First Week of School

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Okay, this will probably seem like a condensed entry, which it is. There was so much stuff going on the first week it was incredible. Here’s a brief summary and the rest will have to be told in picture captions. (I’ve reduced the picture quality to speed uploading. If any images look like crap - or there’s one you’d like to see in full res - send us an email and we can add it to our “Gallery”.)

Sunday we left the hotel and moved in with our homestay. They are an awesome host family that take in several students on a regular basis. Their names are Juan and Katia (the parents) and two sons Jonathan (15) and Ignasio (9). So far it’s been six-star hotel service. Katia works really hard to keep us fed, wearing clean clothes, and sleeping on clean sheets. It’s going to be hard to leave.

Our first day of school was good. The school bus picked us up right outside Juan and Katia’s house at 7:30 AM. It’s a really short trip to school (4 minutes in a car). It’s a bit too far to walk and there is a big hill as you leave Quepos. On Tuesday we had monkey visitors at the school and one of the employees grabbed a banana for them. Nikki and I joined in too.

There are usually a couple animals hanging around the school. We’ve seen iguanas, birds, all sorts of bugs - one that really liked Nikki - and a 3 or 4 toed sloth. The sloth wasn’t close enough to get a picture though, or count its toes. Oh and there are also two Tico Battle Puppies at the school every morning as well. Suzie, the black one, is owned by the school and her sister Lulu is owned by a student. If I get a good video of a battle-dog sequence I’ll try to upload it.

Tuesday afternoon we had our first surf lesson at Manuel Antonio beach. It was pretty fun. I think we both managed to catch a wave or two. Sorry, no pictures yet.

Tuesday night when we got home our family was waiting for us to go to a small ranchero outside of town that had a swimming pool and restaurant. It was a fun evening, but we were exhausted by the time we went to sleep Tuesday night.

Wednesday and Thursday consisted of class in the morning and surf in the afternoon again. And Friday we had class in the morning and left for a weekend trip to Volcano Arenal….which will be in the next blog entry!

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Photos

More School
We have our lessons in one of the rancheros each day. Usually in groups of 2-3.

Nikki's Leaf Bug Friend
I think he was eaten shortly after by the iguana

Katia in the Kitchen
Awesome, Awesome cook!

Other Homestay Students
This group was here the first night we showed up. It's a popular place. Not all of them go to our school, and not all of them stay at Juan and Katia's, but they were there that night to say goodbye to some friends that were leaving for Nicaragua.

Teak Wood Leaf
On the trip to the Ranchero, Juan saw a small teak tree and had Katia hop out quick to pull a leaf off. We didn´t know why. When she got back in the car I thought I noticed her finger bleeding. Turns out Juan was just having fun - the teak wood leaf has a bright red dye in it. Nikki´s leg was the target.

Chris on Juan's Shoulder's
Yes, I know I'm white.

Comments

[Marie]

How FUN
oh Chris you look like you are having so much fun!!!

[anonymous]

looks like a blast