Dec 2-Dec 8: Penultimate Week of Class, Central American Champs, and Trips into San Jose

Despite an uninspiring performance in my half marathon the day before, I woke up pretty sore and tired on Monday. Fortunately, I only had to go into the escuela in the afternoon. That afternoon, I visited several 4th and 5th grade classes to interact with students and to collect more data for my report about the community. Specifically, I conducted a “mapping” activity in which I asked students to share places in our town where they feel the most and least secure.

The Costa Rican academic calendar is much different from what we follow in the US. In Costa Rica, the school year ends right before Christmas in accordance with the calendar year and starts up again in February. Because of this, classes are winding down right now. Tuesday was a prime example of this. There were no formal classes that day; rather, the day was dedicated to various Christmas parties or fiestas navideñas. Students and their families descended upon the school for various singing, dancing, and acting performances. I took on the important role of pouring and distributing fresco drinks to guests.


I’ve been pretty committed to splitting my time evenly between the academic institutions in my community, so Wednesday and Thursday I was back at the colegio. My experience there was also a strong indication that the school year is winding down. When I got there, there were several tables set up for matriculación, or enrollment, for the next year. The colegio is a large high school of over a thousand students, so this process has occurred over several days. Some students were in classes, but these seemed incredibly informal spaces where they were studying or socializing during the run-up to finals. Since most of the faculty was busy coordinating next year’s enrollment, I mainly took these days to chat with students who weren’t in class to learn more about them and their ideas for my service. I even played some foosball against students. Wednesday evening, my favorite Costa Rican soccer team, Alajuelense, clinched a Central American Cup championship against a team from Nicaragua, Real Esteli, so I was glued to that match. iVamos la Liga!


Friday, I returned to the escuela, but they were also in the middle of the matriculation process, so after observing that for un ratito, I got out of the way and found a classroom to work on analyzing some surveys I’d distributed to my community. Friday night, my host mom put on a celebration for the winners of a local soccer tournament in our house. It was fun to meet more people in the community and to see the house all spruced up for the party.


On Saturday, I met up with a fellow volunteer in San Jose. We grabbed lunch in San Jose’s Mercado Central, or Central Market. Costa Rica can be a little expensive at times, so this was a fun way to eat local and save a few bucks in the process. The rainy season here typically ends around the beginning of December, and this change was noticeable in San Jose on Saturday. Almost every other time I've ventured into Costa Rica’s capital city, it has been cloudy or rainy. However, Saturday was a picture-perfect day in Chepe, and this made for a great day to walk around and explore some more of the city. After a few hours of hanging out in San Jose, I took around a 30–45-minute bus ride back to my town to catch the late slate of college football games.


Sunday morning, I returned to San Jose, this time the San Pedro neighborhood, to run with my Sunday running club. I had a great time jogging with some of my tico and gringo friends and then grabbing some good coffee afterwards. Because I need to Uber to get to San Pedro for the runs, these Sunday commutes into the city are my primary splurge as a Peace Corps volunteer. However, since there aren’t many people my age in my community, I see this as a great investment to meet other people here while doing something I love.


PS - Your “Costarriquensimo” saying of the week: This blog’s thumbnail is a photo of a Christmas sign in San Jose that reads “Tuanis”. This is a word unique to Costa Rica meaning anything like “cool” or “awesome”.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Home for the Holidays: Christmas in MO, New Year's in CR

Image
It's been a busy couple of weeks! Normally I try to post my weekly recaps on Sundays, but I figured it may make more sense to lump everything related to the holidays together in one blog.  On Dec 23, I flew back to Southwest Missouri to be home for Christmas with my family. This was the first time I'd been back in the Ozarks since I began my Peace Corps Service a year and a half ago (roughly 18 months). I was really excited to spend time with family, get some comfort food, and enjoy some colder weather. All three of those things occurred eventually, thankfully, although the latter wasn't until the end of my trip due to a record-breaking warm Christmas Day.  My time at home, was fun and much-needed, although it wasn't particularly relaxing. We had a number of Christmas celebrations and activities, so my time back home went by pretty fast. Some highlights of the trip included celebrating my Dad's birthday sharing a tomahawk steak, eating some Springfield-style Cashew ...
Read more

Sidebar #58 - 2026 Costa Rican Presidential Election

Image
Note: These are my objective observations of Costa Rica’s upcoming election as a foreigner living here, not my personal opinions. Additionally, these observations are my own and don’t reflect those of the U.S. government or the Peace Corps. This is a big week for Costa Rica. On Sunday, February 1, Costa Ricans will cast ballots for their next President. There are other elections, namely legislative, that are also happening on Sunday, but for the purpose of this blog, I’ll keep it simple and focus on the Presidential election taking place. There are several differences between the Costa Rican presidential process and our elections in the US. One of these distinctions is the sheer number of political parties, and therefore, presidential candidates. The election is Sunday (I’m writing this on Thursday) and there are still roughly 20 candidates in the race (with varying degrees of viability). In Costa Rica, the President cannot serve consecutive terms, meaning that there will be a new Pres...
Read more

Feb 17-23: Settling in at School + a Weekend in Puerto Viejo

Image
My first three or four months at site were a bit chaotic as I finished my diagnostic report, or “CASA” report, about the community. Fortunately, counterparts at my respective academic institutions were in frequent contact and communicated to me on the onset of each week how I should divide my time between the schools. However, since classes resumed in February, a more formal schedule has begun to crystallize for me. I’ll spend Mondays and Wednesdays at the high school, or colegio , and Tuesdays and Thursdays at the escuela , or elementary school. Fridays will alternate between them so that I can ensure I split my time evenly at each institution. Although having that schedule seems like a small development, it feels like a bit of a breakthrough in my service to establish more day-to-day consistency. Being the first Peace Corps volunteer in my town’s history, all of this is still relatively new for everyone involved, so getting all parties on the same page feels like a win. And not only...
Read more