I woke up around 7:15, thanks to my window facing east and still not having a curtain. I felt awake since I went to bed early and decided to get back into yoga. I lay out my mat and begin going through the postures I remembered. I heard a loudspeaker saying something and saw a car going by with speakers on top. I’m not sure what it was but my first thought was that it was the Muslim call to prayer, but I haven’t seen any mosques so it may have just been someone selling newspapers or something. I finished my yoga, jumped rope in the parking lot, did lunges across it and then some crunches. I have never been one to work out in the morning but, its actually quite nice. I was really hungry and had a big breakfast, I kind of wanted to go back to sleep because I felt tired but it was nice later in the day knowing I had already exercised for the day!
Today was an interesting day in class. We learned about various learning styles and personality types. We learned about visual, auditory and kinesthetic and tactile learners. The latter two are known as Haptic. We did a questionnaire which listed various statements about study habits and situations and ranked it between 1-3 in terms of how often it applied to us personally. Turns out that I am a HAPTIC learner. I scored highest on that, next for audio and last for visual. Haptic learners need to engage with the material and learn best from interactive lessons. We need to write things down, try for ourselves and actively engage with the material. I enjoyed the fact that one of the statements under haptic was having an “apparently Disorganized desk” (or in my case, room) I obviously gave myself the highest rank for that. Some of the suggestions for learning this way surprised me, one was to read through colored transparency paper. It seems that my habit of color coding notes and using an array of colored pens (or glittery, metallic etc.) actually Helps me learn! It also explains why I prefer to study in coffee shops to libraries and that I need to study for a set amount of time and then take a short break. It even goes along with why I prefer to study with other people around, and I like to work with people to study because I am InTER personal, not inTRA. I also prefer Inductive to Deductive reasoning meaning going from the big picture down to the details and facts. We also learned about the myers-briggs types of personality. I am extroverted as opposed to introverted, open/perceiving as opposed to closed/judging, Feeling as opposed to Thinking and Intuitive Random as opposed to Sensing Sequential. I enjoyed this lesson and found it helpful.
Ne Hao! Wo jiao Lolly, Ne jiao shon me ming zi?
Yes!!! That is CHINESE!!! We had a 30 minute lesson in Chinese today to see how a total immersion class is done and what it feels like for the learner. Our teacher, Amy, a native Chinese speaker, did not speak one word of English the entire time, yet we learned how to say thank you, XieXie (pronounced-seeay seeay) no thank you= bu yao, and goodbye=zai jen. Above is ne hao=hello, wo jiao lolly=my name is lolly and ne jiao shon me ming zi (pronounced ne jao sho may ming zuh) what is your name? I quite enjoyed it as I have never studied Chinese and I enjoy languages. It was important to feel so lost and confused however because that is how our students will feel about English. I wish we had a language lesson everyday. I think doing the Arabic rosetta stone while taking this course will be very interesting.
We then did another observation of a different teacher today, it was to put it nicely, “slow” or not so nicely Boring! The teacher did not have much energy or enthusiasm and neither did the students. It was not clear what the objective was that she was teaching and the students also seemed lost and could not accurately do the activity at the end. It is important to see a not so good teacher so we can know what Not to be like.
For lunch I went with Chris and Leon to a Vegetarian (YAY) restaurant called Vishnus which is across the street from our school in the Universidad Latina. I had a very tasty veggie burger. During our break I went with Chris to the bank and then wandered around the neighborhood a bit vaguely in search of a watch or alarm clock which I did not find. It is interesting to talk to Chris because this is his first experience internationally and life here is very different than his native Tennesee.
After school I went to the grocery store to get Pasta tomato sauce this time and eggs which I have been craving as well as a pineapple, though I don’t have a knife to cut it with I realized afterwards. I was excited to eat dinner and went back to the apartment. As soon as I turned on the light however, my appetite all but disappeared. About 10 small cockroaches began to scuttle around the counter. I grabbed the Raid and sprayed, bashed, drowned and smashed as many as I could. Ugh theyre so Gross and creepy and nasty and dirty and they just Kept appearing even after I sprayed poison everywhere! Tomorrow I plan to buy gel traps and more spray. I keep my cereal and chips and anything unsealed in the fridge or the freezer to keep them safe from the disgusting creatures. What purpose do they possible serve in this world? Nasty.
