Estoy famosa (I'm famous!)

So I made that title up... I don't really know how to say that. I do that fairly often and every once in a while a made up word is actually a real word. Fun!

I got two new students this week, one of which does not speak English. The other is a really joyful little gringo... when someone asked him to answer a question about money at Calendar he said with great enthusiasm and joy, "I've never done THAT kind of Math before!" What a cutie! The other new student's mom is from Switzerland and speaks Swiss and German to him at home. His dad is from Columbia and speaks Spanish to him at home. So at the age of six, he's working on his fourth language (English). Isn't that crazy? I'm amazed at how much experience and transition so many of my students have gone through. I found out this week that Andrew was born in Japan, lived there for three years, then moved to Scotland for two years, and is now in Costa Rica while his parents study at ILE and serve here for three years. Wow!

I also found out recently that Andrew's family lives on the very next street over from where I live. So close! Not as many families live over this way from ILE because it is a bit of a walk from school. They had me over last night and both mom and dad as well as the five boys are just really solid, sweet, joyful people. Great storytellers as well! I really enjoyed it! Students asking me to hang out with them outside of school is becoming quite the trend. I went to a game night at Mackenzie's house on Friday. For about half of the time he just stared at me because his teacher was at his house, and he was so excited!

It's possible I'll get up to three new students in the next week. Several parents of hte kindergarten class have been talking and want their kids to move up to first grade... I told the principal I'd teach whoever he puts in my class, but asked him if it would be possible to wait a week, so that I have desks and books for the new kids. That would make the transition much smoother for all of us. I will need to rearrange my room if that happens...it will be pretty tight to be able to fit three new desks in there, but we can do it if we need to. (This is where the I'm famous title would fit in! Ha ha!)

I think some kind of shift is happening within me. It's the end of week number five. I know because I just opened one of the notes that the NMSI people wrote me. You will be proud to know that I have had self-control and only opened one a week...so far! The first few were from Erin S., Joe B., and Matt B. They totally made me cry. Anyways, that's how I keep track of how long I've been here because the envelopes have numbers on them. I was telling my tico family about the notes a while back after my tico dad passed by my room and caught me holding one up to the light to try to see whose handwriting was inside there. Ha ha!

Mary and I decided to celebrate our one month in Costa Rica anniversary (Sept 23) by going to the beach next weekend. That's like a get on a bus and travel to another part of the country kind of adventure...my first one here! We are going to ask several other teachers from school to come. Actualy we're going to make them invitations iwth markers and such so they feel special even if they can't come. I am reminded over and over how nice it is to be invited...

Along the same lines, Mary, Esther, Maureen, and I (new teachers at Sojourn) have been getting together once a week to celebrate having completed another week and to try out local food places that people have recommended to us. We were going to try out a restaurant called Fresas (strawberries) that I've heard has great smoothies, but we ended up going somewhere else. Hopefully we'll try that next week! More or less, I've been coordinating the celebration effort, and we're trying to invite new people to come with us each week so we get to know them better (gringas and ticas). It's like a little unity movement. So far it has gone really well, and we've had a lot of fun!

Ana, a mom of one of my students, is a teacher at ILE (The Spanish Language Institute), so I asked her if she'd be willing to practice Spanish with me once a week while her son (Federico) is at gymnastics practice....she's got to stay at school until he's done anyway, so she's already here. She said YES, so I will start tutoring with her on Mondays. On Wednesdays, I tutor with Mau, another teacher at Sojourn. I feel like maybe my accent is changing a little and that I'm slowing down when I talk to try to use all the right tenses instead of talking faster and using just the tenses and forms I know well. This is kind of exciting because I couldn't tell a difference in my Spanish at all for the first few weeks.

Keep praying, friends! There are still really lonely and sad times. There are tons of cool people to pursue friendship with! There is still a great need for rest. I love you all!

Lucitas (Little Lights)

San Jose is surrounded by mountains. Some mornings are a little darker or foggier than others, and lights dot the sides of the mountains. I wonder if all the people in those houses are awake too when Mary and I are running. When I don't see the lights, I miss them. They're like a little gift, a bit of hope, something special. God has given me several little gifts of hope over the last week or two. I still cry multiple times a week because I miss people at home, but I have attended a Bible study in Spanish, cashed my first check from work at a Costa Rican bank, successfully finished an Open House at school with impromptu conferences with parents in Spanish, found out about a Spanish prayer group on Tuesdays that I hope to attend for the first time this week, traveled downtown by bus, traveled to another city for a picnic on Independence Day (Sept. 15).

