Nov 24-Dec 1: Christmas Parties, Thanksgiving, and GMCR

Despite the school year winding down, and not a whole lot of classes taking place, this week remained a pretty busy one at the schools. At the colegio, hardly any students were in the building this week. During this time of year, most students don’t have to go to class unless they are there to take a final exam. Additionally, on Wednesday, there was a nationwide teachers’ protest towards the Ministry of Public Education (MEP), so most teachers weren’t there either. However, the colegio must submit documentation to MEP about the 11th grade servicio communal estudiantil projects I helped organize this year, so I went to school a couple times this week to help complete some administrative work connected to those documents. Meanwhile, at the escuela, I held my last PE classes of the year. Furthermore, Friday was the escuela’s big Christmas festival, so I went there, helped set up and close down the event, and was in charge of handing out coffee that members of the public purchased for a school fundraiser.

Equally, I was pretty busy outside of class this week. As I alluded to in my previous sidebar, Peace Corps volunteers aren’t given Thanksgiving off since it isn’t a holiday in Costa Rica. So, I had to work that day. However, Thanksgiving evening, I went into San Jose with my girlfriend to get some American food at a Johnny Rocket’s to celebrate the holiday. The weekend marked a historic moment in Costa Rica’s running culture, which was super fun to be a part of. ICODER, Costa Rica’s Ministry of Sports, hosted the inaugural “Gran Maratón de Costa Rica (GMCR)”. For the first time ever, the major road surrounding San Jose, called the “circunvalación”, was closed down for the event. There were races ranging from 2k all the way to a full marathon, and in total there were over 10,000 runners - by far the largest race in Costa Rican history. On Saturday, my running group hosted a shakeout run to prepare for the race the next day, and soon after we all picked up our packets for the event. Then, on Sunday, we all woke up bright and early for a 5:00 start time. There were fireworks, music, and a ton of energy despite the hour. I hopped in for a half marathon, which meant I got to run the entire circunvalación loop around the city. It was a beautiful morning, a really neat route (albeit an extremely hilly one), and I got to run the race with my girlfriend and some other friends from my running club, so it was an awesome experience to get to be a part of.




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