I then went to Maximo 1 office to skype with Jay and gave him the learner quiz. He is a visual then audio then haptic learner. When he went to sleep I wanted to watch Ugly Betty online but abc.com does not play internationally! I quickly posted it on facebook as my status how to watch tv online out of the U.S. and got a prompt response from Christine Wight for a site! Yay. I watched my show until the office closed, came home, watched the end of Hairspray on tv and am now about to go to bed so I get wake up early, exercise and skype chat before class.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Day Two
Today was loaded with information! We had 3 hours of class from 9-12, where we learned about various ESL techniques. We took copious notes on all different ways of eliciting vocabulary and learning the definitions without explaining or defining words. We talked about using demonstrations and miming as well as pictures and examples to convey meaning. For lunch we went to a local Soda, a traditional costa rican corner cafe. I had a delicious lunch of rice and beans, the national dish known as Gallo Pinto, with a fried egg and passionfruit juice. The meal cost just under TWO dollars. After lunch we went back to studying and learned about the EPL model of teaching which consists of various steps to apply to a lesson plan. We then split up into group A and B for our observation and teaching schedules. I observed the teacher do a lesson for three costa rica young women and then wrote a paper on it and the various techniques she used.
Today was much easier in terms of adjusting to the new culture and environment. I went to this building on the corner between my house and the school to see what was available. It was set up oddly with a handful of stores distributed throughout the building, all connected by ramps. There is a hardware store, a house goods store which was decked out with holiday decorations, a supermarket on the bottom and a stationary store. I picked up a jump rope which was an excellent surprise to find there and plan to use it for cardio which my dad suggested since people don't go jogging here. I also got a notebook and some groceries. I bought a few bags of pasta, two bags of platanitos-my favorite central american treat of plaintain chips, some hot sauce, tomato sauce, saran wrap and some bananas..for a total of $12 dollars.
I got home just as it was about to rain. Every day starts out sunny and tropical but around 2 o'clock becomes gray and overcast and there is at least one inevitable rain shower. It also gets dark by 6pm which makes it feel much later than it is. (I am 2 hours earlier here than at home on the east coast) I made my pasta, after overcoming my shock of seeing one of the small cockroaches scuttling around the pot, reassuring myself that any germs would be boiled away. I opened the salsa de tomate, excited for my first cooked meal, only to discover that the sauce (salsa=sauce) was in fact, Salsa, as in chips and salsa. It is a source of confusion that salsa de tomate translates as tomato sauce, but can mean, salsa in the American sense, marinara sauce, or ketchup! I ate my pasta plain because we don't have butter or olive oil.
One thing that surprises me is that the women here wear long pants and high heels everyday. The pants is surprising to me because it is very hot when the sun is shining, but that is a trend I've noticed throughout central america. The women wear long pants and high heels despite the many cracks in the sidewalk. Between the sidewalk and the street are holes that are a foot deep and a foot wide only covered in a few places by grates. Walking in the dark one has to be very aware of anyone else on the street but also keep an eye out for these big gaps.
I'm hoping to get internet at my apartment in the next few days which will make posting easier.
more to come later! thanks for reading!
Today was much easier in terms of adjusting to the new culture and environment. I went to this building on the corner between my house and the school to see what was available. It was set up oddly with a handful of stores distributed throughout the building, all connected by ramps. There is a hardware store, a house goods store which was decked out with holiday decorations, a supermarket on the bottom and a stationary store. I picked up a jump rope which was an excellent surprise to find there and plan to use it for cardio which my dad suggested since people don't go jogging here. I also got a notebook and some groceries. I bought a few bags of pasta, two bags of platanitos-my favorite central american treat of plaintain chips, some hot sauce, tomato sauce, saran wrap and some bananas..for a total of $12 dollars.
