Teaching in Cartago

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Wow....I'm in Cartago, which used to be the capital of Costa Rica and the travel blog doesn't even have it as an option to list as my location....terrible...

So I'm in Cartago now, and it's great here, but it's not like living on the coast. Life is a lot different here. For one thing, it's a lot colder. Last Monday I was wearing a sweater and jeans! I'm living in a gated community called "the foundation" (oooh how inviting, haha) with another young family in their twenties (Rosa and Carlos) and their five year old daughter, Amanda....and a little dog name Rane (sounds like Ronnie). They're super nice, but don't speak as much English as the last family. But it's a good thing because I'm forced to use my Spanish...or lack thereof. It's definitely beautiful here: I'm surrounded by mountains on three sides, and I can see Irazu Volcano from their house. In the morning it's so cloudy that you can't even tell there's a volcano there. It's crazy! And sometimes it's hard to tell which big green hill is the volcano (and not a mountain), but it's gorgeous nonetheless. I'm hoping to visit the volcano soon. It's about an hour away.

I came here thinking that I was going to be working with a project called SMART Kids Group, but it got changed again. I'm working with 2 English teachers (Catalina and Melania) at 2 different schools. I work at Escuela Barrio Nuevo most often, and at Escuela Guayabal (guava tree) 3 times a week. The latter is quite poor, and has small classes. The former is a lot bigger, has more funding and has HUGE classes (sometimes 40 students per class in a tiny classroom). Guayabal is definitely my favourite. The kids are so sweet, and I have a better chance to get to know them personally. I teach in 18 different classes, ranging from grades one to six. Each class is about 40 minutes at Barrio Nuevo, and about 80 minutes at Guayabal. I start teaching at 7am (an ugly time of day, even in Costa Rica) and finish anywhere from 3 to 6 o'clock. The days are long, and my bedtime gets earlier and earlier. I'm having a great time with the students though, and I'll be starting a bunch of projects with them next week. Some of the money that is paid to Volunteer Abroad goes to the school, so the other day I went to Cartago with my homestay family and we bought all kinds of school supplies for the students. It was a great feeling, and the kids were so excited.

Since I'm closer to San Jose now, it's easier for me to do some traveling. Today I'm wandering around Cartago (with Carlos since I accidentally made him miss his classes at the university...( and tomorrow I think we're all going to San Jose to see the national theater and some museums, etc. Next weekend I'm hoping to go to Tortuguero on the Caribbean coast, and to Arenal the following weekend with Sharon. I think I'm also going to take some time off during my last week here to go back to Quepos and visit my other Tico family. I miss them a lot (but not as much as you guys, of course!) Anyways, I should take off. I'll try to get in touch soon. TIme is going by so quickly, and I'll be home before I know it! I can't wait to see and talk to everyone. Hasta luego!
Kristi

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