JACO

Ahhh a nice relaxing weekend at the beach, just what the doctor ordered! =) At about 2:30 on Friday afternoon we went to pick up Meghan from school to get in a taxi that would take us to San Jose to get on a bus that would take us to Jaco. Jaco Beach is probably the biggest tourist beach here in Costa Rica because it is closest to San Jose and the airport (about a 2 hour bus ride).
This was the first time that I had actually gone into San Jose and driven through the "downtown" area since I have been here. (When we flew in it was super early and we just drove from the airport straight to our house). I had heard that the Coca Cola Station (main bus hub in San Jose) was close to the "not so good" part of town. It took us almost an hour to get from Tres Ríos to the bus station because of so much traffic, this is only about a 15 mile drive. It was so weird driving through parts of San Jose mainly because it is so sad. The streets are filled with litter and it just looks so dirty. At one point I wanted to cry because it was pouring rain and there were homeless people lined up underneath a tiny awning trying to keep themselves and their few belongings dry. I was going to take a picture but then I just felt it was too inappropriate. There was even a drunk guy roaming the streets and walked right in front of our taxi and was yelling at someone up in a building. There are people EVERYWHERE and vendors on so much of the street it was just crazy. Once we arrived at the bus station at about 3:40, we found out that a bus to Jaco had just left at 3:30 and the next one was at 5:30 so we bought our tickets and sat down for some coffee/sodas. We sat and waited for our bus and went to the bathroom. Now the only reason I mention going to the bathroom is because this was also strange. We had to pay 100 colones (a little less than 25 cents) to use the bathroom and they gave us a wad of toilet paper, or what I will call toilet paper. I was curious as to why they gave me so much so I basically just threw over half of it away. When I washed my hands, though, I realized there were no paper towels and I was probably supposed to use some of that to dry my hands! (The boys only had to pay 50 colones for their bathrooms!)Anywho, then we were off! SOO excited to have a relaxing weekend filled with tourist fun and people who speak English. We boarded the bus and realized that some people had tickets that said "de pie" (by foot) and these people had to stand the entire way to Jaco! We were happy that we got there early and realized that we will want to always get there a bit early, or at least buy tickets in advance, so that we won't end up standing the entire time! It took us almost 45 minutes to get out of San Jose because it was "hora pica" (rush hour, basically) and there was an accident. This did not go over well with my stomach seeing as we were in the very back row and we were stopping and starting, stopping and starting. Overall it took us 3 hours to get to Jaco and we think it just seemed really long because it was dark, we had NO idea where we were going, and the road we drove on was up and down and around constantly! My stomach didn't like this one too much either. Parts of the drive were actually a bit freaky because the lights inside the bus were going on and off and it was pitch black out and we were swerving through a mountain basically! Before we left, we had looked up different hostels to stay in (now please don't think of the scary movie Hostel, we are just cheap college kids =) haha) and we found a place called Hotel de Haan, a Dutch owned hostel that looked very clean and like a lot of fun. When we got off the bus we jumped in a taxi that took us to the hostel. The guy at the front desk, who we later found out is Alan, was super welcoming and very helpful. He showed us to our room, told us he would charge us 10 dollars a night (since we all went into one) and then let us settle before we came back down to check in/get our key. When we went downstairs he told us about a surfing lesson the next day and we all signed up! The whole hostel is super brightly colored and had a community kitchen, little hang out area, and pool. We met two girls from the United States who are in San Jose doing volunteer work. We also met a group of boys/girls ages 18-21 who were mostly from Germany, two from the United States, that are also in San Jose for the moment before they get assigned to their volunteer work. In Germany the students cannot go straight to college out of high school. They either have to do a year of military service or a year of civil service abroad. The ones we met were obviously doing a year of civil service abroad. So Friday night when we got there we were all so tired that we went out to eat and just hit the hay right away! We found an American sports bar and got to watch some of the Twins game!
The next morning we woke up, ate breakfast, and headed down to surf! It was seriously one of the most fun times I have ever had! There was a group of guys from New Orleans learning to surf with us that were having a bachelor party, they were pretty amusing. We started out by "sand surfing" AKA the instructors drew surf boards in the sand and we had to pretend like we were surfing on them... haha it was pretty amusing for them I'm sure! We decided that they only do this part of the lesson to laugh at all of us tourists. I was actually quite surprised with myself when it only took me 3 times and I was riding the board for more than 3 seconds!! There were even a couple of times that I got good balance and rode the board all the way into shore! It was SOO much fun, but I am SO sore from it! The next day I could barely move my arms, and they still hurt pretty badly, actually haha. But, I do think that I would like to be sore from surfing every day! =)

(There are PLENTY more pictures on the other site .. the picasa one.. see previous posts for link!)

