Back Home for Awhile

Make the choice to embrace this day. Do not let your TODAY be stolen by the ghost of yesterday or the "To-Do" list of tomorrow! It’s inspiring to see all the wonderfully amazing things that can happen in a day in which you participate.
Steve Maraboli

Great that this quote should show up.  It is something I have struggled with all my life.  Most of the time it had been looking at what I had to do tomorrow.  Always, always looking and planning ahead.  Some of this cannot be avoided, especially when raising children.  You have to always be a few steps ahead while raising a family.  And since the split with the husband, of course I have spent waaaay too much time looking back.  Remembering good times, trying to remember the bad to help me look at the marriage in a real light instead of having rose colored, retrospect glasses on, trying to figure out where, when and how it all went wrong.  So lately I have tried more and more to just enjoy and be in the now.  Costa Rica living really helped me do that and I can't wait to get back.  Something about the way the native Costa Ricans live and believe.  For the most part, they have not bought in to our American way of life in regard to bigger, better, faster, richer.  They are more laid back and seem to just enjoy life more.  They also go by their own time which is affectionately referred to as "Tico Time."  Which is not unlike island time.  :)  All of them running about 15-20 minutes behind.  We actually were instructed and expected to go round up our learners for our class about 5 minutes before class started.  The instructors warned us that they would not show up on their own accord.  One of our responsibilities was to go and gather them.   LOL  Now remember, the learners we had at the school were not little children or teenagers.  They were mostly young adults and business people.  Tico Time!!!

 

When I got up this morning to go to the airport, I was looking forward to coming back to Colorado.  I was a little tired of living in someone elses house, as wonderful as my host mom was.  (She cried last night and this morning when saying good bye)  I was missing friends and family back home a little and I was really looking forward to cooling down for awhile.

 

As great as it is to be somewhere else, there is no place like home and for right now, Colorado is still home to me.  But something very strange happened as we got closer and closer to Colorado.  I began dredding coming back.  It started to dredge up memories and feelings I didn't want to have.  It was bringing back old mind sets that I did not want to have anymore.

 

In Costa Rica I felt free and alive again.  Coming back to Colorado was feeling heavy and uncomfortable.  I knew then that I would definitely be moving back to Costa Rica in May.  It just feels right for me at this time in my life.  I don't know if I will stay a year, two or the rest of my life.  But very surprisingly, Costa Rica is already calling to me to come back.  And I plan on answering the call.

 

Now that school is out and I am back in Colorado, I will have more time to write here for awhile.  For anyone who does not know, I am having hip replacement surgery next Monday.   That is why I came back for awhile.  I am really looking forward to having this done as I have been in a lot of pain with my right hip for many years.  So remember me in your prayers, wish me luck, send good mojo, whatever.  I will keep you posted.

 

I will catch up and post pictures of my great weekend in Monteverde tomorrow.

Self confidence is the most attractive quality a person can have. how can anyone see how awesome you are if you cannot™t see it yourself?

Uknown

Ok everybody,  I have to say it, I'm freaking awesome!!!!   Just finished the TEFL program.  I am not sure where or when I will ever use it, though I am planning on using it for sure.  I just can't believe that this program that I sarted clear back in November, whimped out, freaked out and dropped, I came back and finished it.  What a wonderful feeling of accomplishment! 

This experience has changed my life by totally changing my perspective.  It has changed how I feel about myself, how I look and feel about the world around me and what is truly important in life.  I have been blown away at the quality of the program, the people involved in it, administration through teachers.  And I have especially been blown away at the kids, yea they are kids, that came through the program with me.  They accepted me as a peer from the word go.  Even though I joined them two weeks into their program and  even though I am old enough to be some of their grandmas. (only one :)   Even David, who is 25, feels he has lived his life to the fullest, doesnt care if he dies today because he doesn't want to end up in a nursing home.  Ha ha.  I have made life long friends who I plan to keep in touch with no matter what.  I am learning another language, another culture, another life.  I will never be the same person because of this experience.  What is that saying, once your mind has been stretched, it will never fit back to where it was before.  Mine has been stretched in many, many ways.  All for the good!

Here is a picture of my last TEFL practical teaching class.  With Andrey, Karen and Yanixia.  Karen lives at home with her family.  She is still young.  Andrey is taking classes at the University to become an architect.  Yanixia is married with the cutest little one year old baby.  They were wonderful students.  I couldn't have been luckier than to be broken in by them.

 

And really, you have no idea how hard it is to post these blogs with these Spanish/English hybrid keyboards.  To get the @ sign, you have to sype 64 while holding down the Alt button.  Crazy!  So forgive any typos or weird characters because you never know what you are going to get.

