We just arrived back from my work do at the Fiesta hotel resort. And I'm feeling much better now, having got over my cold earlier in the week.
Fiesta Resort
----------------
For a language school in Central America, the last thing I expected was an all expenses paid junket to a holiday resort hotel on the Pacific for all the staff. You may remember that we went on this last year.
The Fiesta Hotel is a resort hotel. It's basically a compound with swimming pools, bars and restaurants beside the beach near the coastal Pacific town of Puntarenas.
When you arrive, you're given an armband, and once you have that everything is free. Whatever food you want. Whatever drinks, whether beer or cocktails. It's absolutely fantastic. We had a beautiful room and really had a ball. I worked Saturday morning, but they cancelled the afternoon classes for the trip. We set off at 12.30 and it just takes 2 hours to get there. We didn't leave until 3pm yesterday.
In the meantime there had been meals, drinks, a disco, and a long lie in on Sunday morning. It was a great trip, and a great way for the old and new teachers to get to know each other, as well as for the integration of the English and Spanish departments in the school.
Weather
-----------
We've been quite lucky with the weather this year. At the start of the rainy season it looked like it was going to be much worse than last year. We were told that this was because of the weather phenomenon called La Niña. We were also told that the hurricane season would be much worse than last year's already terrible season.
We don't get the actual hurricanes themselves, but we do get a lot of bad weather and rain if they're big, or hit Central America further up the coast.
However, completely at odds with the predictions, this season has been relatively quiet. There hasn't been one hurricane, and just five tropical storms. This week last year was the week of Katrina. So they were on storm 11. I remember because we had to detour our flight home to avoid it when we were travelling back for my sister's wedding. Ernesto is the current tropical storm, and it's expected to turn into the first hurricane of the season during the week.
John Mark Karr
-------------------
Whenever there is a fugitive from justice in the US, I often suspect they will turn up here in Costa Rica, because there have been a number of cases since we've been here.
It's now the case John Mark Karr, recently arrested in Thailand in connection with the JonBenét Ramsey murder.
He worked in San José in 2004 as an English teacher. His former landlord, a Canadian, said he had to get him to leave the house, because of inappropriate comments made to his wife and daughters.
-----
Well, that's it for another week. We're still trying to recover from our weekend. I find it so hard to believe that we're nearly into September. The time is really flying by.
Pura Vida,
Éamon
Sunday's headline from La Nación: Costanera Highway could have been built in cement for the same cost
Monday, August 28, 2006
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Mother's Day
A little late this week as I was a little under the weather at the weekend. I had a bit of a cold with a chesty cough. My students tell me there is a virus doing the rounds. Still, it was my first time with any sickness in my 16 months here.
Mother's Day
-----------------
Mother's Day is a bank holiday in Costa Rica, which probably shows the extent to which mothers play a role in the national psyche. It was a bit confusing this year, because Mother's Day is August 15th, which was last Tuesday. Traditionally this would have been the bank holiday as well, but the new government is moving bank holidays to Mondays. So yesterday was the official holiday. I think this has confused everyone. The school closed on 15th and lots of students turned up. And it was business as usual yesterday; I had one student in my first class and two in the second.
Irish Americans
--------------------
The new American teachers seem at pains to stress their Irish roots to me. One, Erin, has family from Roscommon and has been to Ireland on holidays most of her life. Another has dogs called Guinness and Bailey. She would love to learn Gaelic, and can't understand why none of her Scots Irish ancestors have held onto the language.
Tico furniture
-----------------
Tico furniture has to be experienced to be believed. Comfort has not entered as a requirement in Central America. Couches are always boxy, and you can literally feel the planks of wood. Our couch had been getting worse and worse recently. It sagged in the middle and had one end so bad that it was better to sit on a pillow on the floor in front of it.
We reported it to our landlord. Now, in Ireland this couch would be for the skip. But not so in Costa Rica where nothing is thrown out. We seemed to go on a 3-week waiting list for the couch repair man. When he arrived on Saturday he literally took it apart. The sides came off, the back came off, the sponge came off and the springs were revealed. Everyone one of them was broken. I never felt so heavy in my life.
