Classrooms!

 Por fin! The chance to get into the schools and see what is going on in education in Costa Rica! Half of our volunteer mornings were running 3 ish hour activities while the kids were on vacation and their parents were working. I ran Summer Camp games with two other fantastic educators who were both in the higher levels of Spanish classes in the afternoons. I would explain a game with A LOT of infinitives and miming, and if the kids were TOTALLY confused, one of them would help me out with a few correctly conjugated verbs. It was so much fun. BUT not really what I was hoping to see.

Finally, school vacation was over and we got to get into classrooms! I was assigned a 10th grade Social Studies class, a 9th Grade Spanish "public speaking" class and that same 9th grade class's Social Studies class. Important to know- 11th grade is "Senior Year" and is the 3rd and final "cycle" of typical schooling. So I have written and erased my attempts to explain the system, and decided, if you're interested, follow this link to the first post I found in a google search.

Anyway I had a great time working with these kids! The first group was doing a project that I don't FULLY understand how it related to the historical content, but it was very interesting. At the end, each group "taught" the rest of the class on their theme. One group was about empathy and why empathy is important. Another group spoke about time, and the time they should spend with their older family members because they won't be around forever. But also the time they as a class have left, since it's only one more year before they graduate. The third group continued that theme by making an activity where they wrote one line about a person in the class on a piece of paper, and teams needed to guess who it was about, to show how well they know each other after all these years. The last group went in a different direction and wanted to speak about the importance of remembering the ongoing effects of the Russian Invasion on the Ukrainian people when you want to complain about rising gas prices. It was a VERY interesting mix of kids in that class and I wish I got to spend more time with them.

I enjoyed my time with all 3 teachers I got to work with, but the Spanish teacher and I had a BLAST together. She and I had VERY similar teaching styles, but she had the freedom to implement in ways I never have. On the first day, she started class by explaining the project and used a really neat web program to present the information in an interesting format (we agreed that formatting is MOST of teaching). The presentation included where students should be in their process each day and the "characteristics" of each part of the project which felt like a translation of my "what this project requires" speeches.

But the part I was SO jealous of was the way that, through the whole project, she would share what they needed to do that day, and then she SENT THEM OFF TO DO IT. They went outside (when it wasn't raining) and worked at the picnic tables set up around campus. Or they worked in the main covered courtyard. Or just outside the classroom. Or on the carpeted floor in one section of the classroom. Or from their desks in the classroom. Seriously, it was what I have DREAMED of. Letting students go where they fell most able to do their work and being able to trust them to do it. We communicated only in Spanish, but it was so much fun talking shop with another teacher with the same kind of teaching philosophies.

Also a shared love of Don Quixote

In the last class, the focus was on moving from the middle ages to the age of enlightenment. It was also taught by a "same wave length" teacher. At every step that I would pause to ask a question, either to confirm understanding or to force students to think beyond the facts presented, she did the same. It was the hardest class to assist in because it was mostly lecture in Spanish but it was great to see how other teachers work.

So when I started this program, it was to learn spanish to communicate with the families of many of my students. However 3 days before I took off for Costa Rica, I landed a new job, and for the first time in my career, I am NOT going to work exclusively with English Learners. Spanish language or Spanish educational language is no longer the pressing aim of my time in the program. Which I am actually a bit thankful for. I have definitely focused on my listening skills and on the kinds of issues parents might bring up and how to respond. But for each part of the program, I am able to take a step back and enjoy the process, rather than focus entirely on how I need to use what I am learning. I felt that especially at the school. I am so happy I was able to see more than what my specific goals would have been.

Museo de Oro

Costa Rica has some pretty incredible museums. In my first week, I visited the Jade Museum and was rushed through the Museum of Popular Culture with the group when we visited Heredia (I really wanted to get back there, but my remaining time is disappearing fast.) I was a bit disappointed about my trip to the Jade Museum because it was very general. I mentioned this to my host family, and later to my Spanish teacher, and they both said, of course, and told me the Jade Museum is about Mexico to Northwestern Costa Rica. The more specific Museums are the Museo de Oro and the Museo Nacional.

