Hi everyone, it's me, I'm back. I haven't forgotten about you all, it's just been really crazy lately. I'll just start from the beginning and give you the cliffnotes version of the last few weeks.
The last time I blogged was about going ziplining in the Monteverde Cloud Forest. We got home from that trip on Sunday, March 1st. I found out the next morning that my grandfather had passed away. Apparently he had been sick for a couple of weeks, but I didn't know that, and the news was quite difficult for me being so far away and not being able to visit him one last time. For my sanity and peace of mind, I decided to fly home for the weekend to see my family and to attend the funeral to get a little bit of closure. So that Saturday, I was on a plane home to CA. Almost as soon as I landed in LA, I was busy getting errands done and visiting people. I spent Sunday out at my family's restaurant. They got invited to the Nixon Library to receive some fancy award for having an amazing restaurant. They got all dressed up and went to the reception while my mom and I ran the restaurant for the day. I actually didn't do anything but babysit my cousin, Lex. My mom did most of the real work :) Here's my family all dressed up for the party:
Uncle Jeff, Aunt Cindy, cousins Josh and Katie
The funeral was on Monday morning, which was a little chaotic, but we made it work. Before I knew it, I was back on a plane to Costa Rica. I left Tuesday morning and had all of my flights screwed up, and didn't get in to San Jose until about 10 pm. But I did get to watch a beautiful sunset from my window seat:
I finally made it back to my house at about 10:30 pm Tuesday night. I literally dumped all my crap out onto the floor and repacked for science camp. I had to be at school the next day at 5:30 am to get my kids ready to go to camp for three days. I was already exhausted from traveling home that weekend, and I was not happy about being at school before everyone else was even awake! But everything worked out fine and I made it to school on time. Then Wednesday morning, our bus left school at 6:30 am with 44 elevel-year olds and three adults (one of which still has a malfunctioning foot).
CAMP. WAS. EXHAAAUUUSTING.
Field trips were so much fun as a kid. But they are so much work as a supervisor! My kids had a great time and loved the trip, but I was so ready to leave by Friday. We spent three full days in San Carlos, where the kids got to do all kinds of cool things. Here is some of what they did and what we saw:
Yup, that's our bus driving through a river to get to the Maleku Reserve
Hiking into the Rain Forest to visit the Maleku Indians
My students dancing with the Malekus
The Malekus taught us some words in their language
One night, they cleared the ground and made it flat to set bait for animal tracks. They sifted fresh dirt on top so it was soft enough for the animals to make tracks.
At this place, the students learned about recycling and composting. Then they got to paint a picture frame made of recycled paper.
On this day, the kids got to feed cow tongues to gigantic crocodiles!
They even got to eat termites. Some liked it better than others!
We saw lots of cool wildlife
And on the last day, everyone got to hold baby crocodiles!
There were beautiful wildflowers flowers in San Carlos
We got home from camp Friday night around 5 pm. Once again, I dumped out my bag and re-packed for another trip. On Saturday, we left early in the morning to go to Arenal. This is the most active volcano in all of North, Central, and South America! We spent the day lounging in the hot springs and relaxing. It was a nice way to unwind from camp.
The drive there, beautiful scenery
Arenal Volcano
Lake Arenal, this lake provides a majority of the electricity for the entire country
Lunch before the hot springs!
The resort was absolutely beautiful! Sadly, we only spent one day here.
After spending the day relaxing, we drove back that same night. It was such a great day. We took a private microbus there and back, which was amazing. Since it was just our group on the bus, we all had so much fun goofing around and being silly!
Sunday morning, a few of us went to this International Baptist church we found fairly close by. The entire thing is in English, which is great. I'm not really used to the Baptist style of church, but it was so nice to hear a sermon in English!
That afternoon, Serena and I went with her host parents to an orchid festival in San Jose. I have never seen so many beautiful flowers in one place! The festival was held in a huge multipurpose room that was jam packed with people and orchids. I took a million pictures, but here are some of the good ones:
This one's my favorite
And finally, there's last weekend. We decided it was time to just go to a beach and chill for the weekend. So, we headed 7 hours north to Playa Conchal. There are only a handful of beaches in the world like this beach, so I'm glad we went to see it. Instead of sand, this beach is covered in tiny shells. The entire beach is like this, which makes walking with a broken foot a little challenging. The shells are not as sturdy as hard-packed sand. But it was beautiful. We stayed in a hostel in Brasilito, which is right next to Conchal. There's only one hotel in Conchal and it costs about $400 per night! Luckily, the walk from Brasilito to Conchal was only about 15 minutes.
Playa Brasilito
This is how we feel to be living in Costa Rica!!
Even though it's sunny, it is really about 7:30 pm. There is over 16 hours of daylight at Conchal.
School has continued to go well. I started my take-over last week which is why I've been so busy. My students drive me crazy some days, but most of the time, they are good! They seem to be comfortable with me which makes things a lot easier. I can totally understand how a bad student teaching experience can ruin someone's idea of teaching. I don't know what I would do down here if I had a bad placement. Luckily Westmont does an amazing job of placing us with the right people.!! Thanks Dr. Tucker :)
Well, I think that's about it for now. This weekend we are going even farther North to the Nicoyan Peninsula. I'll post pictures this weekend!!
How are you all doing? I miss getting to hear from each of you on a regular basis. Send me updates about things are going, ok?!?!
xoxo
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