Anyway, I saw that the inside was made of wood, springs, twine, plastic bags, and bizarrely, cardboard boxes labelled chicken and beef. After replacing the springs the couch was partially reassembled before he left, to return on Sunday morning at 8am(!) to finish the job.
However, I'm amazed to say that he did a really good job, and the couch, while not exactly 'comfortable' by Irish standards, is not an ordeal to sit on.
Ant attack
------------
You will remember that Costa Rica has 0.03% of the earth's landmass, and 6% of the biodiversity. Well, we're struggling with a marvel of evolution in the shape of thousands of tiny ants that invade our kitchen. They've always been here since we arrived, but this time of year must be particularly prone to them, because there are legions marching up and down the walls. If you so much as leave a knife down with food on it they're all over it within minutes.
I've looked them up on Wikipedia, and they're Argentine Ants. They're impossible to eradicate. They live in cavity walls or in any nooks or crannies. They have several queens, so even if one is killed the colony continues. If you kill them (and I have to confess that I do it with regularity, sorry animal lovers) the ones that escape run back up the trail, which is normally on the wall over the cooker. You can see them 'telling' the ones on the way down. They go head to head and twitch like they're chatting. Then they turn around and flee, telling the others as they go. About five minutes later a 'scout' comes out, and in a completely mad zig-zag fashion he runs about checking out the trail and brings back the 'all clear' or 'stay for another while' message. It's truly fascinating.
-----
Well, that's it for another week. We're on our big work 'freebie' in a resort hotel on the Pacific next weekend! So until next week.
Pura Vida,
Éamon
Sunday's headline from La Nación: Ticos discover fossil of prehistoric mammal
Mother's Day
-----------------
Mother's Day is a bank holiday in Costa Rica, which probably shows the extent to which mothers play a role in the national psyche. It was a bit confusing this year, because Mother's Day is August 15th, which was last Tuesday. Traditionally this would have been the bank holiday as well, but the new government is moving bank holidays to Mondays. So yesterday was the official holiday. I think this has confused everyone. The school closed on 15th and lots of students turned up. And it was business as usual yesterday; I had one student in my first class and two in the second.
Irish Americans
--------------------
The new American teachers seem at pains to stress their Irish roots to me. One, Erin, has family from Roscommon and has been to Ireland on holidays most of her life. Another has dogs called Guinness and Bailey. She would love to learn Gaelic, and can't understand why none of her Scots Irish ancestors have held onto the language.
Tico furniture
-----------------
Tico furniture has to be experienced to be believed. Comfort has not entered as a requirement in Central America. Couches are always boxy, and you can literally feel the planks of wood. Our couch had been getting worse and worse recently. It sagged in the middle and had one end so bad that it was better to sit on a pillow on the floor in front of it.
We reported it to our landlord. Now, in Ireland this couch would be for the skip. But not so in Costa Rica where nothing is thrown out. We seemed to go on a 3-week waiting list for the couch repair man. When he arrived on Saturday he literally took it apart. The sides came off, the back came off, the sponge came off and the springs were revealed. Everyone one of them was broken. I never felt so heavy in my life.
Anyway, I saw that the inside was made of wood, springs, twine, plastic bags, and bizarrely, cardboard boxes labelled chicken and beef. After replacing the springs the couch was partially reassembled before he left, to return on Sunday morning at 8am(!) to finish the job.
However, I'm amazed to say that he did a really good job, and the couch, while not exactly 'comfortable' by Irish standards, is not an ordeal to sit on.
Ant attack
------------
You will remember that Costa Rica has 0.03% of the earth's landmass, and 6% of the biodiversity. Well, we're struggling with a marvel of evolution in the shape of thousands of tiny ants that invade our kitchen. They've always been here since we arrived, but this time of year must be particularly prone to them, because there are legions marching up and down the walls. If you so much as leave a knife down with food on it they're all over it within minutes.