So, one free morning, I set out to the Museo de Oro, which DID have MUCH more of what I was looking for. There were similar explanations about the use of gold as the Jade Museum had about the uses of Jade. But, at the Gold Museum, they explained where the artifacts came from as well as specifically WHO used them and how, which was often missing from the Jade. It also gave a beginners summary of the "world view" of the indigenous peoples of Costa Rica.

The next thing that I LOVED was the bookshelves of more resources to learn more at the base of the staircase to move to the next level of the museum (there were 3 floors, and you start at the bottom and work your way up. Up to the street level because the whole museum is under the Plaza de Culture) I picked out a few books I would like to find to continue my Spanish learning, and my learning about indigenous peoples of this continent. I was hoping they sold them at the gift shop, but alas.

The second floor moved from pre-Columbian Costa Rica to Contemporary Costa Rica, shared in the voices of indigenous peoples who explained in Oral History Videos the ways their culture was practiced/is practiced today. There was a video that I really want to find somewhere online to watch again (more slowly) to better understand what was being said. There were subtitles, but I was looking at this map with the colored lights and trying to listen in Spanish more than read in English.

The colored lights are the reservations today, but, at various points in the video, the sizes of the colors would change to show territory. Other times, one area would be highlighted, the area the speaker at that moment in the film came from. It really forced me, as the watcher, to understand that LAND is a very large part of the struggle to retain language and culture. You can and should say, yes, of course it is, but something about the way the lights grew and shrank next to the stories I was hearing hit me in a deeper place. I also found myself relating in a big way to the piece about language. Of the 8 tribes that still exist today, 4 still speak their native language, 2 languages are considered gone, and 2 are "in process of revitalization." One of the women spoke about having a hard time being indigenous in a colonial language. It made me think a lot about Yiddish and how my Jewish Culture and Heritage is so entwined with my Jewish Language.

The second half of the second floor was being renovated for an art exhibit that looked incredible from what I saw, but it is opening as I am leaving. I was going to skip the third floor, which was all about the Bank of Costa Rica. I am glad I didn't as there was SO MUCH to learn about the way money changed over the history of the territory of Costa Rica. The latest change was to different sizes of the money and to colors of the rainbow, with contrasting colors representing 1 and 10, 2 and 20, and 5 and 50. There are 5 men and 1 woman honored on the money, but much bigger than the people are the climates represented on the money. My favorite (the purple, which NEVER is in my wallet, because it's like the $100 bill, and I have only had one of those in my wallet once) is for the cloud forests and has a giant butterfly on it. The 5 mil colones bill is yellow with a monkey for the mongroves. It is a really cool way to create money.

I DO wish that they'd just announced that Costa Rica was going back down to using 1s and 10s, and not operating in the THOUSANDS anymore, but, I am getting better at -miliones vs -cientos vs -entas... Kinda.

So, that was kinda incredible!

This spring, a week or two after typing "summer spanish immersion" into google, I called one of the directors of Common Ground International to find out more about the extra travel around Costa Rica opportunities. It was kind of a "how much money am I really willing/able to spend this summer" phone call. The trip most difficult to plan out on my own would be the trip to Tortuguero. I had already written off since it was on the Atlantic side of the country. But as he described it, I realized, yeah, a bus to a boat to a peninsula with no cars and a chance to MAYBE see a sea turtle, ok, that sounds cool.

It was!

Travelling through the canals

The estuary had some INCREDIBLE views

We got to our hotel in time for Lunch at the Hotel. When I say it was hot, I mean it was GEVALD THIS IS HOT! And of course, me with my "NorthEast" brain, heard that we were going to do hiking, so what have I packed? Long pants and tops, my wool socks and my hiking shoes. I had packed my sandals in my backpack with my bathing suit, but my shorts were in my closet back in Santo Domingo. We got to our rooms after lunch, and I was in my bathing suit in record time!

There was a BEAUTIFUL pool right in front of our row of hotel rooms, but it was under renovation. No worries, I will walk across the whole complex to get to the shallow pool, I just needed COLD. The water, like the ocean at Isla Tortuga was NOT cold, but the water for the rinse before getting in was wonderfully cold. We had a blast in the pool creating different kinds of races. I am NOT good at "walking" races. ANY TIME the race involved using your feet on the bottom of the pool, I was less than successful. BUT, the see how far you can float race was my jam! Just push off the wall and let the current created by all the other pool users to push me the rest of the way across the pool. Stay still and hold my breath. Ok, I can do that.