 

Yesterday Caitlan and I went downtown San Jose to the artisan market.  It was very cool and they had some intersting stuff.  However, a true artisan market it was not, for the most part.  There were a few vendors who had handmade stuff but the majority of the products, while made in Costa Rica, were mass manufactured.  I did buy a cute bracelet and a little verde backpack.  I also bought a few other gifts.  

 

We had lunch at a great local restaraunt that I would highly reccomment.  It was called Nuestra Tierra.  Our Land.  Traditional tico food.  We had awesome octopus and shrimp civice and a platter which is shown below.  It had fried plantain, black beans, fried yucca, a pork dish (can't remember what it is called) chips, tortilla, corn on the cob (wierd) and the best pico de gallo  I have ever had.  All for $32.00, not each, total.  We had already eaten our fill when the picture was taken.

 

 

Right across from the restaraunt was the Costa Rica National Museum.  I will save touring it for another day but Caitlan told me it is pretty cool.  It used to be an old fort.  You can see huge bullet holes in the side of the castle like turret.

Took the bus back to Maximo and hung out awhile, then headed home.

 

 

 

Todays inspirational quote.

 

Our lives are the only meaningful expression of what we believe and in Whom we believe. And the only real wealth, for any of us, lies in our faith.
Gordon B. Hinckley

 

I have become wealthy finally.  Not in money but in my faith, my compassion and much more wealthy in my understanding of myself and the world.  I pray everyday that my life can become more and more an experssion of what I believe.  Others can choose to accept, believe, doubt, hunger, gripe, be thankful, whatever.  I am just happy that I have found more of my authentic self and am able to express that, however it is taken.  I will never again be under the yoke of someone elses, expectations, judgement, beliefs or values.

 

So happy to be me.  I'm freaking AWESOME!!!!!!

 

On my tour the other day I saw this White-nosed Caoti.  Took a cute little video of him.  Poor baby had to scratch those fleas.  They are a relative to our North American racoon.

 



Past few days.

The past few days have been extemely busy.  I taught two classes yesterday.  This is practical teaching week so we teach students all week.  The class went very well and I developed a good repore with the students.  I had three, Andrey, boy, Karen and Ynixia, both girls, although Ynixia is a mom of a little girl, one year old.  My class is Pre Intermediate level so they have a good grasp on basic English.  I had to teach grammar yesterday though, Static Verbs.  Fun, fun.  And actually it was fun. 

After class I went on got a tattoo.  I have always wanted a tatoo of a little spider on the back of my neck.  As you can see, it is a little bit bigger than I first imagined it.  LOL.  It is the Golden Orb spider.  Native to Costa Rica.  The tattoo is pretty much life size I am told but I have not seen one of these yet and hope to never see one.  I am sure I will though.  I am very afraid of spiders.  Everyone asks why did you get a spider then.  I am not sure except I am ho;ing the tao of the spider tatto will make all spiders friendly to me.  \i hope, I hope!  The Pura Vida is basically the national saying here in Costa Rica.  It means Pure Life.  They say this as a greeting, like have a great day, or awesome.

 





It is not quite as big as it looks in the picture but it is good size. 

Day before yesterday \i went on a tour to the Irazu volcano.  It was pretty cool but if youve seen Mt. St. Helens blow like I have it was pretty unimpressive.  The views from up there, however were amazing.  It was a beautiful sunny day and we were above the clouds over the valley.
We then went to the La Basílica de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles.  the story of this particular church is that in 1635 a little girl found a doll in the woods.  She took it home and put it in her closet.  The next day she went to the woods and found another doll.  She was excited to have two dolls.  She went home and the one she put in the closet was gone. This happened three days in a row.  She then told the local priest about it.  \he locked the doll up and the next day it was gone.  He found it in the woods again.  So supposedly they have this sacred doll in the Basilica today.  I cant figure out how they are keeping her from returning to the woods though.  However, thousands of people flock every year to the religious center in what is called a "pilgrimage", gratitude or petition for favorse Basilica today.  I can;t figure out how they keep her from returning to the woods again now.  The picutre of the milagro, or miracle charms are below.  They bring these charms and give them to the church and pray for what the charm signifies.  \if they want a house, or kids or horses.  Or they pray for healing of their heart, arms, legs, eyes, lungs.  Any body part imaginable, they have a little charm for it hanging here

 

 

 

I have to go teach class now.  I will be back after to post more.

 

Day Off

Internet is down at my house so I came to the school to blog.  Of course, they have Spanish/English keyboards here so they have a lot of things on them that are different than the keyboards I am used to.

