Tuesday

I've been working at my school for the past two days getting ready for the kids.  They start tomorrow and I'm super excited to meet them all!  My CT is amazing!  She's full of ideas and overflowing with knowledge.  I am so glad to have been placed with her and expect that I'll be able to learn a great deal from her.

I had a scary moment today...I texted Layne from school telling him to meet me at a particular restaurant (that we had already been to) at 5:30.  He was to take some cash and the written directions to our house in Spanish just in case he got lost and needed to grab a taxi back to the house.  I arrived at the restaurant at 5:30 and met the other student teachers there.  I was a nervous wreck by about 6:30 when he hadn't shown up.  A previous student teacher had left a little "go-phone" type thing for me to use to make local calls so I had that in my hand, knowing that Layne had the number, but not sure how he would call it.  Eventually, he called me from our house...saying he waited at the restaurant for 30 minutes and then came back to the house.  I felt so bad...we were in the restaurant.  He just didn't know to look around at all the tables for us :-(

That being said, I'm going to buy him a local pre-paid phone tomorrow so that kind of thing doesn't happen again.  My landlady said they're about $35 at Wal-Mart so I'm just going to get it.  In the long run, I think it will keep me sane.  I was so worried about him...thinking he was lost in a country where he couldn't speak the language and [possibly] didn't know how to tell a taxi driver how to get back to our house.

In other news...Mark bought his ticket today to come visit us!!!  Yayyyy!  He'll be here from February 21 - March 3.  I can't wait to see him.  I'm so glad I have Layne with me...it's keeping me from getting too terribly homesick.  I know you guys are thinking...man, she hasn't even been gone a week yet and she's talking about being homesick?  But you have to understand, so much has changed in my life in just a few days that it feels like weeks since I've seen or talked to anyone familiar.  So, having Layne here to hug is keeping me happy :-)

Heading to bed...have to get some rest to handle all of those sweet 5th graders tomorrow!  Toodles!

Getting Acclimated 2

Yes, folks, we have a Wal-Mart!  It's within walking distance from our house and will probably be where we get our groceries on a regular basis.

 

 

Inside, though, they all tend to look the same (there's Layne in the pink shirt).  Oh, and just to mention, in Wal-Mart here they give samples.  I'm sure you've seen that in your own local Wal-Mart.  However, have you ever seen them give samples of liquor?  Yep, that's what they were doing today in this Wal-Mart.  We were surprised to see that.

 

 

And look at this....I was thinking about buying some rice and this is the brand I found...

 

 

Walking home...we saw some pretty sights...a little stream and then the way the clouds hung around at the top of this mountain...was really pretty

For dinner, our landlady told us about a "house restaurant" that is just 6 houses down from us.  I wasn't sure what that was, but it ends up being just what it sounds like.  A lady opens her home for dinners.  You go ring the doorbell, say you've come for dinner, and you eat whatever she serves you.  We were served a Shitake soup (I didn't like it...not a mushroom fan, but Layne...boy oh boy did Layne LOVE it!) and then...the entrée was a bit bizarre.  It was one dish (like a casserole) but had mac and cheese on the bottom, topped with bacon, then with mixed greens, and then with cheese puffs.  Yes, I said cheese puffs.  It looked very unusual but it tasted wonderful!  She actually has a few tables set up like a really small restaurant.  And it was only $6 for each of us.  We'll definitely be doing that again!  (I took a couple of pics of that but couldn't get them to load for some reason...maybe next time.)  Tomorrow is my first day at the school...I am super excited to start student teaching!!!

Getting acclimated

Well, I slept like a dead person last night.  I woke up this morning feeling refreshed.  Here are a few pictures of where we are.....this is our room.  As you can see, Layne has already set up his "station" and is ready to do his schoolwork online (ha...nope...that's Minecraft he's playing...LOL).  We'll be in this room for about a month and then we're moving to a bigger room.

 

No, the walls aren't pink...it's just the reflection off of the sheets. 

 

Here's a pic of the house and two pics of looking left and then right down the street in front of the house....

