Guinness on the rocks

Folks,

I can't believe that it's my final week in the school. We had the summer solstice during the week. How I love that long stretch in the evenings, it's now bright until about 6.10.

The pic of the week is very disappointing. We had a couple of very severe tropical storms which caused lots of flooding. The rain didn't really come out in this photo, but it was coming in diagonal lines. You can see a bit, and also how it's coming across the balcony. It was the first time I had water flowing under the door because of the angle of the rain.

Flooding
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Although I haven't been too affected here in downtown Heredia, the tropical rains have caused some devastation. In addition to two torrential storms, there were two tornados nearby, but I only saw them on the news. Adriana is one of the administrators in the school, and her family have lost everything in the floods. They live in a place called Belén, which was one of the worst affected places. Her grandmother's house had to be torn down because it was uninhabitable afterwards. And her parents house had a full river running through it to shoulder height. It took everything with it. Not just computers, TVs and electrical things, but they don't have even so much as a fork left. We had a collection in the school to try and help them get on their feet. I'll be dropping a lot of things from the apartment to the Red Cross as I get ready to move.

Mal País
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Well, despite all my searching, I still only came up with one place on the coast, which is the house beside the restaurant that I wrote about before. I got the price down, and I'm moving there on Sunday. I hope it's in better condition than when I saw it before. If not, I have one back-up option of a cabina which belongs to the family of a friend of one of the teachers. I only got confirmation on it after I'd confirmed the other one. I'm going to hire a 4wd to transport my stuff. But as I'll be leaving Mal País in three months with just a rucksack, a lot of it is going to be left behind me. It's amazing the clutter I've built up over just two years.

Guinness on the rocks
----------------------
We had an international night in the school last Thursday. 4 classes got together and each chose a country. My class, surprise sur-bleedin'-prise, chose Ireland. The other countries were Italy, Brazil and Mexico. It was funny listening to my students talking about information they'd got from the internet about Ireland, about monks setting up monasteries, and asking me how to pronounce Clonmacnoise. And also talking about Galway, Limerick and Cork (which is a natural seaport!).

We had two videos from Youtube. One was an excellent 9 minute promo from Bord Fáilte. What an eternally sunny country! It looked so fantastic I was completely homesick watching it. It had rugby, hurling, fishing, sailing, sailboarding, hiking, music in pubs, shopping in Dublin, everyone eating outdoors and the St. Patrick's Festival in Dublin, which looks amazing in the clips. We also had a short clip of Riverdance which went down very well.

Normally, you bring some food relating to the country. It was nachos from Mexico, chocolate from Brazil and pizza from Italy. When they asked about Ireland, I said that drink was more typical than food, so they bought bottles of Guinness, and little shot glasses. I had to laugh when I saw all the Guinness prepared in the little shot glasses, each with a little cube of ice.

Placement interview
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On Mondays and Wednesdays I do placement interviews. I talk to new students and give them an exam, and then decide what class to place them into. Last night I was interviewing one woman, Norma. I asked her why she wanted to learn English. It's almost always the same answers, for my job. This was the case for her too, she works in a very posh hotel. Do you like your job, I asked. Oh yes, came the reply, I love you.
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Well, that's it for this week. I'm probably going to be late next week also, as I'm moving on Sunday. It's so strange to be in my last week in school. It's really been the centre of everything in my whole time here in Costa Rica. They've asked me to organise one more pub crawl before I finish!

Until next week,

Chao,

Éamon

Today's Headline in La Nación: People of Belén drink water contaminated with chromium

Packing up

Hi there,

It's been a difficult week, because it's only today that I'm feeling any respite from my bronchitis. I've been working throughout and I felt wrecked for most of the weekend.

The pic of the week is Gordon, the gecko, who moved into my flat temporarily. He's seen here on the living room wall.

Bronchitis
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Bronchitis is much worse than you'd think. I've had zero energy. I was on anti-biotics all week. They cost a fortune by local standards, €31.40. Anyway, it still took the full week. I'm feeling much better today. The first time that I've felt I had any energy, even though I still have the cough.

