La Fortuna

This past weekend I spent traveling to and from my site, where I will be teaching. Friday night I traveled from Orosí to San Jose and stayed over in a hostel in San Jose. Then on Saturday morning the other two volunteers who I will be teaching with and I took the bus to La Fortuna.

I arrived at my host family's house at around 1:30 or so. While La Fortuna is the main town where the tourism industry is centered, I am actually going to be living and teaching in Z-13, or zeta-trece. My host family's house in Z-13 is right next door to the school's, I will have about a 30 second walk to my classroom.

My host family was really nice and I enjoyed spending time with them. The host mother is really funny telling me all about the other volunteers she's had who have left with Costa Rican boyfriends and things of that nature. I only met the host father for a minute or two, but he was welcoming. The daughter and son are nice too, the daughter is 21 and has a 1 year old son who is adorable.

I only saw the outside of the school, but it is beginning to sink in more that I will be teaching in that school for a year. Today we start Practicum in Orosí where WorldTeach offers free English lessons to the children of Orosí all week. I actually will not be teaching today, but I will be observing and tomorrow I have my first lesson with 1st graders. Then Wednesday another lesson with 1st graders, then I switch with another group and I teach fourth grade on Thursday and Friday.

I will be learning how to teach in a real classroom setting. Since the majority of my teaching experience is either on a lake or in a pool, this will be somewhat different. I am excited and nervous to see how I do.