A Different Colored Adventure

I know, I know, I've been slacking on my blogging. To be completely honest, life here is not as full of as many adventures as last time, at least not yet. Or maybe, I should say, life here is full of adventures of a different kind.

Rainy season has come to an end, and with the rains gone, the wind fills in. My roommate calls them the Christmas Winds - days so windy that doors rattle, trees bend in half, roads turn into haboobs (weather term, google it), and waves stack up overhead. I mention this because many things come out during this mini windy season....including scorpions.

For those of you who know me well, or even for those of you who follow my blogs, I am not a girl who goes squealing when I see a spider, nor do I faint at the sight of blood (though it makes me uncomfortable). Sticky situations can't stop me, and when someone says I can't do something, that makes the task even more possible. BUT. I do NOT like scorpions. They have the ultimate defense - they crunch when you smoosh them, ew. They have deadly (or at least threatening) whiptail stingers, pinching claws, and a prehistoric air about them. Just. NO.

Today was a regular day, full of teaching, laughing with the kids, working my butt off, and driving through the haboob on my quad. Oh, and grocery shopping. Normal, casual, grocery shopping, you think. NOT.

After parking my quad (excuse me, four-wheeler for those of you who missed that), I grabbed my rolling-suitcase-style shopping basket and started my shopping. In the first aisle, I was just minding my own business, checking out the wine "ofertas," when two store workers came up to me. But they didn't just come up to me....in a way, they snuck up to me even though I was facing them. Peculiar. If I was watching them, why were they sneaking up on me? Then, the first guy started to reach towards me! No words, no reason, no warning, and he was reaching towards my chest. Uh...whoa....are you about to grab me? They're going to rob me in mid-day!!! OR LIKE WHAT?!

As his hand gets closer to my chest area (ahem), I look down. (Warning: excuse me for my upcoming awkward language ha....). Upon looking down towards my belly, I see a couple animal/insect feet sticking out from under my boob shelf (haha see? awkkkk-warrddd but how else can I say that??). "Oh, just a tarantula," I thought. Yes, "JUST" a tarantula - that's what I get for living here for this long now. BUT OHHHHH NO....It wasn't a harmless tarantula.

I realized the man was just trying to grab the critter and not me...WHEW. Cool. Little did I know what kind of critter he was grabbing...YES, you guessed it, A SCORPION. AND A HUGE ONE. I'm not so sure exactly what he grabbed it by, but before I could blink, he threw it to the ground and furiously stomped it. (Yep, it crunched. Cue shivers.) A second later, I realized what had just happened. You see, I didn't know it was a 3-INCH-LONG scorpion until after it was securely pancaked on the concrete floor. THAT THING. WAS. CRAWLING. ON MY BODY. Whoa. Nope. How did it even get there?! I was in the grocery store for crying out loud!

Good thing I was in the wine aisle.

And the moral of the story is....I lived. And trust is a funny thing.

Overall, I've been surfing a ton. I've been working even more. Non-stop really. Last weekend, I up and rented a car for the weekend to meet Paco in San Jose (He's been living back in Puerto Jimenez where we met and had to work for a weekend in San Jose, so I went to visit just because we live in the same country. Because I can. Chikayeah.) That was a huge adventure within itself, and I wouldn't trade it. The last day of school before break is Tuesday, and I'll be heading down to Puerto Jimenez to visit Paco and SWIM WITH WHALE SHARKS OH YEAH! That will be an adventure for sure - I hope they're there, on schedule, so I can snag some sick GoPro footage and check that experience off my bucketlist. I'm looking forward to hanging out with my (awesome) man and seeing some old places and faces before heading back to the good ole U.S.A. for Christmas with the fam!

As always, stay tuned for the next chapter of this crazy/beautiful life of mine.:)



P.S. Paco visited me a couple of weeks ago...Arribada, the seasonal event when sea turtles arrive in droves to lay their eggs, was happening, and I woke him up early to go one morning. I didn't tell him where we were going, but we hopped on my quad before sunrise, drove through the jungle, and stepped onto the beach to watch the momma turtles make their voyage as the sun rose over the beach. Here's a picture that he snapped. So amazing!!!

Back to Pura Vida

My legs dangle off the rails of my surfboard, and I suck in deep breaths of salty air. Ah...so refreshing after a long day at work in the heat and humidity. I have finally made it to the lineup after a few sessions of "paddling practice" - I was so out of shape, that I couldn't paddle through the breakers to actually get to green waves to surf! My arms are tired, but not too much, and I am waiting for the next set to come through. As I wait, bobbing in the calm water, the sun is setting. Just over the translucent-teal wave crests that are rolling through, I can see the sun melting into the ocean that I am sitting in. "This is why I live here," I thought. This is what renews me, what centers me, and what strengthens me.