So where do I see light? I see it in the conversation with Esther that led me to start reading the Jesus Storybook Bible to my class each day after recess, during my typical read aloud time. The kids really like it, and we get into some neat discussions.

I see it in the idea to incorporate memorizing a Bible verse together into our Calendar time each morning at school.

I see it in the opportunity to stop class and pray for a student who was quite distraught about leaving a book at home for a special class and thought he would get in trouble.

Another time a student flipped a card to yellow in my discipline system and continued to cry and cry when we talked about what bad choices he had made and what he could do better. "Do you need a hug?" I asked him... "Yes." He stood up and walked right into my arms, and I just held him while he cried and reminded him about the good I see in him, how kind he can be, etc.

I see the light when two tica teachers that I want to get to know better "happen" to sit next to me right after I decided to pursue relationship with them. I was surprised at their eagerness to know me better, but remembered that everyone likes to be invited and wanted.

REQUESTS:
-balance between time spent teaching vs. language learning
-balance between pursuing relationships and language learning vs. resting
-Hispanic friends....that God will continue to provide opportunities to get to know Naome (the Music teacher), Alejandra (a Spanish teacher at Sojourn who also used to teach at the Spanish Language Institute), and Tammi at church better
-the dad of the family I live with just found out today that his mom has cancer
-several of my friends back home are having a really hard time, have been on my heart a lot lately
-visa stuff

Cosas Verdes (Green Things) y Punto de Vista (Point of View)

So green tends to mean "go" in the States, but when you see it on a sidewalk here, it means "slow down!" It rains so much here (an hour or more in the afternoon and usually a couple more hours at night), that the sidewalks are slippery with moss and other such green growth. It is very tricky to find dressy shoes that do not hurt your feet when walking 10-15 minutes to and then from work and also have substantial traction. Some days are a puddle hopping, green mold avoiding adventure more than others.

This week I started running with my friend Mary each day before work. We leave at 5:30am, which I am amazed about for two reasons. One that I have ever even done it----successfully woken up that early--- and second that it is becoming enjoyable and routine! I love starting the day off talking to my friend and being outside. I love that only five or ten other people in the world are visible at this time of day (okay, maybe a few more than that, but overall it is calm, still, and un-crowded). We can see mountains off in the distance, dotted with tiny lights representing homes of fellow Costa Ricans.

This morning when we went running, I took a tumble and somehow ended up even rolling over and skinning my right knee pretty bad, my right elbow and right hand and left hand a little, and slicing my left ring finger pretty bad on the inside, closest to my middle finger. Take a second to imagine where that part of my finger is. It will add you the baffling element of the story. How did it happen? It was a combination of slippery and drastic change in sidewalk tile spacing/almost like a step/I didn't even see it coming. Perhaps I had been distracted by the bakery we just passed that was oozing out amazing bread smells? I usually eat after I get back and shower, after the 10 year old in my tico family showers, and my tico mom gets up (about 6:30). Still, despite the blood, it was a beautiful way to start the day. Yesterday we stumbled upon a Japanese park that was the nicest city-block-sized park I've seen yet around here (I know of four within walking distance now). It even had swings! You never know what you'll find out there, and it has been such a blessing to see a little more of the city around me each morning. For the first two weeks, all I knew was the road between my house and the school, literally, and it was really bothering me. I wanted to know more about where I live!

Another funny incident happened Saturday, probably about a half hour after I blogged last week. I had been at my friend Esther's house using her computer to access the Internet. Earlier that day I'd put my keys in her purse for safe keeping as we went downtown to San Jose. As I left her house, it started to rain. Rain doesn't ever happen just a little here. Once this wee it was raining so loud for over half and hour I was literally screaming at my students about living and nonliving things. It was actually kind of funny. I guess it is a good reminder of who has power, is all powerful, you know? Anyways, it was raining pretty hard by the time I got back to my house (10-15 minute walk). I reached into the plastic bag I was carrying to look for my keys (it's safer to store small but valuable items such as cameras and such in common grocery bags that people carry around all the time, usually to transport their lunch from place to place because you're less likely to get robbed). I actually carry my keys in my hand for the most part, but that isn't the point. The keys were at Esther's, and I knew Esther was out getting a gift for a birthday party for one of her tico family members, so she wasn't at home and probably had her purse with her. The rain pounded harder...

