Students hunt

25/03/2011

Short night! At 1:40am my phone rang, one of the students got sick and the host family wanted to let me know about it. I spoke with Andrew and he told me he didn't want to go to see the doctor yet and wanted to wait until the morning. I phoned the teachers at their place but of course who would pick up the phone at 2am?? Especially when you are not staying at your place!

At 6am the teachers got my message and they decided to take the student to see the doctor. At 6:30 we all met at the emergency. With luck it's not to far from my appartment so I was able to be there really quickly. Andy had the same symptoms than Beccy: very hot, stomach ache and a big headache and was also vomiting. The last factor deshydrated him completely and the doctor had to give him 2 AV, 1 only serum and the other one was a sugary serum. He had to spend 3 hours in the room to receive the two serums. I went back to the school to take care of the other students. Guy-Jo stayed with him while Rochelle came with me to take a hot shower in my appartment. She doesn't have hot water at her place and got used to taking one at my place. Guy-Jo also got used to taking a shower at my appartment. So when Roshelle finished her shower, she went to the clinic to look after the kid and to allow Guy-Jo to go to having his hot shower! Things like that only happen to me :D

We then went back to the school to take other classes. I let the students get inside and I stayed outside to read a bit. We had a nice lunch at Donde Henry. I saw that Alex wasn't looking well but he told me he was allright and didn't want to speak more. Knowing him, it wasn't strange so I didn't insist....I should hav... At 5pm his tica mum called me to tell me that Alex wasn't well at all and that he had fever and headache...;back to the clinic with the 3^rd student... What do I do to them? Nothing, I promise ;-)

Calling the teachers once again and back all together to the emergency. Same virus for Alex! Back home for him with simple medecine: Powerade (fyi=energetic drink) and sleep.

The two teachers had decided that today the kids could go out until 9pm if they were with their family in order to see an important basketball game at Mate Cana. The kids were smart...very smart! They knew that the teachers had invited me to dinner at 7pm BUT what they didn't know where we were going to go.  It was already 7pm when we came out of the emergencies and Guy-Jo wanted also to see the game, we decided to go to Mate Cana to have dinner there.

When we entered...none of the kids were there and the owner just told us "yes 6 where there but they left in the middle of the first part, at 7pm, we thought it was a bit strange because the game was interesting"...Smatr kids! They stayed there long enough in the bar to be sure that if the teachers came to check before going eating, they would see them watching the game...as they should have been...They didn't know we were late because of Alex... Quite scared not knowing where they were, we went to the centre of Santa Elena to do a student's hunt! Not so funny.... LOL We finished by finding the 3 girls inside an information center using the bathroom. When we asked them where their families were and why they were there, the only answer was "we needed to use the bathroom" LOL..no bathroom at home????....

We sent them back home in a cab and kept looking for the others. We already knew that 3 of the 15 wouldn't break the rule so were surely at home, 2 were at home (when I phoned the family to tell them they could go out until 9pm, 2 told me there weren't going to go out because had familiy activities already planned), 2 were sick, 3 were caught so we needed to find the 3 "gansters". My heart jumped when I saw Gabriel in the city center "what was he doing in the city center? I was sure he wouldn't break the rule" I shouted his name, he turned back and wasn't at all frightened to see me, a second later, crossing the road was his mama tica. We were right: he wouldn't have broken the rule: he was with his tica mum and they were going to have a drink where the father was working. ;)

5 minutes later we found the boys and they tried to argue but they had no way of doing so: they were alone, in the city center, they knew they were in trouble. We sent them all in a cab: O gosh, 16-year old are worse than 6-year old!!

Once we knew that everyone was at home or at least with their family, we went to have dinner at Mate Cana. It was nice, we spoke about the kids but also life in the States and in Europe and about a bit of everything. At 10pm, Roshelle and I took a cab to go back home and Guy-Jo stayed a bit longer in the bar. The taxi stopped first at Roshelle's place and then drove me back to the school. I had a great surprise waiting for me: behind the gate, Royner was there. The gate was closed and he didn't have the keys to go out!!!!!! I was just in time to help him!! We spoke during a while. I was very tempted by his offer to go back to the city center to have a drink and keep speaking but I was strong enough to decline his offer: I was very tired and Alex might need to go back to the emergency during the night: the best to do was to go to bed as soon as possible to be able to get up at 3 am if needed! I should have gone because no one was sick during the night and I slept as a baby until 6am...Well it will be for another time!

