Back in Action

I arrived in Costa Rica again 5 days ago, and all the Sojourn teachers are back in action. We have had a somewhat relaxed week as we only had one day of new students and the rest of the time was for preparing our classrooms and curriculum... and for the countless meetings that come with a so-called laid back week.

I created a Reading Rainforest in my classroom... I'll have to post photos. I love it, but it's totally the creativity of a teacher... hoping my students will love it :).

The tico parents headed to Nicaragua for a week vacation, so it's just been me and Judit here at home. We've been cooking great feasts every evening and laughing until our sides hurt. She leaves in 3 weeks for China... I'm going to miss her.

Pray for wisdom as the new school year begins! Much love!

La Judit En Chicago

My tica sister (aka Costa Rican friend) Judit came to visit for a week in Chicago. What a great opportunity to show her where I am from, to speak Spanish, and to continue to build a lasting friendship!

Judit in Union Station... the high ceilings aren't common in CR so she was fascinated.
A sweet shot I got while riding on the Loop 15 feet above Chicago downtown streets. We rode the "El" (aka Loop) full-circle twice for 25cents and were really excited about the photos we got.
Judit waiting for the El. I was super excited about this shot as I used a slow shutter speed to capture the movement of the train.
A classic, the "Bean" in Millennium Park. I am pretty sure this is the most photographed object in Chicago history... if not world history.

Judit had gone to the grocery store at 6:15... and we started getting worried when she hadn't returned by 7:30... turns out she was enjoying the many parks in the area and watching kids play in a fountain. Christina went out riding on the bike to find her.

We went on an Architecture Boat Tour on the Chicago River. We learned so much about the city! Here's a photo of the Sears Tower... excuse me, Willis Tower, and it's tall neighbors.
One of my all-time favorite works of Georgia O'Keefe. I introduced Judit to the Chicago Institute of Art and of course I had to introduce her to Georgia as well. This is called Blue & Green Music and she was studying the theories of Kandinsky from Russia when she decided to try out his ideas and paint to music... this is what she came up with. If you're able to read music, you just might be able to read this painting :).
Judit and I at the Art Institute.
Rosie came to join us for a day in Chicago. It was great to introduce Judit to some of my good friends along the way!

I also introduced Judit to some of my favorite forest reserves in the Elgin area...
and my favorite siloes...
The family also came with us for a day downtown! We went to Shedd Aquarium and walked 4 miles in one day :)
Judit and I also got a top notch view of the city from the ferris wheel... I had ridden it before, but I got really scared on the way up!
And after a week of walking a lot every day (probably between 2-5 miles every day), Judit's poor feet were looking forward to different shoes... The only pair she could stand by the end of the week were her flip flops, but she even had blisters in between her toes from the strap! We bought a daily box of Band-Aids to help out with this problem.

Have I Seen You Somewhere Before...?

It has been great to be back in the States for a few weeks and along the way I have been reunited with quite a few good friends. It almost felt surreal, as if I had never seen these people before, but yet we had a history and actually knew each other really well. It's hard to allow it to seem real that you're with people you have known longer than a year when it's only for one day or one evening (ha, if that makes any sense at all... I read that and it's a jumble of words... it makes sense in my mind). Someday life will be more permanent, I tell myself... Maybe. :) I mean, who really knows, but I guess at this point that's how I console myself.

Rosie Guerrero and I go all the way back to high school... she's my cheerleader in learning Spanish as she also is bilingual. Here she is with Judit, my Costa Rican friend that came to visit.

Bible study girls... sister Kallie, friend Erin, and new friend Jeannie.

Emily and her husband were good friends while I was going to school at Judson. We met at Elgin Bible Church and they have since moved to Peoria. They will be coming to visit Costa Rica in December, so you'll be seeing more photos of them! :)

JeanaLe and I at her new apartment with her new husband, Jason. It's crazy how fast life changes! We completed the education program at Judson together and she is now teaching in the Elgin area.
Costa Rican friends come to visit! :) Judit was here in Chicago visiting for a whole week. It was so fun to speak Spanish stateside as well as introduce her to classics... More about that in a later post.

My dear friend Jaclyn. You might remember her from posts more than a year ago when she went to Costa Rica to visit the school and Vulcan Arenal so I could check out where I would be living. You can check out her blog now too at this link as she heads to Uganda in just a couple weeks! She will be volunteering with Engineering Missions International (I think that's the name... someone correct me!) for 4 months.
Then there's always Sarah. You might also remember her from March 2009 posts when she came to CR to visit. Here you can see the slight outline of a metal hanger, unbent and stuck into her door... yeah, we locked all keys, cell phones, and anything else of use inside the car, so we had to get creative... believe it or not, I was able to pop the lock within 2 minutes. Too bad we sat on the car trunk for 45 minutes before thinking of this genius plan. Haha... good memories :)
I love friends. I was able to stay 5 nights with Christina (center in the polka dots) and her husband Chris (in the blue button down shirt) and we had friends over one night. L2R me, Sean, Chris, Christina, Natalie, and Todd. We played a hysterical game and laughed the whole evening... it was great.

More photos of friends to come.

