What we've been up to in the last week... and where we're going

In the last week, we and our Jan Term students have enjoyed a diversity of activities:

• Over the weekend (last weekend), while the students went off campus for home stays with host families for a couple days, we on staff at the CRC had some time to settle down, enjoy a couple of quiet meals out at some local restaurants, catch up on emails, a bit of work and planning, not to mention sleep, and to take a trip into San José for a day. It was a pleasant breather.

  

  We saw Barney and Baby Bop in San José central.

• Sunday evening, our 31 Jan Term students returned to us, and we enjoyed debriefing about their home stay experiences. One student accidentally told his host family he wanted a feminine hygiene pad instead of a bath towel (definitely a language error (toalla = pad. paño = towel)), another student went to a “Western cowboy” themed wedding with her host fam, and others got to go to a bañal, or pool facility heated by natural hot springs. All in all, their varied experiences were entertaining and educational! 
• Monday, students resumed their intensive Spanish language classes, while we 24/7s worked on planning the several activities for the next week. We took them on a “plunge” into downtown Heredia and ran some errands we had. I purchased some good hiking boots!
• Tuesday, after a morning of prepping and planning (followed by a power outage which downed our Internet and computer servers due to the very windy and stormy weather outside), we took the students to do a zipline adventure tour up in the cloud rainforest canopies of Barva. This was my first Canopy experience as well. I must admit, my abs were sore and I was feeling the effects of the harness in my gluts on Wednesday!



On a Canopy zipline, in a cloud rainforest in Barva


• Wednesday and Thursday mornings, we led our students in three service projects: working on maintenance at Glorioso Día, a facility for young troubled boys; working on renovation projects on our own campus (putting in pipes for rainwater runoff, constructing benches, lining the driveway and parking areas with decorative rocks, etc.); and hosting children and their mothers from the neighboring squatter families nearby the CRC, playing with noisy and fun children—leading games, music, and coloring—and chatting with mothers. Classes and lectures were held for the students in the afternoons, and we 24/7s worked on planning and made nighttime shopping runs downtown to grab supplies for the next days’ activities.

  

  Our students enjoyed getting to know and play with
  some of the neighbors who live near the CRC.

• Friday, we “TAS” (being TAs are a part of our duties as 24/7s) made a trip to Price Smart (which is Costco) to do the shopping for our upcoming trip. On our way back to the CRC from shopping, we got pulled over by policía who insisted that we carry our passports around with us at all times, and then conceded that it we should carry copies of our front page as well as a copy of the stamped page that marks our date of entry into the country. He suggested giving us a multa (fee) of nearly $600. Kristina was driving and her sarcastic, peeved air was pretty amusing to me, as Emily and Mandy and her boys sat in the back of the van. The cop was not a complete jerk, but it was just aggravating because it was totally an instance of racial profiling in pulling us over. In the afternoon, we briefed the students for the upcoming trip. We made packing lists and itineraries and prepped all the details for everything. Then we had to run out and do some more shopping for host family gifts and other supplies. The night was filled with Skyping with loved ones :).
• Saturday, today, we prepped for our trip while students were in lectures, and then in the late afternoon took students out on the town for the night in downtown Heredia. We also went ot the cine to watch Desamparado (Unstoppable), with Denzel Washington and Chris Pine. Going to movies here in theatre is so much cheaper than in the States
• Sunday through Tuesday, we will be taking the students on an extended gira, or field trip, going to visit an indigenous community on the Pacific side of the country, as well as going to a beach—Río Celeste and the indigenous Malekú area. It's about a 4-hour drive away from where we're at. We leave at 5 am tomorrow. Yeah, that's in 6 hours. So it’s off to bed for us now! I’ll update when we return!