Domestication: to accustom to household life

Tricia and I have been practicing our homemaker skills today... See Mom? You have got to be so proud! We mopped our floor -- Tricia mopped and I dried (that's what the towel is for!).

and then.. drumroll please... we practiced our chef skills with gallo pinto con huevos y tortillas, a traditional dish here in Costa Rica. Yum!

la pintura, la feria de frutas, el seguridad, y aprendiendo espanol

Translation of the title: Paint, Fruit Market, Safety, and Learning Spanish.

The new teachers at Sojourn have been busy setting up their classrooms this week, and these two lovely ladies, Kia and Aylish, came to help me paint my classroom windows. Kia is going into 8th and Aylish into 7th grade, and they just moved to Costa Rica from Georgia. They said they were bored at home so they were glad to come help! I need all the help I can get to be ready for students on Thursday! More photos to come of the classroom....



Trish and I woke early this morning to join our neighbor, Steve, in his weekly trip to the "feria" (fruit market). Farmers travel into the city early Saturday morning (arriving as early as 4am!) and set up a market with their fresh fruits and vegetables. Yum! We bought garlic, cilantro, potatoes, mangoes, green beans, apples -- all fresh!! Well, the apples are actually rare here in Costa Rica and these were imported from Chile... but they were definitely cheaper than the imported apples from the grocery store. Here's our beautiful sinkful of fresh goodness :). We had previously purchased tomatoes, peppers, oranges and strawberries at the supermercado, but we realized we needed to wash them all before indulging!



So... you probably think I live in the beautiful rainforest of Costa Rica..... Good guess, since that is 80% of this country, but I actually live in the city. Think of where I was living before -- Elgin -- and then travel about 35 miles east into Chicago... and that's the kind of neighborhood I am living in. Busy people, beeping horns, rushing traffic, iron gates and barbed wire. In Chicago, we have tall cement buildings that are entirely enclosed to protect us from the cold of winter, but since snow and freezing rain are not factors here, the iron gates and barbed wire are sufficient. Then, as if the culture shock of moving from an open neighborhood to a barred neighborhood isn't enough, imagine you can no longer ask simple things such as where the store is or how to purchase a bus ticket... Yup, welcome to my world. Thankfully, I do know how to ask where the store is and how to purchase tickets, but there is so much more to learn.

My neighbors Steve and Diane have been a huge help in all this transition -- I think I have already mentioned them a couple times. Steve made a video of how many locks we have to get through just in order to leave the house -- check it out here. Yes, Mom, I am safely locked away from the city at night!! But please don't worry -- we are taking precautions and being aware of our surroundings at all times in public. God is providing protection through our neighbor's knowledge and through the buddy system at all times (Tricia and I are going to spend an awful lot of time together -- also pray we won't be sick of each other!).

And learning Spanish. That's another prayer request. We rode a bus into downtown this afternoon and practiced our growing Spanish vocabulary in the markets. I learned to say "No gracias. Estoy mirando (No thanks, I'm just looking)" when vendors approach to sell me their goods. Tricia and I are making a Post-It collage of words that we've learned. Someday soon I'll have to take a photo of that...

Alright, I think that's enough stories for one day! I would love to hear how you are doing too! kathrynsiscoe@gmail.com

when is the best time to buy an umbrella?

Alright, so Tricia and I ventured out today... feeling not so brave but needing to buy food and house items. We have quite a few stories from the day, but here's one of the best:

We were in an office supply store as it started pouring (predictably) and I was the only one who had remembered my umbrella. So while we waited for the rain to slow, Tricia asks the guard "Como se dice umbrella in espanol?" (How do you say umbrella in Spanish?) The guard told us and then Tricia wanted to ask where to buy an umbrella but she asked when to buy an umbrella... and the guard said "It is best to buy an umbrella when it is raining like this!!" He was laughing at us as we walked away and Tricia and I realized that she had said "Cuando" instead of "Donde". Whoops.

So goes a day in the life of an English-speaker living in a Spanish-speaking world.

Now my apartment will much easier to visualize!

The view right when you enter the front door.
A beautiful clean kitchen! Through the white door is our laundry room with our own washer and dryer! (hopefully they work... we'll try that soon...)
See, we have toilets in Costa Rica!! And hot showers!
Our living room area... we'll need to do something the white walls...
Doors into the 2 bedrooms. You can't see it very well, but the top of the wall and the ceiling is wood paneling.
Here's a better idea of the ceiling.
My current bed. This could change when my other roomies arrive.

My beautiful closet with lots of room... quickly filled with my clothes :).
Our garden and backyard!
And this is the ceiling to the garden... Plastic. A great skylight.
The second bedroom... I think we will put all the beds in this room.
The window into the garden from the second bedroom. Isn't it nice??

bienvenido a mi casa!

Alright now, a quick visualization exercise. In your mind, put together clean tile floors, freshly painted white walls next to one red brick wall, dark-stained wood ceilings, plastic skylights (it's true! I guess they don't have to worry about the weight of snow here!), open windows everywhere, a round wooden dining table covered in (of course!) a lace tablecloth, new dining chairs... that's where I'm sitting right now. Oh, and I can't fail to mention the noise of the traffic. Yup, I'm in the city, that's for certain.

Ha, that was just a teaser before I post photos later today :).

2,477 miles later...

I made it! Monday at 3a.m., I was still in Elgin, and after a quick car ride to O'Hare with my friends Christina and Sean, boarding a flight to Houston and changing planes to San Jose, I am here!

I had so many moments where I knew I wasn't alone. I mean, even though I was travelling alone, I knew God was watching out for me with every step. I checked in with overweight luggage, and the flight attendant waved me through with a smile. I sat by a woman from Mexico on the flight to Houston and practiced my Spanish. I worked out in Houston while carrying probably (at least!) 60 pounds of "carry-on" baggage from Gate C20 to Gate E9. When I arrived in San Jose and waited in line for customs, I met a couple who helped me find my luggage. Then my principal, Tia Reilly, picked me up at the airport, and I realized that not many people can say their boss helped them move into their apartment. My neighbors are great -- Steve and Diane from Maine, and they are here learning Spanish at the Institute. They took me to the store this morning and I was surrounded by Spanish, so I had opportunities to practice.

Um, yeah, we'll keep practicing the Spanish. My brain already kind of hurts.

So now I'm setting up my apartment this afternoon (and resting in my English language world :)), and I'll go work on the classroom tomorrow morning.

Sorry there's no photos yet. I didn't get my camera out during the trip over because I had so much other luggage to keep track of... but there will be some soon, I promise!

Only 100 pounds????

Packing to move overseas is a great test in priorities... I'm discovering (more than ever before!) my love of creative clothing and jewelry and neck scarves and shoes... uh-oh.



I'm also discovering my love of books... and I have too many that I want to take with me. Another uh-oh.

Somehow, I've managed to also fit in handmade posters for my classroom, a deck of cards, paper flowers for my desk, dry erase markers, Sharpies, nametags, multi-colored folders... My classroom will be a great example of minimal art.

And you can't forget the SkipBo... :) (upside down!)

What would you take if you could only pack 100 pounds? I learned that a brand new bottle of TreSemme shampoo (my first choice) weighs 2 pounds. While I know it will definitely last me until Christmas when I return home to stock up again, it seems ridiculous that my shampoo is 1/50 of the limit weight...