Dublin

Back in the oul sod. Jet lagged. First impressions are that it's cold, but that the stretch in the evening makes up for it!

You are my substitute
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I was quite busy before leaving, because I had to do lesson plans for the two weeks, and also meet and discuss classes with my substitutes. Most of my classes are being taken by Joaquín. Two of the other lads are on visa runs this weekend, so it was substitution all around. My classes on English Horizons have been cancelled while I'm away.

Journey
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The journey was fine. There was a 5 hour flight to Newark, NJ. We had to divert slightly to avoid Katrina over Florida, so that added a little time. We thought that we'd run out of things to do in Newark during our 4 hour plus stopover, but in reality that just gave us time to go through immigration, customs and security, and then have a quick bite to eat before heading down to the gate.

PC Blues
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We might have made the journey home fine, but I'm afraid my PC didn't.We watched a pirate DVD of 'Batman Begins' on the flight, and I'm nots ure if that messed it up, but since we've arrived the PC won't work at all. I just get a blue screen with the message 'UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME'. I've been on to Dell, and they say I might have to reinstall Windows. Which I think means I'll lose everything on the PC. My writing, my class tests, all our photographs, all Jack's music. I can't do anything until I get back, because the Windows discs are there. But I'm hoping against hope that I'll be able to salvage it.

First impressions
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First impressions of home ... It's very cold!! When we got off the plane it felt like we'd walked into strong air conditioning. There was just a blast of cold air. We came into town yesterday for a walk around. I had to wear T-shirt, shirt and jacket. I remember the summers being warmer! Also, there are the changes nobody told me about. Judge Roy Beans is now The Porterhouse Central, Thing Mote is O'Donoghues. It's all a bit disconcerting.

Jetlag
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In an attempt to avoid jetlag, we've tried to adapt to Irish time as early as possible. We tried to sleep as much as we could on the plane,and then stayed up as late as we could last night to get onto Irish time. However, I think we blew it by not setting the alarm and sleeping until 4.15pm today (a nice 11.15am back in Costa Rica).

So that's it. We're back. Tired and PC-less. Heading to Connemara in the morning. We're back in Dublin Wednesday, and hope to meet as many of you can make it on Thursday, 1st. From 8pm or so in the Forum.

See yis,

Éamon & Jack

Ireland bound

Folks,

I can hardly believe that we’re heading home for Sharon’s wedding this Thursday. I’m working until 9 Wednesday, and there is a substitute teacher taking over my classes. We head off early the following morning.

English Horizons
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Things continue to go swimmingly with the Internet teaching on new horizons. I find the classes so easy. The slides are already prepared, so it’s just like a chat more than anything. This week, one of the discussions was on the environment. I had a full class of 8 students, and it was amazing to learn about the different approaches to recycling around the world. I had students from Sao Paulo Brazil, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Cairo Egypt, Spain, Italy, France and Japan. One thing I learned was that in the places that really need recycling (like Cairo and Sao Paulo), nothing exists.

Intercultura
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I feel so established at Intercultura this term. Although I did question whether I’m as good a teacher as I thought I was when I got the following answers in a written test from my students. They had to finish these sentences with the English phrases toothache, sore throat, backache and sore eyes.

* My eyes feel good. I don’t have sore ice.
* My teeth feel fine. I don’t have a teethache.
* My throat feels bad. I have a store throat.
* My teeth feel fine. I don’t have gum ache.
* My throat feels bad. I have muscle ache.
* My eyes feel good. I don’t have sore drops.
* My teeth feel fine. I don’t have a teethsick.
* My eyes feel good. I don’t have sour eyes.
* My teeth feel fine. I don’t have a doctor.

Or the complaint letter,

Dear Mrs Rodriguez,

Four months ago I rent your apartament, It needs to be fixed a few things.

First, the sink of the bathroom has a big leak and the mirror is cracked. Second, the doors of the cupboard needs changing because are so bad, the windows needs a new pane of glass because it is cracked. The wall needs to be changed a pane of ceramic because is louse.

