Holiday Festivities

This week has been really busy, with big projects due, report cards, and of course, all sorts of holiday activities. On Wednesday the 3rd and 4th graders put on a holiday choir performance.
This morning there was a big gift parade, where the entire elementary and early childhood schools got together to sing songs and donate gifts. We went up on the stage to sing in the "teacher choir," and we sang as loud as we could for a good hour. After awhile, Santa walked into the building and made his way up to the stage. All of the students brought gifts and got in line to meet with Santa and give him their presents. The gifts went to a local church, which will donate them to needy kids around Escazu. It was neat to see how many presents were donated. The priest from the church came and told everyone how thankful he was and stayed to sing Feliz Navidad. Unfortunately, one of the third graders, who is pretty much the Latin version of Denice the Menace, decided to yank off Santa's beard when he donated his gift. Many of the kids thought it was funny, but the younger ones were really sad about it.
After the performance we had class parties. It was only a half day of school, so the day was pretty much devoted to eating sugary treats and getting hyper (an elementary student's dream day).
Tomorrow we are flying back to California. We have to wake up at 4:30 AM so that we can arrive at the airport 3 hours before our flight. The airport is really busy this time of year, and there are long lines to wait in to pay the fee for exiting the country. We are really looking forward to coming back home!

Yesterday we went to the giant mall by our house, Multiplaza. There was a Christmas musical performance goingon when we got there. Today we went to "Tom Tom" after school and got bratwurst. They had all kinds of German food there, including many different meats and cheeses that they processed there.

A Few More Pictures

Cocodrillo, tree head-dip in front of a surfspot called "The Tree," and sunset view from our room.

Another Quick Beach Trip

Last weekend we decided that even though it had only been a week since our trip to Guanacaste, that another beach trip would be fun. We opted for the much closer Playa Hermosa. On Saturday morning we left the house before 7 and managed to not get lost at all on our way to Hermosa. We were there by about 9:30 AM. We stayed at a hotel which appeared to be the best within our price range from the pictures on the internet. We could have done better. While the room was very bright (blue all over) it didn't seem to be very clean..like we opted not to shower until we got home the next day because of the look of the tub. The location wasn't exactly ideal either (located in between the bar and the public bathrooms). Oh and the sound of giant lizards crawling on the tin roof wasn't very fun either. Well, we figured that we weren't going to spend too much time in the hotel room anyway so we made the best of it. We had two great days at the beach full of surfing and sun bathing. On Saturday night we walked down the beach to another hotel that had a great big patio and we watched the sunset while a local band ( of overaged hippies) played pretty good cover music and a few of their own songs too. It was fun. We left midday on Sunday and made it back to Escazu ready for a quick bite to eat and a shower. For that quick bite to eat we stopped by the grocery store to grab some lettuce for a salad and a few other things. We came out quickly ready to get home, unpack, and get clean. BUT...the car wouldn't start :( So thank goodness for the kindness of strangers we had an expat, a guard from our school, and an off duty mechanic help get the car started about 45 minutes later. That (thankfully) was the end of our fun and eventful weekend at the beach. Enjoy the pictures!

Nerds.

Guancaste

We had an excellent Thanksgiving vacation in Guanacaste. It took us about 5 hours to drive there from San Jose, and we stayed at an affordable but clean hotel in Playa Brasilito. We stayed for three nights, and visited many beaches, including Playa Negra, Grande, Brasilito, Flamingo, and Conchal (there is no sand at this beach, just tiny shells!. Most of the roads were in pretty good condition, although the road to Playa Negra would have been impossible without 4x4.
We also met with the Country Day School director, and toured the CDS Guanacaste campus in Brasilito. It is a brand new campus that is about five minutes from the beach, and there is a chance we will teach there next year.
Guanacaste is the driest province in Costa Rica, and we had very warm weather while we were there. It was sunny for most of our stay, with just a little bit of rain at times. The sunsets were beautiful and it was very relaxing to know that we did not have to be anywhere or do anything.