And this is also how I ended my first week of my new job! Not too shabby I'd say. 

To say the least, it's been quite a hectic month...well few months really. Since I was accepted for my job in California back in the beginning of August, life has been one big transitional phase - From Auburn to Cali, fighting to find some semblance of normalcy, landing a job back in CR, up and leaving Cali all of a sudden, back home, repack, visit Paco, move to Nosara, find a house, start my job....WHOA. Life is still in transition, but at least now, it can begin to mellow out. 

So what's the newest update? Well, I found a place to live that is gorgeous. I share my house with another girl, but I have my own room. We have lots of palm and banana trees and plenty of ginger and hibiscus surrounding our house. The living room is open and airy, and the kitchen is perfect for entertaining. The best part? My room has french doors that open onto my own patio and courtyard! There are three cats that live with us, and my house is a 10 minute walk from the beach and surfbreak (okay, so maybe that's the best part...haha). On a quiet night, you can even hear the waves crashing way off in the distance. 

My room from the doorway and my surfboard!!

The french doors!

My patio and courtyard

Today I also picked up my very first big girl purchase - an ATV!! This is how I will get to work everyday! While others my age are buying houses and brand new cars, I'm over here just zooming around on my quad haha Pretty nice ride so far!

And the big news...I MADE IT THROUGH MY FIRST WEEK OF TEACHING!!! Whooo!! The first day of school was much more nerve-racking than I expected - my stomach was in knots as I watched my students through the window as they gathered outside. In my PreK-K class, which is from 8:30-10:00am, I have 4-5 little ones, mostly kindergarteners, and so far, only one of them is a girl. This makes for an active and straight-forward vibe in the classroom. In my 1st-2nd grade class, which is from 10:30-2:00, I had 6 this week, but that is supposedly going to change - I might be getting two more this week, but I'll lose one. All of the kids are so sweet, and they behave well. Almost too well. It makes me suspicious that they are so nice. Surely this is too good to be true, and I can't let them trick me into thinking they're all angels haha!

Ready for the first day! That desk in the back is mine....

View from my classroom's sliding glass doors

Although my students were so well behaved, the week was somewhat challenging for me. I had to get back in the groove of working with young ones, and it's harder than I thought to plan lessons for student you don't even know! Now that I know them better, I realize I need to kick my lessons up a notch to meet the needs of VERY, VERY diverse learners. I may only have 6 in my 1st-2nd (Macaws) class, but one child is learning what sounds letters make and another is reading chapter books! Looks like I have my hands full preparing differentiated lessons for a small group with limited resources and a tiny classroom....Teacher friends, any lesson ideas or tips would be welcomed! 

Luckily, by Thursday, I was feeling more comfortable. Now that I know my kids, hopefully I can plan better lessons. I am also having to make most of my materials, so that part will have to come in time. I just don't have hours upon hours to do crafts for my room! 

In other news, I bought a surfboard. Let's be honest, I don't have a phone and I just now got transportation, but by gosh I've got myself a board. #Priorities. I went surfing on a Tuesday after work. Mind. Blown.

Hopefully, Paco will be visiting next week (YAY!!), and hopefully I will have a local phone soon too. AND, my internet at my house is pretty shoddy, so much so that I can't do any teacher work from home or even Skype my loved ones, so that has got to change, and soon too. 

Overall, it's so nice to be back in Pura Vida land. It's warm, there's a beautiful ocean with clear water, sunshine, fresh fruit, laid back people, and even monkeys in my trees!

Baby monkey in the tree above my room! 

  Little by little, slowly but surely, it's coming all together. Ahhhh.... :)

A Pinky Toe in the Door

Shortly after my last blog post that begged future employers to read between the lines of my resume and give me a "pinky toe (as opposed to a whole foot) in the door," I received that crack in the door that I needed.

It wasn't an easy decision, but I am SO EXCITED to finally announce that.....

I'M MOVING BACK TO COSTA RICA!!!!

Yep, here we go...AGAIN. How many times is this now? Four, in case you're wondering. Not only that, but....

I'M GOING TO BE AN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHER THERE!!!

Whoooohooo!!! So here are the details.