20 years for CPI

23-24/03/2011

Not a lot to say about yesterday apart that one of my student was sick and we had to take her to the emergency room. She had fever, stomach ache and headache... Virus and deshydratation..Nice ;-)

Today in the morning they had 2 hours Spanish lesson and then we went to the local school to visit some classes. The organisation is a lot different from Europe and I didn't know how the teacher could teach in these condition: some students are speaking, others are listening to music, others are coming in and going out without asking: and the teacher was calm, trying to teach to those who wanted... I tip my hat to him.

I then went to the maths class. Even if the atmosphere was the same, the teacher had a bit more control on his class and we made a frog in origami. SO FUNNY!! And so different from a maths class in France LOL

Special photo for Oana la Rana ;)

 

Free afternoon for the students: FREEDOM!! Even if I was in the office to work, it was nice to have some silence and be listened to when speaking to someone. My goal of becoming a teacher is made ​​hardships but is still relevant. Here I canot yell at the students or punish them: I must be friendly and helpful to make their stay nice and make them come back....I promise, I've been nice with them and keep cool nearly all the time. Thanks mainly to their teachers who kept them controlled. Even if I was in the office to work, it was nice not to have to worry about the students!

We had a meeting at 6pm at CPI for the celebration of the 20 years of CPI. We had a great time, dancing, eating barbecue (but no as good as the one in Sherbourne LOL), and meeting all the students. I had some time to speak more with Royner, the dance teacher and also english teacher. He reminded me a lot FT in his way of speaking, acting, thinking, from the start we had a good complicity, and even if I was a bit sad, we had a good time speaking together. He promised me to teach me how to dance (good luck!) and I'll teach him French....Good deal!
At the end of the evening, when all the kids went home, all the CPI staff still there we...how to explain...well...I think the best way would be to say that we...no, I really can't explain...I need to show you:

I've found a way to explain: We asked the rain to come ;)

Volunteering!!!!

22/03/2011

It was just a great day!

At 10:30 we went to do some volunteering work in a farm. We split in two groups to do different tasks. One group started by pulling up plants and separating roots, watering plants and transporting manure to different place on the farm. 

 

My group started by clearing the riverbed. Indeed the owner wanted to use the water from the river to irrigate the fields and be even more eco-friendly. At first the kids weren't too motivated about it but as we were going, taking plants out, moving rock, we were able to see the water streams getting bigger and bigger and the motivation increased. After 2 hours which looked like 30minutes, the kids didn't want to stop to go to have lunch. Pleased with the enthusiasm of the students, Guillermo promised we could come back to do a bit more after lunch. Burritos' time jajaja! I was still hungry after it so I took a desert:

After lunch we went back to the river for a bit longer and then switched with the other group. At four, all very tired we went back to CPI.

A lot of work but we had a great time!!

Monday why are you so hard?

21/03/2011

Today was the first day of my group...hard!...Well everyone knows that monday morning is hard...3 students didn't wake up on time and arrived late. Their family didn't want to wake them up again, assuming that they were very tired...nice for the students...a bit less for the teachers waiting for them!

At 9am we called the public school where they were supposed to have 2 hours of lessons...nice in the idea...a bit less in the practice...the 3 teachers where sick so impossible for the students to see the classes. We couldn't cancel because the students and their teachers were expecting it so we made something up. 3 students from the school learning Turism came to show us around and explain how the school works. It was very interesting because different from what they have in the state (and what we have in Europe). In Costa Rica highschool takes 5 years but not in this school. They do 6 years: 3 general and for the next 3 years they need to choose a speciality: ecological turism, catering, animal production... In the school they have pigs, chickens and cows. The students learning about production need to look after them. It's also a way of making money for the school. They sell milk, eggs and meat.

 

We ended the presentation near the football/basketball pitch where some students were playing. As we still had a lot of time, they guys were allowed to play a game. It was Tico against Americans. The latest group had good cheerleaders and the girls even invented a song to support them. It wasn't enough as they lost 2-0.... But we had a great time!

