sismo de esta madrugada

apparently there was an earthquake just after midnight last night. everyone was talking about it this morning, all the kids were asking if i felt it.

nope.

i have felt some little earthquakes here and i did wake up for no particular reason at some point last night, though it happens a lot and i don't remember the room shaking or anything when i did. so yeah. apparently the center was somewhere in panama. i can remember once when there was a little earthquake in the northeast - i was living in cambridge and i woke up around 6am or something and i remember thinking that i must have been having a scary dream or something, because my heart was pounding in my chest. but then i sort of realized that my heart *wasn't* pounding, that my whole bed was shaking.

7 more days! the end is in sight, and i'm exhausted and still trying to figure out how much actual class time i have next week during which i'll need to have things to entertain the kids with. i'm already thinking of doing a big crossword puzzle (they love them) with spelling words from the whole year, and then a spelling bee with prizes. thursday i'll probably do my awesome christmas card craft that i did last year with my other kids. we're supposed to have something to do on "accomplishments day" - monday, most teachers are doing some sort of little memory book. i'm worried that i won't be able to sell it and my kids will think it's lame. we'll see.

even though school will be done next week, i still have to go in the first week of december to do all my year-end administrative hooha and clean up my classroom. it's kind of a comforting thought that the next time i have a classroom of my own i'll have a little better idea of what i'm supposed to be doing!

life is too short to eat fake cheese

so recently i made the decision that life is too short to eat fake cheese. cheese is not something most costa ricans are really into (along with blueberries). but real cheese is expensive. now, i'm a person who is willing to pay $8-$9 for a delicious hunk of gruyere. but what i consider to be "regular" cheeses - cheddar, mozzarella - should not cost the same. but no more will i buy queso tipo de cheddar or queso tipo de mozzarella - i'm buying the real thing, no matter what it costs.

in other news, i read a little article from la nacion about this year's rainy season - el 2008 es el más lluvioso de los últimos 64 años, según el IMN. basically the national weather service has said that this year has been the rainiest for 64 years. so far we have had 2100 milliliters of rain per square meter (or something, the math is confusing) and the normal annual average is 1860mm. good times.

so i'll actually be heading back to new england a just a few days (!) where i was hoping to escape the rain, but i've heard rumors it's raining there too. c'est la vie.

first of the lasts

so last week i had my first "last"... it was our last parent conferences of the year! and i couldn't be happier. i mean, it's not that i mind talking with people... but i don't know. part of it is the language thing - most of my parents speak english, but either way we struggle. i've also been given the impression that it is required that i defend my grades to parents. there is sort of a culture of just getting A's without having to work too hard - so the fact that not all my kids get A's (not even most of them) is kind of a shock to some of the parents. so parent meetings kind of suck. in theory, next time i have to do parent meetings there shouldn't be a language barrier and they're kids might not have been getting straight A's since kindergarten.

so i went to the beach last weekend to "freshen up" my tan for danielle's wedding. i'm a little pink. but it should be fine by the wedding. it'll be a whirlwind trip home, so i make no promises about seeing people who are not living with my parents or attending the wedding. but those are the places i'll be...

well, i'm about to settle in with a bag of popcorn to watch dancing with the stars... :)

everybody fits in here!

so i think i mentioned before that my principal wanted me to take down my awesome shoot for the moon bulletin board. which i was a little sad about. but i did a little nosing around the internet for generic bulletin board ideas and found this one i thought was cute. especially given some of the meanness we've had in 4th grade this year (isn't it a little early for cattiness? i think so...)


now that i think about it... it probably would have been easier to do a poster and draw on the puzzle pieces with marker... unfortunately that is not what i did - i cut out all those pieces from construction paper. next time.

also, by the way, today was the first day back after vaca... i was kind of dreading it but in honesty, once i was there it was just like it always is. i kind of love it and the kids kind of drive me crazy. we're sort of working on this idea of a "english club" only it's a club they don't want to be in because it meets during recess every thursday... and they have to sit in class with me and speak english. it's a ploy to get them to stop speaking spanish in class. i'll let you know how it works out.

why it's so hard (an illustration)

i know i have told some of you that life is just harder here, which is at times pretty frustrating. i have a little illustration for you:

my watch had been slowing down... sometimes in the mornings i had to adjust the time a little. and then last week it finally stopped working. this is slightly traumatic for me - admittedly i have an obsession with my watch, and i use it in class all the time, it keeps me on schedule (yes, there is a clock on the wall, but it's not always subtle for me to check it) and it tells me the date. so two tough days of school. and it's not that i wasn't trying to solve this problem before this - i had been looking around everywhere i could think of for a while to find a battery for it. but no luck.

