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The National Theatre and The Cow Parade
This exhibition seems to chase me around the world After spending most of 2007 travelling, I wanted to settle a little bit the following year. I wanted to have the same bed for more than three nights in a row, I wanted to be able to pick from more than five t-shirts each morning, I wanted to make more permanent friends, I wanted a cupboard full of food, etc, etc. However, I was sure that i didn't want to be in the UK. Tried that, not too keen. So, as discussed in the Mexico blog a while back, I decided on taking an English teaching course, as a passport to living and teaching anywhere in the world.
A bit of travelling in Central America and a bit of work in England over Christmas and I was ready to try a new life for a while. After trawling through the TEFL job websites, I applied for and was offered three jobs. I wanted mountains and beaches so settled for Costa Rica. I chickened out of working in Poland because I would have started in January and it would have been freezing. I decided against working in Argentina because the pay was very low. Other reasons for choosing the particular school
in Costa Rica was the offer of free Spanish lessons and the size of the school. With about seventy staff I thought it likely that there would be people with similar interests.
It didn´t take long to settle in to Heredia. It is only a small town just outside the capital San Jose. It is pretty quiet, perhaps too quiet, but a bonus of the small size means that wherever I go I always bump into friends. Seeing as the school has over 900 students, I quickly made a lot of friends.
At first I found the job quite difficult. Having never really taught before, planning lessons and preparing materials for the week used to take me at least a whole day. But now after five months I have got it down to a couple of hours. It also took a few months to be more relaxed in class. Rather than trying to get through everything I had painstakingly planned I now just go with the flow and improvise a lot more.
The other teachers here are mostly from the US, with a couple of Canadians, two Aussies and one more Brit. Despite the fact that many
View of Heredia and the Central Valley
It is nice to be able to escape up here on a short bus ride students cannot understand us Brits, having been brought up on Hollywood movies, we are both really in demand as teachers. A commonly held idea is that we speak English correctly so they would rather learn from us than from a Yank.
The students here can be a bit trying. I expected classes similar to those during my month in Mexico but Tico´s are much more shy. Occasionally during lessons it is like pulling teeth when you just cannot get students to speak. I should follow on from this statement though by saying how much I like Costa Ricans. I expected this country to be beautiful, which it is, but I hadn´t really considered that the population would match the scenery. Typically they are warm, friendly and smile readily. They also have a lot of patience, which I am grateful of because my Spanish is coming along verrryyy ssllooowwwly. I´m pretty good in class but on the street yo no entiendo nada.
The country itself is not quite as Gringofied as you might be led to believe. Although there are areas of the coast where English is very much the first language and property reaches London prices. The few
malls dotted around and the abundance of fast food outlets demonstrate the US influence but much of the westernisation benefits someone like me who is working here. I always get paid on time, any tax issues are easily dealt with and the healthcare system is pretty reliable. Apparently this is not the case in some of the surrounding countries that shy away from westernisation (whatever that means).
So after five months of living and working in Costa Rica I am still very happy. In fact probably more so than the first couple of months after arriving. I have made lots of good friends, both locals and foreigners, I have found a football team to play for, I have a pretty nice flat with a view of two volcanos and I am only spending as much as I earn. Being so close to San Jose, it is easy to reach different parts of the country each weekend so my travelling bug is being satisfied. Old travelling pals keep asking me if I have itchy feet yet but at the moment I have no plans to move on. I will definitely see out my one year contract and then I don´t
know. Unlike when travelling or when living and working in the UK, I am sucessfully managing to live for now rather than constantly making plans.
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Jodi
non-member comment
Hi, I am researching Teach Abroad options and over the last couple weeks I have been zoning in on Costa Rica. I have a few questions that I would love your thoughts on if you have any time... - My boyfriend and I are planning to travel together. Do you think/know if it will be difficult for us to get job placements close to one another? We don't need or necessarily want to work at the same school, but we do want to live together. - Where did you find your job? Did you go through a particular program? - I've read that CR schools are typically very poor, at least the public ones. Do you find that your salary is sufficient for a conservative to comfortable lifestyle? Do you work in a public, private, or international school? Do you recommend any of the three? Thank you so much!