I'm afraid I'm not a very reliable blogger. I do enjoy keeping up with other people's blogs but it usually just makes me realize how irregular and unfunny and uninsightful my blog is. Lets face it, I'm doing a pretty lousy job of keeping in touch. But that doesn't mean I don't miss you.
I'm getting back into the swing of things after vacation. Got some sort of weird virus when I got back from vacation. At first it was just the worlds worst motion sickness. I was debating and rehearsing how to ask someone for a plastic bag on the bus and spent the second half of the ride back with my head halfway out the window. When I finally got back it didn't get better and I spent 2 days unable to do anything but lie in bed and sleep because every time I was awake my stomach hurt or I felt super nauseous. Ick! Anyway, when I finally forced myself to get back to teaching I started to feel better. Doing something you love usually has a healing effect.
That being said there are often days when I feel like an absolute zombie after lunch (I swear its the rice and beans... super soporific) and I can't imagine teaching three more classes, even though I know I will. I sometimes put the three desks together in my room and lie down for a bit since the floor is cold and kind of dirty. And then I get up after my pseudo-nap and manage to teach my classes with some secret source of energy I didn't know I had. I guess the point is you can know you will do something even if you don't have all the courage, energy, faith or knowledge up front. Sometimes, you just start and the rest will follow.
I spent last weekend in San Jose with unas de mis compañeras. Monday, August 2 is La Dia del Virgen de Los Angeles who is the patron (saint?) of Costa Rica. In other words, a big deal. People walk as a pilgrimage from all over CR to Cartago where her church is and she is said to help people who are sick or need help. I was informed by a family here that many people hold the incorrect assumption that La Negrita (the nickname for the Virgin) performs miracles, but really she just relays the messages. The big guys in charge of the miracles. So she's just one of God's many secretaries. Helps to be nice to the messengers and show them gratitude I guess. Anyway the three of us went out to eat, went shopping and I finally got my hair cut. An unintentionally girly weekend. Next weekend is the 2nd “mid-service” for all the volunteers so I will get to see everyone from the program (that are still here... we've had a record number of defectors this year.) Pretty excited about that.
This week I had my official site visit from the director of World Teach. I wasn't really nervous but it was a lot of work to be really “on” all day, knowing that someone is watching you teach. It went well though and she didn't really have many criticisms (which I was sort of disappointed about, I was hoping she would nitpick a little because there's always room for improvement). She said I was one of the best teachers she's seen and had a lot of nice things to praise about my teaching style. It's nice to get confirmation that all my hard work is not for nothing.
We've been doing some little art projects here and there. We spent a week drawing and describing different monsters to learn how to talk about parts of the body. Lots of funny pictures. We also made monster face masks gluing different colored shapes for eyes, mouth, nose etc. As those of you who've worked with young children know, they seem to have a complete inability to regulate the amount of glue they use. It never ceases to amaze me. No amount of warning and explaining helps (How much glue? A LITTLE glue). It's like that part of their brain has not developed yet. My advice to future teachers: there's no stopping it, learn to live with the mess and maybe even find humor in it. Pretty good life advice too I guess.
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