Who: Academy del Sol (School of the sun. Perfect.) It's a private, bilingual school with expat and local families.
Where: Nosara, Guanacaste, Costa Rica. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the area, I will be on the Pacific coast, on the northern Nicoya Peninsula. (Last time, I was on the southern Osa Peninsula).
What: PreK/Kinder social studies and language arts and 1st-3rd grade English, math, and science. (Sound familiar? ha)
When: I will land in Costa Rica next Thursday and spend a much needed weekend with Paco before starting work in Nosara on Oct. 28th.
How: Google, email, Kayak.com, Facebook, Sacramento, plane, Atlanta, car, Auburn, plane, San Jose, bus, Nosara. In that order.

And the biggest question: WHY. I have a job here in California, right?

To answer as candidly as possible, I am unhappy here. I came into this chapter of my journey with high hopes to teach, live, and learn about alternative lifestyles. Teaching a Farm to Table class and helping with field trips and working with my hands, outside in the beautiful weather, sounded nice. Quakerism would be an added twist to this wonderful adventure. This experience was supposed to be rich and challenging but instead, I am finding that this is not at all what I was looking for.

Unfortunately, there was miscommunication or misunderstanding somewhere along the line, and it turns out that I am only teaching one hour....yes, ONE. HOUR. per week, if that. If I add up all the hours, that means about 8-9 hours a semester. That's what one teacher gets in a day or two! Career-wise, that's just not going to cut it. While I appreciate high school students for some reasons, I've learned that my true calling is with the young minds. At that age, they light up the room with young curiosity, laughter, raw potential, spontaneity, earnestness, and creativity - all of these things you can find in high schoolers, but there is just something about kids' earnestness that captivates me! That's why I love teaching elementary grades, and it took that being absent for me to realize it.

Life here is also challenging in a way a didn't expect - working, living, and playing on the same campus with virtually no contact with "the outside world" turned out to be harder for independent me than I expected. I miss going and doing and seeing new things all the time. I also like to be able to separate work and play, and again, it took me not having that freedom to realize how important it was to me.

However, it hasn't all been bad. I learned to play soccer here, which I really am surprised I like so much. I doubled my knowledge about plants and farming, and I hate to admit that I have even adopted a Quaker practice or two! Haha! I have met people here that are very special, few and far between - I've learned about myself and the world around me through big conversations and teamwork with them. The community has been nothing but supportive, especially in this decision process, and I feel quite guilty for leaving them, especially Maggie who really needs my help in the garden. I learned about many things that I value, and I learned that I want to make those things a priority.

 I go on these huge, crazy, life adventures in search of an amazing life that fuels my passion for teaching, learning, cooking, exploring, loving, growing, and being healthy, and although this process right now is hectic and makes me want to panic and run away into Lalaland, I have to remind myself why I am making this leap of faith yet again. I have never felt as happy, healthy, and whole as I have living in Costa Rica (especially this last time!), and I hope that is how I will feel again. I can't wait to meet my kiddos and coworkers and new friends, and it will be nice being closer to at least one person I love. I will be near the beach and surfing too. Plus, there will be more bananas, pineapple, coconuts, AVOCADOS, and Gallo Pinto than I can eat, and the coffee snob in me will once again be satisfied.

The best part? My new school has the best extracurricular clubs maybe ever. Every Friday, students get out at noon, teachers plan for a couple hours, and then everyone meets up at the beach for SURF CLUB!! A local surf shop lets us borrow boards so we can all enjoy an afternoon of surfing. EVERY WEEK. Yes, please.

So, I leave tomorrow to go back home to repack and visit family and friends for a couple days. Then, I will fly to San Jose and visit with Paco  for a long weekend before taking the bus to Nosara. Hopefully, I'll have housing secured by then, and I will move in and start work the next day. My students will arrive on November 3rd, and I am so excited, nervous, and anxious, and I want to hug them all already! My very first, real, First Day of School.

And here we go again.....
PURA VIDA

What Resumes Don't Tell You

Humor the teacher inside me and raise your hand if you are a recent graduate and can't find a job to save your life. You are applying for jobs like it's your job. You maybe even have not one, but TWO degrees that you slaved over for, in my case, 18 out of 23 years of my life...which, if you do the math you learned in school that won't help you get a job either, equals approximately 78% of my life. Your resume is littered with relevant jobs here and there - literally, for our generation is traveling more than any other before us. You've nit-picked your resume and rewritten enough cover letters to deem yourself a professional cover-letter-writer (and you're now thinking, "Can that go on my resume??"). You just don't understand....WHEN will someone take a chance on you?!

