Overwhelmed

It's not what you think. I'm not overwhelmed by the work I'm doing, though it is tiresome at times. I'm wholly, utterly, unreservedly thankful for everything I have. I know it's not thanksgiving, but why wait for a holiday when I can be thankful right now? Everything about today just threw my blessings right in front of me and I can't not share them with you.

Clear skies - This morning, the sun came out and it remained clear for much of the day. In fact, I can see all the stars right now. It rained for a total of 9 days straight. I hope I never take a clear sky for granted again. I love the sun and I love stars. Sometimes, it takes horrible weather to remind me of this.

New tastes - Almost as soon as I got home tonight, Jeison handed me a piece of sugar cane. Soooo yummy. I've had it before, but it just reminds me of all the wonderful things I've gotten to eat and try here. Firstly, you should know that I've been reconverted to the love of eggs. For those of you who don't know, before last spring, I hadn't eaten an egg (by itself) for at least 3 years. Now I eat them all the time and they're quite delicious, I must say. I even had one over easy and liked it! Big steps for me. I also got to try Mamon Chino (lychee fruit) and starfruit, both of which are absolutely delicious. I've also tasted quite of few things I don't like (I don't remember names otherwise I'd share) but they make me enjoy everything else so much, I don't really mind in the end. I love food.

My Costa Rican family - They are one of the biggest joys in my life. This morning I had to chase Sofia through the house in order to get her hair combed before school. We laughed the entire time. Then this afternoon as we were watching a video in Kinder class, she gently worked her way onto my lap and fell asleep. Have you ever had a child fall asleep on your lap? It was perhaps the most sublime interaction I've ever shared with another person. She is precious and I love her. Aileen is maybe the most kindhearted person I've ever met. She always draws me darling pictures of the family (with me included!) or asks me if I need anything. She loves to tell me stories. I hope to have a child as sweet as her one day. Kindria is like a big sister and a mom all wrapped into one. Not only does she take care of me, but she talks with me, shows me new things to cook and laughs at me when I get freaked out by the giant bugs that frequently wander into our home. Jeison is awesome too. He built me a door for my room and is always ready to share exciting things about Costa Rica with me. He has a wealth of knowledge to share and I appreciate it.

My biological family - I got a package from my parentals today! It was filled with stickers and other small trinkets for kids. It also contained a MUCH appreciated Spanish/English Bible, an Adventist Hymnal (in Spanish and with the actual music so I can learn the songs properly), earbuds, a recipe for homemade play-doh, and chocolate covered caramels (definitely my Dad's doing). So much joy from one box! My parents are really so wonderful. They never fail to take care of me and even when they don't give me what I want, I know that they're doing what is best for me. I miss them like crazy. I miss my brothers too. It's been so great getting postcards from Phil and I always hope that he and Mike are online when I have free time because I love talking with them. They have had a profound influence on the person I am today. I love my family.

Mail - As evidenced by the bit about the package I received, you probably already realize that I love mail. It's such a joy to get something by mail. A postcard, a letter, a package...all are wonderful. Mail is extra special because we all know that it takes more time to write a letter and put it in the mail than it does to get online and leave a comment via facebook or send an email. Not that those are bad; I love those too, but I always squeal in delight when I get a letter. Snail mail is beautiful.

Friends - I'm so glad Nate and Calle are here. I'm really going to miss them when they leave. They've been so much fun to work with and hang out with too. In fact, we just finished doing Yoga (P90x). We are just like a little family and I'm really glad I've gotten to know them here. Now to all the rest of you. You know, I miss you a lot too. If you're reading this, I would like to send an extra little dose of thanks your way. =] Really, I'm just thankful for all of you. Thanks for the prayers and the letters and the kind words on facebook and the skype time. I can feel the love even though I'm countries away. I love you all!

God - I'm thankful for God because he's the reason I'm so blessed. He gave me friend and family and he's the reason I'm here in Costa Rica. God is good all the time and all the time, God is good.

Excitement to the maxxxxx!!!

I just got the best news ever!!! Seriously!!! My parents are going to be here for Christmas!!!!!!!! They'll be here December 15-27! I'm the luckiest girl alive!

Here's some of my past Christmases. Hope you enjoy!

Baby's first Christmas

Back when we actually sent out Christmas cards

Who's jealous of Phil's rad haircut?

