"Bravery is believing in yourself, and that thing nobody can teach you." -El Cordobes

Thursday:
I'm not sure I can say that I overcame my fear of heights, but I can definitely say that I am one step closer. A morning of Tarzan-ing it across the canopy of the rainforest via zip lines was amazing! The initial trial got a few of my screams out and by the end I felt very comfortable going to and from station to station high above the trees. Each line got a little longer or higher than the previous, but each time I became more comfortable with the equipment holding my life and the brothers who led us in the right direction. Each line had a different view, some had mountains, some just the biodiversity of the rainforest and one line even landed on a wobbly bridge. Zip lining is an amazing activity, especially in such a beautiful country as Costa Rica. The equipment holding you up can hold up to 10, 000 pounds (so not to worry!) and they recommend placing your hands on the rods, but if you are daring enough: pull a Superman! I can't say that I "pulled a Superman", but I did zip line across the canopy of the rainforest with swift motions and a slowly turning head.  Despite being stung by some sort of bee or insect, I survived with a smile and would not only recommend it to others, but also do it again myself!

“The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.” – Samuel Johnson

Monday:
Another Monday in Spanish class at CPI means another teacher with a new accent and teaching style. This week, my small beginner level Spanish group, has a male teacher who has been with CPI since the original foundation in 1992. His style is challenging, yet friendly and strictly Spanish. He understands English relatively well, but simply chooses not to say any to his students. When we asks “Que es….?”, he replies with some sort of verbal description accompanied with charades of the word. Depending on the word, it may take us anywhere from 5 seconds to 5 minutes to guess the vocabulary. Needless to say, I enjoy this style the best. Although it is more challenging than before, I feel like I am constantly thinking, challenging myself to answer/converse in complete Spanish sentences, but most of all it has lead me to be more confident in my Spanish speaking skills. The more I know, the more I use at home. And the more I use at home, the more fluent I become.

My familia tica is ever patient with my Spanish skills. They have housed students before so they understand and it helps that my tica Hermana (sister) speaks relatively perfect English. I am certainly learning just as much from the teachers at CPI and my familia tica as I am from my tica Hermana and hermano. My daily routine at home has been narrowed down to every step basically: come home, 1.5 hrs of Zumba with mama tica and Hermana tica, shower (el dulche), homework (tarea) while watching Combate (a muy popular programme de television en Costa Rica) and then to bed by 9 pm (dormire). Costa Rica is an early to bed, early to rise society and as such has rubbed off on me. Maybe this “early to rise” ideal rubs off for my 8 am summer classes that start next week. 

More on my familia tica: My hermano tico is a 3^rd grader at the local St. Elena primary school. Every night, he finds some part of his homework (a new subject every night) to ask me a question about. Sunday though was the most fun. Like many 3^rd graders in the States, Juan (hermano tico) is learning how to write cursive. Sitting at the kitchen table with a pile of notebook paper and a pencil (lapiz), Juan and I practiced upper and lower case letters in cursive for almost forty minutes. When he eventually understood how to write individual letters, I wrote down words in print and then he would write them in cursive. Some words in English, some in Spanish, we started with the basics and some vocabulary he was learning in math and science. After about a ½ hour of writing words in cursive, Juan’s attention span ran out on everything and decided that my name was the easiest word to write in cursive due to the repeated e’s and a l. He decided that writing my name on my notebook, my tarea and my dicionario was essential to his learning. I can’t lose them now! Ironically, I still remember from 3^rd grade loving to write my name in cursive because it was so easy.

Time with Juan like this makes me hopeful for my future student teaching classroom in 3^rd grade. I want to bring some of the lessons I learned with Juan to Jones Elementary. I want the Global Scholars there to know just how similar the curriculum and lesson plans are for 3^rd graders in other countries. I want to bring the world into my classroom by bringing all my students together to create a global network focused on citizenship, collaboration and thematic based learning.

