So there´s not much to say about this weekend! I missed Muskoka SO soo much! It was the first time I´ve felt homesick...I think there´s something about not being in Muskoka on a long weekend when you know what everyone else is doing. We came to Playa Tamarindo, which is a beach/surfer party town to make up for it! It was a little depressing because we met some Canadian guys in our hostel on friday night and after discussing May 2-4 and how sad we were to miss it they were like "Yea, long weekends are great because everyone goes up to their cottages to party!" And I´m just sitting there thinking "I live where the cottages are...wahhh.." Nonetheless it was a great weekend and I think us Canadians made up for it! We even had all the other volunteers yelling "it´s alright, it´s May 2-4," by the end of the weekend!
The weather was great! Spent a few days laying on the beach until sunset, made some decent dinners and went out! I´m soo excited to eat meals that don´t have a price limit of $2. I´ve been trying to keep it really cheap to save money for my week of travelling! Bread and tuna! Bread and an avacado! Wooo! haha..
Anyways, heading back to Liberia in a few minutes as there is a storm starting to roll in! Sorry this blogs been short but there isn´t much to say about this weekend that is blog worthy.. :)
Love and miss you all! I´m getting a little more excited about coming home...
Sunday 22 May 2011
Wednesday 18 May 2011
First week at my new placement!
So I started my Care project this week - AWESOME! I really love it! The kids are adorable - as expected! I actually feel really needed at this project too. Most of them come from broken homes. Their parents are either all drug addicts or alcoholics and most can´t even hold a job. I usually have about 6-10 each day and they all always have sooo much energy. They aren´t very well-behaved, but its understandable considering their home-life. Its soo heartbreaking to see, but I´m hoping I can make a difference with manners and hitting etc.
The day care is out of a lady´s home. She´s SO nice! She bathes the kids that show up in the same clothes as the day before, and washes their clothes for them. Since most don´t get fed much, she also makes lunch for them everyday and provides snacks. I get lunch too! Which is awesome because it´s about a 20min bike ride each day and it means I don´t have to bike home for lunch. (I know, me riding 20min there and back each day on a bike? fml.) The care itself is actually really exhausting because there are noo supplies at the lady´s house. I literally have to try and entertain the kids the whole time. And with the heat and their energy, I´m usually a zombie biking home. The office supplies toys and craft stuff whenever we ask for it, it just sucks because the kids destroy everything within a couple of days. But this morning I made a huge list of things for the office to get anyways. Hopefully they will last until I leave and someone else comes to the project, haha!
I work solid hours at the placement too. Monday-Friday, 8am-1pm. That´s a full day in Costa usually. But at least care doesn´t get cancelled, which I really like. (Seems weird that school gets cancelled here so often...)
I also spoke to my supervisor of my teaching placement today and I´m going to go back to the school one day next week before my care placement so that I can give them the books I have and take some pictures! So I´m super happy about that! I was soo disappointed when I thought I wasn´t going to be able to go back!
Still unsure of my plans for this weekend. It´s a lot of people´s last weekends so everyone wants to go different places. The weather isnt supposed to be amazing this weekend anywhere in Costa Rice too. So thats a bummer.
Shelley and I have planned our week of travels! I think Amy (my housemate) is going to come with us! She´s here for 4 months so she can take her vacation time whenever. And she wants to come before the rainy season really kicks in! I think we´re starting in Montezuma, heading to Manuel Antonio, and the to Puerto Veijo for a few days! Should be amazingggg!!
Really missing everyone from home right now though! Especially on May 2-4. Costa Rica is still a better option...but missing May 2-4 in Muskoka is sorta sad.
Anyways! I´ll blog again after this weekend!
Love and miss you all!
