molas, flores, y conches

I bought tiny molas at the market yesterday. Here they are, in all their beauty. Molas are an art form from Panama and Costa Rica that originates with the Kuna Indian tribe. The Kuna women would sew these designs and layered colors on their clothing. Molas are still made and sold all over the world. I did an art project with molas while teaching in a practicum in Elgin, and my class just made molas as place mats for our desks. I know what I am going to do with these molas, but I can't tell you because it's top secret :).

See the tiny stitches all over the back?? They're handmade!

I bought myself flowers yesterday. :) Flowers are inexpensive here and make a great treat to myself!

And here's my small collection of shells from Puntarenes and Manuel Antonio. I even found some coral!

yes, it's definitely the rainy season

This is how much it rains every day here in Costa Rica. My neighbors Steve and Diane are producer and director of this video that captures the intensity of precipitation right outside our apartment. Enjoy!

Emotional Moments

Hearing all my students sing in Chapel brings tears to my eyes. It's such a unique experience for me to be a part of a Christian school after doing all my studies in public schools. My heart truly is with public schools, and I honestly never expected to be teaching at a school like this. Nonetheless, I love it.

I also nearly got tears in my eyes today while reading the book that I wrote ("If You Give Miss Siscoe An Apple"). My students were so excited and awed by it that they were asking so many questions about how I made it ... They loved it.

I also had the opportunity to lead the music in Chapel on Wednesday. I had been telling Miss Noemy (the music director) that I wanted to, so she called me up in front of the student body and had me "audition". Ha, I passed, I think, because the kids were cheering. Another teary moment.

bienvenido a mi clase!!

I thought I would update you with more recent photos of my classroom, now that school is well underway and the students have given the room life :).

Here's the seating arrangment this morning :). The sun is so bright! I love our painted windows.
The "Exploration Station". We are currently growing zucchini... and I told the students that if we actually get a zucchini out of this experiment, then I will bake them zucchini bread. Yum!
The arrangement after school! :) We'll see the student's reactions tomorrow...
Our "Class Contract." The rule "Don't be dramatic" is my favorite.
Shout out to my Uncle Tim and Aunt Christen for their donation to me and my classroom. I decided our classroom needed a softer place to sit instead of the cement floors... and I found this rug for a bargain, of course. The students love it! :)

I was thinking about the lack of technology in my classroom the other day, and I really don't mind. I mean, last year during student teaching, we had 2 computers, a TV, VCR, overhead, and an Elmo right there in the room for daily use in lessons. Now, I teach "from scratch" with hands-on activities and lots of dynamic conversation. I think when I go back to the States to teach, I won't know what to do with the technology!

That's all for today. I'm not feeling well this evening, so I've already taken lots of drugs and a nap. Now we're on to planning for the next couple hours.

Much love!

sooo....

After a weekend with lots of excitement, I don't feel like I have any great stories from today... I could tell you about how much my students make me laugh, but I'm not sure it would have the same effect since you can't picture each individual's unique personality.

We did go to the Independence Day parade in Desamparados on Monday morning, so here's a few pics from that experience.

Kids were dressed up in the traditional costumes of Costa Rica. This boy caught me taking his picture :).
What a cutie! These outfits are sold at the Mercado Central for weeks before this celebration.
Look!! There's glockenspiels here in Costa Rica too! (I played this mallet instrument in the high school band... It's name identifies it as German :))
More percussion and glockenspiels :)

Oh, and a p.s. to my mom: Thanks for all the prayers today; it went a lot smoother than I had anticipated! Love you! :)

more weekend photos and a video!

I love photos :) and I hope you do too!

Here's the waves from this weekend. The series of three photos were taken within a few second of each other, so you can see the wave coming in and breaking.
Trish and I were diving into the waves earlier in the day and dove into one, not expecting two in a row. We surfaced, only to be surprised by the second wave. We were knocked off our feet and underwater before we knew what was happening! Still underwater, the wave pushed me to the bottom and Trish was on top of me... the waves are so strong that it dragged me against the sand... now I have "sand burn" on my knees, similar to rug burn. Trish and I were coughing and sputtering as we came up for air. Needless to say, I took a break out of the water after that experience.


I spotted a couple other people with camera equipment similar to my own this weekend :). Not a great photo, but proof that there are other photographers in Costa Rica!

A baby iguana wondering what I'm doing.
Dragonfly.
Parque Nacional.
A walking bridge.

And here's a link for viewing some of the Independence Day festivities at Sojourn. We had an assembly and a parade last Friday during school... a few things we aren't trained for while majoring in education, ha! It was a bit crazy, but lots of fun. I'm in the video... near the beginning, with my back turned to the camera while herding my students to the gym for the assembly. I'm wearing a white dress with red sash :). Just in case you're looking for me!

teaser photos from the weekend

So, it was an awesome weekend. . . among the sweaty complaints and blistered feet. Ha, you probably won't feel sorry for me once you see these photos.... :) Trish and I ready for the hike, ha. We found hibiscus flowers, so of course we put them in our hair! We are on the mountain in this photo, before hiking down to the bus stop.

We went to Parque Nacional in Manuel Antonio and had a guided tour. We hiked through at least a mile of rainforest, althought it wasn't quite as "jungley" as we expected. The trail on the way to the beach was more touristy, but the treck back was more genuine rainforest :). Here is a rainbow grasshopper. It has all the colors of the rainbow on its back!
These crabs were everywhere, but if you didn't look carefully, you might step on one! I was able to get pretty close to this one.

We saw several sloths! Crazy, huh? Our guide said they sleep for 20 hours a day and only move for 4. Sounds like a great plan to me... maybe for 2 days or so.

Bamboo is tall! We are not very tall.

Kim is thinking, "We finally made it to the beach!!" We were so sweaty and gross by this point.

I know where pet stores get their hermit crabs from! Under decomposing logs in Costa Rica.

No one told us there were raccoons in Costa Rica... but apparently they're here too. This pesky scavenger stole our chips from my backpack! He came right up to our things while we were down in the water, and when we saw what he was doing, we came sprinting up the beach... but if you've ever tried to run in sand before, you'll realize that "sprinting" is really like "jogging". ha, Needless to say, he tore the bag open before we could do anything about it.

So then I put out bait (my apple core) to try to get the raccoon back... I wanted a better photo of our burglar. But another scavenger showed up... an iguana! He seemed glad that I would share, so he posed for quite a few photos. I think I will go into animal photography someday at the rate I am going!
Do you see the crab?? He's there, I promise! He's sooo camoflauge!

Same here... these creatures are camoflauge too... can you even tell what it is?? Fruit bats!
Kim V. and waves captured in action.
My pretending to be a mermaid, ha. I don't think my gringa legs would qualify.

Kim L. loves taking her own photo, so I thought I would join in the fun :).

Alright, I'm headed to bed. It's already 11:30 here. I will post more photos tomorrow! :)