School’s Out for Summer

Yes! It’s holiday time. We finished up in school on Thursday. It was a really good night, but mixed with sadness as we said goodbye to several of our colleagues.

The Orphanage
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One of the traditions in Intercultura is that the teachers and staff buy presents for orphans in Costa Rica each Christmas. This year my orphan was a 12 year old boy called Jesser, and I bought him the official world cup football of the Costa Rican football team.

I chose not to go out to the orphanage the day they were delivering, because I thought I might get too sad. But talking to the other teachers it made me realise what a good idea it is. The kids were all lined up at the railings waiting for the bus and presents to arrive. They were absolutely thrilled with their presents and played for the morning with the teachers who went along. It’s something that reminds us what Christmas is really about.

Preparing for Christmas
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For me, Christmas in the sun really doesn’t really seem right. I was in Australia for Christmas a number of years ago, and although I loved the trip it didn’t seem like Christmas. Now, I go out and see all the Christmas lights and decorations, with the blue, blue skies and the sunshine and it all just seems like a joke.

I’m heading off to Manuel Antonio on the Pacific coast tomorrow, to have a few days at the beach before Christmas. It will be quite a bit hotter on the coast. Here we have lovely warm days, but nice cool evenings at the moment.

Christmas Eve is the bigger day here, rather than Christmas day. It’s when the families have their big meal, and I guess Christmas day is more like our Stephen’s day. I’m going to my friend Laura’s for Christmas, along with the few teachers who haven’t gone home. I was also invited by my landlord to spend the day with his family if I didn’t have other plans. Which I thought was a really lovely and generous gesture.

The supermarket experience
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It’s interesting to remember the differences between the supermarkets over here and at home. First of all when you go in you have to leave any bags or other shopping in a cloakroom area, and receive a cloakroom ticket. The supermarkets are well stocked, and as everywhere here, they have plenty of staff. But I laughed during the week to see that there was a girl doing women’s nails, right in the middle of the aisles. You could sit down and have your nails manicured and have little flowers painted on them between the household utensils and Christmas decorations, as the rest of the shoppers strive to get their trolleys around you.

Christmas week
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As soon as Christmas is over, everyone heads for the beach, and only come back around New Year. It’s the busiest time of the year for hotels and hostels, along with Easter week. Rita arrives just after Christmas, but we’re going to stay in Heredia and visit the local sites before heading off just after New Year to avoid the rush, and the higher prices.

Weekly email – Now available in Podcast!
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Well, you can’t accuse me of being behind the times. Now, as well as receiving the weekly email by email, or as a weblog on the web, you can now also receive it by podcast if you so wish! Basically I’m going to record it as a file, and you can download it to your iPod or podcast software from www.angelfire.com/journal2/eamon/weeklypodcast.rss . So you can get to hear the weekly mail in my very own dulcet tones! I warn you it’s a very amateurish production at the moment, but hopefully I’ll get better as time goes on.
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Well, that’s it for another week. I’m off to Manuel Antonio tomorrow to relax on the beach before hitting Christmas. I hope you all have a really good holiday. The world may stop for the Christmas, but rest assured, the weekly emails (and podcasts!) will continue regardless.

So until next week,

Feliz Navidad,

Éamon

Today’s headline in La Nación: Lawyers falsify marriages with foreigners.