Marcel the monkey and live sand-dollars
Sorry that I haven't updated the blog in a while. The internet here has been acting up and I have had a very busy weekend. Also school has really picked up since we are teaching now and have to make lesson plans and materials all the time.
I taught my first lesson last Thursday though and it went really well. It was with a partner and I feel like that really helped for the first time. On Monday I taught my second lesson by myself though and it went pretty well too, but I went over my time and we were not able to finish all the activities that I had planned. So for my lesson tomorrow I will be working on classroom time management. I am actually a little bit nervous about my class tomorrow because it is a beginners class and some of the students could literally know very little English, which makes it hard as a teacher to explain activities and vocabulary. There will most likely be lots of acting things out tomorrow and talking with my hands (which I already do so that helps).
On Friday after class I went to the weekly fruit and vegetable market that they have in Quepos. It is so much cheaper to buy your produce here compared to the supermarkets and it is also much more fresh. I bought a whole pineapple, two little mangoes (its not quite mango season here so the ripe ones are rather small), and this delicious thing called coco de miel. It is essentially half of a coconut that they fill with sugar cane that they have boiled and condensed for hours with coconut in it. It might as well be called coconut crack cocaine because it is sooo good and you cannot stop eating it. Now mind you I got all of this for about $4, so I would consider that to be a good deal.
I taught my first lesson last Thursday though and it went really well. It was with a partner and I feel like that really helped for the first time. On Monday I taught my second lesson by myself though and it went pretty well too, but I went over my time and we were not able to finish all the activities that I had planned. So for my lesson tomorrow I will be working on classroom time management. I am actually a little bit nervous about my class tomorrow because it is a beginners class and some of the students could literally know very little English, which makes it hard as a teacher to explain activities and vocabulary. There will most likely be lots of acting things out tomorrow and talking with my hands (which I already do so that helps).
On Friday after class I went to the weekly fruit and vegetable market that they have in Quepos. It is so much cheaper to buy your produce here compared to the supermarkets and it is also much more fresh. I bought a whole pineapple, two little mangoes (its not quite mango season here so the ripe ones are rather small), and this delicious thing called coco de miel. It is essentially half of a coconut that they fill with sugar cane that they have boiled and condensed for hours with coconut in it. It might as well be called coconut crack cocaine because it is sooo good and you cannot stop eating it. Now mind you I got all of this for about $4, so I would consider that to be a good deal.
This weekend I went to the beach both Saturday and Sunday and now I definitely have a lot more color than I did before. I am happy to report that I haven't gotten sunburned yet thanks to the SPF 30 that I put on every place that the sun could even think of touching. As usual I posted up under a mangrove tree (they provide the best shade) to keep from getting burned but also to keep from getting too hot in the sun. I get hot just sitting in the shade so I can't imagine actually tanning here, but people do actually do it. Now granted these people can actually tan whereas I just burn. On Saturday I found a sand-dollar in the sand, but I thought it was strange that it was brown instead of the white ones I have usually seen on the beach. Then I felt something tickling my hand and upon closer inspection the sand-dollar was actually still alive and moving all of his little arm things in my hand. It was a little freaky, I'm not going to lie. So I quickly deposited him back into the water and have vowed to only pick up white sand-dollars from now on. I also tried to pick up a shell in the surf but it was sort of stuck in the sand. This is because it was a snail. A little gross so again I will have to be more careful with what I pick up on the beach. Saturday we stayed at the beach until sunset so I have some pretty pictures of the sun setting over the ocean.
Sunday I went back to the beach in the morning and finished by book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (pretty interesting by the way) and then went back to our Sunday spot: El Gato Negro to get lunch by the pool for 50% off. I got fresh pineapple juice, a bowl of gazpacho (which was the best I have had since Spain), and a tomato and mozzarella sandwich with french fries all for under $10. I also got to lay by the pool for about 3 hours and nap. I will most likely be going back next Sunday like the rest of the students at TEFL.
Yesterday I went back to the beach since I had a day off (my only one until the end of the course except for the weekends). While we were under the mangrove trees a family of monkeys came along above us. They were white-faced or capuchin monkeys (think Marcel the monkey from Friends!!). This was the first time I had seen the monkeys outside of the national park and again they are soo cute! Luckily they didn't try and steal our food or anything though because they have been known to do that. They just continued on their merry way in the trees looking for bugs and fruit to eat. I started reading The Alchemist yesterday on the beach and I really like it so far and would recommend it to read. It is short with easy language but with a great message about following your dreams.
Ok well I have to get back to working on my lesson plan for tomorrow but I will try and update in a more timely fashion this week. Hope everyone is enjoying the holiday spirit because I am still in denial that it is December and that Christmas is coming soon.
Above is a picture of the mountains from my school. It is outside of Quepos and really beautiful and peaceful here.
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