BIRTHDAY PRESENTS GALORE

January 11^th – my 24^th birthday! Though it wasn’t filled with chocolate cake and ice cream, balloons, and familiar faces, I have to say my birthday was a great day!

The day started off with our first teacher’s meeting at the Washington School (WAS). We were about 15 minutes early getting to the school and they still had the gate closed. In the States, 15 minutes early to a meeting wouldn’t really be that early. Here, we stood patiently outside until another teacher showed up and waited with us.

She told us that she was going to be teaching “Kinder” as they call it here. She is Hispanic so Brett and I were able to practice some Spanish until they finally let us in right at 8:00 when the meeting was to begin. We were still the only three teachers at the school. The boss-man, Don Alex, told us that Miss. Danielle was on her way and to just wait on the bench in the lobby. The three of us wondered if this meeting was just for the new teachers.

Around 8:30, Miss. Danielle arrived on her scooter and a few other teachers also trickled in right before her. The meeting didn’t last super long. Danielle told us that she was going to be spending most of her time in the office this year; she previously was teaching just like we were about to do. We went over some rules, changes to the semester schedule, and what was expected of us. For Brett and myself, we were still confused on what we were to be doing. Danielle told us that we could go around with her after the meeting. 

I was told that I will have a 4^th grade homeroom and Brett was to be the homeroom teacher for 5^th grade. On our tour of the school, Danielle showed us the 4^th and 5^th grade classrooms and said that we were free to decorate it as we wished! I was super excited about this part. Brett asked how he was to know where the students left off in their textbooks before they went on Christmas vacation and she assured him that the students would be able to tell him. She also kept saying to "go with the flow”. Brett is very much a person who plans out when, where, and how things are going to happen so this alone was an adjustment. 

After leaving WAS, we were off to Santa Ana to check out the apartment. Along the way, Brett insisted that I get a Hershey’s bar for my birthday. I didn't argue his point.

We had some time to kill and so we stopped at our first soda! A soda is like a little restaurant with a typical Costa Rican dish: meat, rice, beans, plantains, and a small salad. Our greasy (but yummy) chicken was just what we needed. After our meal, we still had a little time left so we asked if there was a park around where we could go sit for a while. They laughed and said no, but that there was a church right down the road where people like to sit. We realized quickly just how small Santa Ana really was.


When it was time to meet with Maria, we were granted access into the little gated community. She was finishing up mopping the floor when we got there so we assured her that she didn’t have to rush because we knew we were a little early. The apartment tour was everything we hoped it would be. The cute, little palm tree right outside was an added bonus! Brett and I both said that we wanted it without even asking the other. It was perfect.

 

our hot water source!

That evening, we went back to Gaudy’s for the last night living in the hostel. Brett gave me the choice for dinner since it was my birthday and I picked the usual, mac & cheese. Right after dinner, I ran into the room to skype the special people who brought me into this world in the first place.

Our friends from Mexico (the ones from the 3-part tour) were still at the hostel as well. In fact, it was Maria’s birthday, too!! (I just realized that we have met two different Marias down here… I hope this isn’t too confusing.) They had some tequila and offered to share a drink with us to celebrate. We tried to share the bottle of wine we picked up but it was terrible. The rest of the night was spent with Maria and Naomi, talking about where we all lived, what we were doing in Costa Rica, and picking on Maria because we thought the evening shift guy behind the desk had a crush on her.

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The next morning, Tuesday, January 12^th, we needed to take out some dollars to pay the deposit for the apartment. We had been using the colorful colones for a week and had to run around town searching for an ATM that allowed us to take out the dollars that we needed. The value of a colon changes daily, but we found that on average it is 540 colones per U.S. dollar. The first ATM we went to wouldn't allow us to take out any dollars. The second ATM  only had enough dollars to take out and cover our deposite. Maria was expecting (and wanting) the payment in dollars, but we had to call her and explain to her that we had to use the rainbow money for the first month's rent. She was really understanding about it, but the whole process was a lot more difficult than we had expected it to be.

Our bags were all repacked, ready for the move to Santa Ana! Maria was excited to greet us at the door, light the candles in the apartment, show us our brand-new sheets and pillows, and tell us, “Welcome to your new apartment” in the little English that she knew. We felt super lucky/blessed/thankful/relieved to have a place to call our own for the next 5 and a half months. All we had left to do was unpack our things, do a test run on the buses to be sure we can get to school, make dinner, and go to bed early enough to wake up the next morning for the first day of our new jobs.

Pura vida, mae.
Life is good.