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.