Kate
The day care is out of a lady´s home. She´s SO nice! She bathes the kids that show up in the same clothes as the day before, and washes their clothes for them. Since most don´t get fed much, she also makes lunch for them everyday and provides snacks. I get lunch too! Which is awesome because it´s about a 20min bike ride each day and it means I don´t have to bike home for lunch. (I know, me riding 20min there and back each day on a bike? fml.) The care itself is actually really exhausting because there are noo supplies at the lady´s house. I literally have to try and entertain the kids the whole time. And with the heat and their energy, I´m usually a zombie biking home. The office supplies toys and craft stuff whenever we ask for it, it just sucks because the kids destroy everything within a couple of days. But this morning I made a huge list of things for the office to get anyways. Hopefully they will last until I leave and someone else comes to the project, haha!
I work solid hours at the placement too. Monday-Friday, 8am-1pm. That´s a full day in Costa usually. But at least care doesn´t get cancelled, which I really like. (Seems weird that school gets cancelled here so often...)
I also spoke to my supervisor of my teaching placement today and I´m going to go back to the school one day next week before my care placement so that I can give them the books I have and take some pictures! So I´m super happy about that! I was soo disappointed when I thought I wasn´t going to be able to go back!
Still unsure of my plans for this weekend. It´s a lot of people´s last weekends so everyone wants to go different places. The weather isnt supposed to be amazing this weekend anywhere in Costa Rice too. So thats a bummer.
Shelley and I have planned our week of travels! I think Amy (my housemate) is going to come with us! She´s here for 4 months so she can take her vacation time whenever. And she wants to come before the rainy season really kicks in! I think we´re starting in Montezuma, heading to Manuel Antonio, and the to Puerto Veijo for a few days! Should be amazingggg!!
Really missing everyone from home right now though! Especially on May 2-4. Costa Rica is still a better option...but missing May 2-4 in Muskoka is sorta sad.
Anyways! I´ll blog again after this weekend!
Love and miss you all!
Kate
Sunday 15 May 2011
Teaching Placement and Monteverde!
Hola!
This week my English teacher broke her arm and the cancelled English classes for the second half of the week. It was soo crappy because I didn't get to finish my placement at Escuela de Guadalupe, and I never got to take any pictures of the school or the kids. I'm going to try to go back again to visit and take pictures, because it's a place that I never want to forget! And I DEFINITELY don't want to forget the kids there - I learned as much from them as they did from me. For the second half of the week I worked at a different school doing some labour they needed done. I worked with a couple of the guys and we built a big fence around a garden, then built the actual garden itself. It was rewarding to see something that I actually accomplished at the end of the week, but at the same time it was hard work and it was SO hot!
This past weekend 18 of us headed south to Monteverde (a huge rainforest!). It was absolutely amazing! We took two 2-hour bus rides to the village on Friday afternoon. Choosing a hostel was ridiculous! It was so hilarious!! Since we were such a big group, owners of hostels were arguing over where we stayed! The rates started at $8/night and after standing in the street for 1/2 hour listening to the owners of 2 hostels argue over where we stayed, we ended up with our own private house! It had 5 rooms, 3 bathrooms, a kitchen, living room, an office with 2 computors and free wifi! All for the low, low price of ZERO dollars WITH breakfast included! It was right in "downtown" and about a 2 minute walk from the supermarket, bakery, shops, restaurants and bars! The only catch was that we had to let our hostel book the tours for us so that they could profit. This was perfect for us since we were still able to book with the same company that we wanted, paid the same price offered at the office and didn't have to plan anything! We just had to pay the hostel and they arranged everything for us, even the shuttle to the tour! SUCH an awesome deal!
Friday night we just chilled at the hostel and made dinner to keep it cheap! Nanna, Pauline and I ate a huge meal and split alcohol to keep it cheaper! After drinking by the bonfire for a while, some people headed to the bars and we all met up at the end of the night by the fire once again!
At 10:30am on Saturday, our shuttle picked us up to take us to the tour! It cost US$35.00 for a 3-hour zipline circuit through the rainforest. The circuit included about 15 ziplines (I think), 1 tarzan swing (so scary because you had to jump off the platform and free fall for a few seconds), and a huge zipline called Superman. Superman was 1km long and you hung from your back and your heels! You were soaring over the rainforest with your arms free the whole time. SO so so soooo much fun! I took a video!! :)
The rainforest itself was SO beautiful! It reminded me of Avatar, just without the blue people, haha. So green with lots of colourful flowers everywhere! The trees were massive and hung down to the ground! It was such a cool place to see! The tour was perfect as sometimes you had to hike between ziplines, so we got to see some pretty great views from the hills! I must have taken about 100 pictures.