I've looked them up on Wikipedia, and they're Argentine Ants. They're impossible to eradicate. They live in cavity walls or in any nooks or crannies. They have several queens, so even if one is killed the colony continues. If you kill them (and I have to confess that I do it with regularity, sorry animal lovers) the ones that escape run back up the trail, which is normally on the wall over the cooker. You can see them 'telling' the ones on the way down. They go head to head and twitch like they're chatting. Then they turn around and flee, telling the others as they go. About five minutes later a 'scout' comes out, and in a completely mad zig-zag fashion he runs about checking out the trail and brings back the 'all clear' or 'stay for another while' message. It's truly fascinating.
-----
Well, that's it for another week. We're on our big work 'freebie' in a resort hotel on the Pacific next weekend! So until next week.
Pura Vida,
Éamon
Sunday's headline from La Nación: Ticos discover fossil of prehistoric mammal
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Back to Routine
Well, this week it was back to school. After a week of training, classes began again on Monday.
Back to school
------------------
As soon as we got back I was into the school for training. There are six new teachers, so we had two days training for them, and then a further two days with the rest of the teachers.
The new group are mostly from the States, as usual, but there is a girl from Birmingham, England too. So it's good to have someone else from Europe.
Change of personnel
------------------------------
Every semester the department changes because so many leave and join. There are 23 teachers now, and I'm number 5 in length of service. Only John, Malachi, Luke and Jackie were there when I started in May last year. And three out of those four are married to Ticas!
Chris was the Senior Head Teacher with me last year, so now I've taken over from him, and Taylor has taken over from me. You may remember that Taylor was offered a job on Wall St. at Christmas, accepted it, and then realised he'd made a mistake and came back. Well, he's got engaged to his Tica girlfriend now, and they're getting married in January.
Welcome back party
-------------------------
One of the students had a party last Saturday to welcome back the teachers. Well, that was the official reason. But it seemed just like an excuse to invite all the young American Spanish students. Jorge, the guy hosting the party, said that he doesn't mix Tica and American girls. He never invites his Tica friends to parties if American girls are going to be there.
The Americans think that the Ticas dress in a slutty way. And it's true that they do wear very skimpy clothes. But the Tica's think that the American girls behave in a much more slutty way, despite their more prudish dress sense. All of this was borne out at the party when the dancing became very sexual and the only Tica girl, Taylor's fiancée, ended up in a heated row with two of the American students. It was what you might call a culture clash.
Visas for Costa Rica
-------------------------
Since we came to Costa Rica the visa situation has been a real pain. People from Ireland (and many other countries) get just a 30 days visa. Whereas people from the US, Canada and the UK, and so most of the other teachers, get 90 days. So the school pays for them to do visa runs. Basically they go into Nicaragua or Panama for 3 days, and then the visa is renewed for another 90 days when they came back. Because it wasn't realistic for myself and Jack to do runs every 30 days, so we just overstay. We therefore have to avoid the strict land borders. It's been fine going home to Ireland and coming back, because they never check at the airports.
Well, while we were away the whole visa system has been revamped. Most countries, including Ireland, are now 90 days. I was amused to see that the old rules were from the Cold War, and penalised countries perceived as 'friendly' to the USSR!
Anyway, now that we're genuine 90 day people, we'll be able to go to Nicaragua or Panama before Halloween to renew. We're really looking forward to that!
-----
Well, that's it for another week. I have a new private student starting tomorrow morning at 9. So until next week.
Pura Vida,
Éamon
Today's headline from La Nación: Doctors are forced to work for 18 years to pay for their studies.
Back to school
------------------
As soon as we got back I was into the school for training. There are six new teachers, so we had two days training for them, and then a further two days with the rest of the teachers.
The new group are mostly from the States, as usual, but there is a girl from Birmingham, England too. So it's good to have someone else from Europe.
Change of personnel
------------------------------
Every semester the department changes because so many leave and join. There are 23 teachers now, and I'm number 5 in length of service. Only John, Malachi, Luke and Jackie were there when I started in May last year. And three out of those four are married to Ticas!