I got home just as it was about to rain. Every day starts out sunny and tropical but around 2 o'clock becomes gray and overcast and there is at least one inevitable rain shower. It also gets dark by 6pm which makes it feel much later than it is. (I am 2 hours earlier here than at home on the east coast) I made my pasta, after overcoming my shock of seeing one of the small cockroaches scuttling around the pot, reassuring myself that any germs would be boiled away. I opened the salsa de tomate, excited for my first cooked meal, only to discover that the sauce (salsa=sauce) was in fact, Salsa, as in chips and salsa. It is a source of confusion that salsa de tomate translates as tomato sauce, but can mean, salsa in the American sense, marinara sauce, or ketchup! I ate my pasta plain because we don't have butter or olive oil.
One thing that surprises me is that the women here wear long pants and high heels everyday. The pants is surprising to me because it is very hot when the sun is shining, but that is a trend I've noticed throughout central america. The women wear long pants and high heels despite the many cracks in the sidewalk. Between the sidewalk and the street are holes that are a foot deep and a foot wide only covered in a few places by grates. Walking in the dark one has to be very aware of anyone else on the street but also keep an eye out for these big gaps.
I'm hoping to get internet at my apartment in the next few days which will make posting easier.
more to come later! thanks for reading!
Photos
these are pictures of my building my room the "fig tree" and hte supermarket on the way to school, more to come
Day One
Day One
Well today was a long challenging day. I woke up to find that the water had in fact started working and I enjoyed a hot shower with great water pressure. Then I went to open my curtain to let in the sun, and the entire curtain rod promptly fell off the wall and onto the floor. When I tried to place it back into the hooks, it surprised me that the pole was too short to reach both hooks. I gave up and put on a royal blue dress. I applied sunblock to my face and shoulders and set out into the tropical weather. I arrived at the language center about half an hour before orientation and eagerly caught up with my boyfriend.
Orientation consisted of general tips for life in Costa Rica as well as guidelines for the progression of the course. There are about twenty of us in the class and we went around introducing ourselves. Most of the students recently graduated from college although a few are about ten years out. We played a game where every person in the room asks each person in the room a yes or no question, in order to learn about each other. There are two couples, one just got married and the other has been hitchhiking through central America. There is one young man from the UK who moved here to be with his Costa Rican girlfriend. One man is from Australia but other than those two the rest are American. It is an eclectic bunch of people about half of whom are planning to stay and teach English in Latin America.
After the in class orientation with the annoyingly peppy teacher, we went on a walking tour of the neighborhood. This was not a practical endeavor as twenty people cannot all hear the tour guide on a busy city street with cars and buses constantly going by. I used the time to chat with some of my new peers and found I liked some that I had not initially been interested in and that others who had seemed intriguing were in fact, dull. We ended the tour at the second Maximo Nivel office and bought our books for the course. We already had been assigned homework and the thought of stressing out over a one month class in central America was unappealing.
A group of eight of us decided to go for sushi for lunch. I would have preferred some local food but I figured it was practical to get to know some of my new classmates.
During lunch we learned more about each others previous travels or lack there of. We discussed the usefulness of the couch surfing network where travelers can stay for free with locals. The lunch was overall appealing and farely affordable. The fact that they do not bring the check until it is specifically asked for is indicative of the difference in lifestyle. Here it is expected for a group to leisurely chat after eating and there is no hurry to churn customers out of a restaurant.
After lunch a few of us went to exchange dollars into colones and then I went to the Maximo Nivel office one which is right near my apartment. I signed online and waited for certain people to sign on. My computer battery was losing charge and my charger was inconveniently not working. I grew more frustrated and nervous as it got dark outside around 5:30. I bought a phone card after overhearing a former TEFL student ask for one. I was feeling stressed out and overwhelmed by the new people the apparent cliques which were forming, the constant vigilance triggered by feeling like everyone is going to rob you and the lack of internet or cell phone. When I arrived home I realized that the phone did not work so my master plan of getting in touch through a phone card was dashed. My roommate also the pointed out that five dollars for twenty minutes of talk time was not a good deal.