Before heading back in to change and get ready for our night activity (!!!!!!!!!!) the "swim in the pool" crew saw the "took a walk on the beach" crew and found out that the beach was RIGHT behind our row of rooms. We were the last row before the opening to the beach. The beach was NOT for swimming (you know, sharks) but it was a beautiful place to sit and watch the waves. 

After dinner, we gathered at the reception area where other groups were getting ready for their night walks on the beach. It seems we are actually getting a guide NOT affiliated with the hotel, but with the beach sectors. The beach is split into sectors so that the beach isn't overrun with people as the guests of honor visit the beach. For the hotel tours, they can generally only visit section 2 which is next to the hotel. For OUR tour, if the special guests weren't visiting sector two after a while, our guide would be told which sector we could move to. So thanks CGI, for guaranteeing that we would see something really neat.

It just so happened that sector two was where it was at. We arrived and immediately learned there was a GREEN TURTLE setting up her nest. Meaning she had found a site and had begun digging with her back flippers the hole she will lay her eggs in. While we were waiting (the small groups wait far a away from her with ABSOLUTLY no light) she decided, nope, she didn't like that spot. So we waited a bit more and watched the moon (a day or two after full) and the stars from a TOTALLY free of human made light and the clouds coming in and out. After about a half hour, our guide tells us it's begun. We spilt into two groups so we could all fit in two rows, one kneeling, one standing behind, directly behind the turtle to see her lay her eggs. IT WAS AMAZING! We watched her lay about 1-4 eggs at a time for a minute, and then it was the next group's turn. Our group went back to the end of the line of groups (from the hotel and other sector guides) and gasped at each other and generally freaked out, silently, over how amazing the experience was. We were lined up for our second turn when the guide with the turtle who was shining the red light so we could all see what was happening, suddenly backed up and told us to wait and watch. The turtle started filling the hole with her back flippers. When we went to the back of the line so others could see what she was doing next, I thought about the fact that this turtle traveled through miles of open ocean to find THIS beach (Green Turtles don't nest anywhere else) that she was born on to lay her eggs. She hauled herself onto land, she dug a whole with her back flippers that she NEVER looked at to see how deep or wide it was (it was deep and narrow) she laid about a hundred eggs, and she immediately covered them up with those same back flippers. But it was the last round the blew me away. In the last round, she used her front flippers to fling sand behind her. This time, our whole group got to line up next to her, half on one side half on the other. I am VERY glad I stood to the house left... the group on the other side got a face full of sand as they leaned down to watch. But it was WHAT she was doing that is incredible. She wasn't flinging sand at our group for fun. She was slowly moving herself forward, all the while creating a mound behind her as she inched her way forward. When we got off the beach, our guide explained that she would move about a meter forward, so the imprint of her body would not be in the exact location of the eggs, making it harder for predators to find her eggs. ALL of this is done by instinct. The hatchlings will be born in a few months and she will be LONG gone. She actually will have about 6 batches of nests over the course of the nesting season, and then head back out to sea to build up energy over the next few years to do it all over again!

The beaches are closed to the public from 6 PM to 6 AM so the turtles can lay their eggs in regulated peace. I was waiting to head onto the beach at 5:50 AM so I could find the site she had laid her eggs the night before before it was trampled. She had laid her eggs VERY close to the tree line (which makes it likely the nest will be cooler and this batch will be male turtles) so I knew, find marker 13 as my beach entrance and walk along the tree line until I find it. In an bizzar twist for those who have read this blog for a while, this plan worked perfectly. I was able to easily find the imprint of where mama turtle had laid her eggs the night before.

The true nest, though her body imprint is about 3 ft in front of where
she was when she laid her eggs.

The nest she started when we first got on the beach, and then decided on a new location.

On the right is the aborted nest and my finger is pointing the finished one.

I walked back to the hotel along the beach this time and enjoyed the idea of sunrise (it was blocked by many clouds), the waves, and the way the forest comes into the beach the way I have never seen before. So much growth on sand, and I love it. There were vines with flowers, there were patches of grass, and of course, my of the Atlantic ocean waves.