Chris was the Senior Head Teacher with me last year, so now I've taken over from him, and Taylor has taken over from me. You may remember that Taylor was offered a job on Wall St. at Christmas, accepted it, and then realised he'd made a mistake and came back. Well, he's got engaged to his Tica girlfriend now, and they're getting married in January.
Welcome back party
-------------------------
One of the students had a party last Saturday to welcome back the teachers. Well, that was the official reason. But it seemed just like an excuse to invite all the young American Spanish students. Jorge, the guy hosting the party, said that he doesn't mix Tica and American girls. He never invites his Tica friends to parties if American girls are going to be there.
The Americans think that the Ticas dress in a slutty way. And it's true that they do wear very skimpy clothes. But the Tica's think that the American girls behave in a much more slutty way, despite their more prudish dress sense. All of this was borne out at the party when the dancing became very sexual and the only Tica girl, Taylor's fiancée, ended up in a heated row with two of the American students. It was what you might call a culture clash.
Visas for Costa Rica
-------------------------
Since we came to Costa Rica the visa situation has been a real pain. People from Ireland (and many other countries) get just a 30 days visa. Whereas people from the US, Canada and the UK, and so most of the other teachers, get 90 days. So the school pays for them to do visa runs. Basically they go into Nicaragua or Panama for 3 days, and then the visa is renewed for another 90 days when they came back. Because it wasn't realistic for myself and Jack to do runs every 30 days, so we just overstay. We therefore have to avoid the strict land borders. It's been fine going home to Ireland and coming back, because they never check at the airports.
Well, while we were away the whole visa system has been revamped. Most countries, including Ireland, are now 90 days. I was amused to see that the old rules were from the Cold War, and penalised countries perceived as 'friendly' to the USSR!
Anyway, now that we're genuine 90 day people, we'll be able to go to Nicaragua or Panama before Halloween to renew. We're really looking forward to that!
-----
Well, that's it for another week. I have a new private student starting tomorrow morning at 9. So until next week.
Pura Vida,
Éamon
Today's headline from La Nación: Doctors are forced to work for 18 years to pay for their studies.
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Ireland
I hadn't intended to send no emails while I was home, but the lack of an internet connection and a very busy month meant that I didn't get time to head off to an internet café to write.
The Journeys
----------------
The journeys to and from Ireland were very different. Although they took roughly the same length of time. The journey out was through Miami (it looks very flat), St. Louis (everyone is very friendly) and Chicago (it looks beautiful on the lake). On the way back we had an overnight in London, which was great. Then we flew direct to Miami (still very flat), where there was a big wait of several hours and a gate change that had us trekking from one end of the sprawling badly-designed airport to the other, and then back again.When we landed in Miami we saw the news about Castro handing over power for the first time, and there was great local interest every time the story came up on the CNN screens around the terminal, with live coverage from Little Havana in the city.
So many people, so little time
------------------------------------
This was really my first time to be on holiday back in Ireland while living abroad. It was a strange experience. I thought that 4 weeks was ample time to meet up with everyone at least once. But with a week out in Ennis and a weekend in Leitrim, the rest of the time was taken chasing around trying to fit everyone in – an impossible task as it turned out. At least when you're trying to have a holiday as well. So for the people that I didn't get to meet up with I'm really sorry, and I'll try to organise it differently the next time.
And, as you all know, it's incredibly expensive. Not much more expensive than when we left, but when you're socialising a lot it's like money haemorrhaging from your wallet.
The New Ireland
--------------------
Before we left there were tons of apartment blocks being built and cranes everywhere. But this time it was at another level entirely. On the Dart into town there were hundreds of apartment blocks I'd never seen before, and hundreds more being built. And hotels, bars and petrol stations are being knocked down for apartments. It was the same on our travels through the country, in Ennis, and in Carrick-on-Shannon where everyone seems to live in apartments owned by people from Dublin. And everyone is talking about property. Not just Dublin property, but holiday homes either in the country, or Spain, or Turkey or Bulgaria. There's some kind of property mania going on, and at this level it's surely unsustainable.
