Passport Renewal... iiiiin Paradise =)

Well, well well.. where to start. A lot has changed again since I last wrote! For starters, I am no longer working with first grade. They were seriously the most rambunctious, undisciplined class I have ever worked with! It made sense to me, though, after I found out that Jessica (my cooperating teacher) wasn’t actually the first grade teacher. Their actual teacher had just quit like 2 or so months ago? And Jessica is actually the school psychologist, but knew the most English so she was just kind of thrown into the mix. I could tell she had a lot on her plate and was super stressed out (and I think the kids could tell, too), so it wasn’t the best situation for me. The first graders literally got their desk changed at least once every other day. So, last week my supervisor from the States was here and I got observed last Tuesday. She told me that it isn't really worth my time to work with a class as undisciplined as them (even though she said I did a very good job handling it all.. literally about 8 students stood up in the middle of my lesson to ask if they could go to the bathroom, 6 walked to the board to point out a letter, 5 were talking and not participating, seriously, nonsense) and since Jessica is so preoccupied it just wasn’t a good learning atmosphere for me. Barb, my supervisor, wants me to get a good teaching experience and not just experience in how to discipline a classroom and since I only have a couple weeks left, she decided to switch me. So I am now just with Marlen (who I absolutely adore! She is such a great cooperating teacher!) for the entire day. I work with her still in fourth grade and now in third grade as well. I haven’t gotten to work with third grade much because I had to leave Costa Rica to renew my passport (will get to that in a bit!) but they definitely had quite the welcome for me! They were always asking Teacher Marlen when I was going to work with them because “they know I play games with the fourth grade”. We switched into third grade after lunch, so Marlen had me wait outside until they were all settled. She then had me walk through the door and I have honestly never felt so welcomed and loved in my life haha As soon as I walked through the door they started the, oh so popular, “OLÉ” chant.. “ole, ole, ole, ole, teacher, teacher!” And this was all happening while they were standing on chairs, clapping their hands, jumping around, and singing so loudly! It literally went on for like 5 minutes, which then they proceeded to tackle me into the board with a giant group hug. It was pretty adorable. I will have to take my camera to school soon to take some pictures of my classrooms and of my students, too. But then I wasn’t at school for the next 3 days because I had to get my passport renewed =)

And this is where paradise comes into play! When coming to Costa Rica, we got a 90 day visa upon arrival. (this was where we had to show that we were going to be leaving the country within 90 days and all of our airplane stuff happened! Haha) But, Meghan, Kelly, and I have 15 week placements, which puts us in a predicament of having to stay in Costa Rica for more than 90 days. We were told that we had to leave the country for at least 72 hours to be let back in a get another 90 day visa upon arrival. We had heard that Bocas del Toro (islands right off of the coast of Panama just south of the Costa Rican border) was absolutely beautiful! So we decided to he ad there for our renewal! Brianna and Amber joined in on the fun as well! And let me tell you, it was QUITE the experience. We started out by leaving our house at 6:30 AM to head to San Jose to find our bus. From there it was a 5 and a half bus ride to the border.. from THERE we were all shoved off the bus (but told to leave our stuff on the bus) and towards some little building.. this was where we got our passport stamped to leave Costa Rica and then had to walk across a BRIDGE to get into Panama hahah And this would be the bridge that we walked across!

After that we got our stuff off of the bus and got into a van taxi for yet another hour drive to where we got on a boat. We got on the first boat (about a half hour) that took us to the main island.. and then we got on another boat (about 20 minutes) to take us to the island that our hostel was staying on. And after about 10 hours of travel, this is where we got dropped off!

We had no idea where our hostel was.. where to go.. how to get there.. and to top it all off, the boat taxi driver didn’t have “any change” and said we could just pay him the 20 to cover it.. no thanks Mr. So he walked with us to our hostel (only about 5 minutes, thank goodness) so we could get change and pay him. We were finally in our hostel and ready to relax! So we went down to the little restaurant and had dinner, some wine, and relaxed in hammocks and played ping pong!

Brianna and Meghan laying in a hammock in our hostel!