Even Vega joins in the fun

Haro Christmas. You kinda had to be there...

Snowshoeing on Christmas day!!!

Meh.

Today was a very, Very, VERY forgettable day at school. I don't know what happened to me during the night. I went to bed in a decent mood, but when I woke up, I was grouchy and tired. I got a full 9 hours of sleep and yet it took a good 90% of my will power to get up and the rest of it to pick out an outfit and get in the shower. I was so lazy I didn't even wash my hair or make coffee. Yeah, that lazy. In between classes today, I played sudoku (the one from the wwu sm newsletter) to keep myself awake and in a decent mood. I threatened to kick kids out of my class a little more than I should have, too. I'm not proud of that. Strangely, although I was dead tired and just wanted to call a taxi and crawl into bed (have I ever mentioned that it's a 25 minute walk from my house to school?), the happiest part of my day was during 1st grade Bible class. I let each kid pick a song and we sang. We sang loud and with motions. I don't know what I'd do without my first graders. They motivate me and aggravate me all at once. I fully intend for tomorrow to be a better day. Maybe I'll start taking my vitamin d. I haven't seen the sun for a full 7 days so I'm sure it would do some good. It has been raining for a week straight. You think I'm kidding, but I'm not. It's like a waterfall out there. I finally caved and bought galoshes. I need a good plastic poncho. My raincoats are no longer waterproof and are starting to smell like mildew. Nothing ever fully dries here. It's really a blessing that my family has a dryer. They are one of the few families that has one and even then, they are in the minority because they actually use it. Dryers are a miracle invention. Much love goes out to whoever thought that one up.
I've been thinking about how I'll never be back in my home for the holidays. For those of you who don't know, my parents sold the house that I've lived in all my life. I've never moved before and it weirds me out to think that I'll never spend another Christmas morning lounging on the couch, sipping hot chocolate and eating mandarins and panettone like we've done every year since I can remember. Sure, it'll happen again, but it will never be in my childhood home. What has come from all this depressing yet delightful reminiscing, is an idea to make Thanksgiving absolutely grand here. I already want to begin planning my menu because I want to gather all the best recipes. I don't want to miss a thing, and I want it to be doable. For that reason, planning begins now. "Why Thanksgiving and not Christmas?", you may be asking. Well, there's a logical answer. Nate and Calle leave December 11th so I'll be the only volunteer here at that time so it'll be more fun to live up Thanksgiving with my fellow estadounidenses. Wish us luck!

It's about time

All good blogs contain photos. Mine has been severely lacking in this department. It's time to remedy this. Here's the first installment of my favorites from August 13 - Sept 14.

After a long day of amusement

Mamon chino!!!!

Sofia, my little sister

Kinders

"Gata fea!"

Johan, Johán, Fernando, Esteban

Every inch of me was soaked, head to toe.

Frozen, peanut-butter pie...Yum!

Sofia (on her 4th birthday) and Nicole

If you met Valeria, you'd know why this picture perfectly embodies her. =]

Nate and Aniela

Fernando (5), pouting when he only got 3 candies from the piñata

Nicaragua

My most recent adventure was to Nicaragua. The purpose, to renew visas. Mission accomplished, and then some. The original plan was to head to Panama, but there just wasn't enough time. You should never be rushed on vacation, even if vacation is only a weekend long.

To summarize, it took, a bus, a hostel, a taxi, a bus, several taxes, numerous border checkpoints, another bus, another taxi and a ferry to get to our final destination, the beautiful island (really, two volcanos) of Ometepe in Mar Dulce (Lake Nicaragua). The hot, blistering and yet humid climate of Nicaragua is very different from the cool, wet Monteverde I've grown accustomed to. That being said, the heat was by no means unwelcome. As you may know, as much as I complain while in it, I dig the heat.

So, back to the adventure. We finally arrived by ferry and wearily staggered up the last few blocks to our hostel, Indio Viejo. We mumbled our way through check-in and plodded down the hall to our room. Once we claimed our beds, we stepped outside to check out the hammocks. I doused myself with bug-spray and settled in for a much needed nap. 4 hours later, I awoke. I was still tired but after conferring with my comrades, we all agreed that food trumped all and we went out in search of sustenance. But first, ice cream. I really like eating ice cream before my meals. I also like eating it after. Actually, I just love eating ice cream. It's delicious. Always.