Trust me, I've been there, done that...or...well...live there, do that all the time. When will someone looks at my piece of paper that outlines a fraction of my life (aka: my resume), and say "There's got to be more than this. A simple piece of paper cannot begin to describe what this girl is capable of, even though she's 24 years old and never worked somewhere for more than 6 months at a time. I think she can be a life changer."

Please, just put me in a classroom and give me a long leash to teach how and what I want, and most importantly what the kids want, and I know you won't regret it. Just crack the door so I can stick my little pinky toe in. That's all I need. A pinky toe in the door.

But that's the problem. Our society relies too much on that little piece of paper...a completely non-exhaustive list of the "relevant experiences" you've had along your still blossoming career path. What if employers were able to read between the lines? What if they saw the intense journeys in between those minimum-wage jobs that changed your entire inner being? In truth, resumes don't tell you much.

For one, resumes don't tell my potential employer about the path I took to become a teacher in the first place. They can never illustrate the dusty, paint-chipped, cinder block walls of the first, over-crowded classroom I ever taught in, the holey uniforms and rot-spotted teeth of my students, or my acute disquiet as I tried to teach English in a Spanish only classroom even though I spoke about five words of Spanish. This volunteer experience may have only lasted two (painful) weeks, but it changed my entire career path.



Resumes won't tell you the stories of each student who sat in my classroom in Puerto Jimenez. On that piece of paper, you won't find the inspiration I was able to squeeze out of my most difficult students. Those four intense months of teaching were pivotal to me, and the freedom I had in teaching allowed to me discover my true teaching style. I thrived in my passion for teaching there....But oh, you won't find that under "summary of responsibilities" section on my resume (although maybe I should try that...).

Read aloud for 3rd-6th graders

Resumes don't show you the intestinal fortitude it took to climb up one of the world's highest active volcanoes to get to the glacier, hike that glacier with crampons and ice picks in white-out conditions, or the pride I felt afterwards, nor will they show you the smiles on the faces of the beautiful people you met, helped, and overcame the language barrier with along the way. They also don't show the courage it takes you to overcome a fear of heights while repelling down a 100 foot waterfall.

Hiking the glacier on Cotopaxi, Ecuador

Repelling Ecuadorian jungle waterfalls

Resumes may outline job experience, but they will never outline the internal transformation that accompanied those experiences. I may have been a dolphin tour guide in Costa Rica, but no words on any piece of paper can describe the awe, curiosity, care, and patience that comes with witnessing Mother Nature's greatness first hand (remember those close-call waterspouts?!), introducing guests to the wonders of our Earth, helping others overcome their fears, or challenging passengers to make wiser, sustainable choices. Those moments are the ones that allow me to be enthusiastic about an elementary science lesson, and they are also the moments that inspire me to delve deeper in the realm of sustainability.

Sea Cucumber

Waterspout

Sometimes, lesson plans can be overwhelming, but I am able to overcome obstacles. If my resume allowed examples, my employer might know that I have hiked Sallqantay in the Andes up to 15,5091 feet on my way to Machu Picchu via the Inca Trail. My body hurt so bad I questioned whether I would finish, but I did. Then, when I stepped out of my comfortable life as a student to pursue a teaching job off in the unknown jungles of Costa Rica, I questioned if I could do it, but the results have been rewarding and life changing. I can step up to challenges in and out of the classroom, but I doubt my resume says so.

Sallqantay, Cordillo Vilcabamba, Peru

We made it to Machu Picchu (it's behind me..)

Remember the time you pushed past your limits to reach greatness? You gained a better sense of yourself and showed determination in reaching a goal? Those moments of courage and determination...I wonder if they're is listed on your resume?

Don't employers want to know that their candidates are motivated, goal-oriented, and determined? Often employers are seeking "passionate team players" and "experienced employees."  How in the world does a list of my past jobs express that better than my true stories. Employers may see that I volunteered in Ecuador or worked abroad in Costa Rica, but what about all the things that come with that?

In closing and in my opinion, resumes can't even begin to describe who we are as humans and why we are suitable for this job or that internship. Only WE can do that. Our experiences define us, yes, but ALL of them do, not just the ones suitable for listing on a resume.

To those future employers, know that I am more than a few four-month job stints in far flung places; I am everything that comes with that - passion, enthusiasm, hard work, motivation, determination, courage, self-awareness, and positivity. In fact, my experiences do define me, so when you read my resume, please read between the lines.