Some people did the night tour, but I opted out to keep it cheap and because I definitely was not interested in seeing snakes and spiders in the rainforest in the dark. Nope.
A few of us came home early this morning so we could get stuff done in Liberia (blog). To be honest, I was ready to come home. I missed my host mom! And her cooking! ahah! She's teaching me how to cook typical Costa Rican meals! Also, on Friday, she said she was so impressed with how quickly my Spanish is improving! We have full conversations about everything now, and rarely have confusions or problems with language barriers. I guess taking Spanish as my minor is really paying off, which I'm sooo excited about! I usually sit with her while she cooks lunch and dinner and we just talk about everything! She always wants to know if I have a volunteer boyfriend or a Tico boyfriend, haha. But the conversation has really helped me become more comfortable around her and in the house! Also, my new housemate came last week! Her name is Amy, she's 19 and from the UK. She seems really cool so far, and we've been getting along really well so far! It's nice having someone else around the house and to have someone to share cabs with too!
Tomorrow I start my Care placement! I'm really excited about it since my last week of teaching kind of sucked. I'm not sure where I'll be yet, but I'm looking forward to it!
I'm not sure where we're heading next weekend yet, but I know it's going to be fun! It's Nanna and Pauline's last weekend, which REALLY sucks! :(
I've also started planning my week of travels with a girl named Shelley from the UK. So I'm really excited about that too!! Once those plans are finalized I'll let you know all about it!
The rainy season has started which is crap because my hair has gone crazy blonde and I have the best tan of my life right now! Haha, goodbye tan...(hopefully not though).
I'm still loving life here as you can tell! And I'm in the middle of uploading some of my pictures so far!!
Love and miss you all! As much as I love it here, I'm excited to see everyone in a few weeks!
Love,
Kate! xo
This week my English teacher broke her arm and the cancelled English classes for the second half of the week. It was soo crappy because I didn't get to finish my placement at Escuela de Guadalupe, and I never got to take any pictures of the school or the kids. I'm going to try to go back again to visit and take pictures, because it's a place that I never want to forget! And I DEFINITELY don't want to forget the kids there - I learned as much from them as they did from me. For the second half of the week I worked at a different school doing some labour they needed done. I worked with a couple of the guys and we built a big fence around a garden, then built the actual garden itself. It was rewarding to see something that I actually accomplished at the end of the week, but at the same time it was hard work and it was SO hot!
This past weekend 18 of us headed south to Monteverde (a huge rainforest!). It was absolutely amazing! We took two 2-hour bus rides to the village on Friday afternoon. Choosing a hostel was ridiculous! It was so hilarious!! Since we were such a big group, owners of hostels were arguing over where we stayed! The rates started at $8/night and after standing in the street for 1/2 hour listening to the owners of 2 hostels argue over where we stayed, we ended up with our own private house! It had 5 rooms, 3 bathrooms, a kitchen, living room, an office with 2 computors and free wifi! All for the low, low price of ZERO dollars WITH breakfast included! It was right in "downtown" and about a 2 minute walk from the supermarket, bakery, shops, restaurants and bars! The only catch was that we had to let our hostel book the tours for us so that they could profit. This was perfect for us since we were still able to book with the same company that we wanted, paid the same price offered at the office and didn't have to plan anything! We just had to pay the hostel and they arranged everything for us, even the shuttle to the tour! SUCH an awesome deal!
Friday night we just chilled at the hostel and made dinner to keep it cheap! Nanna, Pauline and I ate a huge meal and split alcohol to keep it cheaper! After drinking by the bonfire for a while, some people headed to the bars and we all met up at the end of the night by the fire once again!