Tuesday:

To continue on the theme of thematic based learning, el grupo made a visit to the Monteverde Cloud Forest School. The school is considered a private school here in Monteverde, similar to the concept of a charter school in the states. Started by locals and internationals who wanted a school in Monteverde focused on environmental education and farming. In their 20^th anniversary, Monteverde Cloud Forest School continues to collaborate with the Costa Rica Nature Conservancy, the local St. Elena community and expand in academic curriculum each and every year. The school is comprised of mostly locals combined with some international students ranging from Pre-Kindergarten to 11^th grade. In the Pre-K-6^th grade, students are taught ½ in English and ½ in Spanish as opposed to the upper school starting in 7^th grade when students are taught completely in English.

Every grade is capped at about 19, but some have as small as 12. Teachers, wherever they come from, are told to teach in their native language if they teach an elective course. However, if they teach a core course, it depends on the grade. The school, because it is private, has used the national curriculum standards as the foundation for the teachers, but also uses the consistent donations of people from all over the world to help their students in every subject and every grade. For example, the lower grades now use the system of Wordly Wise (that is sometimes used in the public schools in the States) introduced by an American teacher who taught there for a few years and has now moved on elsewhere.

The school, as a whole, was founded on the ideals of environmental education and farming and has thus those essential principles for the last 20 years. I was very impressed with not only their flexibility in teacher choice (within the curriculum), but also with the students who have learned to be a part of an international thematic community where they truly grow up to global citizens.

To top the day off, a visit to the Chocolate Restaurant (which I promise serves real food) with some of the group is truly the perfect meal I needed to wake me up for Spanish class. Thus far, just in two weeks, I have learned more than I could have ever imagined. I keep trying to practice my Spanish more and more and constantly thinking about how to keep it going back in Asheville. I feel myself gradually delving into the Intermediate Fluency level, but I still have a lot of work to do.  The more time I spend with the students here and the local community, the more I want to be fluent and be able to communicate with all of my current and future students. 

Wednesday:

A visit to the Life Monteverde farm kept the todo el grupo in check with a morning of farming, planting vegetables and fertilizing coffee. More specifically though, Mrs. Bramley and I went one direction with a family friend of the farm owners to go plant some corn (maize) and green beans (?) using the chicken feet gardening philosophy with a native Costa Rican, Juan. During our farming time, Mrs. Bramley and I asked him questions not only about his family and heritage, but also his English level. Juan takes English classes at CPI, but also has learned a little bit teaching past students how to farm on an organic plantation. I would say he was at the Intermediate Fluency level because he could hold a conversation in English with us, but stumbled on a few words here and there. 


During our conversations though, I functioned as the translator for a few words. For example, cabra is goat, but both Juan and us had trouble saying the word in the opposite language. By the end of the time though, we figured it out and could remember it! The people were friendly, open and well versed in organic farming. They started Life Monteverde, the farm, about 10 years ago with the idea of organic farming and sustainable community living. The idea has flourished since then and has acted as a stepping stone for more sustainable movements around Costa Rica. As Guillermo's t-shirt said, MonteVERDE (Go Green!). 

I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I know I have ended up where I intended to be. - Douglas Adams

Friday:
The St. Elena Reserve helps keep us in shape with all the plant and animal diversity. About a 3.2 km walk through the deep biodiversity keep the cameras and eyes up at all times. Easier said than done though, the constant unevenness of steps, yet beauty of the nature around us kept us consistently intrigued by everything. The pictures below can help to give a little insight into the wonderful rainforest that we saw because words cannot completely describe the beauty.

 Saturday:
The 4 hour drive to Arenal Springs was well worth the beauty, heat and hot springs that we spent the afternoon in. Our drive to La Fortuna consisted of monkeys, toucans and sloths just hanging out in trees on the side of the road. The drive was bumpy, but full of perfect mountainous farm land to distract us from the potholes on the gravel roads. Everything we passed looks like it popped out of a painting and was never altered. Cows and horses grazing on hills sitting at 50-60 degree angles act as if nothing could mess up their beautiful land, families walk their dogs uphill both ways and clouds full of perfection are just the icing on the cake for the beauty of the land.

The town of La Fortuna was not only adorable in their landscape, but also in the people. Because it is such a tourist highlight of Costa Rica, many tourists flooded the streets and shops for the perfect Costa Rican gift. Needless to say, this gave me the chance to practice a little bit of my Spanish. Even with the smallest thing such as the ATM and ordering some pasta, it helps to practice.

