Time accelerates

For a period after we arrived, it seemed like time moved so slowly. The first couple of months felt like about six months. However, things seem to have speeded up now. I can’t believe it’s the middle of June already. I have only two more weeks’ work before holidays in July.

Tiring week
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While it’s great that I can get free Spanish lessons with the school, it’s also very tiring. This week I had Spanish from 8.30 to 12.30 from Monday to Friday. I was then preparing classes for the afternoon, and teaching from 4pm to 9pm. So it feels like I’m in the school from 8.30am to 9pm, and it’s exhausting! So this week I’m not going to do classes, and I’m going to use the time to revise what I’ve done in the last few weeks.

Spanish classes
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The school where I work, Intercultura, teaches both English and Spanish. Spanish is in the morning, and English in the afternoon and evening. The English students are Ticos, who pay moderate fees. The Spanish students are mostly American, and they pay a fortune. They usually come down for a month or so. They spend one or two weeks in the school, then a week in the other Intercultura school by the sea, in Sámara on the Pacific coast. They will probably have a week travelling too. So each week, my fellow students are bubbling with enthusiasm and raving about the travelling or activities they’ve done or are about to do.

July plans
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We’re looking forward to making plans to travel during July. The school finishes on June 30, and isn’t back again until August. We had originally planned to buy a car. We’ve been advised against this though. The roads are so poor that you really need four wheel drive. At this time of the year some roads are impassable because there is so much rain. In addition, insurance is extremely high. There is only one insurance company and it’s government run. So for July we’re going to travel by bus. They’re slow, but cheap and run to just about anywhere in the country.

Art festival
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When we arrived home from San José last night we found that the Avenida Central was closed to traffic. The whole central square has been turned into a venue for the National Festival of Art. It runs for the week and there are performances of music, dance, theatre and cinema during the week. We wandered up there earlier today and it’s all very festive.

And so we head into another week. I’m taking a break from Spanish, but will have about 25 hours teaching plus prep.

Hasta luego