At 10:30am on Saturday, our shuttle picked us up to take us to the tour! It cost US$35.00 for a 3-hour zipline circuit through the rainforest. The circuit included about 15 ziplines (I think), 1 tarzan swing (so scary because you had to jump off the platform and free fall for a few seconds), and a huge zipline called Superman. Superman was 1km long and you hung from your back and your heels! You were soaring over the rainforest with your arms free the whole time. SO so so soooo much fun! I took a video!! :)
The rainforest itself was SO beautiful! It reminded me of Avatar, just without the blue people, haha. So green with lots of colourful flowers everywhere! The trees were massive and hung down to the ground! It was such a cool place to see! The tour was perfect as sometimes you had to hike between ziplines, so we got to see some pretty great views from the hills! I must have taken about 100 pictures.
Some people did the night tour, but I opted out to keep it cheap and because I definitely was not interested in seeing snakes and spiders in the rainforest in the dark. Nope.
A few of us came home early this morning so we could get stuff done in Liberia (blog). To be honest, I was ready to come home. I missed my host mom! And her cooking! ahah! She's teaching me how to cook typical Costa Rican meals! Also, on Friday, she said she was so impressed with how quickly my Spanish is improving! We have full conversations about everything now, and rarely have confusions or problems with language barriers. I guess taking Spanish as my minor is really paying off, which I'm sooo excited about! I usually sit with her while she cooks lunch and dinner and we just talk about everything! She always wants to know if I have a volunteer boyfriend or a Tico boyfriend, haha. But the conversation has really helped me become more comfortable around her and in the house! Also, my new housemate came last week! Her name is Amy, she's 19 and from the UK. She seems really cool so far, and we've been getting along really well so far! It's nice having someone else around the house and to have someone to share cabs with too!
Tomorrow I start my Care placement! I'm really excited about it since my last week of teaching kind of sucked. I'm not sure where I'll be yet, but I'm looking forward to it!
I'm not sure where we're heading next weekend yet, but I know it's going to be fun! It's Nanna and Pauline's last weekend, which REALLY sucks! :(
I've also started planning my week of travels with a girl named Shelley from the UK. So I'm really excited about that too!! Once those plans are finalized I'll let you know all about it!
The rainy season has started which is crap because my hair has gone crazy blonde and I have the best tan of my life right now! Haha, goodbye tan...(hopefully not though).
I'm still loving life here as you can tell! And I'm in the middle of uploading some of my pictures so far!!
Love and miss you all! As much as I love it here, I'm excited to see everyone in a few weeks!
Love,
Kate! xo
Sunday 8 May 2011
Nicaragua!
Since we had Friday off we decided to leave Thursday after work for Nicaragua! Nine of us got onto a bus from Liberia which was only $2 and takes only a couple of hours to get to the border. Once we got to the border sooo many people were trying to sell us customs papers and get us to take their taxis. It was absolute chaos! People were screaming "hey lady!" and "beautiful woman!". I couldn't help but laugh...But it was so confusing and without Pauline's spanish I'm not sure what we would have done.
From the border we split up. Five people went to Granada and the other four of us went to Isla de Ometepe. I would have liked to see the city, but something aboutt the volcanoes and adventure tours convinced me to do otherwise. Isla de Ometepe is actually two small islands that are attached in the middle and each have a volcano on them. Volcan de Concepcion is 1610 mts high and Volcan de Maderas is 1394 mts high. I wanted to climb one of them, but I probably would have died since it takes 8-10 hours apparently.
