Tortuguero and Lockers

Here are some snap shots of our fin de semana pasada:
-10+ hours of taxi, buses, boats, and walking in order to get to Tortuguero (5+ to get home..)
-heavenly beach, hotel, wildlife, and small small small town
-warm Caribbean water, mmmm :) which apparently had sharks in the deeper parts...
-authentic Caribbean food and drink
-Tortugas laying eggs!!!
-the one and only discotek--dancing! ayayaya!
-meeting sweet people from around the world, and traveling with sweet people from around the same world :)

Over all, it was a fantastic weekend that was full of funny, spontaneous, relaxing, and sometimes stressful moments. Couldn't have been better (and better timing).

So now I have successfully completed three full days of school. Not only have I completed them, I stayed awake for them! Ha, I get so sleepy during the day. I guess I'm not used to the ungodly hours and tedious work of a teacher. Kudos to teachers everywhere. Well, the first day of school was just as exciting and new, but a little more chaotic than our vacation weekend in Tortuguero...I hadn't really been in a 6th or 7th grade classroom much (besides when I was a student in 6th and 7th grade), so I was a bit nervous and quite curious as to how they would be and respond to me. They were full of energy and excitement as well, lots of chit chat and laughter. The first day was a blur; I was exhausted afterwards. The second day was a bit more put together and told more of how classes would actually be. And today was sweet because we did lots of lessons, grading, correcting, planning, etc. It felt more like a normal day. The craziest part so far is the hallway outside my room. It is lined with lockers and the first day those sixth graders couldn't keep their excitement in their bodies about having their own locker. That brought back memories...oh lockers. Anyway, the hallway is SUPER CROWDED during passing time, the most congested hallway I've ever seen in a school, unfortunately. While some students are basically on all fours getting to their bottom locker, wading in puddles from the intense rain that comes down everyday, others are stepping on those students dropping textbooks and locks on them reaching for their top lockers. In the meantime, little tiny itsy bitsy first graders are trying to get from the door that leads outside into the school and to their class. They are getting crushed, squished, bumped, bruised, stepped on, and god knows what else. It's tragic. I tell myself if I've saved at least one then I've made a difference. nah, j/k. But seriously, it's a gong show. Super funny, but not at all. So moral of the story is: if you're gonna have top and bottom lockers in a small hallway, you're gonna have to be prepared to get seriously injured. Consider protective gear.
Oh, and fyi...locker shelves are a delicacy down here. They don't sell them in Costa Rica so students in the U.S. and elsewhere with locker shelves should be 100% grateful! So if you wanna make money, bring a ton down here and sell them...you'll be rich.

Paz,
Allie