Back on the canal/estuary side of the peninsula I set up for an early breakfast and a buddy came to eat with me. RIGHT after breakfast, we (the humans I came with) got into a boat for a canal tour. 

Share with me, share with me!
(sorry buddy, the gallapinto isn't as good as it is at home,
but it's still ALL MINE!)

Thank goodness for the boat captain and his green laser light.
I couldn't see most of the animals until he pointed them out.

A basilisk! A BASALISK! Seeing a few of these at the hotel
I have realized, yeah, dinosaurs DEFINITLY exist in our time.
Also SUPER fast.

What a neat bird.

WHAT'S GOING ON WIHT THAT NECK??

Yeah, I am close enough, thanks)

Yeah, I could watch this ALL day

I was hoping that someone who caught a picture of the DOLPHINS we saw in the estuary area at the start of our tour would have shared one to the shared album before I posted this, but seriously, it was SO SO COOL. Our guide kept taking about how lucky we were. Then, the dolphins went down and seemingly didn't come up, so the other boats moved on. Not our boat. Our captain is also an ocean fisherman who grew up on these canals. He takes us closer to the ocean, while our guide asks him if he's sure. We wait a bit, and sure enough, up pop the dolphins. It was magical.

Our boat dropped us off so we could take a walk through the town of Tortuguero. This town is fully built around tourism. It was neat to speak with the vendors about bracelet making, lace work, and the different seeds they use in their designs. Costa Rica really isn't much of a fiber arts culture country, so it was really nice to see some of it.

The nature didn't stop back when we got back to the hotel.

I LOVED this fuzzy flower each time I passed by one,
I wanted to touch it. One time, I found this one split to release it's seeds.
AFTER I took the photo I realized the other model of the photo shoot.

There was a covered hammock area where I was going to read "the boxcar children" in spanish.
Instead, I watched a fly dig it's nest(s) for about 3 hours until some running kids scared it off.

I caught a small part of the arc, but a buddy photographed the whole thing.
Yeah, Torguguero was special.

I had such an amazing time. On the morning of the 3rd day, we got back on to boat and back on the bus to head back to Santo Domingo. Well, one quick stop on the side of the road to check these guys out.

Yes, that's a baby on the back of the monkey on the far left.

In order to remember what I saw, I made a keep note was we went... It was pretty wild.

Road to Tortuguero-

Wild boars on the side of the road
Many cows and horses on farms
5 macaws- two couples and a baby
Finally sheep (yes, I was just as excited about the sheep as the macaws)
Oxen on the farm (no carritas)
Chickens on road from the farm
Fields of papaya trees
Miles of fields of banana trees!

In Tortuguero

Turtle laying eggs!!!
Iguanas "chickens of Tortuguero"
Basilisks (super fast dinosaur like)
Spiders HUGE
Sloths- Watch the baby scratch for EVERY
Cayman crocodiles small, but I am NOT getting in the water with them

Road from Tortuguero
Monkeys on the wire (sloths and monkeys prefer wire to trees...)

Thank you VERY much Rory, I would have been so sad to miss this trip.

Arenal Part 2

Had I ziplined before? Yes. Had it been an incredible experience? Yes. Was ziplining with the volcano Arenal and lake Arenal (which happens to be where the old town of Arenal was flooded to create a hydro electric dam) in front of me seriously amazing? YES, yes it was!

First Run!

And yeah, the volcano with whisps of clouds while I am in/above the canopy of the forest, I am in!

Hey Pauli, is that a go pro on your head? Why yes, yes it is!
Do you know how to use it? Why no, no I do not!
Are you going to have massive fun with it anyway? Why yes I will :)

Sorry, until I remember how to upload videos, the blog will stay photos only. But I do have some pretty awesome videos, though they are not for those prone to motion sickness.

After the canopy tour, we went on a walk to a waterfall nearby. In a stunning twist, I was encouraging the kids who were less than enthused about a hike and keeping them going. When did I become the cheerleader for hiking?! We did see some cool animals, have a lot of fun together, and see a neat waterfall, so I GUESS hiking is ok...