so i had mentioned my problem to my friend hannia, who gives me a ride to school most days, and she mentioned a place near the supermarket. i had seen this place before, but never been in or really even looked inside. she tells me she took her watch there once to be fixed. they sent it to the main store in san jose or something and it was back in 3 days. so i'm thinking, right, i just need someone to put a battery in, it couldn't possibly need to be sent out.

well, it's wednesday, i've been on vacation for a while now. and today i brought it to the store. i tell the girl what i need. she says i'll need to leave it. sure, sure, i say. for a few days. even though i only need a battery? yes. and do you know how much this will cost? about 1 mil = $2. now to me, that doesn't seem very economical, sending out a watch to have a battery put in that will earn about $2. but that's what i'm talking about. why does it have to be so hard?

for you, but not for me

so i woke up this morning (at 10 o'clock!) and i smelled burning. and after i checked that it was not our house that was burning it reminded me.... of fall. of that first cool day where you have to make a little fire and the burning smells different. it smells like fall. well, not for me. i took my breakfast outside and sat in the sun in my shorts and t-shirt. and even feel a little bit sweaty after. the rainy season is doing it's thing - it's hot in the morning, rainy in the afternoon and evenings. but i do miss fall.... not that fact that it leads up to winter (which i don't like) but the kind of crispness of the air. and that smell.

i am sort of starting to worry that it's wednesday and i haven't done any preparations for school yet. i really want to get myself as organized as possible for this last quarter so i can just do it. i had visions of doing a little something for school every day during vacation. oops. in fact i still have last quarter's compositions to grade and comments to write for the report cards. plus i have to do a new bulletin board. i blame my dancing with the stars obsession.

yes i'm doing my grades, isn't it obvious?

yeah.... grades.... i know i should be doing them, but it's so boring. i don't care what happened in chapters 5 and 6 of bridge to terabithia, i'm not interested in the similarities and differences between the simpsons and futurama....

by the way- does anyone remember what books they read in 3rd or 4th grade? apparently the cricket in times square is going out of print and my principal wants recommendations for another book for next year... and i have no idea. all year i've been trying to remember what it was like to be in 4th grade. in all honesty, i don't remember a thing. well, that's not entirely true - i remember doing this project on "gradnickflop" and mr. englund winging pieces of chalk at people in math class. and i was in love with larry kinch. but i can't recall doing any reading in 4th grade.

hi! remember me?

so yeah.... i guess you could say i've been on a bit of a hiatus. i just really haven't felt like writing (for a variety of reasons). but i'm back. i'm feeling like sharing. not that anything particularly exciting is happening...

so i was watching the food network the other day and alton brown was talking about how blueberries are so good for you, anti-aging, and blah blah blah. so i started thinking about blueberries (yes i am the highly suggestible type) and looking for recipes i could use them in (beyond just mixing them into yogurt, which is the only thing i could really think of). i found some blueberry-cornbread recipes and this one salad.

needless to say i was fully committed to the idea of eating blueberries at this point. i mean, let's face it, i don't really eat a lot of fruit even though i know i should. i eat green apples. i drink juice. sometimes i'll eat grapes or cantaloupe. so i was kind of psyched about this salad. went to the supermarket today to pick up the wherewithal needed. salad greens, check. feta cheese, check. almonds, check. blueberries, $7.

WHAT????!!!!!?!

well, i bought them anyway. i wanted them. at this point i'm almost used to paying $5 for one of those little 8oz. sacks of shredded cheese. but most fruit is pretty reasonable. guess they're not really into blueberries here in costa rica. maybe if they ate more of this salad they would change their minds. it was fab. anyway.

in just three short weeks we end up at the end of the 3rd quarter. i almost can't believe it. almost except that i feel exhausted. i had a sort of preliminary review with my principal this week, which was pretty good. but she asked me to change my awesome shoot for the moon bulletin board! which makes me sad. we have a week off between the 3rd and 4th quarters, which is pretty awesome. since no one decided to suck it up and come to horribly tranquilo, beautiful costa rica to visit looks like i'll just be hanging out and probably getting myself all planned for the 4th quarter.

no school, no rain

so it according to la nacion the first tropical storm of the season, "alma", has formed off the pacific coast of costa rica. not only the first tropical storm of the season, but the first tropical storm ever to have been "born" on the costa rican pacific coast.