When it comes to Second Language Acquisition, students must always practice the simple tasks before trying to have more complex conversations. With that said, I admit that I am not at the Advanced Fluency level yet, but I noticed that the more tourist the town is in Costa Rica, the more fluent the locals are (not surprisingly of course). Makes me wonder though: Why don't Americans, let alone North Carolinians, speak more Spanish when they work, shop and live around with those who speak mostly Spanish? Why doesn't it work the other way?

I asked my Spanish teachers at CPI where they learned English and both said that they mostly learned it from their students who speak English. They learned a little bit in primary and secondary school, but unless you go to a private school, such as the Monteverde Cloud Forest School, English is not necessarily promoted or taught properly every day. This type of Second Language Acquisition is similar in the United States. Unless you go to a private school or have a very good foreign language teacher, you don't properly learn or understand another language. Each person has their own speed and pace for learning anything, and some are better at languages than others, but sometimes it is better to fully immerse yourself in a language in order to fully understand the use of the words and language idioms.

Sunday:
Sleeping in, waking up to the Arenal Volcano with ease and spending relaxing time in the natural hot springs of the hotel made for the perfect Sunday morning. A day away from Spanish and the stress of "real life" helps me to realize just how grateful I am to be here. I am very fortunate in my opportunities and experiences, and Costa Rica is no exception. I cannot imagine where I would be right now without the support of family, friends, teachers and many more, but I can't imagine being anywhere else. I have learned so much in my just two weeks here and have another week to go. But just like my experience to Ghana, I will never forget the lessons, people and memories I have made here. Every moment is a moment to take back into my future classroom. Every moment is a moment that I intend to cherish.

"People are people...we may speak different languages and eat different food but at the end of the day, we feel the same emotions." -Anonymous

Wednesday:
Starting off the morning with another exciting rainforest/farm walk through El Trapiche coffee plantation made for a delightful middle of the week activity. The farm was beautiful (and as usual the view was as well), but to top off the variety of food plants, we also got to be a part of the fudge making process with chocolate, coffee, mint and coconut. So sweet and so delicious! El Trapiche is a coffee plantation that started years ago with a family wanted to make their own coffee and now have made a tourist business out of it. Excellent coffee, chocolate and people make for the perfect place to visit for anybody of any language or culture.

On top of this, I have noticed myself developing a wider spectrum of Spanish vocabulary and recognition of landmarks across town. I feel like I can walk around town, navigating on my own, and be okay. The people are very nice, the restaurants are very local and the hills keep anybody in shape all the time. Despite my daily family Zumba time, I have become much more adjusted to the family, school and tourist balance here in Monteverde. Communication with my familia tica has gotten easier day by day and Spanish class gets more challenging yet fun each day.

Whether it's memorizing Spanish numbers, drawing out my family tree in Spanish or trying to order a meal in complete Spanish is just the icing on the cake for an incredible immersion experience. I feel myself still sitting at the tip of the Speech Emergence stage, but it amazes me watching Costa Rican's who know perfect English and Spanish. How did they get there?

After observing the tour guide at El Trapiche talk in perfect English and Spanish, it made me wonder what allowed him to be so fluent in both. Is it because he is in the tourist industry? Has practice made perfect? An interesting inquiry for such a broad question allows me to explore strategies, management and ideas for my future global classroom.

Thursday:
Santa Elena school was beautiful in their offer to come and let us observe and teach in their school. To continue on with my observations of English development in the schools here, I was able to sit in on a 2nd grade English class and observe their lesson of the day. Today, the students were learning the parts of the house in English by cutting out, gluing and creating their own house. With that said, students continued to talk in Spanish except when saying keywords. For this activity keywords included, but were not limited to: window, house, door, scissors, glue, etc. Most students could say the basics, but others had some difficulty.

In addition to all of that, I noticed students had done a previous activity about shapes in English by coloring, drawing and labeling. Once again, many students could spell the basic shapes and correctly identify them, but others had noticeable difficulties. It is these situations that make me wonder how a non-fluent English speaking teacher can teach English to those who don't know any. Where do they develop any type of higher vocabulary or grammar skills? This is a question that I have always wondered about, even with students in America, and a question that will be extended into my future classroom.

To top the day off, group dance class made for an entertaining closing to the day. I think my Zumba family time every night helped me a little bit, but I will always need improvement dancing (bailar), especially with Latin American music, most especially salsa and meringue.