Coast move
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The selection of a house on the coast was delayed because of an ad for a condo in Manual Antonio at no cost, in exchange for handling the letting of a second condo. I thought I was perfect for it. But after chasing it for 2 weeks, I eventually got a reply from the guy that he'd already let it to someone. He'd got over 500 replies! It was too good to be true.

So I now am down to two, both in Santa Teresa/Mal País. The one I wrote about before, and an apartment belonging to the friend of a friend of a teacher. I have the wrong number for the second one, so if I can't get a number tomorrow it's back to plan A.

I'm a little behind in packing up the apartment, because I've been sick, so I'm only really getting started on it today.

Dentist
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I had been putting off going to the dentist since I got here. I'd gone to my own dentist before the trip, and planning to make another trip when I was home in July last year. But before I went home, people thought I was mad, because dentists are cheaper here. So I decided to wait until I came back. I then put it off repeatedly, until recently I had a lot of sensitivity to temperature in one of my teeth, and took the bull by the horns. I went to Joaquín's cousin. She was really excellent. I got an appointment within 24 hours. There was no waiting there, I was straight in. It turned out half a filling had fallen out, so I got a new filling and a clean. The cost: €46. Given that at home a clean alone cost me €70 even with PRSI I felt that wasn't too bad.

Actually, because of the cost of dental treatment, and the good quality of care, many people from the States come down here to have dental work done. That and plastic surgery. I have no plans for the latter just yet.

Home in December
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I decided to book my flights home for December, to avoid having problems with Christmas flights. I was glad I did. I picked up my cheapest flight ever. I arrive in Shannon on the morning of 14 December, for a cost of just €387. That's just one way, because I won't be coming back. But my cheapest one way trip before was €565 coming out hear last April two years ago. And my return fare last July was €1,100.
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Well, that's it for this week. Just 2 more weeks in work. I can't believe it after all this time. They have asked me to organise one more pub crawl before I finish up. Probably on the night we finish up!

Until next week,

Chao,

Éamon

Today's Headline in La Nación: 170 arrested for selling drugs to students

Bullets and bronchitis in Bocas

Folks,

Well, I've done a visa run and now I'm legit until 8th September.

The pic of the week shows a house built out on the mangroves on the way between the Panamanian mainland and the islands of Bocas del Toro. The only access is by boat, and we stopped at this house on the way up to drop off a new DVD player and on the way back to pick the guy up and bring him to work.

Journey to Bocas
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Given the way the weekend went, the journey was probably the highlight! It was an early start, as I got the 6 o'clock bus from San José. I ended up knowing 3 people on the bus. One was a teacher who I interviewed when Barbara was away. She was going to Gandoca to do volunteer work with turtles. The other two were my former neighbours Olive and April from Canada. Olive now works with me in Intercultura and they were also going to Bocas on a visa run.

We got to the border town of Sixaola around 11.30. We got our passports stamped on exit from Costa Rica and then went across this rickety bridge like refugees to the Panamanian immigration on the other side. If you're from the US or Canada you have to pay for your visa, but if you're from the EU it's free.

After immigration it was a minibus journey to the boat. Bocas del Toro is an archipelago of Islands on the Panamanian Caribbean coast. The journey is beautiful, through mangrove swamps and with water perfectly reflecting the trees and the blue blue sky.

I was staying in the main town, Bocas, on the main island Isla Colón, or Colombus Island.

Bocas
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The weather was beautiful the evening I arrived. April and Olive had travelled with me, and went to their hotel. I found a very nice and reasonable hostel nearby. We said we'd meet for a beer, but we never saw each other again!

I arrived on the Thursday, and on Friday I was out for a walk and it started to rain. I ducked into a nearby bar, and the rain was so torrential I had to stay the afternoon having a beer and reading my book. Something I've already said is one of my favourite things to do while I'm away. I was out on the decking of the bar, which was out over the sea, sheltered by a roof, but open at the sides.

