Days 1 and 2

Our first day, Monday, we had to arrive at the school by 7:15 in order to "take our tests". Our tests consisted of a teacher talking to each of us, one on one, to gauge our abilities. Once we had all gone, we had to pledge to speak only Spanish on the campus, except for in the Multilingual Zone. They then put us into groups based on our abilities and we started school at 8:00. At school we have two breaks in the four hours of classes. During the breaks we all get together and drink coffee, tea, or water, and most of us try to use the Wifi, if it's working. Since it was our first day, we had to have orientation with Lindsey, the group coordinator of the school. She reminded us of some rules and of the activities we were going to do. We then walked about a block down the beach to a restaurant called Sherrifs. Most of us had a traditional meal, but some of us had American food. The best thing was the batidos - fruit smoothies. Delicious! After lunch we took a quick tour of the town before going to our volunteer activity at CREAR. We got to the community center which is their new base of operation. CREAR is an organization that provides supplemental education for children and young people in the area. Kids in this area only go to school for half a day (because of a lack of resources) and only get a very basic education so CREAR teaches them art, leadership, female empowerment, and has a library with tutors to help the kids succeed. We didn't work at the community center, but were taken to the poor part of town (Torito) and we got to help some kids make Popsicle art projects. There were not many kids because it was a kind of rainy day, so we had sometimes 3-4 of our kids working with only 1 or two. It was a low key activity, but a good chance for the kids to practice their Spanish with children (the hardest ones to understand!) and to make connections with the community. (Pictures are on the Facebook page) After CREAR, we had the rest of the night free, so many people went to the bank to try to exchange money and then all of us made it to the beach at some point. We had a good time swimming, playing frisbee, exploring the beach, and watching all the dogs :) Then we went back to our houses to do homework (yes, we have homework!), eat, and rest since the rest of the nights we would be doing some activity. Tuesday dawned bright and sunny, perfect for surfing. We had to go in the morning because this week, high tide is in the morning (it's an hour later every day down here). After signing the waivers, getting our rash shirts on, and taking some pictures, we were ready to go. We had an important lesson in surf safety, names of the parts of the board, and how to surf - did you know there are 6 steps? We all got to practice on land before going with our instructors to practice. The first few times, he would take us one at a time, tell us when to get on, when to start paddling and when to get up. After a while, he would then just tell us as a group which wave to take and when to get up. Finally, we were ready to start surfing on our own. We had to make sure to choose the correct wave which is NOT as easy as it sounds! After surfing, we all had some time to rinse off (in a tree!) and change and go eat lunch. We split up to eat lunch and all gathered back at school before 1 which is when our next classes were. I'm not sure about the kids, but they looked about as tired as I felt. Classes were hard that afternoon after surfing all morning. After classes, many people took a walk around town, some went shopping, and then headed home for a bit to eat with their families. At 8, we all gathered back at the school for a beach bonfire and roasted "S'mores" the Tico way. We got to see some crabs and lots of stars. Then we finally headed home for an awesome night's sleep. (Pictures from surfing are not up yet since I had to use a different camera). Hasta luego!