I need to be fixed this problems right now, if you don’t change this problems, I’m going to go to look for an another apartament.

Thanks, Mrs Rodriguez.

The journey home
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We have an early start in the airport on Thursday, and arrive in Dublin on Friday morning. We’re down to Connemara on Sunday and the wedding is Monday.

We’re probably back in Dublin on Wednesday. The plan for Thursday, 1 September, is to meet in the Forum on Dame St / Lord Edward St. from about 8pm. We’re going to go Isolde’s Tower afterwards if you are coming along after closing. We’re really looking forward to seeing you all!

Dia de la Madre

It’s mother’s day in Costa Rica, and so revered are the mother’s of the nation that it’s a bank holiday and we have a long weekend.

Back to class
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Monday was the first day of the new semester, so it was back to class, and back to reality big time. I’ve got a full schedule this semester, with 4 group classes twice a week and a number of private students to complete the schedule.

Our first visitor
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My friend Mike, who’s from Kerry but lives in Los Angeles has arrived down to Costa Rica for a holiday. He stayed with us on Thursday and Friday. On Thursday we went to a couple of the local bars. We ended up in Miraflores, the late night Karaoke bar. On Friday we went, along with Joaquín, a colleague from Intercultura, into a few of the clubs in San José. Another very late night. Mike had an early start on Saturday and is now in Manuel Antonio.

English Horizons
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I had my second class with English Horizons on the internet on Thursday. It really is the easiest class to teach. It was a conversation class on the subject of music. So I was basically entertained for the 45 minutes, as the students talked about the music of their various countries. I had 4 students, mostly the same ones that I had on Monday. I felt like I didn’t have to do anything during the class, yet I got an email from the school director afterwards to say that a student had given him a glowing report on me, and that I’d made a very good start with the school!

This afternoon, another teacher at Intercultura, Laura, popped around to the apartment to observe some classes, so she’ll probably be teaching on the net soon too, and may sub for my classes when I’m back in Ireland at the end of the month.

A wee bit chilly
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I reckon it’s at about mid-winter here now. There is a chill in the air at night, and we’re not using the fan as much. This weekend it’s rained A LOT. Today it was almost non-stop. So I’m really looking forward to the lovely summer weather of Ireland in a couple of weeks. Actually, one thing that we really are looking forward to is the long stretch in the evenings. We’ve missed them more than anything since we’ve been here. It’s dark every day at 6pm!

Looking forward to seeing as many of you as can make it on the 1st September. We’re thinking of the Forum on Dame St (part of the Parliament Hotel) because it’s never too crowded. Is it still there and open? It’s centrally located and we have Isolde’s around the corner for late drinks.

Puntarenas

It’s back to work here in CR, but not before a weekend of partying at an all expenses paid trip to the Fiesta Resort and Spa in Puntarenas!

Fiesta Resort
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The school I work in organises a trip away for all the teachers and staff, and partners, before the start of each semester. This time it was to the Fiesta Resort in Puntarenas. It’s one of those all-inclusive holiday resorts where you get a wristband on arrival, and after that everything is completely free. All your food, all your drink. Everything. We had an absolute ball. We arrived on Saturday at 3pm. We checked into our bedroom. Or rather, it was a suite. Two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen area with fridge and microwave, and a living area with two leather couches and a TV (we were sharing with other teachers, so it wasn’t completely to ourselves).

It was then off to one of the bars for cocktails. We decided that we’d have a drink at every bar. One near reception, a wet bar in the pool, one on the patio and a further one out on the pier.

We had a choice of restaurants and opted for a meal in the Italian restaurant, where the wine never stopped flowing. After the meal it was back to meet the others in the bar, with a Costa Rica stroke Caribbean style stage show, before heading into the night club for a quick boogie.