So we took a cab from Nicaragua's border to San Jorge, where some guy at to Port organized a day tour of Isla de Ometepe for only $15 American for us, as well as a cab and a hostel. The ferry to the island was an hour long and was absolutely insane! Even though the island is on a fresh water lake (Lago de Nicaragua), its huge (8624 km sq.) and it had the biggest waves I've ever seen. Waves were washing up the side of the boat and spilling across the deck. So unfortunately we had to sit inside, but Nanna (Denmark) and Pauline (France) had to go outside several tims to throw up overboard! Dylan (Australia) and I found it really fun and quite hilarious... Our taxi was waiting on the island for us with a sign and our names, so that was pretty convenient since it was now 8pm and dark. When we arrived at our hostel we thought it was SO nice at first. It was right on the lake and there were hammocks to lounge in everywhere. It was so cheap too - only $4/person. However, I guess in this particular spot on the lake there were TONS of bugs. We woke uo feeling disgusted and decided to switch hostels. Our guide for our day tour helped us find a nice and cheap hostel. It was even nicer than the last one, no bugs and was $5/person.
From there he took us to an old village that was part way up Volcan de Maderas. The roads were actually just dirt trails - I couldn't believe he got the jeep up there! We saw a bunch of ruins and volcanic rocks that had carvings on them from before Christ apparently. The last time the volcanoes erupted was 1000 something. Next, he took us to a fresh water spring further up the volcano. It was called Ojo de Agua and was the most beautiful fresh water natural pool I've ever seen and probably will ever see. There was a rope swnig and the water was so clear! You could see right down to the bottom through like 10ft of water. I got tons of pictures of this place, so don't worry!
After the spring he took us to a natural reserve where we had lunch at a really nice restaurant that was right on the beach. Following lunch, we took a nature walk through the reserve which was actually REALLY cool. We saw so many monkey and they were SO adorable. We had some great views of both volcanoes and chilled on a beach at the foot of the volcanoes. The sand was black from volcanic ash and there were a lot of really cool smaller volcanic rocks. SO cool! The entire day was only $15 American so that was awesome. I can't believe how cheap Nicaragua is...We spent only $52 American to cross the border, take a 1/2 hour cab ride to San Jorge, the ferry, 1/2 cab to our hostel, the night in the first hostel, our dinner and breakfast at the hostel, and our day tour - INSANE!
Our second hostel was on Playa Santa Domingo - a small beach between the two volcanoes. We had a great view of each volcano too so that was pretty cool. We spent the rest of the day just chilling on the beach at our hostel and hanging out in the hammocks on the beach.
The next morning we got up and paid $1 to take a bus back to the ferry. From there we came to San Juan del Sur which is about 1/2 hour from San Jorge. It's a really cool little surfer town! Jordan actually came here on his trip last summer too. We went out Saturday night with a bunch of people we met in our hostel. So much fun! Today we're going to just chill on the beach for a little bit before heading back to Costa Rica! Work tomorrow! Which I can't wait for...I absolutely love the school that I work in and I've started going to Martina Bustos everyday after work.
Anyways, I'll update later this week about my travel plans for next weekend and about what's new at school!
Love you all,
Kate
After the spring he took
From the border we split up. Five people went to Granada and the other four of us went to Isla de Ometepe. I would have liked to see the city, but something aboutt the volcanoes and adventure tours convinced me to do otherwise. Isla de Ometepe is actually two small islands that are attached in the middle and each have a volcano on them. Volcan de Concepcion is 1610 mts high and Volcan de Maderas is 1394 mts high. I wanted to climb one of them, but I probably would have died since it takes 8-10 hours apparently.
So we took a cab from Nicaragua's border to San Jorge, where some guy at to Port organized a day tour of Isla de Ometepe for only $15 American for us, as well as a cab and a hostel. The ferry to the island was an hour long and was absolutely insane! Even though the island is on a fresh water lake (Lago de Nicaragua), its huge (8624 km sq.) and it had the biggest waves I've ever seen. Waves were washing up the side of the boat and spilling across the deck. So unfortunately we had to sit inside, but Nanna (Denmark) and Pauline (France) had to go outside several tims to throw up overboard! Dylan (Australia) and I found it really fun and quite hilarious... Our taxi was waiting on the island for us with a sign and our names, so that was pretty convenient since it was now 8pm and dark. When we arrived at our hostel we thought it was SO nice at first. It was right on the lake and there were hammocks to lounge in everywhere. It was so cheap too - only $4/person. However, I guess in this particular spot on the lake there were TONS of bugs. We woke uo feeling disgusted and decided to switch hostels. Our guide for our day tour helped us find a nice and cheap hostel. It was even nicer than the last one, no bugs and was $5/person.