After we got back to the hotel, we ran off to our next activity- Baldi. This is a pretty famous hot springs resort most often seen in American Culture on Wheel of Fortune when a contestant wins a trip to Costa Rica. And I don't know about the rest of the resort, but the hot springs were a lot of fun. Maybe I could have gone the relaxing hot springs route, but again, that would not be me. Instead, an 11 year old nominated me their adult so that they could leave their mom and younger siblings and explore hotter hot springs. We made our way up until we reached the top, but it was downright cold compared to the one before it. We realized it was the exit for 3 water slides. Well, duh we had to try them out!

Slide 1- This slide was called the fastest by the staff member at the top of the structure. So of course we need to try it out first. The kid would like to go second, alright, I am first. First difference from water parks I remember in the States is hand placement. The last waterslide I was on was the Volcano (realizing now how funny that is) at Universal Studios. There, you cross your arms and drop. I feel like crossing your arms in fists toward the opposite shoulder is the way of the states. (Please correct me if I am wrong). Here in Costa Rica or at least at Baldi, you interlock your fingers behind your head with your elbows facing forward. This is important as it leads to difference number 2. When they say "this is the faster one" they fail to mention that safety regulations about how fast a body can move through the curves of these tunnels seems to be VERY different from any other water slide I have been on. Exhilarating is an understatement! After we were done with the slides, we were extremely entertained by the bewildered faces of everyone coming out of that slide. You don't know which way is what when you get out of that one.

Slide 2- This slide was the other option for a closed tunnel experience. And while the staff member had indicated the other one was faster, I don't believe it was by a vast margin AT ALL. On this one, I had my arms crossed as I went in (another reason I believe that is more typical in the states, because it was what I naturally went to) and the staffer called out to put my arms around my head JUST in time for the first curve. By the 2nd curve I was VERY happy they'd reminded me. At the 3rd or 4th curve (they all blurred) I realized wait, my body has flipped over on it's side and I am now facedown in the water. I flipped myself back over on the last curve just in time to get spit out into the pool with the kid laughing hysterically at the look on my face.

Slide 3- Now, the same structure had an open faced slide a level below the first two slides. We debated skipping it before heading over to the "kids" section of slides (kids is in quotes for a reason). Finally we decided, no, we want to do them all. We'd seen people going down that slide, but never really watched them. It was my turn to go first, so down I went thinking I would get a break from the adrenaline. NOPE. This one featured a small drop in the middle that caused my heart to freeze up in the slide while my body was sent by gravity to the pool. I had recovered by the time the kid came down and so I asked if they were as surprised as I was by the drop. "Nope," huge smile, "I watched you, saw you drop and heard you scream, so I knew it was coming."

Slide 4- We moved into the "kids park." One half was the kind of kid's structures you see at a playground, but with water, and the giant bucket that fills up with water and dumps it onto a roof and splashes anyone standing below. The OTHER half was our slide number four, a closed tunnel slide with a few twists and then you come shooting out the toilet bowl spin around a bit and drop a few feet into the pool below. Everyone else called it the toilet bowl, but I didn't like to think what that made me as I swirled around, so I preferred to call it the marble exhibit from the science museum. So somehow by kid logic, it was my turn to go first, and off I went. Swirling around the marble bowl was actually really fun, but then I realized, wait, how do I go into the pool at least somewhat gracefully. I discovered the answer very quickly: Graceful wasn't in the cards for my exit. My whole body flopped sideways and I side body flopped into the pool below. It was quite funny and luckily only witnessed by a few.

Slides 5-?- By the time my buddy had decided that we needed to ride EVERY slide in the park. This included the kids' slides in the playground structure. And this is where I found some major flaws in this plan. 1, I had a bit more mass than the folks who normally go down these slides and acquired a bit more speed. But that the bottom was an inch maybe two of water, and a stone floor. It was either an abrupt stop with my feet and use my momentum to stand up, or skid on the stone bottom. I opted for the first, but it was definitely and adrenaline filled moment! The next slides were slightly more difficult for other reasons. On one, I was able to fit if I turned sideways. On another I could barely squish into the frogs head to get down it's slide tongue. But in the end, we conquered every slide in the park. After going back to the fast slide pool and watching friends and strangers come out of the slides, we reconnected with their family. After we were dry and getting ready for dinner, it became clear that the younger siblings needed a more calm environment stat, but the oldest wanted to stay with the rest of our group for dinner at Baldi. I was happy to continue hanging out with them, so mom set off. 