which is all very momentous and exciting (i guess). but the most amusing thing is - i have no school today, and it stopped raining last night before i went to sleep and hasn't started again. there are sunny skies outside my window.

i keep waiting for the school to call me and say "where are you??!!! get over here now!" but so far that hasn't happened. :)

three letters, something i should be building about now...

so i recently had a birthday... which was fun. 84 is a big year. at least that's what i told my kids. :P (not sure why i love lying to children, but it's fun) so we had a little barbecue in honor of my birthday at my friends amanda and julia's house. there were hamburgers. and french fries. and brownies (if you know me, you know i'm not that into cake). here are a couple of pictures.

hmmmm.... what is maría jose pointing at?


ahhh.... it's the gaping hole in my birthday brownies. but it was my birthday, i'm allowed, right?


since then the weather has been rather miserable. like more miserable than normal rainy season. (in my whole 1 rainy season experience here in costa rica) i mean, the normal rainy season thing is sunny mornings and about 3pm it starts to rain. sometime in the evening the rain stops. the next day, repeat. but recently it's been raining almost non-stop. go to sleep and it's pouring, wake up and it's pouring, today there wasn't even the tiniest break in the rain. which is why there is now a lake in my backyard.


and probably not a surprise, but i'm kind of sick right now. running shnoz, coughing, sore throat. but best news ever (at least best news this week) - school is canceled tomorrow! apparently there is some sort of red advisory (not 100% sure what that means) due to the rain. there's flooding, and people are getting in accidents. so now i get to lie in bed for a while and try to recover. i basically spent most of my afternoon like this:

curled up around a little black and brown wiener dog.

3 letters, something i should be building about now...

ark.

Buen momento para contestar correspondencia

so my horoscope today says it's a good time to answer my correspondence.

Géminis (21 mayo - 20 jun.)

Buen momento para contestar correspondencia. Lo mejor es que se deje llevar y no oponga resistencia al amor. Ganancias económicas aseguradas. Un dinero adeudado podrá tardar en llegar.

it also says i'm going to make economic gains and i shouldn't put up any resistance to love.... but i'm going to focus on the correspondence for now.

grading "season" is nearly over. i wasn't fully prepared for what this was going to be like.... as the first quarter wound down i found that there were a few quizzes i hadn't graded yet and i had tests planned for the last two days of the quarter. then there was all the calculating, entering them into the online grading system, writing comments, entering conduct grades, attendance..... it was all a bit much. and because though it doesn't really seem like it i am giving grades for 4 different "classes" (reading, spelling, written expression, and oral language) to all 41 of my students.

needless to say i procrastinated as much as possible.... it's what i do. plus i was kind of distracted. but i finally got everything in, and after one terribly boring meeting to review the grades and the comments, and another batch of "corrections", i think i'm finally finished. the only thing remaining is meeting with all the parents to give them the grades. which, in my opinion, seems like an enormous annoyance. i mean, i know we're a private school, and the parents want their kids to do well. but sometimes they don't! and the thought of having to defend the grades that their lazy children *earned* is exhausting.

*phew*

part of my procrastination plan included the imperial festival, which was awesome. and tons of fun. despite the fact that it took us more than an hour after arriving to actual get a beer. at the imperial festival. imperial = beer. but it's just another one of those charming costa rica things, i guess. i mean, to me, and many other non-ticos, it would have been a good plan to have the age verification booth and the drink ticket booth both located shortly after the entrance. i mean, why not get that out of the way. but nooooooooo. anyhow, we had a great time. smashing pumpkins and incubus were great. we got light up slappy sticks (you know, like those things they have at basketball games sometimes). i had the most delicious churros i've ever had in my entire life. good times.

so yeah. i should have some pics coming soon.

long time, no post (nicaragua & panama)

so i know, i had this plan to post more about my trip to nicaragua during semana santa (easter week) and now it's late april.... so i guess i'll go with the condensed version.

the absolute best part of our trip to nicaragua was that the morning we moved to this cheaper hostel (after our late arrival the night before) we hear the people running get a phone call.... the turtles are hatching. so they organize this trip late that night to see the baby sea turtles hatch at this reserve beach (la flor i believe). so we were completely into it and probably like the first people to sign up. that night we go and it's so cool. probably one of the coolest things i've seen here. not only did we see the turtles digging their way up out of the sand and heading for the ocean (bathed only in red light so as not to disturb them) but we also saw a big turtle who came to shore late lay her eggs. so. cool.


