Ay teacher, que aburrido.

My life is boring.

That is not to say that I am complaining. I am, all things considered, very happy with my current station in life. The things I miss about civilization are numerous but living without them is no more of a challenge than anything else I have known since my arrival in Costa Rica. My good hair days are wasted on kindergarteners and my high heels are gathering dust. My diet is back to rice and beans but I bought tortillas and cheddar cheese to WOW my family with breakfast burritos and quesadillas this week.

My students are as cute as they come. Their eyes are bright and they constantly surprise me, which makes going back easier every day. My 5th graders did brilliantly on their first exams. Several of them even got 100%.

They cheated.

I came to Costa Rica to try to start my path of changing the world. That delusion has long since escaped me. Most of my kids will never use English after they graduate High School. If they do, it will be to work in a tourist destination for meager tips. It is unlikely that any of them will go to college, though I am hopeful that a few will. Some of the girls will probably get pregnant before they turn 21. It would be a lot better for me to come here and teach Sex-Ed rather than English. At least then I know they would use it. One less starved Tico baby to worry about.

I miss the people that I left more every day. I have realized how much I love you and how much you mean to me. But I have also realized that you do not define me. I don’t know if I am different since I left, but I know that some things are not the same. The things that I used to find normal I now find mundane and unimportant. I often think about what my life would be like if I had stayed in LA. It would be more comfortable to be sure, but what else? Would I still be going out on enough bad dates to entertain my friends on our long drives home? Where would I be working? Would I like it? Would I have started taking the bus to work to combat high prices of gasoline? What would my apartment look like and who would I hang out with now that so many of my friends have graduated and moved back east. Maybe I would be focusing all of my energies into studying for the Foreign Service Exam, training for the next marathon and decorating my apartment in shades of orange. There is a high likelihood that I would have developed an unhealthy addiction to Spanish food and/or Los Feliz.

My Saturday nights would probably be spent at Seven Grand, rigging the Jukebox to play Otis Redding, Spoon and the Dandy Warhols while drinking Elder Fitzgerald’s and Jameson with the people I once thought I knew well. Saturday afternoons might find me watching Women’s water polo matches or playing Tennis like I did in the fall. I might have even done a fountain run victory lap, just because. I would have taken for granted just how wonderful it is to understand every word of every conversation that you have and the conveniences of cell phones.

My adoration for Southern California has increased exponentially since my arrival in Costa Rica. I wish that I could take all of my students to Disneyland so that they could have a glimpse into the bliss and joy of my youth. I miss concerts and seeing Them Terribles at Velvet Jones as much as I miss football season. As you all look forward to the summer I am entering so-called winter faced with daily downpours and minor landslides. It makes me miss swimming in Long Beach and all of the glories of my 22nd year, which is rapidly coming to a close.

On the other hand, there was a toucan outside of my classroom yesterday as I was planning my lessons, which is pretty cool no matter how you look at it. I have free time to read every day. I actually get to “listen” to music instead of just having it play in the background. I saw macaws in a tree as I was walking home the other day and my Spanish is almost good enough to call myself fluent. If only I could read as well as I can speak.

I guess what I am trying to say is that life is never perfect, and I know that now, but if I have learned anything this year, it is how to take life as it comes: one day at a time. You can’t worry too much about anything. On the scorching hot days that you want nothing more than a cold shower, you may find that there is no water. On days that you want to go for a run, there may be a sudden downpour that lasts the rest of the day. When all you want is to make a phone call, you may be stuck at a bus stop for hours, waiting to go the 9 kilometers to the nearest phone. But when it comes down to it, life is not so bad and complaining doesn’t do you any good because there is no one in a 10-mile radius who can speak English. So you learn to relish in the little things. Like your new system of communicating with the nearest World Teach volunteer, which involves sending notes through the other teachers at my school. Or in the pounds of Trail mix you have hidden under your bed. Maybe even in the fact that you got to watch Friends in English on TV the week before. It all seems worse than it is. That, to me, is the secret of Pura Vida.

I miss you. I love you. I can’t wait to see you. Thank you for reading.

Visitors!