"World change starts with educated children." - Anonymous

Monday:
Our first real day in Monteverde and per the custom, its mucho juvio (a lot of rain). With our past adventures though, that didn't stop our group from a 1 hour walk about of the adorable mountain town that no matter where you are going, it is uphill both ways. We made the trek to the very top of the mountain to CPI where we were introduced to the facilities, classrooms and a selection of services at our availability. What a beautiful place!

After a preparation class for another school visit tomorrow, our morning included a debriefing of what we thought of Monteverde thus far and things we wanted to do in town together. As a group of girls always does: shopping is on the list in full force. There are such beautiful local artisans as well as restaurants that I just want to try everything. We also made chicken fajitas with rice, salad and fried plaintains for lunch. So delicious. I'm not sure any picture can do it justice, but needless to say: Delicious!

A new teacher for Spanish class made things a little awkward at first, but despite the awkwardness our whole group limited proficiency level in Spanish made for an entertaining first day. Most of us are still at basic Speech Emergence but some have moved to the beginning steps of Intermediate Fluency of good comprehension but continuing grammar and pronunciation mistakes. Learning more and more each day is part of the fun, so I am excited to see what is in store for the next two weeks but for now, Spanglish has begun to integrate itself into my language.

To top the day off, when I got home to my host family from school, it was family exercise time. Now, usually they go on a one hour walk around the town together just to get some fresh air, but today because of all the rain, exercise was indoors. In fact, family exercise time was Zumba on DVD. Pushing the furniture out of the middle of the living room, sweeping the rug away and putting the plants in the kitchen led to a blank hardwood floor for family Zumba. After two hours of Zumba, not only was everyone exhausted, my calves were throbbing and water became a necessity. Needless to say, my host family decided that we would all do Zumba everyday after school. Maybe I'll be in shape when I get back to the states or just know how to move my feet a little better when dancing.

My host family includes the following: a mom, a dad, a 17 year old daughter and a 9 year old son. Both the children, especially the daughter, speak very good (almost perfect) English which makes me wonder just how much they learn in the schools in terms of English in comparison to Heredia. Not many people knew English, but both these children take English class every day, either at school or at CPI and have developed excellent translation skills at Advanced Fluency level. Interviews to come from them but for now, they have helped me developed better Spanish grammar and translation skills while I help them with their English pronunciation.

Tuesday:
Another visit to another school, we got to not only observe one class, but also teach some of the preschoolers a few of our traditional early childhood songs in America. Classroom management is not as stressed in the schools here than in the States, but that isn't to say the kids aren't learning. Most students understand the lessons, activities and what the goal of each assignment is. They also had many of their own individual supplies as well as notebooks, backpacks and paper. Like many of our students in the states, students preferred certain supplies over another and brought what they preferred. In contrast though, the classrooms themselves had little to no reading material or books. Literacy support is mostly done in the school library which has a maximum of 5 bookshelves with mostly Spanish books. One row of books out of all of that has English books and they consisted of mostly kindergarten and 1st grade books. My questions is though: At what point to they start teaching English truly in the classroom? At what point do students begin to understand what they are learning and can translate that into Spanish? Where does that happen for most?

Needless to say, another day in the schools keeps me determined and excited to be a global educator. I have always been told that children are the future and that teachers are the liaisons of learning for the children. I want to be the teacher that allows my students to explore their interests outside of where they are from. Students need to know that student just like them across the world are just like them, dream like them,  play sports like them, draw like them but most of all smile like them.

“A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for” – John A. Shedd

Wednesday:
As we prepare for our lessons tomorrow at the Primary School, our very literal Spanish translations begin to form and small basic sentences are being memorized. On the scale of learning a second language, I have proceeded to the Speech Emergence stage of the Second Language Acquisition scale. This means that I can form simple sentences, but makes several punctuation and grammar errors. On top of that, when listening to Spanish, jokes don't make much sense to me. It will come in time though.

Spanish class once again is getting better each and every day with an improvement in comprehension and more knowledge about verbs and vocabulary. Most conversations make sense to me, but the emergence of my own conversation is at the very basic stage. In the few days that I have been here, the Spanish I have learned and cultural reference points as well as linguistic norms is more than I could have ever imagined.

