May 19-25: Everything Fútbol: Both in and out of class

The prior academic week was much more chaotic due to student elections, but fortunately, this week reflected a more typical work schedule. I settled back into my routine at each institution, conducting my PE classes and “life skills” workshops at the escuela while meeting with my servicio comunal groups at the colegio. 

The biggest change was that I started facilitating “Assertive Communication” lessons with escuela students in the life skills workshops, which replaced the previous session on teamwork. I was anticipating co-teaching these classes with a counterpart, but she got roped into some other tasks, so I had to adapt on the fly a bit. Some of the topics were a little difficult to explain in Spanish, but I think that (hopefully) the students got something out of the sessions. Soccer PE sessions have been fun with the students; however, I’ve been trying to have them work on passing and dribbling techniques. All they want to do is play in a mejenga, or pickup game, so that might be something I need to organize down the road to satiate that interest. My colegio running group ran through a second “dress rehearsal” on Saturday, and we hope to open the club up to the larger community next week. On Friday, the escuela hosted a mass.


Outside of class, the country was pretty locked in on soccer, and so was I. On Wednesday, the second leg of the semifinal, yet another edition of El Clasico, occurred between Liga and Saprissa. Fortunately, my team, Liga, won and advanced to the two-leg “Gran Final” taking place yesterday and next Wednesday against Herediano. I was lucky enough to secure a ticket to the first match of the Gran Final on Sunday and made the trip into San Jose to cheer on Liga in Estadio Nacional. Despite playing in San José rather than Alajuela in their own stadium, this was considered a “home” game for Liga due to a penalty from the domestic league. (In the previous match, a fan threw a bottle at a rival player). Ironically, this meant that even more fans were able to get tickets and support Liga since the game was in a much larger venue in the capital. A raucous crowd descended upon Chepe and paraded through the city; however, the teams settled to a 0-0 draw in this first leg. They’ll battle it out again on Wednesday night in Heredia to determine the champion of the league, although I’ll be saving some money and watching that one at home.






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