October 2, 2008

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Hello everyone, how's it going? I'm doing well, dying to get out of San Jose and see the rest of the country. I am going to La Paz Waterfall gardens with a tour group on Sunday (as that is my only day off this week). It leaves at 10 and I get back around 5:30, it includes transportation, lunch, entrance to the waterfalls, a butterfly garden and a coffee plantation. I'm really excited. I was hoping to do it tomorrow, but I have a mandatory meeting tomorrow at 1.

Every month we get a new schedule, so I will have different classes starting next week. This is not new to the students, but the class that I had this morning were so sweet to me, they told me how much they liked my classes, that I made things understandable, that I helped correct them with their pronunciation. It was great, it really made my day. The class I had last night also said some of the same things, that they were bummed that I wouldn't be their teacher next month.

The tour guide that I had at the Teatro Nacional last week was talking about how it is illeagal to have an army in Costa Rica, and how strange a concept that is to me. So I was thinking about that today, they don't have an army, but every neighborhood, every business, every store has it's own armed security guard. When I go to the Hiper Mas (Wal mart) or the supermarket, there is a guard in the cosmetics dept watching everything you do. It's seems like Costa Rica touts it's image as a country without an army, but they do have one, it's just a private army rather than a public one. I have never truly lived or even worked in the center of a city, but my job is in the center of San Jose which is smaller than Denver, but more urban. Homeless in the street is nothing new to me, I think that is in every city, but yesterday as I was walking to the bus with my friends, there was someone doing coke, right there in plain view, right across from my job. I knew there would be differences in living here vs America, but I guess the differences aren't what I thought they would be.

Everything is going fine, I hope to hear from everyone soon, I love getting emails from home. Talk to you soon!

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Comments

[Joe Lemer]

I have enjoyed your blog. We are going to watch the Palin-Biden debate. Ruby has taken an interest in this election. Do you get much information about it down there??