Thursday:
Our first visit to the school was fantastic! Even with our limited Spanish phrases, our colorful rainforest lesson plan was enough to keep everyone, including the teacher, excited! Amelia & I had a small group of students where we taught them using the book Costa Rica ABCs telling them our favorite letters in Spanish and English as well as a couple of sentences about it. What an amazing experience! Even such a small lesson gives me a brief preview on how I need to develop my lessons for ELL learners. Despite the fact that we had to speak in Spanish the whole lesson, the practicing of everything as well as developing illustrations was hard work. Needless to say, it was worth it.

I want to be the teacher that brings multiple cultures and multiple languages together to form a community of learners for the greater good. We all have our own ways of creating lessons in the classroom to give the students the best possible experience. I can only hope we did that in the schools today on our path to learning what it feels like to be a part of the linguistic minority- And that is exactly what I have come to discover.

Friday:
Today was an eye opening experience of volunteer time at La Carpio, a very poor shunned Nicaraguan community. It looks similar to our ideas of a shanty town but with more of a community, service based feel. The people seem happy with what they have and where they are going. However, they also seem appreciative of each and every thing they come across. When we showed up, we met the most remarkable woman who has served 35 years of her life to improving the community of La Carpio, building on their schools, their access to food, water and availability of jobs within the people. This woman has volunteers come to her almost every day of the week wanting to help out in some way. We did exactly that. With our expertise in schools and education, we ventured over to the community preschool where we got to not only sing songs with the children, but also read English books with them.

Because of the amount of volunteers that help out in the preschool and their donations, almost all of their games, toys and books were in English. To add onto this, students have developed a love for people who visit and a very basic knowledge of English phrases. The favorites were: "thank you" , "Will you play with me?", and "Where are you from?" We ended up making a hand tracing poster of all of us together, leaving them with some decoration for their very limited space. It always amazes me just how happy and innocent the children are despite their situation. Just goes to show that a roof over your head, a meal a day and a family to love can keep the frowns away. *Below are some pictures of the beautiful children*

To add to this, today was our last day of Spanish class in Heredia. Exciting and sad all at the same, our teacher has been a new level of patient but challenging at the same time. Five days ago I would not be able to tell you how to conjugate past tense verbs, let alone tell you what they mean. With that said, I can now speak, read and write all of that.

Also my last night with my familia tica en Heredia, it was a big church tradition day where all the families of the neighborhood picked a house to have church in then at the corner church held a fundraiser dance. The dancing is not what you would think either: it is traditional Latin American dancing of salsa, tango, merangue, etc. So amazing to watch! People of all ages (from 4 to 84) danced for almost four straight hours through the night. I wish I could move like they can. The little cousins of my familia tica who were about 7 years old were teaching me how to dance. Needless to say, it will take a lot of practice to move like they can.

Saturday:
An adventurous weekend to the Manuel Antonio beach (la playa), nicknamed the most beautiful beach in the world. Clean water, cheesy stores and a lot of tan tourists. A relaxing day on the beach was just what I needed to get some rest from the week of busy adventures and continuous Spanish. It makes me wonder how ELL students in our schools get a break from the constant pressure of learning English. What hobbies, activities, people give them the confidence and relief they need to continue. I am not sure if mine is the beach, but just a sentence or two in English helps once in awhile. Not even a week into it and I find myself translating English words into Spanish in my head. What an improvement from 7 days ago!

Sunday:
A rainforest adventure, that's for sure. Everything was so humid, yet so beautiful. It's amazing how much one little area of trails can have on the path to the beach. In the 1 mile trail, our Kodak moment oriented group saw over ten monkeys climbing the limbs above us, sloths sitting still in the branches, lizards slithering through the rocks and birds flying from bush to bush showing their colors in the path.

To add to the excitement, when we got to the beach, the sand shined white on our very white bodies while the water stood calm. The location was perfect- animals all around, perfect white sand and tranquil view to boost.

To top the day off, we met our second host families (familia tica) in Monteverde after a five hour drive. More about them and my accommodations later, but for now I hope my readers know just how beautiful Monteverde is- the mountains and cloud forest at every turn as well as landscaping that could win every competition. Pictures to come soon.