On Sunday, it was up again, missing breakfast, so it was back to the bar, I’m afraid, and a little walk around the resort to get the air back into our lungs. We had to hand the armbands back and head off to our bus at 3 on Sunday. But definitely the best work do I’ve ever been on

Back to work
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I had been back to work on Thursday and Friday for training. We met the new teachers. There are six of them, so I’m now quite an experienced member of the staff. Today we were back in earnest. I had two classes and a private student, but I have to say I enjoyed meeting them all again.

English Horizons
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I also had my first class with English Horizons today at 2pm. This is the Internet teaching company. So I had a class with an Iraqi living in the UK, a girl from Brazil, a girl from Japan, and a guy from Saudi Arabia. It was a bit hairy at first, with a few technical glitches, but it all worked out in the end. It was an unbelievably easy class to teach. I’m on again on Thursday, and if it gets up and running beyond this pilot phase, and begins to pay, I’ll be in my element. You can see me and my biog in the teachers section on www.englishhorizons.com.

Back to Ireland
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It’s getting very close to our journey home – we leave on Thursday fortnight. The wedding is on the Monday, and I’m only going to be over for just over a week, so we’re planning to have some drinks on Thursday 1 September, venue to be announced. So I’d be delighted to meet up with anyone and everyone who’d like to meet us and catch up that night. Just keep the date free, and I’ll advise the details later.

Signing off now, it’s noticeably chillier these days, and I’m in a long-sleeved shirt for the first time since I got here. Brrrr.

Volcán Arenal

This was the final week of holidays before I return to school this week. We went to the active volcano in the north of the Central Valley.

The journey
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The town nearest the volcano is called La Fortuna, a 4½ hour bus journey north of San José in the central valley. This was our most mountainous journey, and quite a beautiful drive, some of it in cloud.

La Fortuna
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La Fortuna de San Carlos is one of the nicer towns in Costa Rica that we’ve visited. It’s quite touristy, but there’s lots to do, and a good mix of restaurants and bars. When we arrived we asked where the volcano was, and were pointed to the bottom of a mountain that disappeared into the clouds.

The Hot Springs
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Most of the tours that visit the volcano national park also include a visit to the hot springs. We decided to do a day in each, so we went to the springs by the free shuttle bus from the town. It was a great decision. Tabacón Hot Springs is the site of an eruption that killed one person in 1975, but is now the source of large springs of 40°C water. There are large pools, flowing rivers, streams and waterfalls, all like a hot bath. There’s even a bar in the pool serving beer and cocktails that you can swim up to. And the volcano is overhead, although on that day we didn’t see it because the cloud never lifted. It was definitely one of the highlights of our time in Costa Rica so far. We went at 2pm and stayed until it closed at 10.

Volcán Arenal
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The following day we went on an afternoon trip to the volcano national park. It was again very cloudy, and rain was expected. They even offered to allow us rebook the trip for the following morning if we didn’t want to do it in the poor weather.

The volcano was dormant since the early 1500s until July 29, 1968 when it exploded violently, shooting rocks at over 100kph creating craters as they vaporised in nearby fields. Eighty-nine people were killed, and over 45,000 cattle. It’s been active ever since, with a major pyroclastic flow (a kind of volcano avalanche) in 1992. When we got there the clouds still hadn’t lifted and as we went on the tour the heavens opened. When we got to the highest point, although still in pouring rain, the clouds cleared, and we could see the entire mountain. The temperature inside is 1,000°C, which is cool for a volcano. So the lava comes out as hot rocks, rather than molten lava. You can see rocks tumbling down the mountain every so often, creating puffs of smoke as they bounce down. But as the light faded just before we went, you started to see that they were bright orange from the heat, and broke like fireworks as they tumbled down and split as they hit rocks lower down. It was breathtakingly spectacular. The guides were amazed that we got such good visibility in such appalling weather.

So that’s the end of July, our travelling month. It’s been wonderful to finally get to see so much more of this beautiful country. This week I have training back in the school, and we have a trip away next weekend with the staff before starting the new semester next Monday.