Let the Games Begin!

Or rather, let the classes begin!!

Today was my first day of teaching art in the morning and taking Spanish classes in the afternoons. Here's what my schedule looks like:

7:30-12:30 Teaching Art

12:30-1:30 Break!

1:30-4 Spanish Classes

And now I have 9 pages of homework!!! A grand wake-up call in my world of "no more college for me!" Ha, maybe I'm like my dad and I'll always be pursuing another degree of some sort... The problem with Spanish is that you never really "graduate"... there's always more to learn.

Speaking of homework, I'd better get started!

Day Trip to Jaco

I had a craving for the beach since the last time was April... so did some other girls I met randomly. Sooooo there we went! We rode the bus from San Jose to the coast in the early, early morning, enjoyed a day in the sun, and then rode the bus back! Total transportation cost: $10. Food cost: $8. Not bad.

The four musketeers for the day. L2R: Joni, me, Amy, Chrissy. Joni is studying at the Institute just for the summer as she's in college for nursing. Amy has been volunteering at Sojourn for the last month and will be returning to the States on Monday. Chrissy just arrived in CR last Monday volunteering with an organization called Latin Link... She just graduated from Imperial University in London. Quite the random group, but we definitely made the best of it!

This dog hiked with us all the way down the beach and back. Her collar said, "Hola. I am Clarita." and then a phone number for tracking down her owner. Other dogs would approach us, and Clarita would run them off!

Kate the explorer... I have potential, don't I? ha.

Then! We had a surprise and slightly impulsive adventure as we went horseback riding! I'm a little sunburnt at this point in the day (I'm tempted to make the photo black and white so you can't tell!). We rode for about an hour and a half... my rearend is reminding me this morning.

I know this isn't the best photo in terms of detail, but I like it for it's artistic nature.

Planting Seeds

Teaching is all about planting seeds. Seeds of math strategies, historical lessons, science concepts, the joy of reading. Each teacher waters and fertilizes and weeds what the last teacher planted. We all hope and pray it grows. And then the end of the school year comes and we say goodbye.

Dad sent me this photo from their recent trip to Iowa. The house behind the white car was the parsonage we lived in while Dad was pastor of his first church. Mom looks tiny standing next to the tree in the front yard... the tree I brought home from kindergarten and we planted in the front yard. It fit in a cup when we planted it... now it's two times the size of the house!

The tree a good reminder that my students will grow. Not because of me, but because of God. So ultimately, teaching is all about putting in my best work and trusting God with the rest of the growth. Hopefully my students will be giants like this!!! :)

VACATION

Vacation has always meant going somewhere... but this time, I'm here. Well, still here in Costa Rica, but I'm not travelling for the whole vacation. Instead, I am doing more normal things like napping, eating, reading my pile of books to read (The Shack, Wrinkle in Time... anybody want to join in the Kate Book Club? :)), and not thinking about teaching one bit. Excellent.

Costa Rica is a hot spot for studying Spanish, so I've been able to get together with different people who were/are Judson students or are related to Judson friends. Last weekend (before my emergency room episode), I travelled by bus to Heredia for the day to meet Hannah Morris, the sister-in-law of my Judson friend Valerie (Kasen) Morris. That was fun!!! Hopefully this week, I'll be getting together with Becca O'Donnell, another Judson grad who is studying here short-term.

I also have plans for a pedicure with Becky, jewelry making with Jamie, and cooking with Carolina. There's a potential beach trip for this next weekend with Alejandra.

So far, so good.

I've never felt like I have deserved a vacation more than now. Ha, that might sounds conceited or stuck up, but teachers put everything into their students for 10 months and then it's time to rejuvenate... too bad I only have 10 days of rejuvenation! As the saying goes, I'm going to milk it for all it's worth.

Happy Father's Day!!

Hi Dad :).

I tried to call you 6 times... but Skype's not working.

So this is an official, modern technology "HELLO!!!" for Father's Day...

Hope you don't mind the blog version instead of the telephone version...

LOVE YOU!

Last Day of School!!

WE MADE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We (Kim, Kim, Trish, and I) have survived one year of teaching in the craziness of Sojourn Academy. Seriously, when I walked out of school Friday, I felt as if I had graduated from college all over again. What an accomplishment!! And on top of learning a language and living so far away from home... wow.

My "sextuplets". One day I just had these girls lined up at the bathroom because the other tico students were in English classes, and a high schooler commented that it looked like I had sextuplets because they're all about the same shade of blonde... sure enough, it stuck. L2R: Annabel, Carissa, Brooklyn, Rebecca, Katie, Christina.

And the other part of the class... My other quintuplets, ha. L2R: Gabriela, Valeria, Paula, Nicole, Diego.

I'm not exactly sure what's going on in this photo, but it well illustrates the hyper craziness of the last moments of the last school day. Seriously, there was no turning back once we ate the various treats parents had sent in.

The photo above is Gaby taking my picture on the last day. I love the how students in the background want to be part of the photo too :). It's quite the artistic shot, if I do say so myself. :)
And Kim keeping students awake during the Talent Show with water guns!!! Haha, she's hilarious... Kim won't be returning to Sojourn next year, so I'm grieving over her loss... but she did donate the water guns to my teacher supplies. :) Wonder what I can use them for next year...

Emergency Room

Latest adventure: people watching in the emergency room. Apparently the thing to do here in Costa Rica when you're vomitting every 20 minutes is go to the emergency room... so I was there from 3am to 9am. 3 IV bags later, they finally let me go. No worries, I'm recovering here at home with Jell-O and ginger ale... My tico family is seriously awesome for taking care of me right now.

The photo is from when I was released... ManRi wanted a photo for his cell phone, and I look greeeeeat, ha.