Today is our first day of from TEFL so we have a three day weekend.  However we all have so much homework that none of us really have the full three days off.  I'm going to do this blog then get some more stuff ready for teaching actual classes on Monday.  Going to the volcano Irazu tomorrow.  It is just over 11,000 feet and is the highest mountain in Central America.  If it is clear, they say you can see the Pacific oOcean and the Carribean ocean.  We will see.  It rained like crazy for about an hour again today.  Cloudy skies now but the clouds are high and it is not dark and gloomy.  Also going to the Orosi Valley and seeing a botanical garden that specializes in Orchids.  Pics of things I hope to see tomorrow are below.

There was a minor miscommunication with my host mother today. I was in my bedroom and  I thought she was asking me if I minded her cleaning our bathroom.  I said no, that was fine.  Then when I wne in there later to shower, she had taken my towels.  She had washes these mind you.  Beats them around in the sink and such.  I haven't watched her do it but I have have heard here down there scrubbing away.  Then she hangs them out back to dry.  Well, I didn't get any towels today because of the rain.  These are hand washed and hung to dry.  No machines at all.  I can't even imagine it.  At least she does not and has not had any children.  I can't imagine having to do that when all the kids were little and still at home. 

 

At lunch I asked her permission to take her picture.  She is like me and most women.  She really

didn't want me too, wanted to see it when I was done so she could approve it or not.  She thought it was ok.  I told her it was good.  So here is a picture of my host mother Slyvia and my housemate Kris.  She is from the US, I canñt remember where.  She completed TEFL and is now looking for a job.  I don't think she wants one very bad though because the school has already told us of three schools, including my school, Maximo, that wants to hire teachers in San Jose area.

So here is a picture of them.  And two pictures of my room. 

 

That's it for now.  Off to do some schoolwork.



Happiness

Finding happiness should not be seen as finding a needle in a haystack. Happiness is within. Each day is a blessing that brings an abundance of happiness. Therefore, finding happiness should be like finding a gift in a stack of gifts.
Steve Maraboli

I most definitely have a stack of gifts.  It took me awhile but I did finally realize that happiness lies within us.  It is not dependent on external forces.  We may have momentary saddness, depression and dissppointment but if we have happiness within ourselves, we will soon get over these and continue on with our happy lives.  I think this is a constant battle though.  It comes easier for some that others. 

It has taken me years and years to discover this for myself.  Now I guess some of the good things that has come from the divorce is that I no longer make long term plans.  I have learned to enjoy each day as it comes, because yes, tomorrow may never come.  You hear that all the time but besides that, tomorrow may come but not be anything like you were expecting or planning on. 

I have learned to trust God more with my life.  Not that I sit back and say, "God, here you go.  Do with me what you will."  I don't believe that is what God really has in mind.  But I do open my heart and mind a lot more to his guidance.  I don't feel like I have to do this all by myself anymore.  Whew!  What a relief!  :)  And I focus more on gratitude in my life than ever before and it is amazing how this affects your outlook on life and your happiness.

Here are today's pictures from Costa Rica.  The first one is the front of the place I have my home stay.  Only two keys to get in and out.  My last home stay had three keys.

 

This one is just a nice picture of a very welcoming home.  LOL  Nothing say's Welcome to our home like a 10 foot high cement enclosure, metal garage doors and razor wire on top of it all.

 

 Somebody must have gotten some really nice stuff because there is brand new razor wire over this fence.  It was actually quite beautiful and shiny in the sun today.  :)

Don't get me wrong!  Costa Rica is a pretty safe place.  We asked a native Tico about why they do this.  He told us Paranoia!  LOL  They do have petty crime and so that is one reason they do this.  I guess there is more theft here generally than in the US.  But remember, I am in the city too.  Out in the country most houses don't have metal gate enclosures and razor wire.  At this time they have WAY less violent crime that the US.  However, I have been told that this is starting to increase.  :(   As my daughter said, they are getting more and more Americanized, unfortunately.

This weekend I will be going on a tour to see a volcano and a botanical garden so I should be able to post more picturesque pictures, not just city pictures.  I can show you some of the true beauty of Costa Rice.  I know it is there.  I have seen it before.  :(

Costa Rica things

Today was a fun day at school but I have been here doing homework for hours, finishing my Grammar Essay and preparing grammar lessons.  These are very difficult lessons to plan, at least for me and at least right now.  So I thought I would share some Costa Rica wierdnesses.  (Is that a word?) 