So, because of the weather, it wasn't really possible to do much Friday. On Saturday, I woke up feeling really dreadful. I woke up coughing, and had no energy after I got up. I went back to bed and slept till 11.30. I went out to try to be productive for the afternoon, but only made it as far as the central square. I had no energy to go further. So I sat there for the afternoon, and finished my book.

Gunshots at the Hansi Hostal
------------------------------
I went back to the hostel, and rested for a while, so exhausting had my afternoon been sitting on a bench. Although the weather was beautiful for the day, it had broken in early evening, and there was a fairly dramatic thunderstorm. I had decided to get ready to go out to a nearby Thai restaurant and was sitting on my bed beside the window, starting my new book, when I heard this almighty crack. I thought that lightning had struck nearby. I heard shouts outside, and I looked out the open window. An American guy in a white t-shirt was lying completely prostrate across the street in the rain. I thought he'd been hit by lightning, but then remembered there hadn't been a flash. Then two police officers arrived, and shortly afterwards two police jeeps. So now a swarm of police activity.

The guy was shouting that he'd been shot at. He hadn't actually been hit. And the shooter had run around in the corner, in the direction of my Thai restaurant. So the police all ran off, and the guy was once again left on his own.

From my window, which I was sitting at, there was a garden of about six foot, then the street, and all this happened on the opposite footpath.

I spent about half an hour trying to decide whether to go to the restaurant or not. I didn't really have an appetite, but I so rarely get the chance of spicy food. In the end I decided to risk it, and had a delicious Green Chicken Curry and Mashed Potato Pie. Together with 2 beers it only cost €7.75.
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Well, that's it for this week. I was diagnosed as having bronchitis on my return by my landlord, who's an ex-pharmacist, and I'm on anti-biotics. So I hope I'm in better health next week, and I hope to sort out where I'm moving to by this weekend, because the end of the month is approaching pretty quickly!

Until next week,

Chao,

Éamon

Today's Headline in La Nación: Managers of appointed schools called the PLN (Political Party)

Flying furniture

Folks,

We're into June already. How did that happen?

The pic of the week shows me with fellow teachers, Ron, Julia and Paul, and Paul's girlfriend Esperanza. Paul has been at Intercultura nearly as long as me and he's leaving for Korea, following a trip home to the US.

Coast move update
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I'm still following up a few leads on the coast, just to keep my options open. But as time is moving on I think it's probably going to be Mal País. I'm now starting to concentrate on clearing out all the 'stuff' I've accumulated over 2 years.

I'm not the only one moving to the coast. Mel Gibson has just bought a ranch on the Guanacaste coast at the cost of some $25m.

Petrol Leak
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Intercultura hit the national news for a second time in as many weeks. I arrived to school on Monday, and there were fire engines everywhere. It turned out that during a delivery to the local petrol station 50 gallons were leaked. They just poured out and ran down the street. When I arrived the TV news crews were there, and shortly afterwards the whole block was evacuated, and we had to close the school. This was lunchtime and we didn't get the all clear until 4.15, so there was no 4pm class. When we were in the bar afterwards we saw the school coming up on the news as it was being evacuated.

Calipso
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This story is definitely a 'you had to be there' ones. We went for a few drinks after work on Wednesday to Calipso, a local bar just down the road from here. We were all sitting down chatting and relaxing. At one stage I was leaning forward telling a story. I began to feel my chair very slowly give from under me, and I ended up gradually sinking to my knees. It turned out that the front legs of the chair had done the splits, and when I sank fully to my knees, the chair shot, with great force, right across the bar behind me. I have never seen so many people virtually collapse with laughing. It was like I'd leant forward and shot this large piece of plastic furniture from my behind.

Seanad vote
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I got some election material from Senator David Norris during the week. I'm taking this as a good sign that my Seanad vote might actually find me here. I may take some part in the democratic process yet.
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That's it for this week. I'm going to Panama on Thursday on another visa run. I'm going to a couple of islands called Bocas del Toro which is just down the coast from Puerto Viejo. It will be my first time in Panama, and I'm really looking forward to the trip.