We then attended to a football game opposing grade 10^th to grade 9^th (for the French it would be Seconde contre Première). We cheered on the Cacahuetes (=peanuts) team as 2 of our guides were in this team. We must have had very bad cheerleaders' skills as when we left for lunch they were loosing 3-0. We went to the Trapiche...remember what is it? Sugar cane? Aaaah now you got it :P Once again we had a great time.

Back to CPI where we had a short introduction about the volunterring opportunity of the next day with sir Guillermo.

And the day is still not over...dance class!!!! Only one word to describe it: FUN!!! And the conclusion of the class?? I'm definitely not a dancer!! Jajaja

Then time for the kids to go back home and for me to go back to the office. It was Grettel and Arelys' birthday and Grettel was going out to celebrate it with friends and invited me. I was tired but I had already refused last time to go out because I was too tired so I decided to go. We decided to meet at 8pm to go to have dinner in "Amigos" a bar in the city center.

We were four girls: Grettel, Meggie, her friend Sarah and I. Next table were four americans guys....you can add: we finished to eat all together at a big table. It was funny. Kevin and Travis quitted their job to come 2.5 months in Costa Rica and 2.5 months in Thailand. Would you dare do the same?? They met Luis and Shaun at the hostal and ended up going out all together. Kevin tried to make me dance but it was a disaster! I stayed 2 songs and then went back to my chair. They offered us a drink and I had a Baileys...Yammy...At least here they are not stingy: this is a single Baileys:

At 10:30pm I was too tired to stay more with them and took a cab to go back home: 1000colones=2$ =1,4€ :D Nice price :D

Today was a long day but a nice day!

A small world!

20/03/2011

World is small....so small!!!

I woke up like 10 times during the night, scared not to hear my alarm clock and to be late! I finally got up at 4am, got ready and had breakfast. Even if I told her not to get up for me, my "mama tica" got up and made me breakfast with some pieces of fruit, all ready to eat: nothing to peel, nothing to do, just enjoy the food!

Chiquitin went to pick me up at 5am and we went to the airport. I was stressed as never...worse than before an exam...which means a lot for those who know me well ;)

I think I must have a problem with the airport...it doesn't like me^^ When I got there: no flight was planned for 5:21 as it was shown on my schedule :S :S But one was at 5 so I assumed it would me mine. I waited for my students and they went out at 6:30am. Their Chaperon, Guy-Jo was very nice and we got on very well. I was still stressed but a bit less, the chaperon was all right ;) It took nearly 40minutes to put the bags on the bus because we had to put them on the roof, tie and cover them. I took that time while Chiquitin was on the rrof taking care of the luggages to introduce myself to the group, give them some info about Costa Rica and some rules about their stay.

They were all tired so I didn't insist and we went out of the airport. On friday it was the birthday of the 2 teachers so they sang in the bus...they sang in English.... in Spanish...and....and.... IN FRENCH!!!! I think my heart missed a beat! I looked at the chaperon:

"do you all speak French???"

"no all, 5 of them speak fluently French. I also do, I lived in Switzerland when I was little. Do you speak French?"

"I am French!!"

"Non c'est pas possible! Tu viens d'où?" (=Impossible! Where are you from?)

We kept speaking a bit in French and I relaxed immediately! Everything was going to be fine with this group. If unfortunately at one point I wasn't able to explain in Spanish or English, I could always do it in French! The stress went far far away!

The world is even smaller than that!

We kept speaking in French with Guy and he couldn't believe when I told him I was from Strasbourg. Indeed, he went there with a group last year and the students learning French were right now overthere...in Strasbourg...in the International Highschool of Strasbourg...which is also...MY highschool!!!! The world is so so small! We kept speaking about the school and the teachers we both know (NO COMMENT!)

We stopped for breakfast and it was funny to see the students looking at the dish with strange faces "can we eat that?" jajaja! Yes you can and it's good!

We got at Monteverde at 11am and we were all very tired. The guys went to have their test and while waiting to do the oral part we had fun playing stupid games. One of them was the "animal hunter". The rules is quite simple, you stick a picture of an animal in the back of a student so that he can't see it but the other can. Then the student needs to ask question to guess the animal. "how many legs does my animal have?" or "Is it blue? Green?..." etc... until he finally finds it. Of course, all the questions and answers must be in Spanish... Very funny especially as they were a bit tired so they were making up spanish words :D

In the afternoon, we went to the city center of Santa Elena and we did a Treasure hunt. I asked them to find 17 items in the town like the police station, a picture of a butterfly, a restaurant....and the bonus item was a Chess board. There is only one in Santa Elena and to find it you need to enter a shop, and it's in the middle, you can't see it from outside. I thought I would have them searching for the whole hour and was AMAZED whenafter 25minutes one of the groups came back with everything!!! A nice achievement! I had to offer them an ice cream because they did a great job and deserved it!

