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.