As we started off to find the restaurant, it started pouring. And that was when we realized that the bag with all their rain stuff had gone back to hotel with their family.

And this is yet another reason that ponchos are the greatest!

Yes, the 11 year old is taller than I am. I am spatially efficient!

My other favorite moment of the night occurred when I got up to get a salad after the rest of my meal. The kid followed me saying they needed to stick to me since I was their Mom for the night. We both stopped for a second, they looked at me and said, "no, cool aunt." I accepted that, and we continued to have a great time. That included seconds and maybe thirds of dessert (after having a bit of dessert before the meal, JUST as a taste test. I am a cool aunt :)

PS, for those worried about my corruption of the youth, a few days later during the coffee break, I watched the younger ones "sneakily" getting some coffee followed by MASSIVE amounts of sugar, and saw their mom watching. She shrugged and said "pura vida. They won't get any at home, so it won't hurt them too much to play around here." That totally sent me back to memories of my brother and me and our friends running around Klezkamp/Workmen's Circle Convention/Yiddish Vokh/Any conference I am forgetting, and trying out "the forbidden" THINKING we were being sneaky while every single adult watched and went, yeah, ok.

Arenal Part 1

 Waking up to catch the bus at 7 AM feels amazing when you needed to catch it at 5 AM the day before. After breakfast with my host family (they were SHOCKED that I had left the house without waking them up on Friday. They saw my closed door and worried I had slept in, because NO WAY could I have left without waking anyone up. But, hey, I grew up with shared shared living space every summer. I know how to pack, clean up, and leave without a sound, even in a panicked rush- see earlier post.)

On the way to Arenal, we stopped in Sarchi, a region known for their art and for their carretas- carts.

Sarchi Artist and their Muse

After visiting the park that housed the biggest carreta in the world, we went to visit the factory where this particular form of cart was invented. And it is still used for farming in Costa Rica today. The tour guide explained that carretas break far less than the machines do, and so the farmers still use the oxen cart to farm as it's much cheaper in the long run. But it isn't only about the cart itself. Folks study for YEARS to be a recognized artist in Sarchi. One tin cup takes HOURS (a lot of it waiting for the layer to dry before moving onto the next layer.) We watched an artist go from tin cups to a wheel, to umbrellas and back to cups in the span of our tour.

After a visit to the gift shop (I MAY have spent too much money on an umbrella that Elizabeth, the artist in the photo painted) We were back on our way.

The road to Volcan Arenal took us through so many curves and switchbacks to go through, above, and around the mountains. And the clouds were constant friends, wisping in and out. Do you have any idea HOW HARD it was to decide which photos to share here? I have about a thousand more, and a few million that I deleted because I didn't need my photos to be ONLY photos of the mountain passes. So, a few:

Yeah, to give you an idea of how unbelievably beautiful it was, I PUT MY KNITTING DOWN and just stared out the window. It was truly breathtaking.

After we left the REALLY mountainous area for the normally mountainous area and I had taken up my knititng again, our director shouted PEREZOSO!

The driver saw that there were no other cars around and backed the whole bus up so we could see the Perezosos (sloths). Yes, two, hanging out (literally) on the powerlines.

Can you find the two?

Shortly after the Oso Perezoso siting, it started pouring. I am not talking about your typical Costa Rican wet season rain- This was a DOWNPOUR. It cancelled our visit to a waterfall, but by getting to the hotel we were staying at a bit early, I got to spend HOURS in water heated by a volcano. It was perfect. Especially when it was raining and the world was both cold and hot in the best kind of mix. Yes, I was a happy camper.

So it seems Arenal was JUST ahead of us, but there were too many clouds to see it. Heads up, in Costa Rica during the rainy season, it pays to be an early bird. When I saw it was sunny out when I woke up, I ran out to see the volcano, and honestly, everything else that was waking up too (SO MANY plants photos). About a half hour later, the mountain was totally obscured again, though it cleared up a bit later that morning. Yeah, I get why folks are obsessed with volcanoes (even when they aren't active)