March 6

I woke up, for probably the eighth time, at about 7:30 (8:30 home time). I tried to call the school a couple of times, but I couldn’t get through because I was dialing it wrong (Costa Rican numbers have 8 digits...it would have been nice if that information had been sent along in my placement info). Then I called Sherie, who picked up, and basically thanked God that I had called her. Apparently she did get my message the night before and had therefore been up half the night getting all the COST gears working and trying to find me (which she obviously couldn’t do because I didn’t even know where I was).

Long story short; I finally got in touch with the school when Madeleine told me that I needed to add another 2 to the number. The school sent a taxi for me and I had a little bit to eat for breakfast, which was difficult because my stomach was still all in knots from being so stressed out.

I went to the school and everyone kept apologizing and saying how embarrassed they were by the situation; which of course prompted me to cry a little again. Apparently the principal who Sherie and I had been talking with was not there because her mother died – which was the explanation for no one picking me up. It made me feel a little better to know that there was a pretty big tragedy that led to the whole situation – but still, how do you not pass along the information about an international student teacher’s arrival?! And it still does not make up for her lack of communication with me and Sherie before I even left.

Anyway, I stayed at the school until about 1pm – I met the teacher I am going to be working with, some of the students, ate lunch, met lots of other teachers and administrators and, most importantly, I met another international student teacher (Beth, from Oklahoma).

Being at the school made me feel a lot better. All of the instruction is in English, and all of the students seem very comfortable speaking it. I found out that I will be teaching 7th, 8th and 9th graders; which basically spans world history from the Neolithic age until the Renaissance.; which is kind of hilarious because that is what was supposed to be covered in one trimester of the 10th grade world history classes I just got done with at GRPS. This tells me one thing for sure: the work that I do for teaching here is not going to be nearly as stressful or time consuming as it was in GRPS. In fact, I think it is going to be a breath of fresh air! I also found out that instruction at PAS (Pan-American School) is project-based. YES! Aka, I do not have to worry about having a lecture ready for every class – no more spending hours making PowerPoints and worksheets! Oh, and these students actually come prepared for class – I know, amazing, right? I don’t have to have a policy about pencil loaning because they all have them and bring them to class! 

I made some key observations about the culture of the school already. First, as I mentioned, education is experiential and regarded as important. Second, the teachers and students are very friendly with each other – they joke around, they touch, they have pet names, they talk about their personal lives…the relationship aspect of education, which is so important, is definitely practiced with expertise here. It might be to the point where it stifles productivity a little too much, but, we’ll see.

At 1 Marcia (the human resources administrator) took me to me host family’s house. My host papa’s name is Chico (Francisco really) and my host mama’s name is Anais. They have two daughters, in their late twenties I think (one, Maria, still lives at the house); but I think they look like they could be my grandparents. Neither of them speaks a word of English, which makes things a little difficult. Apparently they have hosted international students for the past 10 years or so; it makes me wonder how the students who didn’t speak any Spanish made it.

I had to fight back the urge to cry when I pulled out the calendar and my camera with the picture of me and my parents and Adam. Between not having a lot of sleep, having a pretty traumatic start to my trip, missing Adam a lot already, and being physically exhausted from dragging my luggage around every where I didn’t have a lot of mental strength left.

In fact, throughout the whole day I had to fight back random urges to cry. Sometimes it was warranted because I would look at a picture or be talking about my family or Adam…but oddly enough it was more often completely random.

I took a taxi to the Multiplaza in Escazu to meet Beth and her roommate Myla for dinner and a movie. Some company from the United States is just what I needed to keep myself from having a breakdown. To my surprise, there were two other girls from the states there too. Beth and Myla are both working at PAS with me, and the other two (I feel bad, I’ve forgotten their names already) are here on a study abroad trip for Spanish. One is from Jersey and the other is from Texas. I had subway for dinner and we saw Changeling, which is really good but it drags on a bit.

We took the bus back to Santa Anna (which is where the girls live) and then I took a taxi the rest of the way home. My house is very safe, by the way – there are three locks you have to get through to get inside; the gate, security door, and front door. I started this journal, cried a little, and eventually fell asleep (which was a little difficult because I’m living on what seems to be a fairly busy street).