La Fiesta
The General Director of Lincoln invited all the student teachers over to his house for dinner last week. There was live music, delicious food, and (most importantly) DANCING!!! Lots of it. Our mentors and adminstration taught us some traditional Latin moves like the cha-cha, salsa, meringue, and some Colombian something-or-other mix that was also muy suave. Yeah, I like it here just fine...
My master teacher and me!
The director and his wife :o)
Isla Tortuga
Last weekend, all the student teachers went to Jacó to go to Isla Tortuga (Turtle Island). It was absolutely gorgeous. We went snorkeling and saw some goofy-looking puffer fish, beautiful iridescent fish, starfish, a sea cucumber, and a water snake. Some guys saw a turtle and an octopus. I, unfortunately, did not. Later, Serena, Deb and I joined a pickup game of beach volleyball, which was TON of fun because we were all joking and yelling in both Spanish and English. Then when we got all sweaty we jumped in the clear, warm ocean. SO nice! Also our tour guide snagged a conch-shell-looking-snail-thing while we were snorkeling and said it was called a churro. I laughed and said "kinda like the food but not really" and he laughed. Later they cooked it and offered me a bite. Honestly, it really wasn't bad.
Isla Tortuga
Yours truly
Our tour guides
El Accidencito
You know, it was such a good day at the beach that we decided it should never end, so we stretched it into a 23 hour day. Actually, what happened was that went our tour guide van dropped us off back home we had a little accident. In Costa Rica, there are ditches between the street and the sidewalk that are about 2' deep and 2 1/2' wide as a drainage system for the rainy season (which is about half the year). The van parked on the edge of the street so when we open our door to get out we practically stepped straight down into the gutter-ditch-guy. My roommate, Courtney, lost her balance and busted her foot on the curb. We called our host parents, who fortunately lived only a couple blocks away, but when we got in their infamous VW bus to go to the hospital, the door fell off. Yep, it fell off. Actually the sharp corner of the door was 6" (max.) from slicing another girl's foot in half. So we took a taxi to the hospital, which itself was a chapter of the adventure as the driver was totally oblivious to the situation and blared Shania Twain like it ain't no thang. Fortunately, the doctor spoke English and gave Courtney the options of either getting a cast or having a screw put in. She really didn't want a cast so she had the surgery and I spent the night with her in the hospital. The next day was also crazy in a more sendentary sense as we discovered the rest of the hospital didn't speak any English (let's pause here to note I'm not usually conscious of stress but I was very much aware of the need for translation competency), we struggled with the metric system (a "teachable moment", if you will), and learned about international insurance policies. The way I see it, it can only get better from here.
2 comments:
wow, so crazy. how's courtney doing now? and your trips sound fantastic. it's so fun to hear about what you're doing!
When my sister was born, my dad went out to the car at one point, in the hospital parking lot, and his door also fell off. Oh, and it too was a VW van.
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