! Granted we had much lighter and smaller boards but the scene went something like this: Paddle, paddle, paddle, stand....and, if I managed to stand successfully, go no where. I literally would just stay anchored on the water while the wave crashed to shore. I came to the conclusion that the ocean cannot lift my ass!

Lastly, I know my Spanish isn't that great but apparently my English is crap too (I know, shocking, right?!) The other day I was having my students solve a story problem and it was much easier to understand with a picture. So I was walking around and a group needed help. "Where's your 'picture?'" I asked. "Pitcher? My pitcher?" one of them ever so innocently responded while not so successfully trying to hold back her giggles. They were, and still are, so entertained by the fact I say "pitcher" instead of "picture." Every now and then one of them will ask, "Ms. K, where's your PITCHER?" Nothing like getting English lessons from an 11 year old who speaks it as a SECOND language! Until next time...