You know what’s awesome? Beach weekends with your family, where you don’t have to take the bus and you get to take HOT Showers. That’s right boys and girls, my Mom and Aunt took the plunge and came to visit me in Costa Rica. They were big hits at the escuela El Vergel. I am pretty sure that my students wanted me to go back to the States and have them stay. While here they bought me a bike and a fan for the sweltering heat that seems to dominate my room. They also provided the school with a ton of new markers, books, jump ropes, lego’s and other goodies. Not to mention the host of delicious food products they brought me from fine quality stores like Trader Joes.
I am sure that I am going to have a terrible crash soon, because they have left and I lived in complete glory for a few days, but until then, I am pretty satisfied.
They arrived on Thursday and the bus that I was supposed to take to Palmar was a whopping 40 minutes late (which, by the way, still qualifies as “on time” in Costa Rica). When I finally got to Palmar Norte I had to take a Taxi to the airport and there standing next to their rental car, were my Mom and my Auntie Carolyn. We went to meet my host family and see my village. I think they were as surprised as I was upon first sight of El Vergel, which hardly qualifies as a town by any standards I had previously known.
We then went on a bit of a wild goose chase in search of hotels and rental homes that my Aunt Carolyn had found online. Unfortunately, since Costa Rica has no addresses and directions are a little less than helpful, we were slightly less successful than we would have liked. The hotel we settled for was lovely and not far from Domical. It had a beach, a pool and air conditioning, how great is that?
On Friday, my family helped me teach my classes in the morning, then we went to visit Mikki in Rey Curre, who was having a bad day, but which we were able to remedy with an unexpected and unannounced visit of excessively happy gringos. Mom, Carolyn and I then got back in the car and started driving out to Dominical. We were about halfway there when we realized how hungry we were. As such, we found it appropriate to load up on a delicious lunch of Burgers and fries at “Andy’s Burger Shack” a hole in the wall on the side of the coast highway that I will absolutely be visiting when the opportunity arises again.
Unfortunately, our first hotel did not have television and so at 8:00 we found ourselves scrambling around Dominical looking for a bar where I could watch La Hija Del Mariachi. I know, it seems a bit absurd, but you should all realize that this is the LAST WEEK of La Hija, so I really can’t miss anything. We finally found a bar and were sitting drinking Imperial and watching the Novella in time for the first commercial break. What can I say? My Mom’s a champ and wouldn’t give up until I had La Hija.
Saturday was fantastic in the sense that I sat in a hammock and laid by the pool for practically the whole day. I also got to talk to the one and only Katie Perkins, which was pretty sweet. Back at the hotel, I soaked up the joys of iTunes, John Legend, Rilo Kiley and wireless internet. Riveting, I know. It was however the first time in 13 years that I didn’t talk to my dear friend Alison Buckland on her birthday. Sunday included more of the same and some of the best food I have had since my arrival in Costa Rica.
My Mom and Carolyn headed back to the states on Tuesday, it was sad to part, but they’ll be back. They always come back. I’ve got four days of La Hija to look forward to and then I am sure I’ll find something to keep myself occupied. Who knows, I might even take to finishing the books.
Pura Vida guys. Oh, and Alison, if you are reading this HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Morena. . .

Nothing has really happened to me since I got back, I am on Automatic. Be that as it may, I’ll tell you a little bit about what has been going on. I apologize if this sounds redundant.
My food situation is improving with the rainy season. I have been bombarded with the largest avocados I have ever seen and the sweetest mangoes imaginable. The Luna bars and vitamins that I brought back with me from the States have helped too. I have as of late discovered coconut helado, which is just coconut milk and shavings with sugar and water frozen in a plastic bag. Delicious.
School is hard, but good. I am at a complete lost with 1st and 2nd grade. Everything I try is completely useless. They hate listening and participating. Every day is a free for all. They are exhausting and I am not cut out for them. One of them told me straight up that Alex was a better teacher. Kinder isn’t so bad, we just sing most of the time and then sometimes we color. Teaching without materials is interesting because you get really creative, but it’s hard because different kids are good at different things and you don’t want to overuse anything.
Third and Fourth Grades are great. Today we played the incredible game of “tackle teacher” in which 8 students tried to tackle me in the plaza. It was loads of fun. I actually enjoyed it greatly. The kids got all of the material that I had planned for the day very easily and so I just figured that they deserved a little time outside. I felt like my Dad, kids kept throwing themselves at me and I had to keep entertaining them, but it was a lot of fun. I might try it in all of my grades. Actually that’s a dirty lie. I’m not throwing my 6th grade kids anywhere unless it’s out of a window.
5th grade is a challenge because the kids are in very different places academically. There are two girls who I think might be a little developmentally challenged. They are brilliant artists, but I have explained some concepts so many times and they still don’t understand it, which makes me believe that maybe its not just my ineptitude as a teacher. I have postponed their exam twice, but I can’t anymore. If they don’t get it, they don’t get it. I should leave it up to them to come see me for help if they need it instead of beating myself up anymore. I spent 20 minutes explaining that England was a country and then another 10 explaining that it is a part of the United Kingdom, which is in Europe. That was a long day. I felt helpless. They didn’t want to read, they didn’t want to write, they didn’t want to talk, they didn’t want to draw, they didn’t want to play a game. It was a bad day.
On the upside, I did have a great discussion with my kids on the resources and characteristics of Costa Rica. It went as follows.