From there he took us to an old village that was part way up Volcan de Maderas. The roads were actually just dirt trails - I couldn't believe he got the jeep up there! We saw a bunch of ruins and volcanic rocks that had carvings on them from before Christ apparently. The last time the volcanoes erupted was 1000 something. Next, he took us to a fresh water spring further up the volcano. It was called Ojo de Agua and was the most beautiful fresh water natural pool I've ever seen and probably will ever see. There was a rope swnig and the water was so clear! You could see right down to the bottom through like 10ft of water. I got tons of pictures of this place, so don't worry!
After the spring he took us to a natural reserve where we had lunch at a really nice restaurant that was right on the beach. Following lunch, we took a nature walk through the reserve which was actually REALLY cool. We saw so many monkey and they were SO adorable. We had some great views of both volcanoes and chilled on a beach at the foot of the volcanoes. The sand was black from volcanic ash and there were a lot of really cool smaller volcanic rocks. SO cool! The entire day was only $15 American so that was awesome. I can't believe how cheap Nicaragua is...We spent only $52 American to cross the border, take a 1/2 hour cab ride to San Jorge, the ferry, 1/2 cab to our hostel, the night in the first hostel, our dinner and breakfast at the hostel, and our day tour - INSANE!
Our second hostel was on Playa Santa Domingo - a small beach between the two volcanoes. We had a great view of each volcano too so that was pretty cool. We spent the rest of the day just chilling on the beach at our hostel and hanging out in the hammocks on the beach.
The next morning we got up and paid $1 to take a bus back to the ferry. From there we came to San Juan del Sur which is about 1/2 hour from San Jorge. It's a really cool little surfer town! Jordan actually came here on his trip last summer too. We went out Saturday night with a bunch of people we met in our hostel. So much fun! Today we're going to just chill on the beach for a little bit before heading back to Costa Rica! Work tomorrow! Which I can't wait for...I absolutely love the school that I work in and I've started going to Martina Bustos everyday after work.
Anyways, I'll update later this week about my travel plans for next weekend and about what's new at school!
Love you all,
Kate
After the spring he took
Saturday 7 May 2011
Hola from Nicaragua!
First of all, I would like to apologize for all the spelling mistakes and typos ahah. I usually blog from my ipod whenever I can get a wifi connection to save money on internet cafes. I'm just on the net quickly in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua!
I'm going to post a long blog either tomorrow or monday I hope, so stay tuned!
I would also like to thank everyone for all the support and loving messages I've been getting on the blog, facebook, email etc. It really makes it so much easier to be away from home to know how much support I have!
I love and miss you all and cant wait to tell you about my adventures this week!
xoxo
I'm going to post a long blog either tomorrow or monday I hope, so stay tuned!
I would also like to thank everyone for all the support and loving messages I've been getting on the blog, facebook, email etc. It really makes it so much easier to be away from home to know how much support I have!
I love and miss you all and cant wait to tell you about my adventures this week!
xoxo
Wednesday 4 May 2011
Playa Samara
Last weekend a group of us went to Playa Samara! It was suuuuch a beautiful beach in the province of Puntarenas. We took a painfully hot bus ride from Liberia at noon on Friday after work, to Nicoya where we piled into cabs the rest of the way to Samara. The beach was AMAZINGGGGG!!! SO SO SO BEAUTIFUL!! It was in a small bay and had huge rocky coasts boardering it and huge waves that surfer hit up in the afternoon. Friday night we walked down the beach from our hostel to a beachfront club. It was so much fun dancing on the beach all night! Our hostel was also beachfront and was only 12.000 colonies for both nights for pretty decent rooms. Samara is really only 2 streets - one rod that has hostels and restaurants on the beachfront and the other with stores and shops. We spent most of the weekend on the beach and went to a couple restaurants that were riiiight on the beach. So beautiful since they were lit up with candles and white christmas lights! ahah!
