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We have happily glided into the dry season here in Monteverde. That means that there are only intermittent rain showers throughout the day (not torrential downpours)and a refreshing, but constant mist looms in the air. I´ve learned not to leave my graham crackers out of their ziplock bags at night, because I wake up to a pile of mush by my bed. We´ve had a few heavy rains since I´ve been here, one during which I naively wore flip flops and a skirt down to town, only to end up falling down part of the hill and arriving to ¨the discoteque¨ completely covered in mud. I´m not exactly sure how people stay clean around here, but I´m not good at it. Apparently, I´m also not so great at staying on my feet, because during our hike to San Luis on Sunday, I fell into the river, bruising my arm and back. The retelling (and retelling, and retelling) of the mishap has provided endless entertainment to the boys. Speaking of walking, I´ve begun to train for La Caminata, a fundraising walk from Monteverde -- Tilaran, 100K!! One other intern and two of the employees at the school have signed up to tackle the entire walk. Other people will be forming relay teams. It´s supposed to be a great turn out. The walk is held each year to raise scholarship money for the school. It takes place in the middle of March...I´m supposed to brace myself to walk for 24 hours straight. (Send Gu).

As for yesterday. It was quite a day. Stitch, the family cat died, and Juan Pablo jabbed himself with my EpiPen, and consequently spent the majority of the evening in the local clinic. He came home teary and tired with a mound of gauze wrapped around his little hand. Today, however, he was bouncing around the house and proudly showing his injection wound. So, lethal encounter of poison to Stitch and adult dosage of Epinephrin in Pablito´s hand/arm left the house a little shaken last night. Nevertheless, the boys and I headed back to the Synthetica to watch another soccer match. Again, we walked the 30 minutes home together with our trusty flashlights and talked about things like the bandits who lurk in the woods and the gang of men who held up the bank last year. They also tried to convince me to visit the bull pasture, but I thought we had experienced enough misadventure for one day.

The school day is going well today. It´s a beautiful day in Monteverde; sunny and in the 70s. I had my first Spanish lesson on Monday and my first salsa class is next week. Looking forward to spending this weekend in Samara, a small beachtown on the Nicoya peninsula about five hours west of here. About 12 of us are renting a house there.

I´ll write more later and will try to post more pictures soon.

Chau.

This Sunday is Costa Rica´s national elections. This entails, not only that countless vans with loud speakers and music are parading up and down the neighborhood streets at all hours of the day and night, but also that no alcohol will be served from midnight last night until the election results are announced Sunday evening. I guess this became national policy not too long ago (within the past ten years), after riots ensued during the elections. Anyways, it was interesting at Bar Amigos last night. Around 11:30pm, the bartenders were pulling the bottles off the shelves and out from under the bar, both full and already opened, and selling them to bar patrons. Then at midnight, about 10 police officers came in to empty the bar and lock the area.
In other news, I tried to upload some photos onto the site. Not sure how you can access them, because I don´t see a link to ¨Photo Gallery¨ on this page, but I¨ll look into it more. Unfortunately, after loading five pictures, it claims I´ve exceeded my upload limit, but I´ll check into that too.
Tomorrow, I´m going hiking in San Luis about an hour and half north of here. It´s a four hour hike down to one of the bigger waterfalls in Costa Rica - I´m looking forward to it.
That´s all from here for now. Stay warm!

Kathryn

So, my first week is almost over. It´s been great and I´m finally starting to feel comfortable in my routine here. I took the boys to a night soccer match a la synthetica (an indoor lighted soccer arena). We took a cab there and at the end of the game, attempted to get a ride home from one of the other teachers. Unfortunately, his car broke down in the pouring rain, which we then pushed down a hill (Marlon, the 8 year old was fully pushing the car while Roy directed him with a flashlight). We then walked about 40 minutes home at 10pm. Roy wanted to walk without the flashlight on, but Marlon and I were afraid of the dark. Luckily, Yuri didn´t seem upset that her boys came home soaking wet, about two hours past there bedtime. Later, Marlon came into my room and asked if we could do that every night.

In other news, I´ve attempted to go running twice; fell once and got chased by a dog the other time. It´s impossible here. One of the other teachers trains for ultra-marathons and gave me some ¨relatively flat¨ trails. I guess they´re ¨flat¨for an ultra-marthoner, because about fifteen minutes into my run, I was slumped on the curb outside una soda drinking gatorade.