so that was weeks ago now.... and i needed to leave the country again before my trip home in july. and we had a long weekend just this past one (batalla de santa rosa - costa ricans fought against the evil american william walker) and so we went off to panama. here i am crossing the border - yes, i'm walking on a rickety old railroad track bridge. super dodgy, but this is the border between costa rica and panaman.


and this one is me doing a cartwheel off this diving board at a bar. the problem was i was overshooting my dives a little bit and slapped my legs pretty good a couple of times (and i still have the bruises to prove it. so my diving coach encouraged me to make like i was doing a cartwheel in the air off the end of the board, and doing a little flip landing feet first. scary the first time, but so much fun.


so that's what i've been up to. it's the end of the first quarter and i'm kind of swamped with trying to get all my grades together, grading papers, and blah blah blah. definitely a learning experience this past quarter.... seeing how this how grading thing is playing out, i am definitely doing some things a little different for the next quarter.

tomorrow is festival imperial, which should be pretty awesome. i'm going to see smashing pumpkins and incubus, for a mere ¢10,000 (that's $20). and i've heard the ticket includes some free beers too. after all, imperial is la cerveza de costa rica.

the experience of travel

before i continue with my nicaragua saga (later tonight for sure, when i'm procrastinating and should be doing school work) i wanted to share something that i read this past week while we were traveling. it comes from the book the pilgrimage by paulo coelho. i bought this book for two reasons: 1. i had read the alchemist by the same author (i believe i borrowed it from cassie) and liked it. and 2. it was on sale. why not.

so here is a part that i really liked (just a little peek inside my head):

"When you travel, you experience, in a very practical way, the act of rebirth. You confront completely new situations, the day passes more slowly, and on most journeys you don't even understand the language the people speak. So you are like a child just out of the womb. You begin to attach much more importance to the things around you because your survival depends upon them. You begin to be more accessible to others because they may be able to help you in difficult situations. And you accept any small favor from the gods with great delight, as if it were an episode you would remember for the rest of your life. At the same time, since all things are new, you see only the beauty in them, and you feel happy to be alive."

:)

nica saga - part one

getting there

so the plan was to take off around 8 or 9 tuesday morning. it's a 6 hour bus ride to the border, then maybe another hour or so to san juan del sur. we had bought the tickets the day before, but they weren't actually for a specific bus, a specific time, or even a specific day. it said march 2008. san jose to peñas blancas. unfortunately we didn't get going as early as planned and we ended up leaving san jose around 10ish.

without incident we arrive at the border and begin our border crossing process. i had gone to nicaragua last semana santa (but on a border crossing bus) so i sort of had an idea how it was all supposed to work. but we were approached by our unofficial border tour guide and given a little assistance. he got us the forms we were supposed to fill out, even gave us a pen to use. mysteriously he turned up on the nicaraguan side of the border as well. and now he was trying to get us to take a taxi to our destination. so the bus to san juan del sur was going to cost around $2. he wanted us to take a taxi for $30. i told him no, too expensive. we took care of the nicaraguan portion of the border crossing and this guy is *still* hanging around. how about $25, it's un buen precio. listen, captain, $30 is too much. $25 is too much. we don't have it. and if that's all you can offer, then we take the bus. (in spanish, thank you very much. amanda was impressed with my fierceness)

so we exit the border area and enter the real nicaragua. and there's a bus. to managua. which is north about 3 hours. and the guy is telling us that the bus could not drop us where we need to be. which makes no sense what-so-ever. i mean, the bus is essentially going up the main highway towards managua. whatever, though. captain annoying (our unofficial guide) shows up AGAIN. still convinced that we should take a taxi. there are no more buses he tells us. and he says some other stuff which i don't really understand. so he recruits gringo bob (not his real name) to try to translate. turns out i understood completely. gringo bob confirms - he's trying to BS me about buses and taxis. so we tell the guy to piss off and we wait with our new friend. but captain annoying has another plan, sends over another taxi driver friend who will take us part of the way for only $20. then the bus turns up. that's right, the bus that wasn't coming.

so i'm not exactly sure how, as we are at the border and surely one of the first stops, but the bus is packed already. we squeeze on and begin our journey. standing, packed like sardines, next to a man who is holding a parakeet on his hand which is calmly eating a piece of exotic fruit and apparently unaware of the chaos surrounding him.

so our destination involves two buses, one which drops us off at la virgen (which turns out to be no more than a fork in the road with a small pulperia - like a convenience store) and the second takes us to the beach. we're pretty pleased that two women get off the bus with us at la virgen and are also hoping to catch the bus to san juan del sur. so we wait. and wait. and now it's dark. and we wait. and finally the bus turns up. it is unexpectedly posh. (the first bus was essentially a yellow school bus - called "chicken buses" here) it has cushy seats (which we even get to sit in) and is showing a film. which inexplicably keeps switching between english and spanish. but no matter.

