Scorpions and Sloths

Yesterday was an eventful day, in terms of wildlife sightings. Two brown sloths were visible in a tree near our house, all curled up and cuddling with each other. They didn't move much, but they were awfully cute, huddled together for protection from the rain. At one point, Michael saw them grooming each other. This was our first sloth sighting!
In an equally exciting but markedly less cute event, we also saw our second scorpion. He (or she?) was crawling across the window sill in our bedroom, around 8:00 p.m. I was upstairs in the bedroom and called out, simply, "SCORPION!!" and then found myself unable to move or say anything else, as I was paralyzed with fear. Michael came bounding up the stairs with a glass jar and chased it around a bit while I lept up on the dresser and wimpered. I occasionally shouted helpful things like, "Don't let it sting you! Be careful!" Somehow he managed to get the little bugger into a jar and then closed the lid and I continued with my helpful advice saying, "Don't take the lid off! Whatever you do...don't take the lid off!!"
Thank goodness Michael has me around to offer such wise advice in an emergency. Ha.
Anyway, once it was safely in the jar, Michael put it in the freezer, where it spent the night and slowly froze to death. Cruel, possibly, but now we have a dead scorpion around that we can look at with a magnifying glass and take pictures of.
I have included one such picture here.

It's Electric (Boogie-Woogie-Woogie)!

Okay, I apologize for the silly title of this blog. Forgive me, I just couldn't help it.
The "electric" in the above ridiculous title refers to my experience this weekend with a fence near our house. Michael, Tim, May and I were hiking through the woods and happened upon a lovely little pasture. At some point, we lost the trail and realized we would need to hike through the pasture to find home again. We approached a wire fence near the pasture and proceeded to clamber underneath it...I placed my hand around it while doing so. It took a moment...and then this strange sensation quite unlike anything I've ever felt before came abruptly into my consciousness. It took me another moment to realize what exactly I was feeling. It didn't feel like a shock, but rather like an unpleasant jolt that filled the whole body and kind of made me feel a little queasy. After my brain finally registered that I was indeed holding an electric fence, I finally dropped the thing and said "ouch." Or perhaps "wow." I don't recall what I actually said.
So many new experiences here on the farm!
In other news, work is going very well and the classes are lovely. Feeling quite nice and happy. I'm really enjoying my new school (although I do, of course miss all the wonderful families and students from my old school). And a little electic jolt now and then seems like a small price to pay to live in paradise, right? Right.
Here's another exciting development: I cooked a rice dish all by myself. I made it with chicken stock and it was pretty good. Not great, mind you, but edible at least. I'm also going to be the assistant for the cooking mini-course that begins on Thursday. Luckily I am the assistant because, as all of my family and friends now, I certainly couldn't TEACH a cooking class. That would be pretty ridiculous. But I am hoping to learn lots of Costa Rican cooking from Xinia, the lead teacher. She is a wonderful cook. She made an incredible picadillo for the staff that was yummy. (Picadillo is a cooked vegetable dish...sort of like ratatouille).

Our wood burning stove

We love our wood burning stove. It gets downright chilly here in the mornings and evenings, so this little contraption is quite a blessing. Once you get her going, they room heats up and drys out, and there is the wonderful campfire smell of burning wood throughout the house. Our clothes hang to dry above the stove, so when we put them on they smell like we've spent time out camping somewhere.
Plus I love the snap and crackle noises the wood makes when it burns.

Dinner at Tramonti

Here's Michael, Jonathan, Heather, and Erica at Tramonti, the Italian restaurant in Monteverde.

The fog rolls in...

They don't call it the Cloud Forest for nothing...

I really live here!