After ice cream came food. My salad was the best part. Soooooo yummy Fresh veggies, and normal cheese. None of this smelly crumbly stuff. We spent a ridiculous amount of time at the restaurant. We played high-jack (world's best card game, I'll explain sometime) and listened to amazing music. Seriously. It was Coldplay, Norah Jones, etc. all put to Salsa music. If I ever find it again, I will be sure to let you know. It changed my life.

Sunday was the real adventure. After breakfast, we rented a motorcyle and a scooter and headed to Ojo de Agua (eye of water). We got caught in a huge rainstorm but eventually made it. It was beautiful!!! The water was clear and cool and it was surrounded by so much lush vegetation! The pictures don't do it justice. At all. Despues (after), we decided to take an alternate route back to the hostel. We knew the road would be rough, but we had no idea just how bad it would really be. Good story now, but soooooo bad at the time. As you already know, we're on an island volcano so naturally, the rock is volcanic. This makes for very tough going on a scooter. Not too bad for a moto, but on the scooter, it was bad news. It took nearly 3 hours getting back to our hostel when it had only taken 1 hour going. We got stuck a couple times and local kids laughed at us. But you know, I was laughing too. Then we took a wrong turn and stopped to ask for directions. An older drunk man came and told us where to go and then he tried to kiss me. Luckily, my reflexes were in working order and I shoved him away. Crisis and violation averted.

After returning our rentals, we grabbed a bite to eat and hit the hay. Another early morning and a full day of various kinds of transportation landed us safely back in Monteverde, all before dinner time. A weekend, chalk full of memories, never to be forgotten.

From best to worst to...?

My week has been a roller coaster. Specifically, 'Vertical Velocity' or the 'Maliboomer'. Thankfully, I can recall Nate Miller quoting Madagascar at Indian camp..."Put your hands in the air Maurice! It's more fun that way!" Monday was pretty much the best day ever. Sounds cheesy, but if you've ever spent a decent time furthering the education of a small child, you will understand. Kinder, at our school, ranges in ages from ages 3 to 6. Quite a difference. I have them first thing in the morning so as soon as school worship finishes, I take them up to put their mochilas away and then we go outside to let the wiggles escape. While the kids are enjoying recreo, I make worksheets or coloring sheets for the letter of the day. Actually, we just recently finished the alphabet so I've been doing new things. This particular day, I decided to review the numbers, 1-10. Esteban is our youngest kid. He's also very small. He is 3. Everyday I make him a worksheet just like the other kids and try to explain that he should trace the letters even though I know that he will just scribble on it. I mean, he's three. You gotta give the kid a break.  This day was progressing like any other day. I wrote the numbers on the board, made the kids repeat them and then passed out the worksheet. They were just supposed to trace the dotted lines. The older kids trace and copy. Sofia needed her pencil sharpened so I went on search. By the time I finally found it, Esteban was screaming at the top of his lungs, "Teachherrrrrr!!!!!" with his precious little baby voice and accent. I turned and asked him what was up and he pointed to his paper. There on his paper, perfectly traced (as far as 3 year-old skills go) was the number 3. Esteban was grinning from ear to ear. I was so excited, I squealed and gave him a high-five. I then watched as he finished tracing the rest of the numbers. Every last one. He then scribbled all over his paper, but I didn't care. It made my day. I showed everyone. Yolanda was so happy she kissed him on the head. If you haven't experienced the joy of teaching someone, do it. It's the best feeling in the world.

Tuesday was looking up as well. I had the day's tests printed, all the rest were written, I had grades entered, and I was about to get a jump start on the following week's class planning. I was smack-dab on schedule. In the middle of the night, I woke up with a dry throat so when I woke up, I made sure to fill my water bottle back up. I'm the type of person that likes to use objects for more than their standard use. I am one of those that use their water bottles to hold hair ties. No big deal, right? Wrong. Dead wrong. My water bottle is a bit fancy. It's no spill which means there's a clever little button on the side that opens the mouth piece. It works like a dream. Unfortunately, the hair ties slipped down on top of the button and opened the mouth piece. So when I threw my water bottle on my bed, I unknowingly unleashed a waterfall of liquid onto my beautiful laptop. Long story short, it died. No power.