 



I'm sure you notice that the house is like Fort Knox.  Most of the homes around here are like that...and they're all connected.  There is no space between houses like we have in the suburbs in the US.  And, they all are locked up like fortresses with wooden gates or metal bars like the one on our house.  I asked our landlady about the reasons why and she said it's really just overreaction.  She said that in the 1980s there was an economic downturn here and that a politician proclaimed that all the poor people would start stealing from the rich people, so all the people who could afford to started securing their homes like this.  Then, as drugs began to move through from Colombia toward the US, there were some robberies, but not many.  As a result, people here just got scared and went overboard with protecting themselves.  She said it's really safe, because the people take security very serious.  In fact, here are a couple of pics of some people....I wondered who they were and just thought it was odd.  When I asked my landlady, she said the guys that we see on bikes are guards.  People pay them to ride around the block and protect them. There are also guards on the corners and "lurking about."  In case your wondering, we have guards at this house, too.  They also serve as our drivers so my landlady told me not to be alarmed if I see them around just watching things.  I'll have to post some pics later of the garden area and the kitty cats.  Super friendly cats and Layne is feeling his lonliness for Leo by hanging out with them.

Here's a couple of guards I saw outside our bedroom window....

Oh, and birds are singing EVERYWHERE!  I feel like I'm in the middle of the bird section at the zoo.  For real, they sing beautiful songs.  There are exotic flowers all over (of course I'll take pics!) and it is a beautiful 75 degrees.  It's hot and humid and I feel like I'm in south Louisiana all over again.  I'm thinking ponytail might become my go-to hairstyle.

Heading to explore a little more....will share more later.

Day of arrival

We left Atlanta this morning about 9:45 Eastern time and arrived in San Jose, Costa Rica at 12:45 Central time.  I couldn't believe the flight was only 4 hours long.  It was a very easy process and the international flight was very smooth.  Here is a picture of my first view of Costa Rica....look how GREEN it is!!!

Once we landed, our driver brought us to the house where we're staying.  It's a "bed and breakfast" type of place and is very comfortable.  We rested for a bit after we unpacked and then we took off to find a grocery store.  Layne was our navigator and we got lost a couple of times...we had to stop and ask for directions in Spanish...and of course we couldn't understand the directions, but eventually we found the store.  After buying a few groceries (which included paying $6.92 for a 16 pack of sandwich cheese and $1.47 for ONE stick of butter) we made our way back to the house.  It's now 8:20 in the evening and I am completely exhausted. 

Tomorrow will be a recuperation and exploration day before I start at the school on Monday.  I'll try to take a few pictures of our house and community and post them tomorrow.  Now...it's pillow time...zzzzzzz

Freaking out a little bit...

So, Layne and I are all packed.  We've checked in for our flight and are just watching the clock tick away as time nears for us to leave.  Tonight we're going out for a nice dinner so we can celebrate the Valentine's and birthday that we'll miss here, and then we're heading to the airport very early tomorrow morning.  I'm just taking a wild guess here...but I'm not expecting to sleep very much tonight.  My stomach is in knots and my mind is racing a thousand miles a minute.  Keep us in your prayers and we'll update the blog as soon as we get there and have access to Wi-Fi.

Contact Information

You can always comment on one of these posts if you'd like to reach us, but there are other options, too.

Our cell service will be suspended while we're out of the country.  If you have my number, you can add a free app to your smart phone to call or text me internationally.  This works via Wi-Fi and I won't have to use cell service to send/receive messages from you.  The main app we're going to use is called Line, but the others that we have on our phones are Viber, WhatsApp, and of course Skype.  If you don't have either of our numbers, just email me and I'll send it to you.  (I figure that's better than posting it on the web).

If you don't want to use any of these apps, email will be the best way to contact us.

Only 2 weeks to go

I'm really starting to get nervous about our trip.  Today I got a little teary eyed when thinking about how much I'll miss Mark and the rest of my friends and family.  I don't know, it could just be me getting emotional in my old age.  Mark is planning to come down twice during the 3 1/2 months we're there, so at least I've got that to look forward to.

Layne has completed the orientation for his online classes.  He'll begin working on those next week.  I'm thankful that we'll have a couple of weeks for him to get settled into his school routine before we leave.  I think that will make his transition a little easier.

I've bought a lot of supplies to take with us...toiletries and school supplies.  Not to mention socks, bug spray, sunscreen, hats, and new tennis shoes.  From what I understand we'll be walking just about everywhere so new shoes are a must.  I'm hoping all that walking will help get me into better shape, too.  We'll actually start packing our bags next week.  One of the girls who completed her student teaching in Costa Rica last semester advised me to only pack lightweight clothing, even though it's January.  I checked the weather and today it was 81 degrees in Escazu, so I'm really going to try to go with that advice.