Until next week,

Chao,

Éamon

Today's Headline in La Nación: Homeless and thieves 'owners' of San José streets

Do it like they do on the Discovery Channel

Folks,

This week were were visited by a camera crew from the discovery channel.

The pic of the week shows the presenter (in the pink top), having a cooking lesson in the school with one of the Spanish teachers, Silvia.

Discovery Channel
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The discovery channel are making a programme called Passport to ... Costa Rica, and filmed in the school. The idea is that the presenter comes to Costa Rica, decides to learn Spanish in Intercultura. She does Spanish classes, dancing classes and cooking classes. They filmed in the evening, so the Spanish classes were over, and some teachers and admin staff had to pretend to be entry level students.

In the middle of the mayhem, another camera crew arrived, from the Costa Rican station news, to film them filming. I was doing placement exams with students, and it was crazy negotiating around the two sets of crews filming, together with pretend dance classes and pretend cooking classes.

Afterwards, the story continues as she goes off with her friends to try out her new salsa dancing skills in a club in San José. To which we were all brought in two buses, and had a free bar until filming stopped. After the crew left, we stayed, and I eventually got home sometime after 4. Sometimes it's great to have a job that starts at 4pm.

All my students the next day had seen it on the news the previous evening, it was shown quite prominently.

Boy killed by crocodile
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This happened a couple of weeks ago, but I don't think I wrote about it at the time. A 13-year old boy was playing in a lagoon with his brother in Tortuguero (near where I saw the turtles), when a crocodile jumped out of the water, bit his leg. Then it struck a second time and dragged him off. The boy surfaced once, shouted goodbye to his brother, and wasn't seen again.

Moving to the coast
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I've decided to do some more research on what's available on the coast for the price I was quoted. I just have a feeling there are better options. However, I do at least have something to fall back on, and I think I can probably negotiate on price.

Irish General Election
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Thursday was the first General Election that I didn't vote in since it got the vote. I have to say full marks to RTÉ though. They broadcast their entire election programme on the internet, along with two 'raw' feeds, where I could see Mark Little rehearsing and returning officers nervously waiting for the signal that they were 'live'.

It was great, for a political junkie like me, to be able to follow the whole thing unfold throughout the day over a few beers. And full marks to Bertie for having it on a Thursday, so the results were shown on my day off!
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Well, that's it for this week. I can't believe that next week it's June, and my last month in the Apartment.

Chao,

Éamon

Today's Headline in La Nación: The ex-director of Migration authorised the return of a Nazi

Mal País

Folks,

Sorry my entries have been so erratic. Last weekend I went to Mal País, which is a place I may potentially move to.

The pic of the week is a butterfly on flowers in Mal País, which provided a blast of colour on an otherwise gray and wet weekend.

Craig's List
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I don't know if you know Craig's List. It's a classified listings site very popular in the US. I discovered that there was a Costa Rican section, and I've been looking on it for places to move to on the coast in July. I also put up an ad saying I was a writer(!) looking to move to the coast for 3 months. A girl called Laura in Mal País replied, and said that she had a restaurant with cabins, and she would consider letting me one of the cabins if I looked after the place while she's away in September.

Journey
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Mal País is a small town on the Pacific coast. Just a little further north than Montezuma, where we went for a weekend last year . You need to take a bus and a ferry to cross over to the Nicoya peninsula. I love that ferry journey. It only costs 76 euro cent for the hours journey. You cross this gulf past islands to the other side which is completely lush with rain forest. It was so peaceful and quiet as we arrived on the other side. I had to laugh though, as I was watching the port drift into view I was listening to a Morning Ireland podcast. And my idyllic scene was interrupted by the news that 'a car crash is causing traffic northbound to back up to the M50 roundabout in Blanchardstown'. If ever there was news out of context!