Back to school to meet the families. Afterwhat I worked a bit in the office to put online the photos of the first day (so that their parents can follow what they are doing) and did some paperwork. I then went to my appartment, the same I was using two weeks ago. I still don't have hot water but I enjoyed my shower anyway and went directly to bed. I took advantage of having the wireless back during the evening to that online with some of you ;) When I saw 9:00 I cursed myself to be online so late, closed the laptop and slept like a baby. I woke up by myself at 6:15am, 3 minutes before my alarmclock....SO GOOD!!!!

Goodbye flagstaff Az School

Well, already time to say goodbye to my first group!
The journey to Heredia went smoothly and I read about 150pages of my fanfiction...it's so good to be able to read in a bus! Coudln't do it before without being sick: it seems that I can now! :D

The kids were all sleepy and slept or chat quietly during all the time. We got to the hotel around midnight and went directly to bed. Alarm clock at 3:15 :S...short night!

We left the hotel at 4:30am, once everyone was awake, ready and in the bus. Goodbye at the airport and back to the hotel with Chiquitin to have breakfast there. I had a wonderful piece of Banan cake and took some slices with me for the day!

I got to my family in Heredia around 7am. We spoke a bit and I went to have a shower and to sleep for a while. Woke up at 10 but stayed in bed until 11:30 reading. Maria went to play Bingo with her friend and left me the keys so that I could lock the door when leaving. Muni and Chiquitin when to find me at the house around 2pm to have a tour in Heredia and to know where everything was. We stop at the mol and have a late lunch overthere. Back at home, back to my book^^ Bed time at 8 because alarm clock at 4:15am for my first group alone!!!!!!

Time to leave Flamingo

14-19/03/2011

Not a lot to say about this week as all the days were pretty much the same: beach in the morning, lunch at restaurant with the kids, little break in the swimming pool while the students are in class and then office to work a bit. At 5pm, take the kids back home, dinner with family and time to go to bed! I've never gone so early to bed!!! I can, sometimes, when I'm really tired go to bed early but that once in a while...this week it was between 7 and 8:30pm.....

Some pictures about the great time we had at the beach:

Some strange facts^^

On wednesday we went to a restaurant with the kids and I found that the owner had a strange accent...he is French...and comes from Nancy, a town near my own town! A small world!

On thursday we went with Muni to have lunch at the Monkey bar without the kids (they had breakfast at school^^). I understood quite quickly why it's called the Monkey bar:

On thursday night we went with the kids to a ice cream shop...YAMI! And they really knew me: Baileys icecream...O I miss England!!!! While I was eating my deicious ice cream I was remembering the end of year BBQ at Sherbourne House, the farewell party in Phoenix... I miss you guys! I really do!! Hopefuly we'll also have that in Warwick next year!!!!

Today (friday) no beach! As it's the last day, we wouldn't have time to dry our stuff and be ready to leave at 5pm. So this morning it was late meeting: at 10:30! I had a big, even an HUGE breakdast with Gallo Pinto (=rice + beans) with eggs and melon....huge but very good! My tica mum was affraid I would got hungry before leaving so at 9:30 she brought me some banana cake with vanilla ice cream....so yumy!!! I'll definitely take 10kg while being in Costa Rica!

At the school we had some pizzas and the kids leanrt to dance. After we had PINATA: it was so good!

Tonights gonna be a good night ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdROGNQ5aWs

Tonights gonna be a short night! Indeed! We are driving the kids to San Jose Airport which is in Heredia....6hours by bus from where we are now :D So as soon as they finished classes at 5pm, it'll be time to go. I charged my I-pod and my computer so that I'll have a lot to do during the journey. I have 700 pages of document to read....sure I'll have enough!!

Goodbye Flamingo!

Sunset

14/03/2011

Don't have a lot to say but it will be enough for you to hate me^^
Beach in the morning, work in the afternoon and beach in the evening to see the sunset....hard life!

