Movie Monday Round 6 - On Tuesday

So - who knew that my fingers would turn into this craziness??

It's been kind of hard today having to figure out how to navigate every day tasks when it hurts to move my fingers. At first it wasn't a big deal, but by dinner I was ready to start crying when I couldn't get my chicken inside my tacos. As always, there are blessings to be seen in the pain. I have experienced that I have people here who will stand beside me. Shannon took me to the emergency room and stayed with me for three hours. It would have taken me a lot longer to navigate if I was doing it alone. For lunch, Oky made me delicious spaghetti and my favorite tico food: fried plantains. JoJo helped me open things, pick up things, get things out of my backpack, make tacos, open banannas, make me tea, she even said she would put my deodorant on for me. Oh, and the list goes on.

Will you join me in prayer?

I am feeling stressed about really getting in the swing of writing lesson plans and this makes it a little more complicated. I am asking God for PEACE, trust, and faith.

I also am praying for healing for these blisters.

I recognize his kindness in the fact that tomorrow is Independence Day - so we don't have school. I seriously am so thankful for this.

Meanwhile, I have some great stories to tell about this past weekend - and pictures, pictures, pictures. When these fingers are better and lesson plans are in line I will TELL ALL!

Talk to you soon!

Movie Monday will come tomorrow....on Tuesday.

Hey sweet friends...

Unfortunately, I'm going to have to postpone Movie Monday until tomorrow. For two reasons: first of all - four of my fingers on my right hand are swollen and two on my left hand. It's an allergic reaction to something. I think it might be some bug bites I got while picking starfruit - but I'm not really sure. Anyways - I just took two benadryl and I'm expecting to pass out soon. Secondly, tomorrow we are going to celebrate CR's independence Day at school - so I know I will get some great videos there. It'll be worth the wait.

Love you.

Movie Monday Round 5

This is a little snippet from the classroom. This kid is always making some crazy lego creations with all kinds of superpowers. RyRy - I think this child might belong to you. You should take him to California with you for the interview.

Love to all you people!

Movie Monday Round 4

Hey friends!

The video from this week gives you a little bit of detail about our trip to Manuel Antonio. 

This is the sign for the hotel we stayed at called Costa Verde. Gotta love their motto: "Still more Monkeys than people". 

Thankfully, the Motto rings true - here's one of the monkeys! They are sneaky little creatures. We got multiple warnings from locals about how the monkeys will steal your stuff because they are looking for food. 

This is the view of the beach from the Hotel's restaurant. Seriously? 

A taste of Home

After a long awaited trip with Oky to the Automercado, I was able to find a sweet little taste of home. It's a little ridiculous how this little drink can make me so thankful. It was exactly what I needed though.

I have asked one of the teachers at the school to give me Spanish lessons. I feel like there are so many things that I've learned in school about Spanish that I have to unlearn because it's not really how you use Spanish in conversations. There are also a lot of things that are specific to Costa Rica that I have to learn. For instance...

double l's are pronounced as "j"s here - NOT "y"s.

"V"s are pronounced as "B"s

They do NOT roll their "R"s

D's are pronounced differently - instead of putting your tongue at the roof of your mouth, you put it at close to your teeth.

They don't use "tu" here. They use usted or "vos". (I seriously just found this out today - I don't know how I missed it?!) Even though they use "vos" when speaking to another person, they don't conjugate verbs into the "vosotros" form.

At my school - even though the content is in English a lot of the teachers use Spanish in conversation. There are a lot of parents that can't speak English or prefer to use Spanish. So, I really am dying to know the language.

Here's the word of the day: murcielago

It means "bat". I keep trying to pronounce it over and over because I'm trying to work on pronouncing my vowels correctly. I was whispering it the whole way home today. Weird, I know.

Oh yeah, a kid barfed on the bus yesterday. It was all over his shirt. Poor thing. Today they made him keep a plastic bag at hand. That stinks. The barf on the bus goes round and round, round and round, round and round.

I also have a really good story to tell about something that happened today - but i think i need to tell you individually. Remind me to tell you when I talk to you.

Love you guys!

Movie Monday Round 3

Scrappy tells us about his first weekend away.

This week has been one for the books. This is the comic relief.

I'm so thankful Scrappy is here with me in Costa Rica.

Welcome to Prep D

This is most of our class. A couple were missing that day. Aren't they beautiful? In just one week I already have learned so much about their personalities. It's so interresting how people, at such a young age, have completely different personalities.

Their first homework assignment was to make a collage that tells us about themselves. Here are some general things I've learned about our kids - even with all their different personalities, these are the things they share in common:

* They love the World Cup - and anything that has to do with it. They can sing Shakira's song flawlessly.
* For some reason, a lot of them like spagetti.
* Most of them have been to Disney World - and it's one of their favorite places.
* Almost all of them say they can play the guitar.
* And of course, the LOVE their pets.