4th of July

Today I´m going to talk about the remainder of my fabulous weekend! Basically none of us had any time to sleep. We were gone the entire weekend, and today I am very exhausted, but maybe if I get to bed early tonight, I will not be as tired tomorrow.

So on Saturday the group of teachers went to Volcan Arenal, and the Baldi Hot Springs. There are about 12 people in our teacher group, which I think is a very good size. Not too big. We traveled by a microbus about 2 1/2 hours to the town that the Volcano is located in. It was very interesting because since I´ve gotten here, I have not yet visited a "tourist" town. We made one stop on the way in a town called Sarchi. It was just okay, nothing special. I picked up a couple of souvenier gifts, and we were on our way. Once we arrived in the town, we had a delicious lunch at a restuarant very close to the volcano. We could see smoke coming out of it, which was pretty cool.

After lunch we headed over to the Baldi Hot Springs. This place consists of about 30 different pools of water that come from the volcano and are naturally heated by the volcano. The temperatures of the pools varied, from somewhere in the 90´s all the way up to around 150 degrees. Obviously there was no one in the pool that was 150 degrees! I can´t believe they even have that! So, at the springs, basically we just went from pool to pool, relaxed, had some tropical beverages, and hung out. They also had a water slide that was pretty fun. While we were there a storm came through. It was no problem to for us to stay in the pools during the storm! Can you imagine this happening in the US? It was pretty cool to be in the warm water while the cold rain was pouring down.

Later, we had a buffet dinner at the hot springs and headed back home. One last stop - to see if we can catch a glimpse of lava coming out of the volcano. Well, it was very cloudy, but we stopped anyway on the side of the road at the good viewing spot. I guess this was our version of Fourth of July fireworks. After waiting for about 15 minutes, we finally were able to see a little bit of lava coming out of the volcano! Probably one of the most awesomest things I´ve ever seen.

After arriving back home around midnight on Saturday, I was exhausted. However on Sunday morning I had to wake up at 530 and leave by 630 to meet for the bus out to the beach! Woohoo! We left from near the San Jose Airport and took a coach bus out to the Pacific coast. On the way, we stopped for a typical Costa Rican breakfast, yes, rice and beans were included! So we finally made it to the coast and we boarded a catamaran boat that would be taking us to Tortuga Island. The boat ride was about 1 hour, and it was pretty awesome! This is what vacation is all about! My friends and I relaxed on the front of the boat, drinks in hand, as we headed to the island. Once we arrived on the island, we went snorkling, had lunch and then took in some much-needed sun! What a nice way to spend the 4th! It was so beautiful there. I wish I could share some pics. Maybe I will be able to put a few on Facebook.

So, that´s about it for my weekend. I returned home last night exhausted and not at all prepared for a second week of classes. This morning, however, I got my new teacher for the week and I think I´m going to really get much more out of my classes this week than last. Today, the students that we visited last week came to our school to do mock interviews. We, the teachers, interviewed them. Since this is part of what I teach normally, I felt pretty confident that I was doing a great job in helping these students prepare for their exam (a mock interview for a job in a call center). I can´t believe how well these kids speak English! I guess they definitely need it for the career that they are wanting to go into.

Well, I need to do my homework now. Hope all is well, and I will write again soon!