The next day it was raining, but we decided to head to the beach anyway! We actu ally ended up having a blast playing in the water in the rain. We hung out for a while and then went back to eat lunch. While we were eating, it ended up getting nice and sunny out! So we headed back to the beach and hung out there for the remainder of the day and chatted with some guys from Denmark for a while. We then just hung out at our hostel again. Bocas Bound, the name of our hostel, is actually the only place to stay on the island we were on. Isla Bastimentos is the “beach island” and has four different beaches on it and is much more secluded than the main island. So we really only had our hostel/restaurant to hang out in at night, which really wasn’t that bad. The next day we headed out on a boat/snorkel adventure! We took a tour of the islands on the boat and stopped at beaches along the way to snorke l.. it was beautiful! Well, for a while anyway.. towards the end the waves got pretty huge and at first I was at the “I am nervous so all I can do is laugh” stage and then we got a nice big wave into the boat, all of our stuff drenched, and I turned around to see the captain and his “helper” quickly trying to scoop water out of the engine. From there it was over for me. I was freaking out and just had to close my eyes shut nice and tight and wait until our next destination. We have some videos of this little adventure that are definitely quite amusing now, but in the moment.. boy oh boy was I nervous. It didn’t help that our boat was just a little wooden one either! =) haha We started at our drivers "pueblo" for a bit first and then continued onto different beaches around the island. Most were super secluded and we were the only ones around! The water is so clear and gorgeous here that the snorkeling is really just fantastic. It was a very lovely day on the ocean under the sun! I wish I could spend all of my time here just traveling to pretty beaches haha

This is Coya Coral, where we snorkeled.. the water so SO clear and SO many fish!

Cool tree =)

Pretty island on our boat tour!

Snorkel Gear!

The next day, Brianna and Kelly had left, so Meghan, Amber, and I just hung out on the beach ALL day. It was the most beautiful day we had while we were there. After a while, Meghan and I went to explore this little point and took some of the most beautiful pictures!

On the lookout point at Red Frog Beach

I really love the water

We then packed up our stuff and headed to the main island for the night. I

t was Halloween and when we were planning we thought it would be a little bit more fun to be near the “action” of the main island. We wandered around for a while and ended up finding a place that was showing the Vikings game (Amber is from MN) so we sat down for a daiquiri and to watch the end of the game! We then showered, went to dinner, and went out for a little bit.

We didn’t do anything too extravagant because we knew how long of a journey we had in front of us! So, we woke up the next morning to a beautiful view and headed off to the boat docks.

It all worked out, because Meghan and I got restamped and another 90 day visa for Costa Rica! (My passport actually looks a bit used now! =) haha) and so ended our lovely passport renewal in Paradise… I would absolutely LOVE to go back someday!

Our hostel!

First thing we see when walking out of our trail onto the beach!

Me, Brianna, Meghan

I could probably put up like 100 more photos, but for those of you on facebook, they are on there already! Otherwise I will be putting them on the picasa site soon! (hopefully!)

We got back Monday afternoon, and let me tell you, waking up for school on Tuesday was definitely not the easiest of tasks! But it’s easier to wake up knowing that I have a great cooperating teacher to work with and that I really enjoy both of my classes! Who would have thought, me in middle elementary school! Not me, that’s for sure! So school Tuesday and Wednesday, but then today we didn’t have school. So on a more serious, sad note, The Central Valley (where I live) and Pacific Slope regions of Costa Rica have actually been declared a “yellow alert”, which is the second of the three alert levels, because of all of the rain that has fallen. It has basically been raining non stop since we got back on Monday and it has caused landslides and road closures and many people to evacuate from their homes. Thankfully here in Tres Rios, we haven’t experienced anything but heavy rains and wet roads. I believe the closest landslide was about 45 minutes away. So please keep Costa Rica and myself in your prayers! It was caused by Tropical Storm Tomas (now heading towards Jamaica I believe) and a low pressure system colliding. It hasn’t rained much yet today, so I am hoping that the systems are moving in opposite directions and that the heavy rains have passed.

On a lighter note, only 2 and a half weeks left of teaching and I will officially be ready to graduate! Two of the girls have already left to go back to the States because they are done teaching; it definitely made me a little bit jealous! But I still have a couple of more beaches here that I am going to enjoy seeing before heading back and gearing up to face the cold and snow!

All of us Costa Rica student teachers before starting to leave for home!

Okay, enough! ayiyi! Enjoy! =) Love and miss you all so much!