Please Pass the Epsom Salt

I would like to start by apologizing to my loyal readers. Time is flying by so fast here and it wasn’t until someone reminded me that I haven’t posted in a few weeks, that I even realized that I was so overdue.

These last few weeks have been pretty taxing both mentally and physically so you can read into the Epsom salt reference as either a metaphor or a literal request, though since my house doesn’t have a tub it wouldn’t really do me any good. Most of my time has been spent teaching, tutoring, and playing soccer on the women’s soccer team, so you can understand why I haven’t written in a while.

I really am enjoying teaching; however I still haven’t quite found my groove. It’s still very much trial and error. You think that you’ve planned a dynamite lesson, but soon realize when you see nine little faces staring at you blankly that you have some more work to do. I am really optimistic that I will figure it out soon (it’s the Capricorn in me, in addition to the fact that I don’t really have a choice). Most days are pretty good though; my students are usually really engaged and eager to learn. However, Friday was a test of my patience. My first graders didn’t get the memo that Friday is supposed to be an easy day and decided to lose their minds when we went outside for the first time for our English class. They were pushing and fighting and making me crazy. I had to give about three children time outs and had I not brought them in early, may have sat the whole class down; needless to say that they will become very comfortable inside from now on. Please pass the Epsom salt.

This weekend was probably the busiest I have been in a while. Yesterday was my cousin Alise’s quinceñera (15^th birthday, similar to a sweet sixteen) and it was a big deal. They rented a hall and had a huge party. Basically the whole town was there, in addition to all of her friends and family. My mom even invited one of the other volunteers, which was nice because I had someone to hang out with. It was so much fun. They had lots of different music styles and we danced the night away. I definitely forgot I was in Costa Rica at some points, the DJ played so much techno, reggae, and U.S. pop, that had I not heard so much Spanish, I would’ve thought that I was in a U.S. night club. Next, the drummers and dancers came in with their bass and we were all given masks, whistles, leis, and pom pom wigs so it was like we were at Mardi gras or carnival. Finally, we were taken to Mexico for the Mariachi band. As you all know I love to dance, so regardless of the music I was constantly moving. I did most of it in heels so needless to say my legs and feet weren’t too pleased with me. Please pass the Epsom salt.

Today is probably the day that I need the Epsom salt most. Today was my first soccer match. We played these girls from San Jose. They were actually short a player so we had to lend them one of ours. These women all wore pink and looked very girly. However, once we started to play, I soon realized how wrong I was. They were very aggressive and many of us took tumbles today. I was knocked down twice before I finally decided to start playing rough too (I realize violence is not the answer, so let’s just call it self defense). Unfortunately, we lost the match and if that wasn’t enough, the hill from the soccer field is a mountain, so once again: Please pass the Epsom salt.

P.S. I will also settle for Icy hot.

What just happened?

Februrary 4, 2012

I woke up this morning thinking I was going to lesson plan the whole day. My mother made breakfast and then she told me that she and my sister were going into the city for a few hours to do some food shopping. I figured I would go into the city with them and go to an internet café and send emails and do research which was perfect. My sister took her shower first and I decided since I had so much time to kill I would start my laundry, plan my lessons and be ready to go with them. After my sister got out of the shower I heard her conversing with my mother and my mother told her to ask me if I want to go. The question was do you want to go to the river? My mom told me that her cousin was going to take my sister and it would be nice for me to go and get to know the countryside. I thought it would be fun and my sister and I had talked about how close it was, like only five minutes away walking. Naturally, I said yes. I figured we would hang out by the river for a couple of hours and come back to go into town. I asked when they were going and of course the answer was right now. So I showered quickly put on sun block and bug spray and just as I was attempting to do my hair I hear “Kiana we’re leaving.” I had just enough time to grab my camera, cell phone and my water bottle which luckily had water in it. Before I left I asked my mom if we would be coming back to the house before we went into the city and she looked at me strange. She replied with “No, you’re not going into the city.” Apparently we were going to spend the whole day at the river. I told her I was confused and thought we were going for just a little while because I thought I was going to use the internet. She asked if it was something urgent and I said no it can wait till next week. As I headed to the door with my water bottle, I saw my sister carrying this giant bag full of snacks and who knows what else, and I turn to my mom and told her I felt so unprepared. She said, oh no you’re fine; she just has a towel so that she doesn’t get dirty. As I headed to this car filled with four new family members I stopped and thought; “What just happened?” One minute I was enjoying a lazy Saturday and the next I was being shipped off to the river for the day with strangers. After driving about 30 minutes into the countryside where there was no cell service, we got out of the car and headed down the road by foot because it was too difficult for the car to make it down the rest of the way. And as we walked down the dirt road I was grateful that I learned from my hiking experience last month, when I slid up and down the mountain, that I wore the right shoes for the journey. We arrived at a house and a woman greeted us. We sat inside for a while and then ended up going to the back of the house where there was a small river. My sister and the other little jumped right in and began swimming. Luckily one of the other family members was a woman my age and we spent most of the time walking around. The fact that she kept saying I’m so glad you are here because there is nothing to look at made me laugh because I was thinking the exact same thing. Don’t get me wrong the area was gorgeous, but being that I didn’t have a change of clothes and could only watch the girls playing in the river, without actually being enjoy it, made it a lot harder. However, I finally decided that at least my feet would enjoy the experience, and they were grateful because the water felt great. Later on we ate lunch with the family. There were about 10 of us and we had the most delicious food. Chicharones (fried pork morsels), fried plantains, some other type of banana, and of course no meal would ever be complete without the rice and beans. I walked around a little more then sat in the house for a bit. Then we ended up having cafecito (coffee break), where we ate tamal (some type of bread made with cheese), which usually I don’t like but this one was really good. After that we packed up and headed back home. I had so much fun, I am glad that I really just went with the flow. Yes, I probably could’ve been more productive today, but at the same time it was nice to go the river and meet new people. Now I have someone my age to hang out with. It didn’t even seem strange to be around people who I barely knew or who barely knew my sister (they kept asking her name). The best part was when they were all talking about somebody named Mario and she asked me who he was; priceless. These experiences are ones that you really can’t plan for, so for all the planning that I usually do, I am learning that sometimes it’s better to just throw that plan out the window and just see what happens.