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!