So after surfing we just lounged on the beach for awhile before heading back to our room to enjoy all the sun we could get! We stopped to get a bottle of wine and got back to the hostel only realizing we had no cork screw. So, Amber and I decide we will walk to the convenience store that was just down the road from the hostel. They, of course, didn't have one but said that just down the road we could find one. At this point it started to rain. We kept walking and stopped in a "mini super" who, also, did not have one but said just a little bit more down the road. At this point it started to pour. Amber and I were both still in our suits/cover ups so we really didn't care. We ended up getting SOAKED and had people just staring at us as we walked down the street in the pouring rain and turning away taxis. It wasn't all that bad because the rain was very warm! Once we finally got the cork screw, opening the bottle was another task, but we got it.. haha.. ooh wine. After showering and such we headed to a place called the Taco Bar that was recommended to us by Alan and Chapu (the guys that work at the Hostel and gave us our surf lessons!) I decided to venture out and try a fish taco. I got salmon because I typically enjoy that in the United States. However, the salmon was raw, not my cup of tea. I wish I would have tried the snapper because it looked delicious and was cooked. Oh well, next time! The restaurant itself was super fun, though. It was completely outside and the chairs were swings!

Isn't Meghan just too cute?
After dinner we went back to the hostel and played some card games with the group of Germans/2 US girls and then ventured out for a bit. It was so great to get some sun, lay on the beach, and have some fun!

The next day we were all a bit sun burned, sore, and tired. The sun here is really strong and takes a lot out of you in a day! We all agreed that we would take the 1:00 bus back to Tres Ríos so that we would have time to unpack, relax, and sleep. This did not work out because it was full and the next bus wasn't until 3:30. It was an absolutely gorgeous day so we got a sandwich for lunch and then went to lay under some palm trees and take a nap =) You have to do something cool on a gorgeous beach in the sun, right?

Especially on such a gorgeous beach!! The sun was hot, the water was warm.. what more can you ask for? The beach is a little bit rocky, though. It doesn't matter, a gorgeous beach is a gorgeous beach. I am very excited to see more since most people tell us that there are beaches here way more beautiful than Jaco!

I love and miss everyone terribly much! Time really is flying by, though! Tomorrow already marks 3 whole weeks of being here. Crazy!

Life's Good

The past week has been a little rough because everything is definitely starting to get to me. My stomach has not been right, the Spanish is getting better, but still not where I would like it to be, and it has been raining every day from about noon until literally midnight.. and when I say rain, I mean POUUUURR (ask my mother, she could hear it on skype! ha). I got kind of my first stint of homesickness this week and all I wanted to do was lay in bed. Then at school we were listening to Disney music and "I like to move it, move it" came on and all I could think of was Elliott dancing around and how much I miss home and my family! Josh and Hannah are planning a visit and I am very excited for them to come! Then, coming home from school yesterday, there was this cute little old man wearing a hat and on the back it just simply said, "Life's Good". I stopped to think about the opportunity I am having right now and had to just realize how good life really is. I wrote on facebook to Josh that him and Hannah needed to book their tickets to come here so I have something to look forward to and Rachel simply replied that I wake up to a great view and a great breakfast and I realized I really have something to look forward to every day. Sometimes it is just hard to remember the amazing place I am in when I don't have my loved ones to share it with. Anywho, LIFE'S GOOD, and that is something that I just need to constantly remember and realize how blessed I am to have such an opportunity placed before me. The stomach aches will go away (hopefully), the weather is absolutely stunning for at least half the day, my Spanish will continue to get better, some of my family is visiting, and I have so many things to do and to see here in this beautiful country! I definitely need to enjoy it while it lasts because I do not want to look back on it saying, "Wow, I really took those 4 months for granted when I had the opportunity for so many amazing things."
There are now a total of 6 student teachers here in Tres Ríos with 1 left to come some time in September. Four of us girls all live together and it is really nice to be able to vent to them, in English, some of the issues from school and Spanish and what not. For example, today was one of the most frustrating days at school because my cooperating teacher actually left the room during a lesson and one of the students started to argue with me about not wanting two green colored pencils (which there is a light green and a dark green). I tried to explain to him in English that they were different colors and that all the students had two green pencils. I then switched to Spanish because he was going insane and started bawling hysterically trying to tell me something (which I wouldn't have been able to understand even in English because he was being so unreasonable). Don't get me wrong, I really like this student, he is just a bit difficult at times like most 5 year olds can be. It was super frustrating because all I wanted to do was talk to him in a manner that he could understand me. All I want to do right now is show my real personality to the other teachers and get to know my students, which I would obviously be able to do in a school in the United States. Oh well, it's all a brand new learning experience!
This weekend we are going to the beach for some much needed relaxation, sun, and English! haha It is very touristy, even though it is not high peak tourism season, I'm sure there will be other travelers around the area that hopefully we will get to know!

