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| My High School Teachers group |
The past two months have been a whirlwind of great
things.
June was a trying yet
fantastic month.
In June, we
finished up the 5
th and 6
th conversation clubs of my
service.
Conversation clubs bring
teachers from all over the district together to speak English as well as share
ideas they use their classroom.
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| My Elementary Teacher Group |
June also brought the end to all institutional and circuito
spelling bees.
You can read about
the spelling bees
here.
All that
is left for spelling bees is our 1
st Annual Regional Spelling Bee
which will be August 6
th.
The reason for the title---My family visited at the end of
June!
I had been looking forward
to and planning this trip for ages.
It was my brothers’ first times out of the country and my dad’s first
trip to Costa Rica (you can read about my mom’s surprise visit
here).
They were great troopers and experienced live as we do.
They stayed in our house (see photos of
mi casa
here) and took buses.
I
loved hearing their thoughts and seeing their expressions as they saw things
that have become normal to me (throwing away used toilet paper, chickens
running around, no a/c, walking everywhere).
The first day was filled with eating local food, sweating,
and walking.
The second day was my family’s first time to snorkel and
they baby brother’s first time in an ocean that he can remember. The baby brother was the first of us to
jump into the ocean with his snorkeling gear on. He has no fear.
While snorkeling, we saw an octopus, a shark, eel, and
really colorful fish.
My brothers
dove down with the guide to see some of these cool things.
Seeing them come up after diving down
and high fiving the guide (from
Pacific Coast Dive Center*) out of pure excitement was enough for me.
While two of us got sea sick, the
siblings survived (the siblings have a HUGE distrust of throwing up so it was
an accomplishment to not throw up), we still had a great day.
After that, the boys basically dragged
the rest of us to the beach so they can play in the ocean.
We had to strike a deal with them to
get out before the torrential downpour ensued.
Day three was filled with hiking and meeting new
people.
One of my parents’
requests was to meet (and feed) some of our Peace Corps friends.
So we met up with three other
volunteers and two of their friends to hike
Rincón de la Vieja Volcano (the old women’s
corner) and then eat pizza.
It was
a 3-kilometer hike around a volcano.
Everyone was a trooper.
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| The Peace Corps Volunteers |
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| The Fam Bam |
Day four was the much-anticipated day at the beach for the
brothers. We brought our boogie
boards and dominated the water.
Again, I loved seeing my brothers search for sea shells, “punch” the
waves, boogie board, and basically smile the whole time.
The next day (day 5) was zip lining with
Pura Adventura*
(great company).
We came a way with some war wounds (a
“baby brother vacation”-aptly named because he got hurt almost every other
day).
Another first for my
brothers and dad.
While it wasn’t
a favorite for some, it still was a successful day.
Later that night we feed 6 of the 8 volunteers who live in
our cluster (Volunteers are placed near each other Costa Rica) and it was a
HUGE success.
The PCVs have
labeled it Taco Night and legend.
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| We are ready to conquer some fears! |
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| Some of the wonderful Volunteers who live near us |
Their last full day in Costa Rica (day 6) was another beach
day and then off to see a momma sea turtle lay eggs thanks. This was another awe inducing activity. It didn’t come without its
hiccups. It is the beginning of
sea turtle season here in Guanacaste and we were only ensured an 80% of seeing
one turtle.
We got to the beach and waited.
And waited.
And
some even fell asleep.
Finally,
our guide from
Samara Adventure Company* said, “No turtles tonight, I am sorry.” We marched ourselves back up
to the reserve station.
As we were
getting ready to leave our guide's telephone rings.
He says, “Verdad? En serio?
Ok, vamos.” He turned to us to announce with a smile on his
face, “There is a turtle!”
We
rushed back to the beach to see this one lonely momma sea turtle make a home
for her babies.
Day 7 was a tough day.
It was the day the family had to go back home. It wasn’t a terrible sad good bye because we were going to
see them again later this year and then be back in the States in 8 ½ short
months for good.
I cannot believe that their time here has already come and
gone (even though I am trying to convince the baby brother to come back for his
spring break or something). It was
a joy and treat, to see my family, show off where we live, and bring some of
our stories to life for them.
Stay tuned for Vacation-Part 2!
*I highly recommend any of these companies for tours while staying in Guanacaste, Costa Rica. They are bi-lingual and are very accommodating. They do not know I am writing about them.