The weather
----------------
We were so lucky with the weather. It was a scorcher most of the time we were there. Scorchio indeed! We were very unlucky though on our weekend in Ennis. It was that Saturday of Oxygen when the whole country had really cold and bad weather. Myself and Jack went out to the beach in Lahinch for a walk, because we'd planned it. We were nearly blown away by the wind and rain. And I realised that the rain is much, much colder in Ireland. And there were still about 80 surfers in the water. More than you'd see on any beach here, and it's one of Costa Rica's main tourist attractions.
For the rest of the time it was just beautiful. There is nowhere like Ireland if you get the weather. Even if you knew that there was going to be even a guaranteed good month in the summer!
Back home
--------------
And so we arrived back to our little Tico apartment on Tuesday night, jet-lagged and after some flight delays. It was strange not having our own place in Dublin, and it made me realise that our little Tico apartment is, temporarily at least, home.
-----
Well, that's it for another week. The new semester starts tomorrow, so it's going to be a busy week.
Pura Vida,
Éamon
The Journeys
----------------
The journeys to and from Ireland were very different. Although they took roughly the same length of time. The journey out was through Miami (it looks very flat), St. Louis (everyone is very friendly) and Chicago (it looks beautiful on the lake). On the way back we had an overnight in London, which was great. Then we flew direct to Miami (still very flat), where there was a big wait of several hours and a gate change that had us trekking from one end of the sprawling badly-designed airport to the other, and then back again.When we landed in Miami we saw the news about Castro handing over power for the first time, and there was great local interest every time the story came up on the CNN screens around the terminal, with live coverage from Little Havana in the city.
So many people, so little time
------------------------------------
This was really my first time to be on holiday back in Ireland while living abroad. It was a strange experience. I thought that 4 weeks was ample time to meet up with everyone at least once. But with a week out in Ennis and a weekend in Leitrim, the rest of the time was taken chasing around trying to fit everyone in – an impossible task as it turned out. At least when you're trying to have a holiday as well. So for the people that I didn't get to meet up with I'm really sorry, and I'll try to organise it differently the next time.
And, as you all know, it's incredibly expensive. Not much more expensive than when we left, but when you're socialising a lot it's like money haemorrhaging from your wallet.
The New Ireland
--------------------
Before we left there were tons of apartment blocks being built and cranes everywhere. But this time it was at another level entirely. On the Dart into town there were hundreds of apartment blocks I'd never seen before, and hundreds more being built. And hotels, bars and petrol stations are being knocked down for apartments. It was the same on our travels through the country, in Ennis, and in Carrick-on-Shannon where everyone seems to live in apartments owned by people from Dublin. And everyone is talking about property. Not just Dublin property, but holiday homes either in the country, or Spain, or Turkey or Bulgaria. There's some kind of property mania going on, and at this level it's surely unsustainable.
The weather
----------------
We were so lucky with the weather. It was a scorcher most of the time we were there. Scorchio indeed! We were very unlucky though on our weekend in Ennis. It was that Saturday of Oxygen when the whole country had really cold and bad weather. Myself and Jack went out to the beach in Lahinch for a walk, because we'd planned it. We were nearly blown away by the wind and rain. And I realised that the rain is much, much colder in Ireland. And there were still about 80 surfers in the water. More than you'd see on any beach here, and it's one of Costa Rica's main tourist attractions.
For the rest of the time it was just beautiful. There is nowhere like Ireland if you get the weather. Even if you knew that there was going to be even a guaranteed good month in the summer!
Back home
--------------
And so we arrived back to our little Tico apartment on Tuesday night, jet-lagged and after some flight delays. It was strange not having our own place in Dublin, and it made me realise that our little Tico apartment is, temporarily at least, home.
-----
Well, that's it for another week. The new semester starts tomorrow, so it's going to be a busy week.
Pura Vida,
Éamon
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