I banged on the heavy, metal gates/bars/porton at the entrance to my house repeatedly, but none heard me. I screamed, "Alguien esta?" (Is anyone there?) as loudly as I could. No one heard me. No cell phone. No phone numbers memorized, though it's likely anyone I wanted to call would have 22 at the beginning of their number, that much I'd learned. My pants were getting wet at the bottom because the umbrella only covered so much of me. I chuckled. I had no idea what to do. I was helpless. Again. When one helpless thing at a time happens here, I usually think it's funny and do okay. When three or more happen at once, I get overwhelmed. I realized that the second gate to the house was open and the car was there, so someone was likely inside. I banged. It rained. I screamed. It rained. I just stood there. It rained. Finally, the dad came out. He said something to me that I didn't understand. The word abierta was involved. That means open. "What do you mean it's open?" I tried pulling the gate toward me. I tried pushing it away from me. I tried sliding it left to right. The gate hadn't moved.

So I learned that if I put my hand inside the gate and pull a small metal piece sideways, it will open if it's already unlocked. I laughed. I tried it. It worked. The gate had been open the whole time. I still laugh about that sometimes. And my tica family likes to remind me of it. It makes me think of a term I learned recently. I think it was at a Bible study I started going to on Wednesday nights with other people learning Spanish (there are several Hispanics that host it/attend too). Punto de vista, or point of view. From my point of view, I was helpless and locked out. In reality, I had more power to change my situation than I realized, and the door was open. I am not sure exactly what God wants to teach me through that yet, but I feel like he will remind me of this experience as an illustration for an upcoming lesson. Often things are simpler than they seem at first, but we get worked up and make them harder than they need to be.

One last amusing thiing: The school store where kids can buy food (vaguely like a cafeteria) is called Cosas. I thought that was a cool name and just called it "Cosas" without translating it. Recently I realized that it means "things." Isn't that a fun/funny name for a store? Another funny store I went to this week was called "Pequeno Mundo" or "Small World." It is vaguely like Sams, but smaller. I couldn't help but sing the "It's a Small World Afterall" song in my head on the bus ride to the store!

Prayer:
-deepening friendship with Mary and Esther, other teachers (praise!)
-having a group of friends to hang out with, regularly pursuing each other to hang out, probably for the first time in my life---it's four of us new teachers at school, which may at some point be named the "cuatro solteras" (four single girls)...mary's tico mom thought that name was hilarious and was almost screaming it and going on and on about it in the market in san jose and you can be sure we were turning red (praise!)
-deepening friendship with Naome, hispanic music teacher (request)
-wisdom about sweetheart of a student who may enter first grade that is not up to par in English per entrance exam, but is fluent in Spanish, Swiss, and German and grew up in Columbia... giving an official opinion on the likelihood of his educational success (request)
-student who was crying in the mornings has adjusted well (praise!)
-student from sweden who doesn't speak english or spanish is adjusting well, language learning (praise and request!)
-getting into a regular sleep routine (praise!)
-my tico family, celebrating Dia del Nino (Day of the Child) with them at the mansion-esque two story McDonals where I ate a McNifico burger and noticed there were paid workers to facilitate parking for the swarms of people who had the same celebration idea (praise!)
-a running buddy (praise!)
-possible regular internet connection (praise and request!)
-feeling more settled (praise!)

Eso Es (That's It)

Slowly I am learning routines here. Now I know the bathroom schedule in the mornings with the family I live with, where to take out trash, when clothes are washed, how to get to the houses of my two best friends so far (Mary and Esther, profesoras at Sojourn with me), have keys to the various gates to enter the tico house where I live. The more that I meet other tico families and the more I see other tico houses, the more thankful I am that the housing department at Sojourne placed me with this particular tico family. I consider the mom to be a cheerful introvert like myself; she's very helpful and friendly without being pushy or controlling. Adrianna helps me practice Spanish a lot, and says I know more and can understand more than the ten students she's had before me. What an encouragement! It's funny that it seems weird to be in places that only speak English...there was a gathering of singles not too long ago, both teachers at Sojourn and students at ILE (the Spanish Language Institute just up the hill from our school where the parents of our students attend classes). It was so familiar to play games and converse in English and eat hamburgers together, but so weird at the same time. Life here, and overseas in general I'm told, is full of paradoxes. One of the biggest ones yet is that I belong and don't belong at the same time. Sometimes it is hard to process when I feel two opposing things at the same time. Kylee actually talked to me a lot about that when she counseled me, especially how you can feel joy and sadness at the same time. Not too long before I left Florida, Matt told me that "to grieve is to love." I am in the midst of both a time of grieving and a time of celebration here. Overall, I live in the celebration, but when I slow down more and am quiet and still in the morning when I get up or at night when I go to bed, I remember, with tears, that I am grieving as well. So many of you have loved me so well in the last years, and I am so thankful for you! I miss you! At the same time, there are long stretches of time were I'm focused on my students and engaging in culture, and I forget that I haven't always lived here, that really I've only resided in Costa Rica for two weeks. So much can change in such a short time!