Exasperated I decided to go out just to get my mind of the frustrations. I had a nice dinner with three of the guys from my program and then went to the local street where all of the bars are. We met up with numerous peers from both the current and earlier TEFL groups at Caccios Bar. Their specialty was Olaffos, a giant oversize mug of beer which can be turned green with food coloring for an extra price. I shared a few and had enough of a headache to call it a night. I hung out with Leon, the Australian, and chatted while getting some fresh air in front of the bar. He walked me home and I got in safely.
Well today was a long challenging day. I woke up to find that the water had in fact started working and I enjoyed a hot shower with great water pressure. Then I went to open my curtain to let in the sun, and the entire curtain rod promptly fell off the wall and onto the floor. When I tried to place it back into the hooks, it surprised me that the pole was too short to reach both hooks. I gave up and put on a royal blue dress. I applied sunblock to my face and shoulders and set out into the tropical weather. I arrived at the language center about half an hour before orientation and eagerly caught up with my boyfriend.
Orientation consisted of general tips for life in Costa Rica as well as guidelines for the progression of the course. There are about twenty of us in the class and we went around introducing ourselves. Most of the students recently graduated from college although a few are about ten years out. We played a game where every person in the room asks each person in the room a yes or no question, in order to learn about each other. There are two couples, one just got married and the other has been hitchhiking through central America. There is one young man from the UK who moved here to be with his Costa Rican girlfriend. One man is from Australia but other than those two the rest are American. It is an eclectic bunch of people about half of whom are planning to stay and teach English in Latin America.
After the in class orientation with the annoyingly peppy teacher, we went on a walking tour of the neighborhood. This was not a practical endeavor as twenty people cannot all hear the tour guide on a busy city street with cars and buses constantly going by. I used the time to chat with some of my new peers and found I liked some that I had not initially been interested in and that others who had seemed intriguing were in fact, dull. We ended the tour at the second Maximo Nivel office and bought our books for the course. We already had been assigned homework and the thought of stressing out over a one month class in central America was unappealing.
A group of eight of us decided to go for sushi for lunch. I would have preferred some local food but I figured it was practical to get to know some of my new classmates.
During lunch we learned more about each others previous travels or lack there of. We discussed the usefulness of the couch surfing network where travelers can stay for free with locals. The lunch was overall appealing and farely affordable. The fact that they do not bring the check until it is specifically asked for is indicative of the difference in lifestyle. Here it is expected for a group to leisurely chat after eating and there is no hurry to churn customers out of a restaurant.
After lunch a few of us went to exchange dollars into colones and then I went to the Maximo Nivel office one which is right near my apartment. I signed online and waited for certain people to sign on. My computer battery was losing charge and my charger was inconveniently not working. I grew more frustrated and nervous as it got dark outside around 5:30. I bought a phone card after overhearing a former TEFL student ask for one. I was feeling stressed out and overwhelmed by the new people the apparent cliques which were forming, the constant vigilance triggered by feeling like everyone is going to rob you and the lack of internet or cell phone. When I arrived home I realized that the phone did not work so my master plan of getting in touch through a phone card was dashed. My roommate also the pointed out that five dollars for twenty minutes of talk time was not a good deal.
Exasperated I decided to go out just to get my mind of the frustrations. I had a nice dinner with three of the guys from my program and then went to the local street where all of the bars are. We met up with numerous peers from both the current and earlier TEFL groups at Caccios Bar. Their specialty was Olaffos, a giant oversize mug of beer which can be turned green with food coloring for an extra price. I shared a few and had enough of a headache to call it a night. I hung out with Leon, the Australian, and chatted while getting some fresh air in front of the bar. He walked me home and I got in safely.
Arrival
10/25/09, 1:27am at home, 11:27 pm here
it always surprises me the day that I travel. Just this morning I woke up in my bed at home, and now, that very same day, I am in a bed alone with no communication in an apartment with a stranger in the next room in san pedro costa rica. Whirlwind is the best way to describe it.