Going salsa dancing tonight a la Taberna (Karyn, you know it well!). Hoping to post pictures on the site this weekend. More later.

Ciao,
Kat

So life here is wonderful but hard on the legs. I walk about 4-10 miles a day, most of it which seems uphill. Marlon, my 4th grade hermano costa ricense walked to school with me this morning and it was not wise to race to the top. I arrived to orientation completely flushed and pretty much of of breath.
More about my family; I couldn´t type much yesterday because the boys were reading the email aloud to me as I wrote it. Anyways, the house is tiny, but immaculate. Though cucarachas (cockroaches) roam free in Costa Rica. I´ve already found two in my bags (one was my lunch bag). Anyways, for the past two nights I´ve been sleeping in a room with Yuri and the four boys because there is another exchange student in the other room. He left today, so I think I won´t have to nestle in a bunkbed with Juan Pablo tonight. The boys are awesome. Roy is 10 and obsessed with soccer. He´s amazing and is being recruited by the San Jose farm team so he travels to San Jose, all by himself(!) about three times a month. They want him to practice full time and go to school in the city but Yuri thinks he is too young! I can´t even believe he boards the local bus to San Jose and braves the five hour ride all by himself. Marlon is 8 and much quieter than Roy and loves being outside. He is very proud of his school and walked me around many of the trails connected to the campus. The school is huge and sits in the middle of preserved cloud forest land. There are tree houses, and gardens, and outdoor classrooms. It´s such a contrast from most schools in the states. Sebastian may be my favorite. He´s five and is so sweet and curious, but also shy. He´ll just stare at me, or come sit on the bed next to me really close without saying anything. He wakes me up for school in the morning, seeing as though he´s sleeping about 5 inches away from my face. Juan Pablo must be part American because he´s an animal. He´s two years old and the loudest little man in the house. He calls me muchucha at the top of his longs, and he careens down the driveway in his tricycle when I come home. He also feels free to rummage through my bag and carry my belongings around the house. Yesterday I woke up from a nap with him pretty much sitting on my back.
The school seems like a great place to work and the interns an interesting and fun group of people. A lot are here for student teaching credit, or are interested in conservation work. Half of the full-time teachers are American. There are 220 students total. Approximately 1 student from each graduating class goes onto to college after high school. 1 from a class of about 20, which seems low, but actually many Costa Ricans stop formal education after 6th grade. They are trying to create a study exchange program in the U.S. for graduating seniors. I´m really interested in helping with this project, so all my teacher-friends out there, I may be contacing you for information.
I stopped by the Monteverde Institute today which is a research institute in town which works on mostly environmental, reforestation and sustainable development projects, but they also have a few (unforutnately dwindling) public health programs. I´m excited about the opportunity to help them with some grant writing proposals. They have some domestic violence and HIV prevention projects in place that are sorely underfunded.
Went to a Flamenco show at a bar last night, which was awesome. It made me realize how much I can´t dance. Still, we´re starting salsa lessons at school next month and I intend to take full advantage. We also can take yoga and Spanish free of charge. Going camping this weekend and to the Nicoya coast for some beach next weekend. Until then, I´ll be eating rice and beans and trudging up hills.

Adios. Voy a escribir mas luego!

Kat

Hola mi familia y mis amigos!

I made it to Monteverde safe and sound last night. I just about missed my bus out of San Jose, but thanks to my "loco" cab driver we chased the bus for almost two miles and convinced it pull over. Ten minutes after I got on, we got a flat tire, so the trip was a little longer than expected. I met my very special familia costa ricense. Roy and Yuri (mom) were the only ones awake when I arrived and thankfully Roy´s English is very good! The house is very close to school and to town, though the hill leading to the school is at a 180 degree incline. We all bunked together last night and had pancakes for breakfast this morning. The boys showed me the school a little while ago and it´s beautiful; set in the middle of the mountains with lots of trails and gardens. My first day is Monday which is Cien Dias de escuela - a celebration commemorating 100 days of school. I´m lucky because the weather is beautiful today, sunny and warm and the boys are taking me around town.

Ok, that´s all for now. I will write more later. I already have some pictures to attach, but I´ll figure that out another time.

Hasta luego,
Kathryn