Go back to mi Tica family for dinner: Chayote with rice! Very tasty

Looked at my watch: 19h42....hum time for a sudoku, a chapter of my book and I fell asleep.... Getting old ;)

Flamingo!

13/03/2011

Buffet breakfast at the hotel and swimming pool...life is hard!

Who was asking the kids “did you put some sunscreen?” “did you put some sunscreen?” Clara!

Who was looking after the kids on a deckchair next to the swimming pool? Clara!

Who did NOT put some sunscreen and got burnt? Clara!

Good things come in threes.

 

After it was time to leave our wonderful hotel 4* Spa & Resort.... Once again: PURA VIDA! It's really a hard job and no benefits at all :P

 

Live music during lunch ;)

After another 4 hours' journey we got to FLAMINGO! On the pacific side of Costa Rica. No worries about the Tsunami, it's not going to come here. Don't be sad! I might stay here so you won't have to cope with me anymore! Jajaja Don't get your hopes too high on this option... but if it can help you...I'm going to study in England for a year so I won't come back to France before october 2012...if I DO come back one day :D

Well, anyway! When we got to Flamingo, we met up with all the tica's family and let the kids going with their own family. I also have my tica family and... how to say that... I LOVE THEM! They are just so so nice!

I live with the grandparents: Marlene and Carlos. But their daughter lives next door so their granson and grandaughter are always in the house: José is 9 and his sister Kiany is nearly 3. She was dancing all the time, it was so cute!!!!

We had rice and chicken with a salad I had never tasted before but which was very nice: potatoes + eggs + beet + mayonese. Nice ;)

Bed time at 8:30...every day sooner!!

Hot Spings in Arenal

12/03/2011

4 hours trip from Monteverde to Arenal. Long? Yes... Regrets? NONE!!!!! On the way and about half an hour from the volcan we had a stop to have a look at the biggest lake of Costa Rica which is also the biggest human construction ever done in the country. We had a fresh coconuts milk...but when I said fresh I really mean it! Can you imagine fresher than that:

The Tico just openned it in front of us and put the straw in it. Very tasty!

Getting to Arenal we were able to see the famous volcano. I thought we were climbing a bit on sunday but it won't happen as the last who tried in 2006 died because of the heat and the toxic gaz...huum better to do to the hot springs!

Can you find an animal on the picture?

We had some free time to enjoy our hotel and it was time to go back to work...leading the group to the hot springs and going with them to look after them...LOL Who am I kidding?? Well it's true that it was part of my job but I enjoyed it immensely as you can imagine! It was very relaxing and we had a lot of fun with my guinea pigs as I called them!

 

With a bar in the middle :D... But of course expensive^^

There were also 3 slides and that were the kids spent most of their time. They weren't allowed to do the middle one because it was a dangerous one. There was an sign to alert you that if you get hurt, you cannot blame it on the company.... Nice sign ;-) You can speed up to 45km/hours and the drop is quite brutal...to be sure it wasn't safe for them, as a good chaperonne, I had to try...hadn't I ? ;-) It was very fast and a bit scary but I had a lot of fun. It's true that for 12-13 years olds it's too dangerous because if you lie down as you usually do in those kind of slides because of the speed, you can badly heart yourself. Just before my 2^nd slide on the middle one (well I needed to check if my first impression was the good one ^^), all the kids were around me because the entrance of the third slide was just next to the middle one and we heard a big “BOUM” and just after a scarry yell. I still went down and enjoyed it a lot but when I got there we saw the girl who had scream and she was crying in her dad's arms. She oppenned her head because she put it back sliding down.... At least the kids were no more arguying to take this one ;)

 

We had a great realxing time in hot water.

 Dead? No, just enjoying ;)

Back at the hotel and in bed at 9pm and slept as a baby until 7 next day....PURA VIDA!

 

View from our room ;-)

SKY TREK

11/03/2011

Today was Sky Trek day! Their slogan is very true: flying over nature! It was very nice and fun. A bit scary at first because it was very windy but the view we had from the cable was so nice. For those who don't know why Sky Trek is: you are going down metalics cables suspended above the ground. Better not be afraid of heights ;-) Very funny!!

Photos are going to be better than text ;)

 

Wild animals in cage ;-)

You cna see Arenal's volcano