it's nearly 8 o'clock when we finally show up in san juan del sur. it's dark. we only know the name of one place to stay. we check there, full. we ask for recommendations, and continue on. on the way we see a woman sitting out in front of a place that says rooms for rent. need a room? she asks. so we stay there. it's been a long day and we're STARVING. so we find this place called jerry's pizza. pizza, beer, and we're so ready to sleep. this random guest house happens to have the most comfortable beds ever. so we had a great nights sleep.

next morning we eat leftover pizza for breakfast and start cruising for cheaper places to stay. we end up back at the one place we actually knew, casa oro. and the adventure continues....

nica saga - intro

so i'm just back from nicaragua. seriously, just now, at nearly midnight on friday... it's a long story... the whole trip is a long story... and i'll tell all as soon as i get some sleep. but i'm back safe and sound.

consular matters

so i'm on vacation now. which is pretty great. i sleep until 8am (still terrifying that that seems like sleeping in) or maybe even NINE. yesterday i was super productive. and today i'm heading to the beach.

my passport needs to be renewed this year. later this year. but i'm nearly out of pages too, so i thought it might be a good idea to head to the embassy and see what i can figure out. well, i get inside and can't quite figure out where i am supposed to go or what i'm supposed to do. so i ask the security guards. well, one of them doesn't speak any english, but i kind of get that there's a ticket machine where i press the black button and then go inside and wait. an english speaking guard confirms. i get a ticket and head inside.

well, my number comes up almost immediately and i'm thinking this could be even easier than i ever imagined. but not quite. what the guards didn't tell me (or i didn't understand. or they didn't understand what i needed. or any combination of those things) i had to fill out a form and get pictures and then take another number and wait. so i head to the forms and i can't quite figure out which one i need.... i ask my pal the guard which one i need and he tells me yes. no, no, which one? yes. okay, no more questions for the guard.

eventually i get the right form filled out and photos and a new number and i don't have to wait too long and i bring it all up to the counter. standing, waiting. i have to go to another window to pay. and then back to another window. (and i had to listen to some annoying woman talk about how she lost her passport and how she's never coming back to costa rica ever like 4 times) okay, your passport application has been approved.

when will my passport be ready? you'll never believe it. 2 weeks.... :)

apparently renewal abroad is the way to go. so this morning i'm off to the beach. in nicaragua.

little devils

so. well, it's been a few weeks now, and we've had some ups and downs. of course i'm the new teacher, and they're trying to test me a little bit - to see how far they can push me. and until last week i had felt like we were making improvements in a lot of ways. i felt like i had a better idea of how much we could cover in a class and what kinds of things we could do. and i sort of felt like they were starting to behave a little bit better.

well. my director had visited my "good" class a while ago. she had some really good feedback for me, but generally she thought i was doing pretty well, that i had a good rapport with the kids. she gave me some pointers and we arranged for her to visit my other class a few days later. my "bad" class.

so she shows up. and generally her thing is "don't even pay attention to me. this is your class, i'm not going to interrupt or try to contribute unless you ask me to". well it was near the end of the class and i had just handed out some quizzes. then i was trying to get everyone's attention to say a few more things and then off to recess. "trying" being the operative word in that sentence. they had actually started completely ignoring me. walking around, having their own conversations, general chaos. so she asks if she can say something. she actually yelled at my class. this is not how pan-american students behave. you are disrespecting your teacher. you're not listening. you're not being kind (some kids were kind of harassing other students to find out how they did on the quiz).

so i finished the class and the students left. and we talked. i was really, really frustrated. and thank god she was completely helpful and supportive. i continue to be frustrated, despite the fact that the behavior has generally improved since that incident. and somehow i still like my job. hmmm.

now yesterday i made my first student cry. oh yes. in my "good" class we were working in groups on a set of tasks about the book we're reading (the cricket in times square). most of the groups are mostly staying on task. one group of three boys (couldn't be avoided - we have more boys than girls in fourth grade) were being generally loud, disruptive, disturbing other groups, throwing bits of eraser (a very popular activity in fourth grade), a dictionary was thrown and ripped. after i had repeatedly talked with the group, tried to get them focused, asked them to quiet down, stop throwing things, i told them they were all getting conduct warnings.

