Spring Break Destination #1

Woohoo!!! 5 days and $80 later, my computer is almost as good as new! It had a virus since December apparently, but I kept plugging away, thinking everything was alright... vamos a ver que pasa ahorita (We'll see what happens now!). 

Here's some photos from the first destination during Spring Break. I went with the Diem family (my good friend Becky, her husband Steve, and their boys Josiah and Elliott) to help with some construction in San Vito, deep in the south of Costa Rica. In fact, San Vito is only about 20km from Panama. So we went and we helped... and well, it was quite the experience to say the least. Ha, maybe this is a story for in person someday. :) Anyway, here's some photos from the week.

One of the houses we were working on... in really poor shape, obviously. Benjamin helped us out for a few days and he thought I needed the most help, ha, so here he is sawing a frame for me. 
Tons of Trackers here in Costa Rica! I actually drove this one... another interesting story.
Yup, that's right, she's buying chicken in a plastic bag... um, sanitation anyone?
Pineapples grow on bushes? Who knew?

Lemons.

My favorite of the week.
A sheep baaa-ing at me.
Drive-by photo shoot
The most ginormous tree I've ever seen.

And Jimena. I seriously almost adopted this precious little girl... that's another interesting story. 

Saturday Morning

I love Saturday mornings. There's so much potential for a great weekend!

Judit and I took my computer to a DELL shop on Thursday... we have to return to pick it up on Tuesday. Until then... I'm using the family computer from 2000... amazing how quickly computers change.

It was a good week, although very tiring. Like I mentioned before, I had 2 new students, and I don't know if it was that or just school in general, but I was so tired by 6 o'clock every day. Like, falling-asleep-at-dinner tired. I mean, even all the Spanish last week didn't have me that tired.

I taught the Bible lessons this week for the whole elementary, and I tied in art history with a reading strategy of using our 5 senses. We would read the story (Luke 24:13-32) of the two disciples walking to Emmaus and Jesus joins them. We were thinking about our five senses and what we heard (voices talking), saw (Jesus but we didn't know it was Jesus!), tasted (dust from the road), smelled (sweat from walking so much), and touched (the dirt road, Jesus). Then I showed this painting from Caravaggio... I loved learning about him in Art History. The disciples are seeing Jesus. Caravaggio captures the moment when they realized that Jesus was right there with them, and I love the expressiveness of their postures. One guy is pushing himself up out of his chair, and the other is so lost in excitement that his arms are thrown up like they might on a rollercoaster. The guy standing is still absorbing the thought that it is Jesus... maybe he's skeptical still.

I was acting out the men's reactions and then I snapped my fingers, paused... and said --and then Jesus disappeared!!!-- I loved the looks on the kid's faces, imagining what they would have felt with their 5 senses. The first grader's looks were the best... like it was Christmas morning or something.

Thanks to Professor Miller in Art History for introducing me to Caravaggio!

I also taught about how Paul's conversion wasn't quite as exciting as the disciples' encounter with Jesus. I linked the story in Acts 9 with Caravaggio's interpretation. Again, the kids were mesmerized.

Changing subjects dramatically, Mom, did you get your Mother's Day present in the mail yet? I'm super excited for you to get it!

I hung out with the girls last night... we just ate pizza and played Taboo. Ha, what living in a foreign country does to you, I guess... gives you cravings for English and pizza.

Today, I'm going downtown to scope out some thrift shops. Tomorrow, church with the tico family. Have a good weekend!

I'm Alive!!

Just a quick post to let everyone know I'm still alive! My computer is giving me serious problems again and I'm really concerned because I just started all over with the software and everything in January. I spent 4 hours last night on the phone with Dell agents and we resolved that it is not my hardware or software... so maybe it's a virus? My tica sister and I are going to take it to a local computer store on Thursday, so for now that's the plan. Until then... I'm computerless in the evenings.

We had a week off for Spring Break, so I travelled with my tico family and friends from the Institute. It was an intense week of Spanish and now starting school again (and teaching all in English) is somewhat bittersweet. My worst fear with learning so much Spanish is losing the ability... and teaching in English isn't helping my Spanish. Ha, not that I am capable of teaching in Spanish at this point (who knows if I'll ever really be ready for that??), but I would love to speak it with the students a little bit...

It's the start of a new trimester for new families moving here to begin language school, so I have 2 new students. Both girls!! Now we're at 11 girls and 1 boy. Poor boy. Oh well, he's a tough cookie; I think he'll be fine!

