Weekly update - hopefully this won't be the pattern...

One of the better things that came out of last week's insane weather. It was so beautiful! Can you see the faint second one?

This week has been very eventful! I am truly sorry for not blogging often, but since I am teaching, my internet time is prioritized by the research I need to do for the questions that the 9th graders ask in class (which is sometimes A LOT).
Monday and Tuesday, the 7th and 8th graders were working on their volcano projects. Monday they were building them and Tuesday was the competition. We had some of the teachers and interns come to judge the volcanoes on how realistic it was, its uniqueness, and how good of an explanation the group members were able to give about the reaction between vinegar (acetic acid) and baking soda (sodium bicarbonate). Some of them were really good! After all the students volcanoes were judged, the scores were tabulated and the winners announced. There was first, second and third place, and each got a certain number of extra credit points. Then, Anna and I set off a little “volcano” of our own. Bring out the diet coke and Mentos!! Some of the kids had seen it, but a fair majority didn’t know what would happen! It was so cool! So I dumped the Mentos and RAN! My friend Jane got a good picture of the diet coke going off, with me running away. Then I gave a brief explanation of the science of the reaction. For those of you who don’t know, it is NOT a chemical reaction, it is purely the mixture of the sugar on the Mentos and the carbonation and flavoring in the coke. The surface of the Mentos make a difference, which is why the really smooth candies (Skittles or M&Ms wouldn’t work purely on the type of covering they have). It was pretty fun!

Some of the students' volcanoes:

Dumping the Mentos and running!

Explaining the science behind the reaction.

Wednesday, I started teaching the 9th graders again (they reviewed on Monday for their test on Tuesday). They are still doing pretty well with me, except that the questions get shouted out at random points in the lecture and it gets a little crazy sometimes. I am just happy that they are engaged in the subject and enjoying having me teach them. We have now finished the skeletal system and types of tissues and today we start the muscular system. They seem pretty excited about it, but after they learn all the names of the muscles they have to know they may not be as enthusiastic.
In the afternoon, during the "elective" course, we had a couple of friends of our environmental education teacher were in town. They helped us understand the basics of interpretation and how to make nature guides and trial signs that are helpful, informative, and interesting. They had set up a few wildlife traps in the forest that were designed to catch reptiles and see the foot prints of some of the mammals in the area. We saw some pretty cool tracks, plus a Mot-Mot in a tree. It was beautiful! Their tail feathers are so unique and they are almost a bluish green metallic color.
Thursday was a pretty normal day until the evening. School was fine, students did well and the weather was pretty nice. I went to the café to work on my internet searching, which turned out to be pretty successful (I found the image I was looking for after trying three or four different types of searches, and the internet being difficult). At about 6 I called my friend that I made on the bus, who lives in San Jose, and he said he was planning on being in Monteverde on Monday, so we could hang out! Yay!! Then I took a shower and got a little dressed up to go out with friends.
There is a little bar/club like thingy in Cerro Plano (up the hill from Santa Elena, where I live, but before Monteverde proper) called Moon Shiva that has Latin night on Thursdays. I met with some friends (Charlotte, Macy, Catlin, and Hollyn) at Catlin’s house and just chatted and had fun. Then we all piled into a taxi (they don’t charge per person, so it can get pretty cheap) and went to Moon Shiva. It was pretty crowded but for some reason I was totally fine! Usually in crowded places with low-ish ceilings I get really uncomfortable, but this time I was completely fine! There were several people there I knew, which helps, and we danced for about 3 hours! A couple guys asked me to dance, but I am still pretty horrible at it, but it was still fun! In addition to the 5 of us from Caitlin’s house, Jane and Stacey were there as well as four or five of the younger teachers from the school. It was so much fun!! I stayed out the latest I have since I got here (only midnight)! I am a little tired today, but completely fine considering how much fine I had!
Tomorrow is the school’s biggest fundraiser, the Carrara/Caminata. It is a 5k walk or 9k run that you pay to participate and it is a fundraiser for the school! The entire town knows about it (for the most part) and today the entire school is walking down the hill into Santa Elena carrying signs and playing drums to let everyone know. It is apparently a pretty big deal. After the race there are some games and activities for the students and other kids who come. Things start pretty early, I have to be AT the school by 6:45, uck, but things finish around 1, so I can go home and take a nap. Then in the evening, we are all going out for a nice-ish dinner to celebrate Charlotte’s birthday, #22.

So for the most part, a good week, despite its craziness. One more week and a good number of us are off the Nicaragua for 6 days of Spanish lessons and the beach!

Thanks for your patience!

Hugs,
K

I'll try to put more up on Monday!