these warnings need to be signed by myself and the student, and then brought home to be signed by the parents. at the end of class i wrote them and handed them out. two of the kids were clearly not happy (not that i think they were sorry about the behavior, they just didn't want to have to tell their parents). but the third. he's generally a good kid. talks to much and doesn't always pay attention. but mostly good. he actually starts crying when i give him the warning. sobbing on his chair. so i try to talk with him about how he was behaving, what did he think about the way he behaved, was that appropriate classroom behavior? he wouldn't talk.

then at recess i was accosted by a mob of my students - from both classes - they had the explanation. S. had told them that it was all F.'s fault - he had thrown things and ripped the dictionary - A. didn't deserve a warning, he's a good student. obviously i explained that this was not up for negotiation, but some of them still kept trying. slightly flustered, i figured it would be best to go speak with the pedagogue. i explained everything and she called the parents to explain before the kids got home. and that was that.

so story time is over (wow, this is a pretty long post). i'll leave you with a couple of pictures from my classrooms.


my 4A classroom. this is my homeroom. i did the rainbow bulletin board seen here. it's covered with their "mind maps".


i have the same board in 4B.


and this one i'm pretty proud of: in my homeroom again it says "shoot for the moon- even if you miss you'll land among the stars" and i have all of their names written on little stars. so cute. :P

i am satisfactory!

so i'm pretty pumped. i am satisfactory. i'll explain...

i can't remember if i mentioned this before, but back in november 2007 i took the dele exam (Diplomas de Español como Lengua Extranjera). passing this exam earns you a certificate issued by the cervantes institute in spain on behalf of the spanish ministry for education and science. it's recognized worldwide.

Nombre y apellidos ANN DOREMUS

	Grupo 1		Grupo 2	Grupo 3
	Comprensión de lectura	Expresión escrita	Gramática y vocabulario	Comprensión auditiva	Expresión oral
Puntuación máxima	20 puntos	15 puntos	20 puntos	15 puntos	30 puntos
Puntuación mínima exigida	24,5 puntos		14 puntos	31,5 puntos
Puntuación obtenida	17.0 puntos	13.13 puntos	16.0 puntos	12.27 puntos	24.0 puntos
	30.13 (APTO)		16.0 (APTO)	36.27 (APTO)

La calificación final es de APTO

(ps "APTO" apparently means "satisfactory")

so my certification is at the "nivel inicial" which basically means that i have "sufficient linguistic ability for understanding and responding appropriately in most normal day-to-day situations and for expressing desires and needs in a basic way"

pretty cool, huh? i may try for the "nivel intermedio" before leaving costa rica... we'll see though. i'm kind of busy for test prep just now... i have some school stories and pictures which i'll be posting momentarily...

tico names and toblerone

week two on the job and in the classroom. monday was pretty bad... i really yelled at my bad group. really. but they've been a little better since then. i'd like to think that i'm getting a little bit better at handling them. but i'm not actually convinced that that's the truth. they've stopped asking what time it is and trying to show me that *their* watch says it's time to go. and there have been much less requests to go to the bathroom. progress...

it's possible i've nearly got everyones' name. and that's no easy feat. my homeroom group isn't too bad - i've got two ximenas, an andres and a jose andres. and a jose luis. in the other group i have a maria paula, a maria fernanda, and a maria alejandra. also an alexandra maria. two daniels and two danielas. and alberto and ricardo look so similar that i screw it up if i see them separately... and sometimes if i see them side by side, too.

in other news i've developed an obsession with toblerone. now if you know me, you know that i'm not really crazy about chocolate. i mean, it's not that i don't like it. it tastes good. but i'd rather eat something savory. the truth is, i'm not sure i've ever had toblerone before. but i got some for valentine's day. chocolate and almonds, sounds good... awwwwwww yeeeeeeaaah.... :P

shoot for the moon and all that...

so i had really intended to have some pictures to post before now of my classroom... and i actually brought my camera to school twice this week. but didn't take a single photo. next week, i hope.

so yeah, i'm teaching now! it actually feels like i've been teaching for weeks and weeks now... but it's only been 4 days. day one started out really great. i had my homeroom group first. there was a little name game action - to help me out with everyone's names. we did some other intro type stuff. talked about rules - what does respect mean? what does responsibility mean? they were more or less well behaved and amusing. and then....

