Jake is student teaching at a school in Cartago called Liceo Experimental Bilingue Jose Figueres Ferrar. Quite a name! Basically, it is a public school that is using private education, as an experiment. Kids have to apply and those that get in, seem to realize the significance of the opportunity they have. They want to learn! Jake absolutely loves the students, the laid back atmosphere, and really just the culture in general. Jose Figueres Ferrar was the president of Costa Rica, and seems most known for abolishing the Costa Rican Army. Since then, Costa Rica has had no military.
A picture of the school from Google
The route to school from home
View from school
Kids play soccer during the breaks
One of Jake's lessons that I filmed
The whole school watched the World Cup games, and if you haven't heard- Costa Rica won!
Everyone- even in Costa Rica- was convinced that they would lose in the first game. It was pretty exciting to watch. The entire country was celebrating. All of the families go outside and stand on the highway, waving flags, honking horns, screaming! They do this for the remainder of the day! The President was so shocked and impressed (as we all were) when they won the 2nd game, that he went into downtown San Jose and celebrated in the mobs!
Thailand tops the charts in my book when it comes to storms. I am not sure if I've lived in a place with more spectacular storms than here. All the curtains are drawn in my bedroom yet slices of lightening are still breaking through. The thunder just passed directly over me. I check the monitor for fear of it waking Elsie up. Seems like the loud shaking would startle a baby! Not yet, though. I am sure as she gets older, she'll become more aware, and thus more afraid. Railay Beach, Thailand What is it about pouring rain that is so comforting? I absolutely love it. I am not one to complain about a good rain, although this past weekend I may have once or twice. We took our first Thailand vacation, which happened to be Elsie's first trip to the beach. It rained and rained and continued to rain. For the entire Saturday, it never stopped. Ever. There's only so much you can do in a hotel room, with a baby, for an entire day. So of course we strapped her on Jake's ba...
I was pretty excited to find out, on my first morning here, that Lindsey (our host sister) is part of a running team, and she immediately told me where to find a track close by. Before flying here, I really had no idea what to expect of the work-out situation in Costa Rica. I have since discovered that more people exercise outside in this country than anywhere else I have lived! Jake and I have been amazed by the number of cyclists and runners that line the highways, eerily close to the traffic. Starting line Lindsey told me that she had a race coming up in a few weeks, on that first morning. I was interested but quickly realized that it was on the last day of our 2 week vacation. I did not intend to be in good shape during vacation, so I sadly dismissed the idea. Running a race in another country is interesting to me; a unique way to experience the culture. My first (real) race, I ran in Turkey with Lacey. It was an extremely motivating experience, and I want to continua...
Who doesn't want to go to Bali? It just sounds idyllic! Jake and I decided to go to Bali for our October vacation. About a month beforehand, evacuations were ordered from the government because Mt. Agung is supposed to erupt at any moment. It was deemed safe as long as you stay outside of this 12 kilometer radius. Still, when we arrived in Ubud, we were quite nervous to see the smoke billowing from the top of Agung, from our pool. It certainly didn't look far enough away to be safe during an eruption. Proximity coupled with the roads in Bali had me a bit worried. I heard they were narrow, terrible roads, but I had to see them to believe it. Incredibly narrow and filled with moving cars, parked cars, motorcycles, carts, animals, pedestrians. It was clear we were not going to get anywhere quickly. Beautiful sunset in the rice fields Okay, okay....all that build up for nothing. It didn't erupt! Yet...but it totally will soon. We were definitely nervous, and probably...
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