This is the 5 of us girls that are already here in Costa Rica. Kelly (the one in the middle in the green) does not live with us.. just a couple blocks down the road =)

This is the four of us with our host mom, Emilia, sitting on our stairs in the little "apartment" that Meghan and I have. It is very nice to have all these other girls (the lone boy arrived today, Brian, who is braving the adventure and coming to the beach with us this weekend!) who are in the exact same boat as me with missing home, family, and struggling with Spanish!

Oh well, life's good =)

Volcán Irazú

Well we finally did our first "touristy" excursion! We went to the Volcán Irazú, which is the highest volcano in Costa Rica. We ended up hiking up to the highest point of the volcano (which apparently is the highest point in Costa Rica!!) It was so nice to see/hear other people speaking English and doing "touristy" things as well! It was so much colder up there than we thought, but definitely not as cold as a Wisconsin winter ;) However, I was super bummed because when I looked at pictures on google of the volcano (there is this ridiculously green looking lake in one of the craters!) because apparently this has evaporated!! I was looking all around for it and I finally asked a nice couple all the way at the top, after our ridiculous hike to see nothing! haha They told me that they had asked inside and that because of volcanic activity, the "green lake" evaporated about 4 months ago and this was the first time it happened in 23 years! (This is a picture from google image that shows it) I did still see the crater that used to have this liquid in it, but I was still pretty bummed! It was actually an hour bus ride UP the mountain, well, volcano I guess, and with the way they drive here and the roads, my stomach wasn't feeling the greatest! I also got quite light headed because of such an altitude change! However, once we were up there, it was definitely worth it! The first part of the day wasn't as cloudy so we got to see a lot of the volcano! We spent a lot of the time just wandering around and climbing up things! haha It was absolutely HUGE.Yes, those teeennnyy, tiny people at the bottom of what looks to be a mountain, is us. We climbed up a bit of it mainly so we could slide down =) This part of the volcano wasn't even the biggest part! I seriously do not know how to describe any of the places I've seen down here because pictures just can't do it justice!


We spent about 4 hours wandering around the volcano and hiking up to the highest point, oofta was that a work out. After I almost got hit by a car and we walked, what felt like, straight up for a

mile, we were officially at THE highest point in Costa Rica! This journey was also a little bit of a bummer because by the time we reached the top it was SUPER cloudy and we could barely see 5 feet below us. As you can see from this picture we were actually in the clouds, BUT you can also see how high up we were! We hung out for awhile on top hoping that some of the clouds would clear (and I spose to catch our breath a bit, haha) but that never happened. We also had to make sure we were back down the highest point in order to catch our bus back into town. It was even colder at this point, but I was clearly too tired from climbing the hill to care about the temperature! I think someone had said it's about 5 degrees celsius on top of the volcano (which I guess would be about 40 degreesish?) Anywho, it was a nice break from the classroom/house/Spanish! It is definitely still a culture shock here, even though I am getting more used to it every day. Apparently my Spanish is getting better, but I don't feel like I have really improved at all. I guess mainly because I still don't feel as I can even attempt to translate any conversation that the other teachers are having in Spanish because they talk SO fast! I do catch words and phrases here and there so I can usually figure out a little bit of what they are talking! I just have this feeling that I am going to get really good at my Spanish and feel totally comfortable in my school right when I have to leave for my other placement! I spend 7 and a half weeks at each, so my last day at my current placement is October 1st. I know it is going to go insanely fast, though. My teacher actually invited us to go to her boyfriend's birthday party, so we did that Saturday night after our day at the volcano! This was also a lot of fun because we met some other people our age that live in the area and, again, a chance to get out of the house for a change! This is me, Nalini (a grad student teaching biology here), Meghan, Ericka (the pre-kinder teacher at my school), and Gaby! (my teacher!) at the party. Gaby has been with her boyfriend for 3 years and he was very nice and welcoming to us just like Gaby was! He has twin brothers that are 22 so they, their girlfriends, and some of their other friends were also at the party. They all spoke excellent English and were a lot of fun! I'd have to say it was a very successful first "touristy" weekend here in Costa Rica! This coming weekend we are planning on going to the beach, which I can NOT wait for! I do have to get through this week, though, and I am actually teaching my first lessons! This week I have to teach the students about the letters X and Y and in math I will be teaching them about time sequences (like looking at two pictures, 1 of getting out of bed and 1 of brushing teeth, and they will tell me which come first and what not). It should be interesting, but I think I will be able to handle it! Gaby does really well with helping the children understand me if I can't think of how to explain it in Spanish! =)

ALSO! I finally uploaded ALL of my pictures.. here is the link again

http://picasaweb.google.com/116304399512979294076

I Survived! =)

