I apologize that I have not written in a while, there have been a few things that have withheld my motivation to write in these past two weeks including traveling and sickness. Overall, things have been going well. I have continued to develop myself professionally as a teacher by learning as I go. Little by little, I am starting to become more confident when it comes to classroom management. Since classroom management is one of my weak spots, I am excited to continually grow in this area! Everytime I go into the classroom, it makes me both excited and anxious to have my own classroom. There are some days when I don't think I can do it, but there are other wonderful moments that reassure me that I am equipped to slowly begin my journey as an educator. I just have to remind myself that even for the most experienced of teachers, there are always moments of error and always room for improvment.
As for my travels, I recently went to Manuel Antonio which is about 4 hours from Santa Ana. Thankfully, I had another student teacher from COST, Sonam, to accompany me on the journey. Firstly, we had to travel to San Jose and take a bus from there that took about 3 hours. During that bus ride, I got to practice my spanish with an older man, Jose, that sat across from me. Jose only spoke spanish, but he was very amiable and happy to talk to me about different matters of life. We had a surprisingly deep conversation, and I was able to communicate fairly well with my developing spanish skills. For those who want to study abroad, it is so important to speak with as my people as possible. This does not mean that you have to have conversations with random people on the bus, but try to find opportunities to ask simple questions or comments like "How are you?", "*insert comment about weather*", "wow! the cab is very red!", and things of that nature. Speaking as much as possible means more experience, and more experience always equals an improvement in speaking the language.
Now, going back to the trip...Sonam and I stayed at a hotel about 10 minutes from everything including the National Park, and the public beach. The first day we arrived in the town, we did get to experience the beach, and it was pretty beautiful. We mainly sat and people watched, and I did not get sunburn! How exciting! Then the next day, we went to the National Park, and we got to see all kinds of monkeys, sloths, and insects. As we walked further into the park, we were able to stop at small private beaches, which are dispersed throughout the park. While walking, we definitely had to watch out for raccoons and monkeys, because they are not afraid to snatch your things. They are crazy intelligent! There was almost a moment where we were trapped in between two little monkeys, but thankfully we avoided the crisis. After 3 or 4 hours of walking until our legs were shaking like jello and our clothes were drenched in sweat, we ended up going to a restaurant that included an incredible view and an actual airplane in the dining area! It was beautiful!
Unfortunately, I had to bring back a souvenir called a "virus". I did not get seriously sick, but the virus did last for about a week, and I am just starting to recover. I am not exactly sure where I got it, but here is a note to those who want to travel in Costa Rica. DRINK BOTTLED WATER IF YOU ARE NOT IN A MAJOR CITY! This is a very important fact to remember, unless you want to get sick, which I do not encourage. Here are some pictures from the trip. Also, my teacher and I celebrated our "month-iversary" by painting pictures for each other. It was fantastic! I will be going to another location this weekend, so I will have more pictures to show.
Hasta Luego!
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