So its been quite a while since my last post so let me tell you a little bit about what has been going on.
1. TEFL: I spent a week in Manuel Antonio finishing up my Teaching English as a Foreign Language certification. Awesome week! It was great hanging out with gringos for a few days. Excited that I am now certified to teach english in any county.
2. My birthday: My host family had a party for me and all of the other October birthdays in my house. Then went over to a friends house for karaoke, cake, and presents. I wasn't expecting presents this year, but was defiantly surprised when they gave me a brand-new Nike polo shirt. It was defiantly one of the nicest things anyone has done for me this year.
3. My brother Mark came for a visit: We traveled around together for ten days; surfing, relaxing, and having fun. He was the first family member I had seen in almost 10 months and I can’t tell you how nice it was seeing him and spending time together.
4. Quick trip to the US: At the beginning of November I flew to New Orleans to attend my college roommate’s (Alex and Lindsay) wedding. I experienced an intense, albeit short, bout of culture shock while on my layover in Dallas. The craziest part was turning on my cell phone for the first time since I left. I had over 40 messages! The wedding was an absolute blast. It was awesome seeing my college friends, it had been well over a year since we had seen each other. Got my fix of warm showers, good food, TV, fast internet, and the general easiness of the states.
My brother’s visit and the short trip to the states definitely made me realize that I’m ready to move back to the US. I’ve had my fix of the small town lifestyle and I’m ready for new things. I’m ready to make money, see my friends, and be an again among many other things.
5. End of Service Meetings: Thanksgiving weekend we had our WorldTeach end of the year meetings at the OTIAC Spanish School in Orosi, the same place where our training took place. Tomas, the owner of the school, agreed to cook a Thanksgiving meal for us. Tomas, being dutch, had no idea what thanksgiving was let alone how to cook a turkey. So we were a little bit skeptical about how the meal was going to turn out. However after a few hours of watching youtube videos on proper turkey preparation and researching T-giving on the internet he came through with an amazing meal. Some of the end-of-the-weekend goodbyes where harder than others. Luckily I’ll be meeting up with the eight or so people I’ve been closest with this year one last time before we all leave. I’m expecting these goodbyes to be much harder.
The costa rican school year doesn’t really have an official end date, it just kind of just fizzles out. When I arrived back in Vergel after Thanksgiving I was relieved to find that classes had already really started wind down and that kids were starting not to show up. The last 2 weeks I have hardly taught at all. This has caused my boredom to reach new heights. I spent 3 hours yesterday finishing off two coloring books. Luckily only 13 days left! See you all soon.