Today marks a key landmark; Michael and I have been living in Costa Rica for one month. It is beginning to feel like home. We see familiar faces on the road. We are greeted by our neighbors and by the owners of stores, who have come to recognize us as well. Yesterday I was greeted at the cheese factory with a joyful "Hola" and smile from the woman there, showing recognition. Although folks here say hello to everyone (Really. It is considered rude to not say hello to every stranger who comes past.) but there is a marked difference between the "hola stranger" and the "hola I think I've seen Your Face Around." It's nice to be a Face Around.
I also took the very exciting step of creating a Costa Rican bank account. I even have my own Banco National debit card. It was much less complicated than I thought it might be. And I even spoke to the teller entirely in Spanish! Granted, my Spanish is very choppy and contains a lot of hand gestures to fill in the words I don't know...but at least there's progress. And the teller seemed to understand what I wanted to do with the money and traveler's checks in my hand.
But I suppose I shouldn't celebrate my Spanish speaking too much...I suppose when one stands in line at the bank and presents the teller with money and traveler's checks there really are a limited amount of options there. It's pretty glaringly obvious what I might want to do at the bank with those items.
Anyway. It was exciting nevertheless.
These week has been lovely in school so far. My 1/2 class was smoother this time around; I think I'm getting the hang of working with those little ones. It was hardly flawless (there is no such thing as flawless class!) but we managed to do some fun pretend games and laughed a good deal. It was very cute, actually. We played "Catch the Imaginary Ball" for a good ten minutes and the kids were thrilled. We also pretended we were walking through all sorts of materials, and they enjoyed that as well (glue, water, ice cream, etc...)
For those of you reading who are connected to the school where I used to work..you'll be pleased to know I've implemented the Red Homework Folder system here. I even used the same line when introducing it: "This is your new Best Friend." And, a message to Michael Zimmerman...yesterday I taught my students how to Bump it Up when rounding numbers. It might warm your heart to know there is now a group of 16 Costa Rican students doing the Bump it Up rounding dance...
I also plan to introduce the "Funky Chicken" when we multiply fractions, and I'll be sure to give Brad Presant credit for that one!

Gasping for Breath on the hills

So this morning I once again tried to go for a run. I say "tried" because the running here is never entirely successful. My first run, a few weeks ago, I managed to run for one measly little mile. And I was gasping for breath. In each subsequent run, I've gotten closer to the two mile point...but haven't quite made it yet. Today I was closer than ever...but still, I gasped, I chocked, I struggled my way along.
Here's why the running is so hard: It is very, very hilly here. "Hilly" is hardly an adequate description, actually. It is so hilly that there is no place in which there are Absence of Hills. There is simply no flat land. The flatest land is right here in our living room.
The other fun thing about running here is the ground itself. When running in the woods, there are big roots and sticks and such. So you have to look down while you run and leap over possibly treacherous obstacles. When running on the road, there are giant rocks everywhere (remember...the road isn't paved) and large mud filled potholes. I've already fallen twice while running. One fall was pretty comical...I fell so far that it felt for a moment like I was flying. Luckily when you are running in the woods you are all alone, so there is no one there to laugh at you when you trip and fly into the air like a frightened dung beetle. (Dung beetles don't fly very far, apparently. This particular metaphor was Michael's suggestion).
Running is also difficult because of the altitude. We're up at 5,000 feet and apparently it takes awhile for your lungs and blood cells to fully adjust. They say it takes 6-8 weeks to fully acclimate.
The upside of running here is that the view is spectacular, the air is fresh, and your background music is birds and insects. If you're very lucky, you might even see something special, like a family of coatis climbing a tree or a group of tinamou birds waddling by. So, even with the challenges, it's a pretty amazing place to have a jog.

A Bull

Today Michael and I were walking through the pasture behind our house to get to the main road to walk into town. We were chatting and walking along, discussing which exactly are the Seven Deadly Sins? And how would you define hubris? Just at that very moment, Michael shouted "THE BULL!!!" and after a brief second of confusion, I realized he was telling me that we were being chased by a bull. And indeed we were. There he was, behind us, running full steem. He charged after us as we ran like maniacs down the hill. I've never run so fast in my life. When we reached the bottom of the pasture, and to the other side of the fence. my heart was racing so hard my limbs were shaking. We turned back and the bull stared at us, much displeased.
But we weren't trampled our gouged to death, so that's a relief.

Santa Elena

This is Santa Elena, the town down the road from where we live.

Michael in Santa Elena

Along the Bajo de Tigre trail...