Alright, I'm on my teacher break right now and I have to go! Thanks for keeping track of me :) I promise photos from Spring Break when my computer is recovered... For now, pray for peace as communication with family and friends in the States is a bit more difficult without the resource of a personal computer.

Love!

Sunday with the Tico Family

The cat that walks on my roof and wakes me up. I discovered today that she's crosseyed, as evidenced by the photo.

We ate tamales for lunch in the park... Here's Judit's tamale with the whole family in the background.

Judit had a spoon and was flicking us with it. Ouch! Here cousin Andres is reacting.

Awwwww the cousins Mario & Andres, the sisters Judit & Rebekah, and aunt Sarah.

Lto R in back: the great uncle (I'm not remembering his name... he reminds me of Rusty who used to come listen to our jazz band practices), aunt Sarah, cousin Andres, sister Rebekah, cousin Mario

and in front: Blanca and her step-mom... I also forget her name.

And one of the many gigantic spiders in the backyard. Yuck!!

Siempre Hay Aventuras Nuevas

Title: There are Always New Adventures

Last night, Trish and I went to the Diem's to watch the boys while Steve and Becky went out. We watched Ocean's 12 and I graded papers. Woohoo, what a Friday night! All was normal until...

Trish and I took a taxi home and it dropped us off by her house. I walked the three houses down to my place and then I saw it... the gigantic chain and padlock was closed. The only key for this monster is inside the house. So I yelled, like a great gringa, "Tricia!!" and ran back down to her house. I knew if I didn't catch her before she went inside the house, there would be little hope of, well, sleep (ha, and safety!). So Trish and I discussed what we should do and it was decided that I would sleep in the extra bed... Then we found a cockroach in Trish's room and spent a good 45 minutes chasing it around in circles. By then, it was almost 1am.

Finally I fell asleep in the extra bed... and then the bed broke! I was half asleep when the middle board on the bed fell out! I was quickly awakened... and well, it was an interesting night of sleep to say the least.

Turns out last night, Judit had returned home like 5 minutes before I had, and she had assumed I was home and locked the padlock. This morning when I walked in at 7:15, she was like, "Where were you?" and I tried to avoid the question but it wasn't working. She felt bad about me "sleeping in the street!"

So there's the new adventure of yesterday... we'll see what will happen today!

Is it Possible to Skip the Fractions Chapter?

Teaching is good... hard... funny... sad... all at the same time. So much time and energy and sweat goes into it... It's definitely worth it and some days the concepts are clicking away in student brains, and other days the concepts don't seem to sink in.

For example: fractions. The classic fraction example my students have been exposed to in their 10 years is "Hey, can I have 1/2 of your cookie?" The curriculum introduces numerators and denominators on Day 1, and then immediately on Day 2 we're supposed to be comparing fractions and creating equivalent fractions. Students seemed to be doing fine with the ideas, but yesterday (Day 6 according to curriculum) we were supposed to be changing improper fractions to mixed numbers and so forth... Oh my, you would have thought it was World War III for all their panic.

Um... so quick teaching reflection -- next year we'll have a week of exploratory activities to have more reasoning skills about fractions before jumping into the algorithms.

Ha, thanks for reading my teaching reflections :).

Easter... Costa Rica Style

We had a going away party for the Wilsons AND an Easter celebration all at the same time. Diane brought the painted eggs, Kim V. brought the apple pie, I brought the guacamole... and we were ready to party :).

Josiah sitting in his dad's shadow.

Let the game begin!! Diane brought painted eggs for a classic egg toss... in the street. Crazy gringos!!

Josiah wasn't so sure about this game.

And then Kim threw the egg and it broke on the electrical wires above John's head! He was trying to avoid being hit by flying egg yoke!

We won!!!

I requested a "family" photo. :) These people are seriously my foundation here... What will Trish and I do when they all leave?!?!

Awwww. From Left to Right: Kim V., Peggy (below), me (above), John, Kim Loosa, Trish, Diane, Steve Wilson, Steve Diem holding Josiah, and Becky holding Elliott. What a great group! Steve and Becky Diem and their boys are heading to Argentina in August, Kim Loosa is moving back to Ohio to be closer to John, and Kim V and Peggy are probably moving back to the States as well. Life changes so quickly!

Josiah laughing it up. Now that I look at the photo, it looks like he has to go to the bathroom, ha, but he was just dying laughing... I think!

Josiah and Elliott fighting over a blanket... great brothers.

and Elliott in best form... with his ball.