Yes, that's right! I survived my first FULL week of student teaching in Costa Rica (but barely!) By the time yesterday after school rolled around, my head hurt sooo incredibly bad the only thing I felt like I could do was lay in my bed and watch friends. I was feeling a bit homesick because I think it finally hit me how far away I am and how long it will be before I see everyone. The schedule here is starting to get to me as well (5:30 wake up call, cold shower, school, lunch at 1, "homework", and we usually don't eat dinner until like 8:00 - which is SO extremely late for me) and all I kept saying yesterday was, "Hey, at least the food here is fantastic!" So yesterday I just laid in bed until dinner and then the dinner we had was actually the first meal here I didn't like, so that just was no fun either! But at dinner, Lindsey (Emilia's daughter) who speaks fantastic English and works as a translator was telling us how even when she was in the United States her head would just hurt and she would be soo mentally exhausted by around 8:00 that she would just want to go to bed (which made us all feel better because she is so great at English!) Anywho, I slept for almost 10 hours last night and that seemed to help quite a bit. Then today after school we went to a Costa Rican Swing Dancing Class! It was FANTASTIC! It was definitely something we all needed.. time to burn off some pent up energy and get out of the house for a night for a change! It lasted for about an hour and a half and I actually worked up enough of a sweat that taking a cold shower actually felt good! So that was very nice too. =)
Back to that school thing.. haha I seriously cannot believe how many different activities these 3, 4, and 5 year olds are exposed to! Today, the little girls had ballet class! It was so adorable to watch, made me miss dance terribly, though. The days are getting easier and I think my Spanish is coming back to me? Apparently I flow better in my sentence structuring (which here is insanely hard because they have what seems like 839,335 different conjugations!) but I can definitely tell I am understanding even more when the teachers around me are talking. The most difficult thing of is trying to discipline my students. I definitely need to learn the phrase "don't throw sand" in Spanish. As well as "don't hit", "don't scream", "don't push", etc. etc. ya know, the usuals! The month of September is going to be particularly challenging because it is National Costa Rica month (their independence day is September 15) and everything that is scheduled to be taught is about Costa Rican history and vocabulary and such. I have already started my research, but I know I am going to need a lot of help from Gaby in order to teach it correctly to my students. Other than that, the Montessori period will stay the same and the math topics that are going to be covered I have already taught in my other practicum placements. That's why I love math, it's the same in every language!
Tomorrow we are going to go to the Irazú Volcano. It is in Cartago and what we attempted to go to last weekend (this time we know the bus schedule! ha). After that, my cooperating teacher, Gaby, invited me and the other student teachers (Meghan, Kelly, and Linsey) to a party she is having for her boyfriends birthday! She said she wants me to meet him and the rest of her friends so we can make some friends here in Tres Ríos. Gaby is fantastic and I am so happy that she is my cooperating teacher because she makes me feel so welcome and comfortable and always tries to get to know me even better. It helps that she is only 24 (almost 25) so there isn't much of an ago gap. Anyway, I have heard this volcano is absolutely awesome and it will be good to get out of the house again and out exploring as well as having some fun. I am already realizing how important it will be to have fun on the weekends because of how stressful the weeks are! On top of student teaching and culture shock, my brain hurts sooo badly every day working on all of this Spanish. All I have to say is that I hopefully will come back to the US extremely good at Spanish =)
I definitely miss everyone and home A LOT! Skype is such a fantastic invention that allows me to actually SEE people, and I love that a lot! If you happen to have it and would like to talk (I can show ya my house and the mountain right outside) just look me up! Just search for Sarah Mikels and my username is 'samikels'.
Also, for those of you without facebook that would like to see the rest of my pictures, I am going to start uploading them to a picasaweb site.
Here is the link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/116304399512979294076

There aren't any there right now, but probably after dinner I will work on getting them posted! Thanks for reading, and I hope it is at least a little bit entertaining!

A week in the life of the Kinder

Ahh goodness.. it's only Tuesday and this 5:30 wake up call followed by a cold shower is ALREADY starting to get old (4 months is going to be quite some time). Anywho, my school is finally getting back into their regular schedule after my first couple of days being quite hectic.
Here is the "schedule" for my Kinder class:

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
7:30-8:00 Arrive arrive arrive arrive arrive
8:00-9:00 Class work class work class work class work class work
9:00-9:15 Outdoor game ---------------------------------------------------------------------->
9:15-10:50 Montessori Class ------------------------------------------------------------------>
10:50-11:20 Snack and Recess ------------------------------------------------------------------>
11:20-11:30 Clean up/Wash up ----------------------------------------------------------------->
11:30-12:15 Line Period -------------------------------------------------------------------------->
12:15-12:30 Clean up and GO HOME ---------------------------------------------------------->