A few other thoughts:
Pinas, or pineapples, are common in Costa Rica, sometimes costing as little as $1 or 500 colones. Yum!

Cheese here is paler, has less flavor, is more dense, is cut in thicker slices.

Overall, my anxiousness about getting things ready for the school year has passed and turned to calmness. Thank you so much for your prayers in this regard. I have been trying to give myself grace for not having every bit of everything planned right when school started...you are probably chuckling about that....but by Monday I will have introduced all but one of the subjects. I recently realized I do not have a teachers guide for Social Studies or student books for the Guided Reading program. They are being ordered and will probably arrive in a week or so.

Sometimes when I think in English, there is a Spanish word or two that creep into each sentance. How fun!

Today Esther, Mary, Maureen and I (three other single girl teachers) went to downtown San Jose for the first time. It was my first time on a bus (just 50 cents to go downtown), and I learned that San Jose is named after a saint, saw some slightly mean/aggressive Spanish clowns performing for children, ate some incredible bread at a panderia, learned the word for cinnamon is canello, bought a cheap watch so I am not late taking my students to classes, and walked through open air markets that reminded me of living in Honduras. I especially like Mary and Esther, neither of who planned to come teach at Soujourn before July.

This morning I went running with Mary. It was nice to do something familiar, though also obvious that we are at a vastly different altitude/we have to go slower. I am excited to see more of the city this way as well as to get to know her better. We are hoping to go in the mornings before school a few days a week.

Jen and Erin, I have turned into you! I typically go to bed at 9:00pm and wake up at 5:30 or 5:45 to take a shower and get ready before Fabian (ten years old) needs to use the bathroom to get ready for school.

Jimena, two years old, is fairly egotistica (her mom's descriptor) and young enough that there is still a babyishness about her speech that makes it hard for me to understand her. However, a few days ago she climbed onto the couch right next to me and said quiet clearly and sweetly and softly, "Te amo." (I love you) I almost cried right there. Even just her climbing up on the couch next to me was a pretty big deal I thought. Christian accidentally calls me by his kids' names once in a while and Adrianna tells me that both Jimena and Fabian really are quite fond of me. I like them too.

It turns out that I met Stephanie and Josh, friends of the Fosters from MTI! What a small world! They attend ILE and live in the same house as my friend Esther, who teaches fourth grade at Sojourn. What a small world!

I am amazed both at Adrianna's patience with me as well as the fact that I can tell stories about growing up, people I love in Florida, things that happened in my day in Spanish. At some point this week Adrianna was telling me about her family and somehow I ended up telling her the story of Kylee and sharing pictures of the Bodens, friends, my own family.

I live in Bosque in San Fransisco de Dos Rios (The Forest) very near Parque Bosque. A few days ago I was walking home from school and discovered that one of my students lives directly opposite my house on the next street. How fun! His mom wants to have me over for dinner sometime. It is quite different working in a Christian school. We have chapel two times a week, a Bible study with teachers once a week, parents tell you that they are praying for you. The kids are really quite calm and hardworking, the classes are smaller. I have discovered that Costa Ricans really like to keep their floors clean. It makes me smile when we eat snack in the classroom or cut something out and a few of the ticos voluntarily go around picking up every bit of crumb or paper on the floor.

Requests:
A student who cries from 5-30 minutes each morning. It is hard for them, several of them arrived in Costa Rica right about the same time as I did.
A student who does not know any Spanish or any English. Her family is from Sweeden and is preparing to minister in Ecuador.
Rest, language opportunities. I start tutoring next week. I think the big push of planning/getting ready for the school year has passed, and I am grateful!