Mudslide Day

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/11/04/costa.rica.fatal.mudslides/index.html?hpt=T2

In Costa Rica, we don't have snow days, we have mudslide days! It might sound fun, but it's actually kind of a downer as a river built up water pressure and broke through the mountain to wash away homes and a whole section of the suburb I'm now living in. It's not just in Escazú, though, it's also in Patari and Aserri, other parts of the city...

Today was the first day back to school after Thursday and Friday off due to excessive rain. Every time it starts raining right now, it's not good news as homes and streets continue to flood and landslides continue. Don't worry, Mom, I'm alive! :)

Science Fair = An Excuse to Explode Things

Of the 11 5th grade projects, the most popular are the explosion projects. Here's some photos of the daily fiery happenings!

I'm Here!!!

Okay, so life is crazy right now. That's my classic one-liner these days :). But no really, life is crazy.

I moved from San Francisco de Dos Ríos to Santa Ana this week. It's like an automatic upgrade in social class here as I went from a barred apartment to a gated community complete with guards, expensive cars, no bars on windows, and open-door policy between neighbors. Quite the change! I don't have Internet or phone though, so I'm instead enjoying the big bed and TV and full wall of mirrors in my bedroom :).

There has been a lot of flooding here on the west side of the city due to the rainy season, so in the last 24 hours, there have been multiple landslides that have killed several people and cut the water pipes coming into the city. Schools were cancelled today, so I worked at school for a while, then hitched a ride back to ''my condo'' (hitched a ride with another Lighthouse staff member, of course :)), took a nap, and now I'm mooching off a neighbor's Internet :). Sweet deal.

So instead of snow days, we have landslide days :).

I am hopefully going to the beach this weekend still as the Sojourn senior girls asked me to chaperone their senior trip. I'll post photos as soon as I can! :)

Old People Day

This week is ''Homecoming Week'' kind of as we have random dress-up days every day... So today was Old People/Baby Day. In other words, students dressed as an elderly person or as a baby. I had 7 old people, 1 baby, and 2 I wasn´t sure what they were :)

 He said his mustache smelled funny and that he fought in World War II when he was a youngster.

 Wow! Her hair was awesome :)

 Our only baby

 He claimed he was an old person, but I told him he looked an awful lot like a skater/emo kid from our 5th grade class...

 Her hair is naturally really dark brown so she loaded that baby powder into her hair for this effect!

 She had stage makeup for wrinkles and old stockings :)

 His cane was too short... He said that added to his ''humpback''.

 She confessed at lunch that she just wanted to wear pajamas... that she wasn´t really an old person or baby.

He was so proud to have a real cane. At one point in the day, he told me he was thinking ''about the good ol´ days!'' When you're in 5th grade, does that mean when you were a toddler? :)

Wacky Outfit Day

Here´s 5th grade, rocking Wacky Outfit Day. I played it ''safe'' with my outfit and one kid commented that my outfit just looked like what I wear everyday, lol.

 In my peripheral vision, I thought she was raising her hand! :) She used curlers and a headband to get her hair like this.

 Looking serious.

 love all these crazy colors and patterns...

 He was very creative to dress himself upside down!

And the classic photo of a photo :)

Typical Day During the Rainy Season

progression from sunny mornings to cloudy afternoons to rainy evenings

 8:15 a.m.

 8:56 a.m.

 10:15 a.m.

 2:29 p.m.

5:03 p.m.

Proof!

Here's proof that there really is a man who drives a green station wagon who comes to the park on the weekends to read his paper and sit with his dogs. I think he might be gringo but it's hard to tell...