Restaurant Verde
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Laura is from Chicago, and runs a vegetarian restaurant called Verde. It's about 100m from the beach. The location is ideal and exactly what I'm looking for. The restaurant is at the front, with a lovely chill out area that I could use as a living space when the restaurant isn't open (i.e. not between 7 and 10pm). There are kind of jungle type gardens, with a shared house, cabins, a larger cabin and a 'studio apartment'. It's all got a real new agey, hippy vibe. However, I don't want to share, the cabins are very basic, and the studio apartment is too expensive. So that leaves the larger cabin. It's got a living space, with a kitchette, a small bedroom and a bathroom. But there's an artist living in it at the moment, and it's a bit of a dump. Untidy, dirty and with paint everywhere. He's moving out on Tuesday, and she'll have it cleaned up then. It's also a little on the pricey side. So I just need to check out other options before committing.

Russian Embassy Siege
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Costa Rica unusually hit world headlines last week when an Uzbek gunman held the Russian ambassador and his family hostage last week, over a failed property investment. There was a standoff for several hours at the embassy in San José, but luckily it ended without loss of life or injury.

Giving the cellular back!
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I've been using a 'cell phone', or mobile as we'd say, from my landlord. But he wants it back, and given that I'm leaving next month, it's not a problem. But when I was telling people that I wouldn't be on it anymore everyone connected it to my leaving and I got all these sad messages back about how people will miss me. I was quite touched.
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Well, that's it for this week. I promise to be back on a regular schedule from the weekend. We're back in full rainy season here, it's hopping of the roof as I write.

Until next week,

Chao,

Éamon

Today's Headline in La Nación: One in every three homes use private healthcare

Power Crisis

Folks,

The power crisis continues, and I think this will be the case until the rains replenish the reservoirs for generating hydro-electricity.

That said, it's lashing as I'm writing, so here's hoping.

The pic of the week is of the fruit truck trailer that came unstuck on the already very precarious Parrita bridge when I was going to Manuel Antonio, which delayed us, and all traffic south, for about an hour while they got a JCB to tow it back off.

Manuel Antonio
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I went to Manuel Antonio for the weekend. I hadn't intended to. I was going to go to the more North Westerly beaches in Nicoya or Guanacaste just to check out possible places for moving to the coast. But we went for a few drinks on Thursday after work. I was home at 12.30, but as there hadn't been any water earlier on in the day I had to wash up the breakfast and lunch dishes. And then I had to pack. So by the time I was going to bed it was 2.30. I was to be up at 5.30. Unfortunately that didn't work. I woke at 5.30, but then blinked and it was suddenly 9.30. So I had missed the early morning buses. So it was a nice and relaxed weekend in Manuel Antonio.

The place I usually stay is very basic and costs around €6 for the night. But they only had a double, and believe me, it's not really worth €12. So I went to the hotel down the road. It was much more luxurious, and I decided to splash out. The price was €55 per night, but I bargained him down to €37 (these amounts were in dollars, so the figures made more sense!). Then when I was going he only charged me one night in error. So I had €110 worth of hotel for €37.

Facebook
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I never really heard about Facebook until the Virginia Tech shootings. Then I read about lots of students updating their Facebook accounts about their experiences on the day. Well, since then, membership has rocketed, including in our very own English department. So one of the teachers sent me an invitation, and I've joined. I must say I love it. It's a way of people keeping in touch and sharing photographs. I have made contact again with former teachers now in Canada, Czech Republic and Spain, and a former colleague on my Celta course. It will be a great way of keeping in touch with the people I'm working with now. If anyone has it, you can search for me using this email address.

Heredia/Saprissa
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Last night was the match between local team Heredia and the league leaders, Saprissa. I only had two students for the final class. The police have to escort the Saprissa supporters through the city, and all the shops close their shutters as they go by. It was in the stadium just down the road and there were huge celebrations as Heredia, very much the underdogs, won 2-0. The singing and honking of car horns went well into the early hours of the morning.

American English
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I feel I've been working here too long when I find myself, as I did the other day, automatically spelling color. And when colour starts to look like it's pronounced col-OOR. Scary.
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So until next week.

Chao,

Éamon

Sunday's Headline in La Nación: Energy crisis causes water rationing