Most people who live here have hot water on demand.  This means that you cannot turn the water on full blast and get hot water.  You have to turn the knob, not too much, not too little, but just right to get the hot water to come out.  This is very frustrating.  Plus, the hot water only runs for a little while, then you have to wait, I usually turn the water off for a couple minutes, then back on, for the hot water to kick in again.  This morning I got my hair wet, the soap on my hair, scrubbing some, before the hot water shut off.  I had to wait a couple minutes, adjust the water again, rinse my hair.  then off went the hot water again.  Put conditioner on while I was waiting for hot water again.  Then rinsed it off.  No bathtub at all.  So with this hot water issue and shower, someone please tell me how I am going to be able to shave my legs????

And tv shows?  Well, obviously most are in Spanish.  But they have a few stations that are in English.  However the only ones I have seen in English so far is one station that all they show are crime shows like CSI, Bones and those types.  And I have seen Dancing With the Stars and CNN on t.v.  I am sure with those being the only American t.v. they see, they think we are either all out killing each other in the streets or dancing in the streets.  LOL

Ok, here is another weird and gross thing.  Supposedly the sewage pipes here are not very large in diameter and clog easily.  Therefore, you are not to put your toilet paper in the toilet.  Yep, that's right!  You wipe and then throw the toilet paper in a garbage can.  I have always seen them lined with a plastic garbage bag but it is still really gross.  I mean think about if you have some really loose bowels, what your toilet paper is going to be like.  UGH!!   I can't understand why if the stools can go down through the pipes, why can't a little bit of toilet paper.

And yea, I am a little tired of rice and beans already.  They have them for lunch and dinner, EVERY DAY!  Oh well!  It could be worse.  It could be penis fish, which I only heard about for the first time today while playing a game at school.  The game, I Have Never, is that you hold up five finger on your hand, go around the room and take turns state "I have never........"  If you have done that, you put a finger down.  Loser is the first one to lose all their fingers.  So one person stated, "I have never eaten penis fish."  Well I hadn't either so I got to keep a finger up for that one.  :)
 

Back At Maximo

Let others lead small lives, but not you.. Let others argue over small things, but not you.. Let others cry over small hurts, but not you.. Let others leave their future in someone else's hands, but not you.
Jim Rohn

Gosh, another very appropriate quote.  Not that I think anyone is really leading a small life.  All my friends in smalltown Washougal, most of them I know are not leading small lives.  Small lives come from small minds and really, everyone I am friends with have very open minds, have looked beyond the small town mentality and I enjoy discussing small, medium and large things with. 

This quote though speaks to me about finally taking my future into my own hands, FINALLY, and not allowing anyone but myself to direct and decide it.  Well, God has quite abit to do with it too.  :)  So ok, me and God are working together on my future.  But that's it, no one else.  I will compromise with others but that is still going to be my choice.  I still have the power to make that compromise. 

With all that in mind, I was back at school, Maximo Nivel, today. First time in 22 years actually.  Here is a picture of our classroom, empty at that moment but soon had 3 English learners sitting in those chairs and we teachers, writing madly on that white board.  Had to give 20 minute mini-lessons today.  It was fun and exciting.  This afternoon from 4-6 I observed an already practicing teacher teach a class.  He was awesome!!  I learned so much just from watching him.  He had a great repore with his learners. I really am excited to help people learn English.  It is so rewarding.  Interesting that he calls himself T.J.  My trainer at 24 hour fitness was called T.J. too and he, like this one, was passionate and loved what he was doing by helping people.  Two great guys names T.J.

My grammar paper on auxiliary verbs is done but I still need to write three lesson plans on how I would teach that.  Luckily, the school keeps previous students grammar papers and lesson plans on file so I can look at those and get some great ideas.  I don't have to totally reinvent the wheel.

We had a break between class and I went to my friend Caitlan's house.  she has been here about 6 months teaching.  She rents a house nearby.  I had to catch a bus to get there but she told me which bus, how much it cost (50 cents) and what to say to the bus driver in Spanish so that he would know where to tell me to get off.  Don't ask me to repeat it, she texted it to me and I just read it (I'm sure poorly) from the text she sent.  I must have came close enough though as he told me the right stop to get off the bus.  We had our gringo feast consisting of grahm crackers, cinnamon raisin bagels, Little Debbies and Giradelli chocolates.  These are all things she requested I bring from the US as they are hard, impossible or too expensive to buy here.  Oh, oh, and the most imporant thing that happened today.  She showed me where a good Chinese food restaraunt was.  It is so funny listening to Chinese speak Spanish.  Since they don't say their R's and Spanish emphasise their R's, it is pretty amusing to listen to.  But good food!  And cheap!  Enough chicken and veggies for three meals cost $7.50 US dollars.

And I got to see Mario, Ricardo, Kim, Chelsea and Mckenzie again.  It was so great seeing all of them.  All in all, a pretty good first day back at Maximo.