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Monday, 24 December
I got up early this morning for I had an 8:30 pick-up to go hiking. I ate breakfast and made pb & j for lunch. I also packed lots of layers since I do not have a fleece. I got to Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve around 9ish and was immediately cold. I put on all of the layers that I brought and was able to maintain some warmth. The Reserve is higher up than the hostel so it was more in the clouds and more wet. The wind was also blowing so the combo of the two just made it fun! I decided to do the long trail which the board said was almost 5km, but based on my experience in Manuel Antonio, who knows how long it really is. The trail was muddy and wet. I know that I used the word muddy to describe the trails in Manuel Antonio. That was nothing compared to today. Luckily, my Keens did a good job of keeping my feet dry when the mud would sink up towards the top of my foot. For the first 1-2 hours, the mist was thick and I could not see more than 50 feet. As the trail went along the edge of a mountain, the sun came out a little and the visibility probably doubled or tripled. I kept thinking that I needed a hiking stick to help me navigate the mud patches and I eventually found one. It was a godsend until it broke in half towards the end and smacked me on the temple. Stupid stick, I didn’t really want you anyways. I was coming down into a trench that was about 2 feet deep. When I put my weight on it to swing down it snapped and man my head did not appreciate the thump to my nogin. I was already feeling a little bad due to the fried chicken yesterday (sidenote: no more chicken – especially fried!), but luckily the pain did not last too long.
Continue reading Getting Down and Dirtry
Sunday, 23 December
Got up and had breakfast. Romy gives you fruit, granola, eggs and toast and it was all great. Ralf and I then decided to go to the frog exhibit that we can see from our windows. The exhibit was alright but since we were there during the day, the frogs were all sleeping. Luckily, they said that we could come back tonight using our ticket so we could see the frogs in action. Well, not lucky for Ralf since he is living, but lucky for me. Overall, we saw about 2-3 frogs in each aquarium. I was disappointed that my camera could not focus on the frogs when I tried to zoom in, so no pictures of frogs. Overall there was about 15-20 aquariums and the guide gave us a pretty good description of each one like how many eggs they have, where they lay their eggs, how much typically survive (usually about 2%), that the tadpoles will sometimes eat each other and that even the mom will eat the tadpoles for food. Also, we learned that the poison dart frogs are named ‘dart’ because they jump in a darting style, not because they were used for poison on darts. This is what I thought the name meant. It is the poison arrow frogs that are toxic (can create a heart attack in about 6 seconds) that you need to avoid and apparently they are only in Columbia.
Continue reading Football!
Saturday, 22 December
I got up and started packing all of my clothes. After breakfast I packed some more and then went to the bus station to see Katie and Sean off. Others left earlier in the morning and that was just too early for me to get up. Katie and Sean had a 9:30 bus ticket, so that was more reasonable. Oddly, the lot the buses go into was blocked off for a party. Lana and Sara were on the same bus and they made it sound like this happens often. So the buses had to park on the street and block traffic. Just does not seem like a smart thing to do. Besides, who wants to have a party at a bus station?
Continue reading Now it Feels Like Winter
Friday, 21 December
After breakfast I filled out the feedback form. I usually suck at these but I have been thinking about it for awhile so I already had some items in mind that I wanted to talk about. I went to school early to scan my documents for uVolunteer. This gave me a good chance to use the Preview app in OS X and I was able to easily convert the scanned images into pdfs. Ahh, so nice not to deal with Acrobat. I then sent the email to uVolunteer with hopefully all of the documents that I thought they needed.
Continue reading Until We Meet Again…
Thursday, 20 December
I met Beth at the bus depot at 8:30 to go to the beach. We found the kayak rental place that Dorothy went to last week and we went kayaking. We went in a two seater for it was very choppy and the guy said the two-seater was more stable and better to use to get out of the waves. So we put on live vests, got our paddles and walked out into the water. The water was very shallow for a long time so we walked out a good distance. Then Beth and I got in and waited for the guy to tell us to start paddling. The waves were at least 4 feet tall and he was waiting for a calm spot so we could get out. While we were waiting waves were crashing over the front of the kayak and Beth and I were getting drenched. It kind of felt like white water rafting without moving or paddling. There was finally a calm point and he yelled ‘Paddle! Paddle! Paddle!’ and so we did. We made it out a little ways and passed a surfer who also yelled ‘Paddle! Paddle! Paddle!’. After we got through the waves and had a chance to catch our breathes I was reminded of Tom Hanks in Cast Away trying to escape the island. Our waves was no where as bad as his, but that is kind of the feeling we had. The water out in the ocean was rolling a lot, again about 4 foot swells. I did not pay any attention to this at first but after about a half-hour, I started to get queazy.
Continue reading Paddle! Paddle! Paddle!
Wednesday, 19 December
After breakfast I stayed at home for a little while to put my portfolio together. This consisted of all my lesson plans, the feedback from students and teachers, my self evaluations and my personal teaching philosophy (I teach, therefore, you learn). The real reason I stayed home is because the deli does not open until 9am and I wanted to pick up my sandwich on my way into school.
Continue reading Almost Done
Tuesday, 18 December
This morning I did not leave until after 9am. I decided to stay home and put my folder together since it is due Thursday night. We have to put all of our lesson plans, self evals, teacher evals, peer evals and materials into our ‘portfolio’. I then went to the deli to get lunch and headed up the hill.
Continue reading Next Adventure All Planned
Monday, 17 December
When I got to school I booked my bus ride to and hostel stay in Monteverde for this Saturday. I will stay there during the holidays and possible travel to other places in the area (i.e., Arenal). I had trouble scheduling the bus trip for it showed that there were two departure times 9am and 2:30pm. When I selected the 9am one it would not give me a list of month’s to choose from for the departure date. I sent then an email and they actually responded within an hour but they said that they do not offer the 9am trip anymore. And I was then thinking, so take the damn option off the website. Duh!!!! Sorry, the programmer/UI person poked its head out.
Continue reading Holy Crap, I Get Certified this Week!
Sunday, 16 December
Af breakfast Meilady asked to see pictures of my family and friends so I brought the laptop down to show her the pictures from the going away parties. Luckily Melissa (I finally asked how to spell her name and it is Melissa, not Meilssa – I was given a typo) was there to explain divorce and she was amazed at how many divorces are in my family. Afterwards, Leo brought a CD with his pictures and we went through those.
Continue reading Last Sunday in Quepos
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