Teacher, Britney Spears is my Hero because she came to Costa Rica

Hello Fans and Avid Readers-
I write to you on the eve of my 23rd birthday without much to tell you. There has been a lot of rain as of late and yesterday it started raining at 5 in the morning and did not stop until 1 o’clock this afternoon. Wild huh? It was merciless, it came down on the tin roof like thunder and had it rained like that in LA, I would have feared for my life. But they don’t call it the Rainforest for nothing. I have finally turned in grades for all of my students. I had to fail one student in 6th grade, who refused to take the first exam. 2 in 5th who come to class but refuse to do any of the work and failed both exams, 1 in 4th who only came about 7 times this term, 1 in second who is 13 years old but refuses to attend class and one in 1st who just isn’t ready to be in school. He runs out of the classroom every 5 minutes and refuses to do any work that the rest of the class is doing. He already failed 1st grade once, and I feel bad putting him at risk for failing a second time, but I really am doing my best with all of my failing students. Extra Credit, here we come.
We had our midservice meeting last weekend with the other volunteers. It was mostly fun, but ended on a rather sour note. Leilani (one of my Directors) told me that my host mom-director had called to voice some concerns about me. I am apparently not involved enough in the community. I spend too much time in my room. Though, I do that in America too when there is nothing else to do. I have nothing to contribute 97% of the time here, so I don’t feel like venturing out into the “town” to be oogled. Sarcasm doesn’t work in Spanish so I can’t be funny. That is depressing in and of itself. I also spend too much time in my room and I let the kids watch too many movies. (The last one is probably true, but I am making an effort to cut back to 20-minute sessions on Friday’s instead of 40-minute sessions.)
I started watching heroes with my 6th graders in an attempt to get some critical thinking out of them. We watched an episode and then they all had to invent their own super hero ideas/costumes/names etc. It was actually a lot of fun and I think they enjoyed it. Now they each have to make a comic strip starring themselves. They each wrote about their own heroes in class today. Britney Spears, Angelina Jolie, a chicken, a dog, a football player and a mother all made the cut.
A funny thing happened on the way to San Jose. I was on the bus and we came to a rest stop. The woman sitting across from me had an adorable newborn bbaby. She asked me if I was going to the bathroom and before I had a chance to finish saying, “No, not yet.” She had thrown the baby into my arms. It was kind of weird, but it reassured me that I want to have kids. Not too soon, actually not soon at all, but eventually. All of these Tica women with their babies at age 20 are throwing me off. When I get back I probably won’t even want to see a baby, let alone have one. Plus there is that little issue of having to find an hombre.
I am growing more and more attached to my students every day. 4th 5th and 6th are particularly incredible. They can write pretty well and are starting to get more comfortable reading. Next stop-conversations. Who’s excited? I AM!
That’s all for now. Until next time.
Oh also, my cell phone is completely and totally dead and broken, so don’t try to call me on it or text me or anything, because, it won’t work. Sorry.