Has it only been a week?

Has it just been a week since I came back? I can’t believe it, but that week has flown. I finally got the computer back up and running, but I’m afraid that I did lose all my data.

Germany here we come!
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Although there was bad news from the Ireland France match, things are a lot more positive here in Costa Rica. I may have a team to cheer for in Germany after all. Before the summer they had written off all chance of qualifying after some poor results. The Concacaf qualifiers are now in the final round, where the six teams left form a group, with the top three qualifying, and the fourth going into a play-off with an Asian team. Mexico and USA are well ahead, and Costa Rica, Guatemala and Trinidad & Tobago were close for the third place. On Saturday Costa Rica beat Panama 3-1 away, and then followed on Wednesday with a 2-0 victory at home over Trinidad & Tobago. So it now looks like they can’t be caught for the third spot. The final matches are against USA here and Guatemala away. The match coverage is hilarious. Companies sponsor various events in the game, so the screen has banners of running ads depending what happens on the field. For example, whenever there’s a corner, we get ads popping up for Bimbo Bread. For a goal, Coca-cola graphics fill the screen.

Computer blues
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I seem to have spent most of the week driving around San José and Heredia in busses and taxis with my laptop meeting various people in an attempt to rescue the data. It ended up in PC Doctor – a shop in a mall between Heredia and Alajuela. And that still required 10 taxi journeys before it was complete. It turns out that the hard drive was damaged. So I’ve lost all my data. This includes my journal since I arrived, my photos for the last three years, the entire music collection and more that I don’t even want to think about. I had to buy a new hard drive, although the old one is still under guarantee. I couldn’t delay anymore. I’ve cancelled two English Horizons classes, so I needed to be up and running for tomorrow. I’ll still follow up with Dell though. Gmail has been brilliant though. I had emailed lots of work files to myself, so I could print them off in the school. Because there’s loads of storage in Gmail and you don’t delete they’re all still there. I also have the photos that are on the website, and the weekly emails from the blog.

Troubleshooting at work
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I’m back again in work. I was given a new class this week, because there was a clash between the students and the previous teacher. I now realise that I’m the ‘trouble-shooter’, because it’s about the third situation where I’ve been given a class or private students after ‘clashes’. It’s interesting that there are now 10 teachers who’ve started in the school after me. They’re all from the US, so the balance has shifted quite a bit. When I started there were 3 from the UK and 4 from Canada and myself as the non-US teachers. Now there is 1 from UK, 1 from Ireland, and 3 from Canada.

Barbecue
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Last Saturday, one of my friends from work, Anna from Maryland, had a barbecue in her house in Concepción de San Raphael, which is up the mountains. It was a good night, although again I realised how cool it is up the mountains in the evening. They have rented a beautiful house. It’s a big wooden cabin-style building, with a big porch, and a view over the Central Valley, which looks beautiful at night. But it’s a bit remote, and takes about an hour by bus to get back down to the school. So I think I’ll stay where I am!

I’m looking forward to this week, although I’m now moving onto Saturday rotation, so I’ll be working on Saturday’s for the next five weeks. There’s a bank holiday on Thursday (it’s Independence Day).