Back to Routine

Well, this week it was back to school. After a week of training, classes began again on Monday.

Back to school
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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
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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
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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
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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!
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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.