Welcome to August

Happy Long Weekend everyone!  Well, at least in Costa Rica.  It's some sort of Saint day tomorrow, where everyone walks to Cartago to the Basilica.  We (myself and few other teachers) went to Pequeno Mundo yesterday, and we couldn't figure out why there were so many people on the sidewalks.  Of course, they were walking to Cartago!  Everywhere were signs for washrooms and such in peoples' homes, for this amount of colones or that amount.  Pretty interesting.  Not interesting enough to join in, but neat to see. 

I now have a clotheline in my apartment.  I recognize this may seen strange, but when it rains every afternoon, a clothesline in the yard is virtually pointless.  Judy came over and drilled holes in my cement walls yesterday morning, so I could put up the box that holds the strings.  I now have clothes drying in my bedroom, as it gets the best air circulation, and it's out of the way.  Choosing what I was going to wear was getting interesting!

I"m beginning to get my bearings.  I have to think of the school as sort of in the centre of my little world, and then I won't get as lost.  We took a taxi back from Pequeno Mundo yesterday, and Emily was convinced we were going in the wrong direction.  I wasn't sure either, but the driver was correct.  It was a good tour of sidestreets and such that the buses don't travel down.  We ended up in the right place, and I survived my first taxi ride in Costa Rica.

Anyway, the rest of the day is for planning, and I'm going to have to buckle down and get it done.  Up to now, it's felt strange.  I'm here to work, but work hasn't started, so part of me thinks it's a vacation.  Now I'm beginning to find not understanding things draining instead of intriguing.  It takes a lot of mental energy to try to commnicate anything.  I'm learning more and more, but it almost seems like my English is getting worse instead of my Spanish getting better!

Off to plan.  At least I won't have nearly as much marking to do!