my other group (there are two classes of 4th graders, i teach english to both). yeah. they wouldn't shut up during my name game. i asked them to be quiet so many times that i had to follow through on my threat "if i have to yell one more time, we're sitting down and you're writing". and i still don't know all their names. on thursday i had half the class trying to convince me that they HAD to go to the bathroom- that it was an emergency. (i didn't let any of them go)

i realize they're trying to test me. and i know i just have to be strict with them. (and i am for the most part). unfortunately i think what they need is boring assignments and super structured classes. it's the only time we ever get anything done. my big plan is to have a "rule of the day". so say, it's raising your hand to speak. or listening when other's are talking. or doing your homework. and we'll work through the rules one by one until i feel that the majority of the class has followed the rule during the class. and then we check it off the list. when we've checked off all the rules, game day (well, game english class anyway). we'll see how it goes.

the other frustrating thing is that i feel left out a little on my "team" (the fourth grade teachers). i've been told that the costa rican way is sort of like an overprotective mother. instead of showing you how to do something that you are supposed to be doing, they will just take care of it. so you don't have to worry about it. it's terribly frustrating. as an example. the kids had to bring in these forms signed by their parents for the extra-curricular activities they want to do. i had them putting them on my desk. but i didn't know what to do with them, so i put some on my paper tray. today i asked one of my companeras what i was supposed to do with them. and she told me that she already took mine, don't worry. well, she had taken some that were on the desk, but that was not most or all of them. i had to badger her into telling me where they went. she just kept telling me not to worry. all this actually bothers me more than my obnoxious class....

but for the most part i feel pretty good about the first week. i've decided i'm going to read to the kids a few mornings a week. purely for listening purposes. and i've chosen "the magician's nephew". and next week we're actually sort of starting stuff. we'll see how they do with structure.

big week ahead...

so last week we had MORE orientation. which was less useful than the week before. one of the presentations we had to listen to was more or less a science presentation. there were pictures of the brain. and neurons. and synapses. oh yes, and it was all in spanish (my vocabulary does not include that kind of stuff. i don't think it's terribly useful) the point was (i think) that not everyone has the same capacity to think in certain ways. or something like that. anyway. there was also the communication workshop. in spanish. so clearly we were really on top of that communicating thing. since i understood about a third of what was said. all in all a frustrating week. but i got some stuff done in my classroom (pics of my cool bulletin boards next week) worked on my lesson plans (which have to be approved - that's kind of crap) and am starting to get pretty pumped for the kids to actually show up.

so tomorrow we have just one last meeting (which i imagine will be pretty useless) from 7:30 to 9:30 then i have the rest of the day to get myself sorted out for the week. actually i did my "lesson plan", and i use that word loosely for what i have planned for next week, yesterday and i'm feeling pretty good.

went out to watch the celtics beat the spurs this afternoon. always a good time. and tomorrow i'm back to waking up early (i slept until 9:30 today!) and tying up some loose ends. hopefully my copies got done and the supplies place got the stuff i need to finish decorating my class. and then i'm teaching! :)

who doesn't love orientation?

it's so.... uh.... exciting? no, that's not right... it's... okay, so it's kind of boring. this past week was new teacher orientation (next week is ALL teacher orientation... not sure if i can handle another week...). so i spent the week trying to get myself used to waking up early. and learning about my new school. which was mostly not that interesting and not that helpful.

i mean, we talked about stuff like what things we're required to have in our classrooms (emergency class list, whistle, place for late slips), attendance procedures (must be put in the box outside your door by 8am), discipline procedures (academic warnings, conduct warnings, detentions), how to get things you need, how to go on a field trip, and on and on. useful, but not terribly interesting.

but then what was irritating was some of the questions people were asking. now, there are no stupid questions, right? but do we really need to know *right now* if we are supposed to write the time we are leaving for a field trip on the board in the office or if the secretary does it? (the answer is no) obviously there has to be procedure for everything, but we're not going to really, really get it until we actually have to do it. and when that time comes we will be working with a team of other teachers. and they know what to do.

the most beneficial part of the week was meeting with the 5th grade language arts teacher. she told us all about the books we can use, gave us some ideas about how she does here quizzes and tests and assignments. and come to find out the curriculum map i was given in december is not entirely correct... so that was a little annoying. but now i have a very clear idea about what i need to do and what i can do. so things are good.

we have today off, which is pretty exciting. so i got to sleep in. until 9 o'clock! (it feels a little sad that that feels late now) and i'm off to my old stomping grounds of san pedro in a bit to meet some friends for lunch. i think i have to relax as much as possible so i don't lose my mind next week. as soon as the kids show up and things start happening, i think it'll be fine. it's all this antici......

.......