In all reality, the only thing that EVER stays the exact same... the arrival of the students and (almost) Montessori Class. For example, on Mondays, the students and Gaby (and of course myself) head over to a gymnastics class from 8:00-9:30 for the students to begin learning gymnastics. Then, from 11:30-12:00 the students have tennis class at the Montessori. This happens to be during line period, which changes from day to day with different types of vocabulary, mathematics, song singing, etc., all in English. Then on Tuesdays, the kids have futbol (soccer) class from 9:00-9:30 and Mandarin (Chinese) lessons from 11:30-12:00. Wednesdays from 8:00-9:00 is always "show and tell" from one of the students in the class, this is all that changes on Wednesdays, so that should be nice! Thursdays from 11:00-11:30 is karate class from the students and finally on Fridays nothing really changes about the schedule except that Gaby tries to do something fun during the line period such as have a cooking class or Friday is also the day for field trips. PHEWWWW, these kids are getting exposed to so much! It is absolutely amazing to me to see 5 year-old children go through such things in just 1 week (and I haven't even seen a full week yet!). I also think it is great because the kids aren't just sitting and learning information that is on standardized tests and constantly have to be worried about that. For those of you who don't know much about Montessori schools to begin with, they learning is based on play. Now, it's not just like running around, going down slides, and swinging on swings type of play, it is education based play. There are certain Montessori materials (just google it and many articles/images come up) and the children are only allowed 1 material at a time. The stations in the Montessori room at this particular kinder are: Botany, Practical Life, Language, Colors, Sensory, and Mathematics. The first day I arrived some of the children were outside washing and drying dishes, while others were inside matching objects with the first letter in their name, i.e. the picture of the apple goes under the "A", and others were lining up certain length of sticks. I have had the opportunity to observe in Montessori schools before so it wasn't at all a surprise for me. I really like Montessori time as well because when the kids are asking me what something is in English, I have them repeat it back to me in English and then tell me the Spanish word. This way I get to learn, too! The days just absolutely fly by here, 1) because they are shorter than days in the United States and 2) because there is a constant change in activity!
Each day is getting easier (besides the cold showers) and I still am not home sick quite yet. I absolutely LOVE skype because it doesn't make me feel as far away from everyone when I can see them at just a click of a button! =)
The food is obviously still delicious, we have ventured out a bit to some local restaurants and our first try was a success! We have been taking pictures of menus and writing down the things that we like so we can remember in case we ever go back or want to order the same thing at a different restaurant. I am SO happy because we can drink the water straight from the tap here and it hasn't made me sick yet. Still just really tired because I'm not quite used to the time change yet (just an hour behind) and waking up at 5:3o is definitely not my thing. It's not bad, though, because my kids have so much energy that it seems to rub right off on me. Although, some of them can be QUITE the handful at times, and I knew it would be like this coming into this situation! I would have to say that the hardest thing about teaching here in Costa Rica is that I can't really discipline because I don't know how to do that in Spanish! Also, listening to a crying kid attempt to tell me what's wrong in Spanish, when this is typically difficult in English because the children are sooo dramatic =) Oh how I just love 5 year-olds! Another challenging thing will be that September is National Costa Rica Month.. so instead of teaching vocabulary like food, or clothes, or means of transportation.. I will have to research and do some studying because all of the topics during the September weeks are about the history of Costa Rica! So I will be learning plenty about this country, which I think will be a good thing, too!
Well, it's off to bed for this girl, my eyeballs hurt =)

Another picture of me by the river we found on Saturday in Orosi! Good night all =)

'Life is improvisation'

Well, my first weekend in Tres Ríos is in the books! Friday night we ended up at a little restaurant called Café Artista. It was a really interesting place and I had the BEST mango margarita ever! It honestly tasted like I took a bite out of a mango. So the four of us, Meghan, Kelly, Linsey and I just sat and listened to music while chatting and eating a bruschetta type of bread and having a drink! Emilia told us we could not get drunk because we are teachers =) I think we all already knew this, but it was nice to get out of the house for a bit and just enjoy some time in Tres Ríos.
It is also very nice because Emilia has a friend that drives taxi, so we have his cell phone number and he said he can pick us up at night whenever we need him! It's a comfort to know we have someone that Emilia trusts (I know my mother will like that =) ahah) Anywho, after that we all came home and went to bed because we were going to go to the Irazú Volcano in Cartago on Saturday morning... little did we know we were going to have to do some improvising! =)

