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.