Now, it is Thursday. My dead laptop may have resurrected itself. It only powers on when the battery is in use. If I use the plug, it dies. Weird, eh? So while I'm in Nicaragua this weekend (Calle and Nate need to renew their visas so we're leaving for the required 36 hours), I'm leaving my laptop in rice. Let's all pray that this does the trick and restores my school planning tool and connection with home, to full health.

Ta-da!

Ta-da! I fail at blogging. I will now paste together a short string of stories in the order that they pop into my head. Do not attempt to put them into chronological order. Trust me, it's futile.

There are some amazing Ficus trees here in Monteverde. Just a dreadful hike up one of the numerous steep hills and voila! A stunning view and a dash of danger. It's difficult to say exactly how tall these trees are because they lean out bit and because they grow over a downward slope making them higher than their actual height. I hope you're getting this. My guesstimate is that the one I climbed was about 90 ft. up at the highest point I went to. While I was up there, I was having a good time taking pictures and enjoying the giddy feeling that one gets from being dangerously high, when we spied monkeys! I wish I could tell you what kind they are, but unfortunately, I haven't a clue. I started making monkey calls to them and they got pretty close. About 20 ft. away at the closest. It was awesome!!! After the adventure up in the trees, I started heading back down. I had the camera in my back pocket and was attempting to snake my way around a particularly tricky part of tree that is only manageable by sitting down. Unfortunately, by sitting down, I PUSHED MY CAMERA OUT OF MY BACK POCKET!!!!!!!!!!! Needless to say, I freaked. I was so mad I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe I have been so stupid as to think my camera would be safe in my pocket. There was no way to tell where it had landed except to climb down and search. I began the descent, muttering the entire way to myself things that were the opposite of kind in spirit. About 20 ft. down there was a giant opening. I stopped to peer out (while continuing to mutter) and low and behold, right in front of this giant opening, still about 70 ft. above the ground below it, I found my camera. I frantically grabbed it and looked it over. It being dark, there was no way to tell if it still worked. I turned it on the review my pictures and it said there were no pictures to display. My instinct was to panic but I calmly turned my camera over and popped open the back to find that it simply didn't work because the SD card had ejected inside the camera. I pushed it back in and hey presto! Works like a dream. You know what the best part is? There is not a single dent, paint chip or scratch. Not on the lense, not on the exterior. I count myself to be a very, VERY lucky girl.

One day, as Nate was walking me home from Calle's house (after movie night, dontchya know it's dangerous for a girl to be walking alone at night?), we were making friendly banter, probably talking about his dislike of horses (since there was a herd of them in the field we were passing) when all of a sudden, we heard a giant crack from the other side of the road (the "jungle" side). What sounded like a very decently sized tree came crashing down. Needless to say, I let out a little scream and took off running. We laughed the rest of the way home.

I had to give another Boleta last week to one of the same kids who I gave one before. For the same reason. Middle finger. Apparently it's a very popular insult amongst 1st graders. Who knew!? So, I gave it to her and she immediately started bawling. It was very disconcerting until I realized that she kept checking my face for reactions before letting out more sobs. So I sat her down next to me, waited til her sobs subsided and then explained that she was getting a Boleta for 2 reasons. One, because giving the middle finger is a very bad thing to do. Two, because she broke her promise to never do it again. One of the other 1st graders came up and asked why she was crying. The child replied, "I got another Boleta and since my mom is home, she will take away my internet." At that moment, any sympathy I had for her left me. After class, when no kids were around, I smiled to myself at the precious, silly minds of 1st graders. Oh, the fear of punishment.

This last week has been review week. This means that very little new material is presented and I need to make sure I know exactly what I'm testing so that each class reviews the correct material. Luckily, I made my mock tests up ahead of time so I knew exactly what to put on the review sheet. I finished making my actual tests just a few minutes ago in fact. All I have to do is print them and give them on the proper day. The rest of my week will be spent catching up with entering grades (mainly for daily work) and preparing for the last half of the trimester. The school year ends in December. It's such a weird concept to me. It's backwards! We have summer break from December to February but we are supposedly doing some English classes in January. We'll see. That basically means that I have about a month of break. All of December. I better come up with something to do during that time.