We woke up the next morning and Emilia made my FAVORITE breakfast so far! Eggs with tons of tomatoes in them, strawberries, watermelon, toast (which they put cream cheese on! and this pineapple jam stuff) and our juice was freshly made with oranges and carrots.. Emilia is pretty great in the kitchen!
Then we walked to the bus stop in the center of Tres Ríos to get on a bus to go to Cartago (a town about 10 miles away from us and it was actually the capital of Costa Rica at one point). When we got to Cartago, we had to get on a different bus to take us to the volcano, which is about 20 minutes outside of the town. After asking a couple different people, we found out that there is only 1 bus that goes to the volcano and leaves at 8:30 in the morning (at this point it was about 12:30). So we were kind of asking around and found out that a taxi drive there would be about 30 US dollars and that if we wanted to return it would be another 30 US dollars. The bus does come back from the volcano, but apparently around 3:00 PM. So by the time we would have gotten there it would have been 1ish and we would not have much time. We decided against the volcano and went to eat lunch. Kelly had written down a couple of things that were good to see in the area and we wanted to go to these orchid gardens. We decided we would go to the Basilica (very famous catholic church in Cartago) and then make our way to the gardens. During lunch it started to downpour, of course, because it seems as if around 1:00 every day is when the rain starts.. whether it ends up being an hour or 4 hours is never known! When the rain stopped, we started walking.. but it started to downpour so we headed into a little pastry shop! This is where I got the best doughnut ever! It was just a little round one with chocolate icing, but to my surprise there was some sort of caramel substance in the middle, so delicious! (we went back to the same shop today when we were in Cartago!) Then we continued onto the Basilica, it was huge! There was actually a wedding going on when we went inside to look at it. I can say I wouldn't want to have my wedding there because so many people just wander in at any time to look at the inside! Which, by the way, is huuuge and very pretty.. I tried taking a picture, but my camera doesn't take very good inside pictures.. I will put it up anyway =) This is actually where the Mother's Day festival took place today as well. There was a famous Mexican band that played and TONS of people. There were many vendors around and people just walking, dancing, and sitting everywhere.. pretty cool to see actually!



So after we left the Basilica yesterday in search of the gardens, we had to improvise once again. We got a taxi driver and asked him how much it would cost to get to the gardens (I can't remember the name right now) He told us that it would be about 30 US dollars to get there but we could take a bus back, we decided that would be alright since there were 4 of us to split the cost! We start driving, and realizing we are going up into the mountain! So of course we are being all touristy and sticking our cameras out of the window trying to take pictures. Our taxi driver was great and pulled over for us to take pictures! The views here are just absolutely breathtaking and pictures just don't do it justice!
We ended up in a little valley called Orosi (which is where we thought the gardens were, but the taxi driver was unsure of which gardens we were talking.. soo he dropped us off at this really old church that a lot of "tourists" go to. It was pretty cool, but not too much to see. We ended up just walking around the town (which was beautiful) and we found a huge river! It was so great! At first I was super bummed that we couldn't make it to the volcano because I had heard so many great things about it, but then I realized that I shouldn't be bummed about anything here because Costa Rica has soo many hidden gems and the country is just absolutely beautiful basically everywhere!

So that ended our crazy our journey and we got on a bus back to Tres Ríos where we all got home and went to bed! It's exhausting here =)
And then today was more or less a lazy day hanging out by the band, it was very fun! And now since its almost 9, it's practically my bed time! (waking up at 5:30 is rough! haha) I have to do some reflecting on my teaching for the first couple of days and email them to my supervisor. Tomorrow begins the first full week of teaching!, well I guess more or less still doing some observing.

If you want to see more pictures, I posted an album on facebook! Otherwise you can email me at

samikels8337@winona.edu

or

sarah_mikels@yahoo.com

and I will email you back with some more of my pictures! =) I will definitely have over 1000 by the time I leave this place haha


OOOH also, there are TONS of parrots here, and they are gorgeous, here's a bunch! The only bad thing is.. they squak ALL the time, kind of annoying actually haha.. but they are so pretty, so it makes up for it!

Miss you all! =)

Kids World Montessori

Yesterday was my first full day at my first placement, Kids World Montessori. I absolutely love my teacher and my class and the school! Yesterday was so much fun because I actually got to see how a full day works, well kind of. It is La Día de los Madres this Sunday here in Costa Rica, so the children prepared a little skit to many Grease songs to perform today for their mothers. So yesterday was mainly a normal day besides a little bit of rehearsal for the kids. It was SO adorable. Here is my class performing their part of Grease.

(Side note, it is taking FOREVER for the video to upload, will try again later!!)

Yesterday after school Meghan, Kelly (the other student here in Costa Rica from Winona State, not in our house though), and I went to the Hiper Más (Wal Mart) to get celulares prepago (basically trac phones) because we all want to be able to contact each other while we are here since we are in other schools. It was so weird! It seriously looked exactly like our Wal Mart with the set up and everything. It was quite an ordeal to get our phones though. They needed our passports, copies of our passports, and once we got the phones we had to go over to some counter and they had to write it down in a book and who knows what else! We also needed a person of reference for them to put into the computer, it was very weird. After that we were starving so we asked where a good restaurant was and they told us. We decided to go over there and as it turns out, we had to go across the highway!! It was rather creepy since I don't like heights too much and we were literally right above the highway. I have no idea what the name of the place was, but it was delicious! Some chicken and tortillas (and their tortillas are much thicker and more like bread than ours are) salsa and pico de gallo and rice and beans and some other type of sauce like a pico de gallo but with corn! It was delicious! After that, we came back to our house and picked up Lindsey (the other girl living in our house) and went back to the TerraMall. It's very close to our house and is just nice to get out of the house for a bit and just relax.
For dinner last night we had something that was like a steak! haha Definitely does not compare to anything in the United States, but it was nice to have some sort of red meat. We also had Yuka (spelling?) which is a type of vegetable that is really popular here and was really good! I have been basically going to bed right after dinner these days because we need to wake up at 5:30 every morning and I am definitely not used to that yet!