.......

pation.

bad habits

it's amazing how quickly bad habits develop...


now, i like dogs. i like pets. it's nice to have a little companionship sometimes, someone to chill and watch tv with who never talks when you're trying to hear something. and chili and brownie are sweeties. but.

so i've spent 3 nights in my new place now. the dogs were in and out of my room the first night, checking things out while i unpacked, licking my elbows, you know, dog stuff. the second night chili was lying in bed with me watching tv. it got late. he slept over. i knew that he would want to get out in the morning when rocio got up - they get fed in the morning, and get let outside. so i didn't sleep that great, because i kind of knew at some point i would have to let him out. so i did. what happened next was what i wasn't expecting.

my first morning here, the dogs hung out in the living room after rocio and matias left and until i got up. my second morning after chili had slept with me, i hear scratching and whining outside my bedroom door when they left. so i open up and *both* dogs jump into bed with me. it's a little bed. and they're pretty solid, sausage shaped dogs. it was crowded.

last night i had no dogs in my bed. but i was woken up by - scratching and whining at my door. in an effort to break a bad habit before it took root i ignored them, thinking they would eventually get bored and go hang out in the living room. this continued for THREE HOURS (from about 7:30 to 10:30 - yes, i'm that lazy).

they were *ecstatic* to see me when i opened the door. i made some coffee and now the three of us are back in bed watching tv... and it's crowded...

santa ana

so i'm here... moved into my new pad in santa ana. so far, so good. i moved in last night. my room is a little bit smaller than i remembered from when i saw the place a week ago... but it's fine. i just don't have a desk, which i had gotten pretty used to in my other place. so we went on a mission today to see if i could find something... but no luck.

spent my morning chilling at home with the dogs. they're pretty fun. one of them is actually curled up on my bed with me right now (his mom calls him a traitor!) chili and brownie:


the rest of the house is super cute too. there are sofas in the living room!!! which is pretty exciting. but no tv there... but i have one in my room, so i guess that's pretty good.



so yeah, things are pretty good. i start going to school next week, for new teacher orientation and what-not. the kids start back on february 11th. until then i'm laying low, and trying to figure out all this teaching stuff.

:)

procrastination

who likes to procrastinate? that would be me....

so i'm moving tomorrow, and i've known i was going to move tomorrow for at least 4 days now. so that should have been plenty of time to get myself organized. things i've done so far instead of packing? let me see....

1. watch tv
   
2. watch movies
   
3. create a photo album online (which i've had mailed to my parents - so if you see them, soon they will have a album of my year in CR if you're interested)
   
4. create a playlist to listen to while i pack...

but yesterday i actually did something productive! i put some shoes, dresses, and extra pj's in a box. and i cleaned out my drawer filled with little slips of paper with random information on them. yeah, and that's about it so far. i feel like i've acquired a lot of stuff here... but maybe it's not so much. as long as it all fits in a suzuki samurai then i'm fine. so i'm having dinner this evening at my friends house (hopefully after i do a little more packing) and then tomorrow i have that pressure that i need in situations like these... an actual deadline. my next post will be from the (relatively speaking) posh western suburb of santa ana!

the opposite of homeless

that's right. i have two homes. only not in the way that rich people do.... i will have to leave one of them eventually. but for now i have two homes. one that i don't have to leave in any hurry and one that i don't have to move into in any hurry.

so i was cruising craig's list for places to live and there was one that caught my eye. so it's a room in a house. the house is owned by a youngish couple and their two dachshunds. my rent includes utilities, cable tv (and a tv in my bedroom!!! that's pretty exciting), and wifi. and on top of all that, it's less than a 5 minute walk to the bus stop where i can catch the bus directly to my school. it's close to stores and supermarkets, yet there's a huge back garden and it's a really tranquil environment. i'm pretty happy.

so obviously i have to move there before school starts (well, even before that - i have to start going in to school on the 28th for orientation and stuff). but as there's no rush for me to get out of the place i'm in now, i'm procrastinating. the thought of packing all of my stuff.... i'll have you know i came down here with only two bags. my giant backpack and my regular backpack. those two bags probably hold less than half of what i have now... so my real goal is to try to sort through stuff a little and see what is just crap and what i really want or need.

so yeah, that's my news. as soon as i actually move in i'll get some pics. :)

happy 2008!

so happy new year! i'm back in costa rica after two weeks at home in maine over the holidays. it was far too cold and there was far too much snow. but i had fun. got to see lots of people. and now i'm back with three more weeks to get myself together before my new job - teaching 4th grade language arts. and maybe top up my tan a little bit. :) anyhow, more news later.