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.

A Few Links

These are links about the mission work in Costa Rica. Warning: some are pretty old reports.

• http://www.reformedmissions.org/index.html

• http://missionsurc.org/?q=node/2

• http://www.trinityurcwc.org/missions.html

My Birthday Party

to egg: to throw eggs at someone on their birthday

we both got egged for our birthday which was during the last week

Blowing out my birthday candle.

Smash. Thanks Sergio.



The first egg. I knew this was going to happen I did not know it was going to happpen at this moment.

Centro Educativo Cristiano Reformado

Elementary School Grandparents Day

The highschool students at parque nacional during a field trip.

Teaching 7th grade

Some pictures

We couldn't pass to playa escondido (hidden beach) because it was high tide (where the name comes from evidently but sitting here was great . . . until I fell coming out . . .

Just one of the monkeys at Manuel Antonio National Park

A casado pescado (typical lunch with fish) in Manuel Antonio.

snow cones made with powderd milk (which is much better here) and sweetened condenced milk on the top.

Manuel Antonio National Park

Monos

Eating lunch at the beach

A casado at the beach (typical lunch plate, always a little different but always meat, rice, and beans)

Finally Another Post

I'm sorry its taken me so long to write. I've had an eventful few weeks. School is going very well. In eighth grade I've moved on from being the cool teacher to the mean teacher, but its so much easier being the mean teacher.

Three of my best friends from Northwestern came to visit last week. They attended classes with me during the day and went sight seeing in the afternoon. We also went to the beach for two days which of course was beautiful.

I also made the huge decision to go ahead with braces. Its a rather long story as to why I need them and even though I can't afford them they are less than a third of the price here then if I would do it in the states. It is also rather urgant (either a tooth is going to come through the top of my mouth or my tooth will break off and form a cyst on my gum with in at the longest 5 years). Right now I have spacers in and they hurt plenty I'm not looking forward to the braces . . . .

My grandma on my Dads side was diagnosed with cancer last week. I pray for all your prayers that it hasn't spread and for minimal pain.

My brother Nic is at bootcamp in Missouri right now. Please keep him in your prayers and write him a letter! He will be 19 on June 9 send a birthday card!

My dad is still in Georgia at a training.

Thats it for now. Theresa

And you thought it rained a lot in Washington!

http://www.weather.com/outlook/travel/businesstraveler/wxclimatology/compare/CSXX0009?sfld1=San%20Jose,%20Costa%20Rica&sfld2=Bellingham%20WA&clocid1=CSXX0009&clocid2=

click on the percipatation button to compare rain fall in San Jose and Bellingham.

Desrae, a volunteer from Montana, and I at the Hot Spring Gardens.

I love these flowers

Taya and I in the gardens

La Fortuna parque central, catholic church with volcan Arenal in the background.

La Fortuna Waterfall was beautiful

The water was cold but the bottom was sandy.

Eating Gallo Pinto (very typical breakfast) at the bus stop to La Fortuna.

Photos of our trip to La Fortuna

Our 5 hour bus ride to La Fortuna. I'm sooo thankful we had seats even if sweaty bodies were leaning all over us.

Marzo

I can't believe its March already! Time has flown by. I've been super busy teaching. This week is holidays. Its called Semana Santa which literally translated means Holy Week. Less literally translated. Easter Week. My friend Taya (from Washington) is here visiting. She came in Thursday night.
One of men from the Thunder bay group had decided to stay to help with maintenance around the school after his churches group left and he was going back Thursday so I was able to get a ride with him and a couple of teachers who where dropping him off. However we (Des and I) had to wait several hours for Taya's flight so we found a soda (small restaurant) acr0ss from the airport to wait at.
When Taya came in we took the bus down town and then walked to the Guadalupe stop and took the bus home. Walking through down town San Jose with luggage was not a fun experience for me but I'm sure it was a great welcoming, shocking experience for Taya. At least she has a story to tell. Friday I gave exams in all my classes. I know I'm such a nice teacher. I tried to explain how much nicer it is of me to give the exam right before semana instead of right after . . . they don't understand.
Saturday until today we went to Arenal, the third most active volcano in the world. Although it was clear enough to see the top we didn't see any lava we did see lots of smoke. The entire time we were there we didn't feel any tremors or hear any rumbling and then tonight after we were back from Arenal we were watching a movie at the Greens and we felt a tremor. Crazy.
We hiked to the La Fortuna waterfall and swam by it. We also went to the hot springs. It was a beautiful landscape. Pictures coming soon.
I have the rest of the week off although I have a pile of exams to grade and plans and activities to write.
I'll try to upload pictures tomorrow.
Love, Theresa