My day at school today was MUCH different than yesterday, actually made me extremely homesick. The button that I pushed on the bus for it to stop apparently didn't work, so it ended up going past my stop by like 4 blocks (and my stop is still 4 blocks from my school AND up a HUUUGEE hill, ugh.) And when I got to school all of the teachers were stressed with the decorating and preparing for the Mother's Day Party today. I think I would have even felt uncomfortable in an American school because I am new and I just had no idea what to do to help. Then really only a couple of the mothers even came and talked to me so I just felt like I was standing around all day. After the party, all of the teachers sat down and ate some sandwiches and it was definitely just a "personal time" for them so they were all talking in Spanish very fast and telling a lot of jokes. So as they were all sitting there talking and laughing, I sat staring into space and trying to listen a little bit. It is extremely mentally exhausting, which is probably another reason I go to bed at like 9:30 every night. =) However, seeing as I enjoyed school SO much yesterday, I know it will be better next week when everyone is back in the regular groove of the day.

Here is my classroom decorated for my arrival!

The food here so far is excellent, and we have a very cute puppy named "Natsu" (it means spring in Japanese!) I took a couple pictures for everyone to see!

This is a very typical breakfast here, consisting of many different fresh fruits and a "torte de yuka" that vegetable we also had with dinner but as a pancake! It tasted pretty much like a potato pancake. Also, all of the juice here is insanely good! So we always have a glass of juice and coffee with our breakfast!














Here is the meat from last night!






And here is Natsu!













Tonight we are going to listen to some music right here in Tres Ríos! I believe we are eating some sort of fish for dinner? And then we are heading to the music and then it will be time for bed I'm sure! Miss you all! =)

Más de Costa Rica!

This picture was the only decent one I could get when we were flying into San José. It was really cloudy and the sun was barely coming up when we were landing! The mountain is called La Carpintera (and our house is practically at the base of it! well, it feels like it anyway with how close it looks out our windows!)
We woke up today and went to visit both of our schools that we will be teaching in. We have absolutely NO hot water, so cold showers are in store for the next 4 months.. definitely not excited about that one! I'm thinking I need to chop all my hair off so I can make my showers shorter! (I won't do that, though! haha) But once out of the shower, dress, and downstairs for breakfast, the coffee warms me up quiet nicely! This morning we had pineapple, toast, and some other fruit that I don't remember the name. It was a verrryy dry fruit and the texture was rather interesting.. Emilia said it is full of fiber, I didn't really like it too much haha
At my school today, it is a Montessori, I found out that my students don't really speak much English (this is definitely going to be a challenge). However, since it is a Montessori school, I don't do too much instructing anyway. There is about 2 hours in the afternoon where the children count, do the alphabet, sing songs, do the days of the week/weather, and learn many new things in English. I think I will be able to handle this because it is things such as vocabulary about clothes, families, weather, etc. I only went for 2 hours today because it was just a little introduction and tour of the school. In my school there are babies from ages 6 months all the way up to kindergarten (obviously all in different rooms). It is very interesting and I am so excited to actually get started!! The days are very short, I arrive between 7 and 7:30 and leave around 1:00ish, which is much different than home. However, my Spanish is coming back to me a lot quicker than I thought it was going to! If they talk slow enough, I understand quite a bit.. and am able to speak enough for them to understand what I am trying to say! haha My students were so adorable and excited to have me there! They even threw me a little party complete with balloons and a cake =) The cake was called Tres Leches and was absolutely delicious! It was literally like there was milk in the cake.. we had to eat it with a spoon! Soooo good!

Last night we also went to the TerraMall (a shopping center a couple blocks from the house) and wandered around for a bit, got some Colones (their currency) from the ATM and bought a Spanish/English dictionary and Meghan got a "My first 1000 Words" book in Spanish. It has all the basic words in it that will be very helpful for us! The picture is taken on a little terrace at the mall.
Today Emilia made us some sandwiches for lunch, which I have no idea what she all put on it, but they were delicious! Along with a papaya smoothie! I could definitely get used to this Costa Rican food, but I will definitely be missing steak in about 2 weeks or so!!
Tonight we are going to explore our little town and probably go to the Hiper Mas (it's basically their wal mart). It is pouring right now, so we will probably take a quick siesta and head there when the rain has stopped and we wake up =)





This is Meghan in front of our house. All of the houses down here have fences all the way around them with the gates like that in front. The gate part to the right is actually the garage and is connected right to the house.

