June 15-21: A Week Split Between Countries

This was another week split between countries… and a quite exhausting one at that. I began the week at home in Missouri for the World Cup. After going to the Wonders of Wildlife aquarium with my cousin and getting a haircut on Monday, Tuesday was the big day for the World Cup. My parents and I took off at about lunchtime from SWMO to Kansas City. Despite arriving 3 hours before kick off, (as soon as gates were scheduled to open) lines were so bad that we didn’t make it to our seats until a couple hours later. However, despite the chaos getting in, we were blessed to witness a historic game. Argentina beat Algeria 3-0 in a game in which the GOAT, Lionel Messi, scored a hat trick. It was a dream come true to attend a World Cup game, and those are memories with my parents that I’ll carry forever.



On Wednesday, it was time to head back to Costa Rica. After a very sleep deprived night following the World Cup game, I left Springfield for Dallas. However, due to unexplained mechanical issues with multiple planes, I spent about 8 hours longer in Dallas than expected and thus didn’t make it home until incredibly late that night. Thankfully, my girlfriend Keily, and her family picked me up at the airport so I could be home in time to go to classes in the morning.

The rest of the week, I was back busy in my Peace Corps capacity. Thursday morning I woke up, once again on little sleep, and headed for the escuela. After a couple of improvised indoor PE classes because of rain, I co-hosted a reading club and the "Amigos sin Fronteras" international club with the school's librarian. In the reading club, students read "The Ugly Duckling" and then had to rewrite the ending according to how they'd do it if they were the author. And then in Amigos sin Fronteras, students "traveled" to 2 of this year's host countries for the World Cup, Canada and Mexico. As an acivity, they drew calavera skulls and ofrendas related to Dia de Los Muertos. On Friday and Saturday, I prioritized my community service-related projects at the high school which included attending my students' run club on Saturday morning.


The weekend was a busy, but fun one too. On Saturday, after the student-led run club, I joined Keily and her family for her cousin's quincenera. A quincenera, the 15th birthday celebration for a young woman, is quite a big deal in Latin America, but I'd never been to one before. It was an honor that they invited me to attend. The event lasted more than 6 hours and included several speeches, dancing, food, and even a live pep band. On Sunday, I joined Keily for lunch in San Jose where we had some delicious, artisan, Detriot-style pizza and walked around Barrio Amon. Next week will be another chaotic one as my Peace Corps cohort will have our Close of Service conference in nearby Escazu. 



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