O’Connor’s Pub

The weather has been so beautiful recently, and it’s so refreshing after the months of rain. It’s very warm during the day, and very comfortable and cool at night. I never think that I’m a sun person. But the beautiful and warm weather has us all in great form. However, it seems very un-December!

Parque Central
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I’m starting writing this mail on Saturday morning. I’ve taken my class to Parque Central and now they’re filling in a questionnaire on the things they see in the park. So I have time to have a look at it myself.

The Parque is quite big, it’s a fully city block. There is the old Church to the east. The sky is completely blue, I can’t see a cloud. There is a large fountain in the centre, but it’s empty, and kids are playing in it. There is a clown entertaining them. There are a group of kids singing carols in the bandstand. The square has many tall palm trees on the side near the post office.

The square now has a lot of stall selling clothes, jewellery and indigenous artisan crafts for Christmas. There is a funpark, called Ciudad Mágica in one corner. It has a beautiful old carousel and a few scary rides. The sort you see in Funderland which turn people fully upside-down up in the air. It’s full of people really enjoying themselves.
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Back at home – Sunday (with a red sunburnt head from yesterday!)
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Head Teacher
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My boss Barbara asked me to have a talk earlier in the week. It turned out that she wanted to ask me to be Head Teacher next semester. Head Teacher is not like headmaster, but it is a role of senior teacher I suppose. Teaching has only been the means to an end for me. It’s a portable skill that I learned expressly for the purpose of travel. But, that said, I have to say that I felt really chuffed when I was asked. She said that she felt I had a presence on the staff, as well as the respect of the other teachers. I can’t believe that having taught in the school only since May, and only having trained earlier this year, that I’m going to be Head Teacher next semester. It’s really made me realise that I’ve achieved so much this year.

How the other half live
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I was out on Friday with a few of the teachers. Leah’s Tica roommate Alba invited me to a party today Sunday in her American boyfriend’s house. So we headed out to the exclusive suburb of Escazú today. The house is beautiful. It’s in the foothills of the mountains, and we were having a barbecue by the pool. The mountains are really high, we were at about 5,000m and they towered over us. It was quite beautiful.

We were on the patio beside the guest house, at the bottom of the garden. With a sunken hot-tub inside. The guests were a mix of the host, Brad’s, friends, with a very high proportion of older American men with young Tica girlfriends or wives.

On the way home we drove through Santa Ana, and I saw the only Irish bar that I think is here. I’d read about it on the internet, but when I asked people said they didn’t know it, and I thought it was gone. But I saw the sign ‘O’Connor’s Irish Pub’. So we stopped for a drink. It was all very disappointing. There were no road-signs or photos , or anything from Ireland. There was just one Tricolour and two small framed old Guinness ads. The rest was all Heineken branded, with NOTHING Irish available. Not even Irish whiskey!

And when I went to the loo I arrived into Joe’s Mexican bar next door!

I’m off now to have a good rest. This is my last busy week before Christmas. There are no Spanish classes next week, so it will just be teaching.

So until next week,

Pura Vida,

Éamon

Today’s headline in La Nación: Second round seems unlikely [in the presidential election]