Dia de Independencia

Indepence Day

September 15 is Independence Day for Costa Rica and Central America. We have a 4 day weekend. We had no school Friday but had an assembly at school. It started at 5 and lasted an hour. This is the hour that the sunsets here and so when we began it was light and when we ended it was dark. In this photo: 2 Elementary School Teachers. Teachers wore red white or blue shirts with a panuelo (bandana) and jeans.

Abby and Amanda (Green's granddaughter) with their lanterns. Costa Rica became free from Spain in 1821. The celebaration usually begins the night before (the 14th) but we celebrated early this year since the 14th falls on a Sunday. The elementary students make or buy lanterns and bring them to school to be judged in different catagories. The lanterns represent the news of their Independence arriving in Costa Rica at night and being spread from country to country, provience to provience and city to city.

After the assembly the students take their lighted lantern and make a parade around the street.

After we came back and each class sold a different "typical" food. These eighth graders were selling warm churros con dulce de leche. (250 c. = aprox. 50 cents)

David and Goliath Play

We did a play of David and Goliath in English Conversation class and did it in Elementary and Primary chapel.
Israelites on left.

Narrators and Philistines on the Right.

Finally Another Post

Sorry its been so long!

I'm going to add some pictures.

Parque de Diversiones (http://www.parquediversiones.com/

A few weeks ago I went to an amusement park here in San Jose with Didier (social studies teacher), Laura (secretaries assistent at the highschool), and Jonathan (a Spanish student from Arizona who went to our church for 4 months.) A day pass costs aproximately $10. In this photo they are waiting for a spinny ride that I decided to skip. It was the day after a holiday and rained off and on so not very busy we went on somerides 3x in a row without waiting.

At the entrance to the roller coaster.

Part of the park is "Pueblo Antigua" a replica of old San Jose. They do shows during the day included typical dances like these.

El Torre, Laura and I went on this ride 4 times in row without waiting in line. We got off ran around and got back on. After 4 times I told her I couldn't do it any more. My heart was pounding and I was feeling so hyper because my adreneline was pounding.