Ive met so many amazing people and already made really good friendships!! My spanish is getting SO good already....but I think that my english is getting worse actually through speaking with other volunteers ahah.
My placement is getting better and better. Im getting more responsibilities at the school and the kids all know me by name now! Every day when I get there they run up to me...Kaaaaate! Miss Kate! Chica!! soooo adorable ahah. Although the older kids are a bit of a pain since they picked up pretty quickly that my Spanish isnt as good as theirs. Theyre always laughing at me ahah, but its alright!
Since I have Wednesdays off for "meetings" today I went to volunteer at in a town called Martina Bustos. Its sooo poor and full of refugees. Its actually so sad because there is no running water, electricity, schools or anything. Basically a few volunteers can go there every day on our days off just to pretty much baby sit the kids there. Every day theyre just dumped off at an abandoned home for the day in hopes that Projects Abroad will send volunteers there. It was sooo sad...Ive never seen anything like it. But the kids there were so happy to see us, so it was actually so great!!
This weekend a bunch of us are going to Nicaraugua (spelling?) for the weekend! It should be a great time!! I think were just going to chill on the beach and climb a volcano! I'll have updates on that next week!
Love you all and thanks for following!!
xox
Ive met so many amazing people and already made really good friendships!! My spanish is getting SO good already....but I think that my english is getting worse actually through speaking with other volunteers ahah.
My placement is getting better and better. Im getting more responsibilities at the school and the kids all know me by name now! Every day when I get there they run up to me...Kaaaaate! Miss Kate! Chica!! soooo adorable ahah. Although the older kids are a bit of a pain since they picked up pretty quickly that my Spanish isnt as good as theirs. Theyre always laughing at me ahah, but its alright!
Since I have Wednesdays off for "meetings" today I went to volunteer at in a town called Martina Bustos. Its sooo poor and full of refugees. Its actually so sad because there is no running water, electricity, schools or anything. Basically a few volunteers can go there every day on our days off just to pretty much baby sit the kids there. Every day theyre just dumped off at an abandoned home for the day in hopes that Projects Abroad will send volunteers there. It was sooo sad...Ive never seen anything like it. But the kids there were so happy to see us, so it was actually so great!!
This weekend a bunch of us are going to Nicaraugua (spelling?) for the weekend! It should be a great time!! I think were just going to chill on the beach and climb a volcano! I'll have updates on that next week!
Love you all and thanks for following!!
xox
Thursday 28 April 2011
first day!
So today was my first day at work and it was awesome!! I start at 730 every day and most days I'll be off by noon! My mom thinks I'm a slacker,but by noon I'll have already worked with the grade 2, 3,4 and 5 class.classics kind of cool cause each grade learns about the same subject at the same time, just at a different level. For example, they're all learning about the human body parts in english right now, but the grade 2's learned Simon says type parts like eyes,nose,ears, foot etc. The grade 3's learned how to better pronounce those parts, the grade 4's learned the internal organs like the lungs, heart, bladder etc., and the grade 5's had to answer actual questions about the body and its functions. the kids are all soo adorable and soo eager to learn. It was a pretty amazing thing to see. There's definitely a huge difference between them and Canadian kids their age. Before they even knee my name I was swarmed by a dozen girls and even boys hugging me and trying to talk to me. I was actually really surprised by how much English they already knew. As for the school, I knew the conditions would be bad, but they're worse than I expected. Its really sad, their soccer balls are just hard, flat and stripped down to the last layer. The bladders must be burst, it was a heartbreaking sight. My dad might have cried. Haha! Anyways sorry for the lack of paragraphs and punctuation. I just figured out how to connect to the Internet from my iPod at the pool! I haven't figured out how to make paragraphs on it yet. But that means I can blog and check my email from it which is nice. But I need to swim haha way too hot! Love and miss you all. And again, thanks for everyonea support in getting me here. I think its going to be life-changing! I'm so thankful to everyone. :) xoxo
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