Exploring San Jose

We had the day off today, so of course we explored the city and shopped for Christmas. What a great day!

Here's some photos of the architecture ceilings with wire -- to keep the birds out?

a cathedral

palm trees and the Costa Rican flag

The National Theatre... we're going tomorrow night for the ballet! Que bueno!

Conversation from Today

Student: Miss Siscoe, is teaching hard?
Me: Well, sometimes... but not really. Why do you ask?
Student: I don't know.
Me: Do I make it seem hard?
Student: Well, no.
Me: What might be hard about teaching?
Student: Because of students like me.


Ha, if only he knew!!!

A Chocolate Bar and a Fan Make My Day!

Students brought in gifts today :). We just moved to a new classroom and desperately needed a fan for the stuffy room... So Jackson brought in a fan for us! He was so proud to present it to the class, and his mom said he was so excited that he carried it the whole way to school (15-20 minute walk!) and refused any offers of help from his parents. The fan was definitely appreciated today!

And Bayley went to the States this past weekend and brought back a jar of peanut butter and a giant Hershey's chocolate bar for me. Oh yeah, I'm living the life now. Ha, it's not too difficult to make my day. :)

Coach Trish

Here's a sneak peek of Trish coaching her basketball team. Ha, she has the funniest expressions while she's on the sidelines.

Steve was roped into being the referee. Who knew?

Another Trish coaches the cheerleading team. This is one of my favorite snapshots of the night, even though it's really grainy.

And we watched the sun set as the game progressed. Gorgeous, huh?

Home Sweet Home

Costa Rica is becoming home. Slowly but surely. What makes it "home" for me?

Cooking. I'm enjoying trying out new recipes and knowing where to buy ingredients. We eat lots of fresh fruits and veggies -- carrots, cucumbers, zucchini, avocados, peppers, pineapple, bananas. Fresh spices -- cilantro, garlic. I love mixing it all together and seeing what happens.

Fabric. Kim V. and I went shopping for fabric for curtains in our classroom, and maybe this is a bit too domestic for my nomadic lifestyle, but I LOVE all the textures and colors of fabric. I bought two yellow fabrics to make curtains...

Spanish. Mi vocabulario es pequeno y mi grammatica es pobre, pero aprendiendo poco a poco cada dia. (My vocabulary is small and my grammar is poor, but I'm learning little by little each day.) It's a good challenge, a tough challenge, but each day I learn something else.

Kids. My students are another healthy challenge for me. Enough said.

Sunshine. Ha, it's crazy that it's November and I can still sit out in the sun. It's as if summer has just followed me. I don't mind, not one bit.

Friends. I didn't know these girls before moving to CR, but when you are the only gringas around, you become pretty good friends, no matter what.

And, my bed. I spend 7 or 8 hours a day sleeping on our rock-hard bed, so I figure it better be homey with my blankets from college. Que bueno!

Blast from the Past

Students at Sojourn are required to wear uniforms (gray T-shirts or blue polos), and about every other Friday, the Student Council has a "Fun Friday" where students can dress up. I think the idea is to make up for the uniforms the rest of the time. Last Friday was "Blast from the Past"... and me and the roomies had way too much fun deciding what to wear. Here's what we eventually came up with:

And then our neighbor Steve saw the fun on the porch and decided to join:

Peggy and Kim V. at school were rocking the outfits of the past as well. . . ha, our teaching staff has way too much fun!

I think I'm having too much fun...

We went to a Saprissa game yesterday and ... as Trish says, "Well, adventure # 19!!" (meaning, we've already had so many adventures, so why not another one??) We read on the Saprissa website that women wearing purple shirts got into the game for free, SOOOO :) we got the bright idea to go for it.

When we got there, we found the ticket office and discovered that we could only get in for free IF we were with a man who was paying for his ticket... This is so random, and I can't believe it worked out, but there was a group of 4 ticos buying tickets at the next window and they overheard our dilemma. They offered to "escort" us into the game so... we got in for free. It was a good opportunity for Spanish practice.

The field! We were sitting up really high and the wind was cold. I mean, COLD! Ha, this was the first time I can say I was truly cold in Costa Rica... and it was probably about 55 degrees... not as cold as Chicago's 33 right now!

The 4 musketeers -- Laura, me, Trish, Kim.

Roomies! Kim & me.