I looked out the window as we approached land and saw a myriad of lights flickering throughout the city. I was filled with a sense of pride. The last time I had come here, just a few short months ago but eons away in life, I had planned to come back. As we landed with a thud, I smiled. I was proud of myself for following through with my plan. I remembered a certain early morning during the week I spent with friends at the beach here. I awoke early of my own accord and went out to the beach at 7am …..had breakfast alone while reading. The last morning here I had breakfast and took a picture of it, my blackberry milkshake and rice&beans with the mountains in the background. Over the past few months I’d come back to that picture and the video of the waves and felt a thrill at returning. Life came at me fast and my plans swiftly changed. They went helter skelter along with other events and lessons I learned. Yet, despite it all, here I am I thought to myself. Flying into Costa Rica. I held my ruby in my hand and resolved that when I sat on a plane leaving here, I would be a stronger, more mindful person. That I would make an effort and use this time for self discovery to learn valuable lessons about myself and life.
So I got my bags without a hassle and headed out of the airport. The warm humid air enveloped me as I searched through the crowd of people clustered by the exit. I found my name and approached the guy. We had a nice car ride to San Pedro, chatting in Spanish about the country. I was pleased with my level of conversation in a language I hadn’t used in several months. He gave me advice on safety, money and culture. He showed me around the neighborhood a bit and then we drove into a secured building surrounded by 12 foot tall fences. A security guard greeted us and I felt safe.
When the door first opened, I was surprised and a little disappointed by my roommate. She was in her 40s and didn’t fit the image I had had of a fun young girl to go out dancing with. After a couple hours of chatting however, I learned more about her and liked her. I went to take a shower, the absolute best feeling after a long day of traveling, only to find that the water was out. So, feeling dirty and really wishing I could brush my teeth, I sat down on the hard bed. I hadn’t heard from my boyfriend despite texting two of his friends. I didn’t have internet in the apartment like I had thought I would. I settled into bed, after trying to guess the password to several internet networks, obviously to no avail.
it always surprises me the day that I travel. Just this morning I woke up in my bed at home, and now, that very same day, I am in a bed alone with no communication in an apartment with a stranger in the next room in san pedro costa rica. Whirlwind is the best way to describe it.
I looked out the window as we approached land and saw a myriad of lights flickering throughout the city. I was filled with a sense of pride. The last time I had come here, just a few short months ago but eons away in life, I had planned to come back. As we landed with a thud, I smiled. I was proud of myself for following through with my plan. I remembered a certain early morning during the week I spent with friends at the beach here. I awoke early of my own accord and went out to the beach at 7am …..had breakfast alone while reading. The last morning here I had breakfast and took a picture of it, my blackberry milkshake and rice&beans with the mountains in the background. Over the past few months I’d come back to that picture and the video of the waves and felt a thrill at returning. Life came at me fast and my plans swiftly changed. They went helter skelter along with other events and lessons I learned. Yet, despite it all, here I am I thought to myself. Flying into Costa Rica. I held my ruby in my hand and resolved that when I sat on a plane leaving here, I would be a stronger, more mindful person. That I would make an effort and use this time for self discovery to learn valuable lessons about myself and life.
So I got my bags without a hassle and headed out of the airport. The warm humid air enveloped me as I searched through the crowd of people clustered by the exit. I found my name and approached the guy. We had a nice car ride to San Pedro, chatting in Spanish about the country. I was pleased with my level of conversation in a language I hadn’t used in several months. He gave me advice on safety, money and culture. He showed me around the neighborhood a bit and then we drove into a secured building surrounded by 12 foot tall fences. A security guard greeted us and I felt safe.
When the door first opened, I was surprised and a little disappointed by my roommate. She was in her 40s and didn’t fit the image I had had of a fun young girl to go out dancing with. After a couple hours of chatting however, I learned more about her and liked her. I went to take a shower, the absolute best feeling after a long day of traveling, only to find that the water was out. So, feeling dirty and really wishing I could brush my teeth, I sat down on the hard bed. I hadn’t heard from my boyfriend despite texting two of his friends. I didn’t have internet in the apartment like I had thought I would. I settled into bed, after trying to guess the password to several internet networks, obviously to no avail.
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