Ticher Ticher Ticher- TEACCCHHERRRR CAROLINA!

You know, I have been journaling furiously all week, but now, nothing that I had written seemed appropriate do describe my first week in school. This is, to the best of my recollection, what has happened since Monday.

Monday:
First day of school. Get up at 6 get materials ready to make name tags. Drink Tea. Eat Rice and Beans. Brave the 20 meters over to the school at 7 AM. Have multiple Ticos tell me how good my Spanish is compared to the last volunteer. Realize that the only people "in charge" are myself, the Director, an art teacher and a kindergarten teacher. Introduce myself as Teacher Carolina to the 25 kids who showed up, because "Radford" just isn't going to happen. Pretend to sing the Costa Rican National Anthem and pledge of allegiance. End day at 8:15. Kids go home, I clean out my classroom, and the main room. Develop minor blisters from sweeping. Realize that I am a wuss.

Tuesday:
First Day of class(?) Get up at 6. Have rice and beans for breakfast. Class starts close to seven. Teach 6th graders how to say "How are you?" for an hour. I am still not sure that they get it. Next: 5th grade- make name tags, learn introductions. They are far more responsive. I like them better already. Then 2nd Grade. (Madness) Screaming, yelling, snacking, cheers for games overwhelm me as I try to invent activities for them. I let them go 5 minutes early, but it didn't seem to matter. Day over at 9:15 AM. I learned that there are scorpions in Vergel by finding the shell of one in my classroom. The Costa Rican school system is a complete mess, but I guess that’s why I am allowed to be here.

Wednesday:
Eat Rice and Beans 3 times today. Only Kindergarten and 6th grade showed up. I was back in my bedroom by 8:15. Did my first two loads of Costa Rican Laundry on my own. I finished reading the princess bride, which was HI-Larious. Unfortunately, that means I am burning through the books.

Thursday:
School was sort of cancelled but not really because one of the buses didn't come. All of my students were from one family. We covered who, what, where, when, why, how for an hour. Then I sent them home. I decided that it would be a good day to go to town to write some emails, but after waiting for the bus for an hour and a half to no avail, I decided against it.
So I went back inside and watched Spanglish on Cable, read Thus Spoke Zarathustra on the River and then I watched The Fugitive on DVD. That’s a really good movie. It’s like, really, really, really good. Seriously. You should check it out.* On the plus side I did get Avocado, beef, green beans and carrots in my dinner. So what if the green beans and carrots were fried, they still resembled vegetables, which is good because my body is starting to shut down from all of the rice and beans. I never realized how healthy I was until I got here. That might be part of the reason the bugs like me so much. Speaking of which, I have no fewer than 30 bug bites on my legs, each the size of a dime. Luckily I have discovered that Neosporin with pain relief will stop the itching in a pinch. My mosquito net seems to not be doing its job, but there is no Malaria in my zone so I don’t have to worry about that. There is however Dengue which is some kind of gnarly fever that you get from mosquitoes which bite during the day. Hooray for Costa Rica.

Friday:
No School. I did go on a lovely walk on the Pan American Highway though. My host sister Meli had a hard time understanding where I went. "I was just walking" I told her. "But where?" She asked. "Nowhere, I just wanted to go on a walk." "But what did you do?" "Nothing, never mind. What's on TV?"

On the plus side, there is some kind of festival in Palmar this week. Street food and cotton candy and carneys, oh my! Miss you loads. I am not homesick as of now, but I think that's because I am in shock.

PS. I THINK That My address is:

Radford Lathan
Maestra De Ingles
Vergel
Palmar Norte
Osa, Puntarenas
Costa Rica

Granted, I have not yet recieved any mail, so I am not sure that it works. Feel free to send letters to this address but hold off on anything big for a week or so okay? Thanks. I love you all, more than is actually reasonable. Talk to you soon.