Teacher: So, class, what are some things that Costa Rica has?
Student 1: Crocodiles!
Student 2: Beaches!
Student 3: River Pollution!

I love that river pollution was one of the first things that came to the minds of my 6th graders, though I suppose it’s true. I just figured that they would have mentioned some form of endangered species first, or maybe, I don’t know, something about the rainforest. Life here is full of surprises and that only becomes truer as I continue to break down the language barrier.

Also, I have heard quite a few Ticoisms as of late that I absolutely adore.

“The other half of your orange” – Sort of like saying ‘Soul Mate’ but not as chessy.
“It’s where the devil left his jacket” –A fun way to say “In the middle of nowhere”

I went to Manuel Antonio last weekend to hang out with Kristi and Jack. We had a good time and En Route I saw my first Costa Rican Crocodiles. Please remind me not to go swimming in any rivers. (Actually, that’s useless, I live on a river and it’s worth the risk.) There were some warning signs at the Beach in Manuel Antonio that a crocodile had been seen lurking. He got a good hold of a local dog named Moose who survived with a mere 108 stitches.
This weekend I am going to Turrialba to do a little White Water Rafting with the rest of the group. I absolutely cannot wait. I haven’t seen quite a few of my favorite people since we left Orosi, so I will be nice to see them. I’m tired from the week and it’s only Wednesday, I hope that I can psyche myself up for the weekend. I’m sure it will all be alright, it’s just hard to imagine physical exertion when you are mentally exhausted. I’m starting to think about what I’m going to do and what I want to do when I get back to the America and I have NO IDEA. I don’t even know what I want out of life after this year is over. What have I gotten myself into? ☺

That’s all for now. Thanks for reading.
Love, Your Favorite Morena.

Stalker Evasion

Okay, so It’s been a while. I recognize that it has been a while, but you know I went home and everything was flawless and then I got back equipped with about a million DVD’s and the next thing I knew it was April. I am about to give my first Exams. In fact I came into town today for the sole purpose of making copies. I’m such a pro these days. School is cancelled on Friday, which means only one thing: Road Trip. I am thinking San Jose or Manuel Antonio. Probably both. Oh Costa Rica, how I love thee. I’ve been getting really good at Stalker Evasion in the last week or so. I somehow earned myself yet another Novio (boyfriend) on the bus from San Jose last week. I was unlucky enough to get on another Bus with the same Driver/collector the following Saturday. He told me that they weren’t going to stop at El Vergel, that I had to keep going with him to the end of the line. CREEPY! Then he asked me where my boyfriend was and I used my go to fictional boyfriend (who still lacks a name). When I said he was in the United States, he said, “Oh well that’s a long way away.” God Bless Costa Rica and all of it’s indiscretions. I think that I am finally friend’s with my host brothers. We have started listening to music together and while we have not yet “hung out” we watch a lot of TV together. Woohoo, I’ve got 3 friends now. Plus Pablo has started calling me “Radford” or at least some version of it, which I obviously appreciate.
They caught and killed a giant venomous snake in my Aunt’s house on Sunday which they had to bury “just in case.” One of my Creepy Uncle’s told me he loved me and my non-creepy Uncle came in from San Jose this weekend to visit. I’ve been avoiding Rogelio (Creepy Uncle) since the confession. I’m getting pretty good at the duck and roll. I would be apprehensive, but Leilani (one of our field directors) had the creepy uncle problem at her site last year. Uncle Alexander occasionally tries to speak English with me. His English vocabulary consists of “Wow” and “How are you?” Which, I completely love because they are completely useless without other words.
I got caught in a downpour in Palmar today which would have been fine had I remembered my Umbrella. This could be a sign that the rainy season is upon us, but we won’t know for a while. I guess that it has to rain every day for 2 weeks to qualify as the start of rainy season.
More to come from the Pura Vida.
Abrazos Fuertes.
the teacher formerly known as Radford