One of my classrooms

Here's a picture of one of the classrooms I teach in... (I am a "floater" so I teach my class is two different rooms during the week)

Laundry Sunday

Today we learned how to use our washing machine. It is a multi-step process quite unlike the machines back home. You have to do all the laundry steps one by one...first, you fill a chamber with water and soap using a faucet and hose. Then, the chamber agitates the clothes for a bit. Then, you have to drain the soapy water and refill the chamber with fresh water to rinse. Agitate some more. Drain the water. Fill the chamber AGAIN and rinse, agitate, and drain. Then you have to take small piles of clothes from the water chamber to the spin chamber. In this section, there is a centrifuge that you fill with clothes, and then spin for five minutes (the machine spins the centrifuge for you...you don't have to spin it by hand!). Once the spinning is done, that pile of clothes is sort of damp/dry. Then, you spin the second half of your clothes for five minutes.
Then you hang it all on the laundry line and THEN it promptly starts to rain.
And then you laugh.

Yesterday Michael, Erica, and I went on a hike on the trails at Bajo de Tigre, part of the Children's Eternal Rain Forest (land protected because of funds raised by children all over the world). These trails are just a bit down the road from my school, near where Erica lives. It was a lovely and very private hike...we only encountered one other group walking. We saw some "coatis", raccoon like creatures that climb trees (also saw some coatis in the woods behind our house when I was running early in the morning). We saw some little baby coatis that were quite adorable. Also saw some agoutis, which resemble really large guinea pigs- around the size of a cat. There were some capuchin monkeys there as well...however we only heard them and did not see them.
While standing on the trail looking up at the coatis, some biting black ants climbed up Michael's pant legs and bit him a lot. I got bit by one on the side of my foot (somehow they got through my boots). Didn't hurt so bad, but did make you jump a bit. They march along the paths in incredible numbers-- you'd be hard pressed to think of a time you saw more ants. Apparently, however, the ants are a blessing if you get them in your house because they eat all the other insects and assorted insects carcasses lying about.
Last week Michael made the long, steep hike to the San Luis waterfall. He hiked down something called the "trucha" which is a ridiculously steep road near us. He also hiked to the top of Cerro Amigo, the tallest mountain near here.
We hope to go to a beach next weekend, but we'll see.
I start teaching on Wednesday!

Busy, busy, busy

I haven't posted in a few days as I have been busy with orientation at my new teaching gig. So I will summarize some highlights.
On Friday we traveled to San Jose to get our immigration papers stamped and such. In the police office, we are fingerprinted and they count my earrings to record on my government file (I have nine earrings). I'm glad the Costa Rican government has that Extremely Important Piece of Information in their files.
On the way back, we stop at a fruit stand along the Pan-American highway and I purchase the best mangos I've ever tasted. Also bought some starfruit...which, for anyone's info, is way to sour to eat. I had to spit it out.
On Saturday, Michael and I baked oatmeal cookies. Really. It was so much fun. Really.
We also bought some fish from the fish delivery man. After purchasing quite a large amount, we promptly realized that neither of us have any idea how to COOK fish. So, for now, the fish sit in the freezer.
On Sunday, we attended Quaker meeting and went to the community potluck. Lots of yummy, yummy food. We brought our oatmeal cookies. We met lots of nice people. It was beautiful and peaceful.
On Monday and Tuesday, I went on a staff retreat where we did lots of talking and getting to know each other and such. Much of the conversation and presentation was in Spanish, and surprisingly enough, I understood almost everything. I even stood up and gave a presentation in Spanish to the whole group! Granted, my Spanish had nonsenseical grammer and probably several French or Italian words thrown in...but at least I got up there and tried. One must stumble along in order to learn!
"I'm not perfect and I know I never will be! " as the song says...
Speaking of songs, at the retreat my co-worker Tricia played the guitar and we sang songs. She played "Goodnight Irene" and I sang along. I thought about my Grandpa Hank, who my father said always loved that song.

Sunset over Monteverde

Another picture of San Jose

A visit to the city

Just in case you thought Costa Rica was all wilderness and farmland...here's a picture of the capital city, San Jose.

A leafhopper in our backyard

View of our backyard 2

View of our backyard 1