Day 1

The plane ride into Costa Rica from Denver was pretty long, but I actually got a decent amount of sleep on the plane seeing as it was from 2:00 in the AM until about 7:00.
Meghan and I had thought that Costa Rica was in central time, but as it turns out, we are actually just 1 hour behind.
It was still pretty dark and kind of overcast when we landed, so we didn't get to see much of Costa Rica from the airplane. We did get to see the mountain that runs through and how green everything is right now because of all the rain Costa Rica has been getting! Our host mom, Emilia, had a sign with our names on it waiting for us in the airport.. I felt like I was in a movie! It was about a 45 minute car ride from the airport to our home in Tres Rios. While driving through San Jose, it actually reminded me quite a bit of El Paso because of the way the city is set up and the size of the mountain. However, everything here is MUCH more green! =)
Emilia does not speak much English, but she understands it pretty well. So with her knowledge of English and our knowledge of Spanish, we are actually understanding each other quite well! (She talks SO fast though!! Now I know how everyone else feels when I talk! We are all talking much slower so we can practice!)
As soon as we got to our house, Emilia showed us to our room. Meghan and I actually have to walk outside and there is a separate door to what we are calling our little apartment! When you walk inside there is a little living space with a couch and a TV. Upstairs we have 2 bedrooms and a bathroom. We also have a wrap around balcony right outside of our bedrooms with a view of the mountain that is just plain gorgeous! (will take many pictures soon!)
After we put our things in our rooms, she hurried us downstairs to make us coffee (DELICIOUSSSSS by the way! I will be bringing some home for sure!), pancakes and eggs! It was all so good! We sat and ate breakfast and talked for a bit and started practicing our Spanish some more. Emilia told us there is another student teacher like us from Washington, Lindsey, that is also living in the house. She is at school right now so we have not gotten the chance to meet her. Also, Emilia has 4 children, 1 of which actually works as an English/Spanish translator so we will hopefully learn a lot from her!
As of right now I am laying on my bed in my room listening to the downpours of my first tropical storm! It is pretty crazy how hard it is raining and how loud it is!
Emilia is at the airport right now picking up the other girl from Winona State, Kelly, and then we are all going to eat some lunch I believe.
I am already completely unpacked and am going to visit my first school placement tomorrow with Emilia! She is going to be taking Meghan and I around Tres Rios this first week and showing us the bus stations, our schools, the markets, and things like that so that we feel comfortable getting around. I am very anxious and nervous all wrapped into one! I have not ever been in control of my own class for an entire day!
We still have to figure out our internet at the house, I am actually just using one that randomly popped up when I turned on my computer for right now.
Tomorrow we are also going to be just wandering around our little town so I'm sure I will have plenty of pictures and hopefully some exciting stories!
That's all for now. Miss everyone so much!

Oh airports..

SO we all know how much I love flying. Well today, I didn't have much time to sit and worry about flying, I had to sit and worry about actually getting on our flight!
As we are checking in, the lady at the counter asks us to see our itinerary because apparently there is a new rule in Costa Rica that you can NOT get into the country without having a written proof that you will be leaving the country within 90 days. Since we had booked 1-way flights because neither of us really know when we are returning (which, also, HAS to be more than 90 days since we are required to teach for 15 weeks for our credits) we had to quick figure out what we were going to do. We already know we want to go to Panama for a weekend sometime to visit and to extend our visas, so we decided to get on the internet and look up bus lines in Costa Rica and book a trip right there. THAT turned into quite the mess. There was no way to book online, all of the numbers are international and when we tried to call they hung up, and our Supervisor had really no idea what to tell us! At this point I kind of started to really worry that we weren't going to be getting on our plane (it was about 5:30ish and our flight left at 6:55). Meghan's mom somehow found a guy (Scott) that works for Continental Airlines that actually lived in Costa Rica for a year. He was trying to help us out all while trying to tell us places to visit. We could not find ANY bus and/or plane options that would get us out of the country within 90 days and back within a weekend for us to get back for teaching. After awhile Scott found a way to book us completely refundable plane tickets from San Jose to Panama City, Panama for 800 dollars! So we booked the flights, had to get the receipts, take them back to the frontier airline, RUN through security and down the hall to our gate to let our gate know that we are flying internationally and that our bags should go on the plane. Scott told us that once we get through customs in Costa Rica that all we have to do is go to the Continental Airlines desk in Costa Rica and get our refund (which I'm praying works out, otherwise we just got one EXPENSIVE trip to Panama City for a weekend). We made it to our gate about 6:35 and they were just beginning boarding, needless to say I had no time to worry about flying or getting on a plane.
The flight was alright for the most part, kinda bumpy for a bit (and we all know how I am on planes to begin with!) But landing in Denver was really cool because the sun was setting behind the mountains and it was a really pretty view!
I am currently sitting on a very comfy couch enjoying a delicious salad and cold glass of wine in hopes of tiring myself out enough that I sleep on the 4 hour plane ride down to San Jose!

I think it's safe to say that I miss everyone already! And I will try and get another blog done tomorrow after our first day in the country!