Catching up on life in general

School is officially done for the kids in 6 1/2 days...I don't know if they're counting the days more than their teachers are, but everyone knows we're getting close. It has been an eventful month. One of the highlights has included checking blood off the list of students' bodily fluids that I've had to deal with this year. One of the boys got his hand smashed in a door and ended up fracturing two fingers. Luckily his mom was also on campus and she was able to take him to the hospital. Another highlight included successfully completing the big second grade Rivers Presentation. It's become a tradition that the whole second grade shows off what they've learned about rivers at the end of the eight-week unit. I can't say my students were crazy about the idea of dressing up as the "Upper Section" of the river or as a "Riverbank," but they were pretty cute for all of that.

Here is a smattering of pictures from the last month and a half:

Rosa and the family took us on a trip to the nearby private beach of Punta Leona. It got a little cloudy, but was still a fun day. It's not often we see wild macaws, but it does remind us that we are in a Costa Rica!

Puerto Viejo is a small beach town about four hours south of San Jose. It makes a fun weekend trip! A group of us went to Puerto Viejo for a three day weekend and rode bikes up and down the coast to some of the nearby beaches.


During Semana Santa I did a lot of traveling by myself. I had so much fun on the last river rafting trip I did that I decided to do the two-day trip. We stayed at a beautiful little hotel right on the river and got to do a short zip line and hike to a nearby waterfall as well.











After the river rafting I went down to the Ojochal area and stayed in a nice B&B run by a Dutch couple. Aside from being in the middle of nowhere, there was also very little electircity and no internet connection. It made for a fun, if slightly more rustic trip than I had originally imagined as I traveled by myself. However, I also got to do a beautiful snorkeling trip to a nearby island. We saw so much wildlife! During the hour boat ride to the island, we saw turtles, dolphins, and lots of fish. This day definitely made up for any inconveniences in accommodations.

River Rafting on the Pacuare

My housemate Laurie and I decided to go on a river rafting day trip. The Pacuare River is on the Caribbean side of the country so it was fairly humid and warm, even though it was overcast for much of the day. It was such a fun trip that I decided to go on a two-day rafting trip during Easter vacation. Updates on that adventure to follow!

Baile Typico

One Sunday I went into San Jose to see the summer festival that had been going on for several weekends. The highlight of the morning was catching a concert by the National Orchestra. Among the pieces they played were the suite from "Westside Story" and the theme for Star Trek. So yes, overall a really fun concert to listen to. Afterwards I went outside and watched a group perform some traditional Costa Rican dances. Here are some of the pictures that I got from it:

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

My kids really missed me while I was in San Francisco! I came back to find a good portion of my whiteboard covered with miss-you notes and pleas to NEVER leave again. It wasn't until I went to take the notes off the board that I discovered they'd been glued on.

San Francisco

These photos are from a trip I took to San Francisco a few weeks ago. The job fair itself was a pretty intense experience. I'm still waiting to hear back from several schools, but in the meantime, here are some photos I took in my off time.

I of course had to get some clam chowder in a bread bowl while I was in San Francisco. What made it even better was getting to watch the sea lions from the restaurant!











The hotel where the conference was held was very close to the Embarcadero. It had some great views.

My other hotel was literally across the street from a big entrance to China Town. Since it was very close to Chinese New Year, there was always a lot to see there.

I ended up having a whole free day to myself. Since I've only been to San Francisco a few times, I've only seen a small smattering of the tourist attactions. Feeling on the adventurous side, I signed up for a trip to Alcatraz. In the evening, I went to see the San Francisco Ballet Company. All in all, I'd have to call it a pretty successful day.