exploring, examining, exchanging, expressing
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Working for the Weekend
Friday night one of my students invited me and my roommate out to Bar Retro. It's a two level bar where they place American music videos from the 60s-90s. The place was packed. Apparently, classic rock is popular here. Of course, the beer special (2 for 1100 colones) might've helped. Every table was filled with empty bottles. These folks know how to drink! My student and I did our fair share too. In fact, we closed the place down (no biggie - it was only midnight). Then we went to another bar (this one had 3 levels) closer to campus. Very, very nice views. We made friends with a Tico that works at a call center, speaks very good English, and claims to be a poet. Overall, it was an interesting and fun night.

Saturday morning was the Farmer's Market. I stocked up on all kinds of good veggies. I even got a huge mango as a treat. I just love walking up and down the rows of vendors. I could spend hours just browsing, taking it all in. But it was way too hot to linger. I also had my first Pipa Fria while I was there. They take a young green coconut and hack the top off with a machete and stick a straw in. You drink the fresh coconut milk/water. It was soooo good on such a scorching day.

That afternoon, roomie and I hosted a teachers' meeting out our place to discuss changes to our school's curriculum. I made my pitch for a focus on accent reduction and conversation skills. But I was politely overruled by a room full of women who have a more traditional view of language education. So our most advanced students will be getting heavy doses of grammar and vocabulary, at the cost of pronunciation and fluency practice (which was the school's original selling point and what set it apart from the hundreds of other English academies in Costa Rica).

After the meeting, we went downtown for sushi, then the school's owner caught up with us and invited us out for drinks. Couldn't refuse a free round from the head honcho. It was nice to be able to talk to him out of the office. I learned quite a bit about him. I had no idea he was only 25. Naturally, with a table full of educators, the conversation centered on linguistics and education theory. Good stuff for a Saturday night, aye? Honestly, it was a great time, and we all vowed to do it again. There was even talk of house parties and beach trips. I'm starting to feel like I have a social life again!

Today is laundry day. The washer here is tiny, and looks nothing like the washers I'm used to. It took me awhile to figure it out. Naturally, the buttons are all in Spanish. But I got it. Now everything is hanging out to dry. No dryer. Welcome to the simple life.

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