Last week and San Jose

Sorry for the lack of blogging this week. Monday and Tuesday were pretty relaxed, but then things got really crazy. I started teaching on Thursday, human anatomy, so I spent most of Tuesday and Wednesday planning lessons and trying to find images that work well for teaching the material. The school doesn’t have enough biology textbooks for me to use them in class (one per table, there are 6 tables…sad huh) so I have spent a lot of time trying to find images on-line that I can use with a projector and the white board. For the most part, that works out pretty well.

I really enjoy teaching the students. Fortunately, this subject is interesting to them so I get a lot of questions (can you break your ears? What is osteoporosis? What was the appendix used for, why can it be removed? How many bones are in the body?...) which keeps me busy in the afternoons trying to find the answers. I did human anatomy in 9^th grade, and took one semester of vertebrate physiology last year, but that was only the nervous system and excretory system. So for the most part, I am learning right along with them. Anna has some very ambitious goals for them, which means I have to try to give them as much information as possible, without confusing them too much with unnecessary details. They are sponges for information, whether or not they will retain the details for a test in another question.

So that has occupied most of my time. This weekend I made the trip to San Jose to pick up some stuff that a friend in the states brought with him (Thank you Esteban!!!). His stepmom picked me up from the Multiplaza in Escazu (outside of San Jose) and they were very hospitable to me and so nice. I stayed the night at their house, a very unique and comfortable place, and slept in a REAL bed! The next day they helped me get to the Multiplaza, where a bought TCBY, a webcam and new white board markers for the classroom, and then they called a friend who is a taxi driver to take me to the bus station and make sure I got the right ticket. I am very grateful for their hospitality and kindness for all they did for me. I was able to get a few “luxuries” from home (peanut butter, green tea, long-johns, and some familiar scents) as well as all the stuff I got for the classroom: dissection kits (10), magnets, multimeters, digital scales (4), one hot plate, magnifying classes, posters, thermometers, and flasks. (Thank you so much to my church family for helping me bring all this stuff for the school!) I had a great trip.

I think the best part was the bus to San Jose. I sat next to a guy from Costa Rica, who had been working for a coffee company in Monteverde for a little while. We chatted and got to know each other and it was amazing. I think he is studying engineering and business in his home city, can’t remember then name right now. We exchanged emails so hopefully we can get to know each other more through email. It was definitely a unique “cultural” experience that I am not likely to forget for a long time.