Feb 3-9: Back to School, La Candelaria, and Super Bowl Sunday

Following our Peace Corps “Reconnect” event, this week was spent fully at site and was my first week with my new host family. Previously I’d lived with a woman in her 60’s and now I’m living with a 26-year-old woman who serves as the primary caretaker for her abuelo in his 80’s. The family dynamic has been quite a bit different than my previous homestay, but it’s been great to have a change of scenery and to meet more people in my community.

Monday and Tuesday were full-day meetings for teachers at my school. I was advised by some counterparts that my presence wasn’t required, and I’d probably be bored (I really appreciated that heads up), so fortunately I was able to spend those two days unpacking and settling into my new home. 

Wednesday was the first day of classes for Costa Rican students across the country. I spent the day at the colegio, where 7th graders went through their first day of high school. The day started off with an assembly, or acto cívico, where I was asked to give some impromptu words to these 7th graders and their families. Fortunately, my number has been called upon for these speeches on a few prior occasions, so I already had some ideas in the back of my mind on how to introduce both myself and the Peace Corps. The rest of the day, I rotated around with the 7th graders to various stations related to orientation. Much of it was administrative, but I actually learned a lot about the school and its rules, regulations, and processes given my late arrival last year.

On Thursday, I hiked from my new house down to the escuela. These first few days of the new year are particularly chaotic as they are still trying to finalize schedules, but it was good to show my face and say hi to teachers and students while I planned for upcoming activities. 

Friday morning was similar - I spent it at the elementary school, but there wasn’t a lot to help out with, so I focused on more project planning for the future. I only spent the morning there, because Friday afternoon I had to go into San José to pick up my packet for a 10k race on Sunday. Packet pick-up was on the other side of town, so normally I’d just Uber; however, I decided to do a combination of a bus/run commute which ended up saving me quite a bit of money. (On a Peace Corps budget, I have to be as frugal as possible.)

With the race on Sunday looming, Saturday was a pretty chill day for me. After sleeping in and getting an easy run and lift in, I spent the rest of the day relaxing and called it an early night at like 8:30.

Sunday was quite a bit more involved. I woke up at 3:50 to leave for my race in the city of Cartago, which is about an hour away from San Jose. Fortunately, one of the clubs I run with in Desamparados rented a minibus, so for just $10, I had all my travel logistics covered. We got to the race at around 5:30, and it was already a madhouse. La Candelaria is one of Costa Rica’s most traditional and popular races. Despite the early wake-up call, the energy was through the roof. In the mall parking garage where the starting line was, there were hundreds of people warming up while a DJ played a set. Once there, I connected with friends from various running clubs in Costa Rica as well as a buddy of mine from my Peace Corps cohort who I started the race with. (She's ridiculously fast and left me in the dust a couple of miles in). 

The race itself was really cool - we started in Cartago and ended in the town of Paraiso. It was a beautiful but pretty hilly route (though net downhill thankfully). I ran roughly 40 minutes for 10k, which although isn’t nearly as fast as I was in college, is something I’m content with given my training difficulties thus far in Costa Rica. I’m definitely excited to hop in some more races here. The race was so early that I made it back home by around 10am. The 10k took enough out of me that I spent the day just lounging around before the Super Bowl. My new host sister, who loves cooking, whipped up a bunch of American-style Super Bowl snacks, which made the Chiefs' loss a little easier to swallow.