Family Photo Shoot 2009

I'm not even sure when the tradition started... but my photography skills combined with growing Siscoe kids makes for a yearly photo shoot. Here's some of the successes:

Wes climbing a wall... backwards?

I'M HOME!

I have made it home after almost a year in a foreign country! Wow, what an accomplishment it feels like to have survived and even thrived!

Now I'm talking with the family as much as I can and eating lots of cheese. I didn't realize how much I had missed dairy!

Kallie has her driver's license now so we're heading to Peoria this afternoon to Barnes & Noble... then meeting my friend Emily for dinner... then Austin's birthday party back here in Kewanee! Busy day!

Spanish Rap

Who knew I would be writing raps in Spanish for homework? Our class is performing this rap for the whole student body this Friday afternoon... Tricia will be videotaping, so there will definitely be a video coming soon for your enjoyment :). For now, here's the Spanish lyrics and the English translation below. It sounds a whole lot better in Spanish... the English doesn't quite rhyme :) Enjoy!

Yo Metí La Pata

Coro:

Cada persona en cualquier idioma

Tendrá un error que será una broma

Meter la pata es algo que se dice

Para arreglar algo que yo hice

//Metí la pata, metí metí la pata//

Verso 1:

Yo metí la pata un fin de semana,

Cuando estaba hablando sobre mi hermana,

Ella le ayudó a un amigo que lloraba

Ella se acercó y a su espalda la frotaba.

Yo quería mostrar que ella era muy sincero,

Pero les conté que ella tocaba su tracero.

//Metí la pata, metí metí la pata//

Verso 2:

En el puro principio cuando no sabía nada

Yo metí la pata cada día en la mañana

Mucha gente aquí dice “Gracias a Dios!”

Para decirle gracias al Padre de los Cielos

Pero yo entendí que me habían despedido

Entonces les dije “adiós” muy confundido

//Metí la pata, metí metí la pata//

Verso 3:

Esta mañana les pregunté a mis amigos

Acerca del tiempo, que había hecho “errores”

Quise preguntarles si estaba equivocado

Pero dije, “héroes,” y yo metí la pata

//Metí la pata, metí metí la pata//

Verso 4:

Una vez yo pasé una vergüenza

Me habían pedido un testimonio

Pero cuando me acerqué al frente

Todavía no sabía que decir

Entonces para explicarme

como me sentía

metí la pata cuando dije que

estaba embarazada

//Metí la pata, metí metí la pata//

Verso 5:

Yo estaba hablando con mi hermosa esposa

Le pedí un beso, y por favor venga

Desfortunadamente, metí la pata

Usé el nombre de su hermana, Meghan

//Metí la pata, metí metí la pata//

Coro:

Cada persona en cualquier idioma

Tendrá un error que será una broma

Meter la pata es algo que se dice

Para arreglar algo que yo hice

////Metí la pata, metí metí la pata////

I Stuck My Foot in My Mouth

Chorus:

Every person in whatever language

Will make a mistake that will become a joke

“Meter la pata” is something that you say

To fix something that you did

//I stuck my foot my foot in my mouth in my mouth//

Verse 1:

I stuck my foot in my mouth one weekend

When I was talking about my sister,

She helped a friend who was crying

She sat with her and rubbed her back.

I wanted to explain how sincere she was

But I told them she was touching her friend’s butt

//I stuck my foot my foot in my mouth in my mouth//

Verse 2:

In the beginning when I didn’t know anything

I stuck my foot in my mouth every day in the morning

Lots of people here say “Gracias a Dios!”

To say thanks to the God of the Heavens

But I understood that they had told me goodbye

So I told them “adiós” really confused

//I stuck my foot my foot in my mouth in my mouth//

Verse 3:

This morning I asked my friends

About the time I had made mistakes

I wanted to ask them if I had made “errors”

But I said “heroes” and stuck my foot in my mouth

//I stuck my foot my foot in my mouth in my mouth//

Verse 4:

One time I was embarrassed

They had asked me to give a testimony

But when I got close to the front

I still didn’t know what to say

So to explain myself

And how I felt

I stuck my foot in my mouth when I said

I was pregnant

//I stuck my foot my foot in my mouth in my mouth//

Verse 5:

I was talking with my beautiful wife

I asked her to come here for a kiss

Unfortunately, I stuck my foot in my mouth

I used her sister’s name, Meghan.

//I stuck my foot my foot in my mouth in my mouth//

Chorus:

Every person in whatever language

Will make a mistake that will become a joke

“Meter la pata” is something that you say

To fix something that you did

////I stuck my foot my foot in my mouth in my mouth////

Field Trip

Our Spanish classes took a field trip to a factory where they dry wood to make all kinds of jewelry, wind chimes, bead curtains, purses, etc... basically whatever you can think of, but all out of wood. These items are sold all over Costa Rica as tourist souvenirs.

The racks of wood drying... They said the wood has to dry from 6 months to 10 years.

Nothing to do with the wood, but I really like this photo. Jared on the right and Avery on the left.

Wood beads in process...

A carving of two horse heads...

My friends Caroline and Jared... I know it has nothing to do with the wood factory, but I really like this photo that I took :).

My conversation teacher, Lissette, and I.

My grammar teacher, Marlene, and I.