Adventures Abroad

Horseshoe crabs!

2011-12-13T10:21:00.000-08:00

I found some horseshoe crab shells on my summer trip to Cape Cod with my family. I thought they might be interesting to see for those who may not be able to visit the beach all the time, as they're a really cool animal. They not really a crab! They're also ancient - the species is 200 million years old, according to this Rhode Island Sea Grant Fact Sheet.

Here are a couple of pictures of the first one I painted, along with one I left unpainted.

I found the wind turbines!

2011-05-24T20:52:00.001-07:00

Here's a couple of articles about the wind turbines I would look out at many mornings on Ometepe Island. I wish I had money to invest in renewable energy for Nicaragua!

This one has a good photo of Volcan Maderas in the background.
https://www.atmosfair.de/en/our-projects/projekte00/nicaragua-wind-power/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/02/nicaragua-wind-power-anot_n_154836.html

Chicken bus under the wind turbines!!!!!!!!! :) :)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28421541/ns/us_news-environment/t/nicaragua-adds-wind-power-energy-mix/

Sustainable Shrimp Farming

2011-05-14T15:18:00.000-07:00

I love shrimp. My grandma always remembers me wanting to order shrimp cocktail when we went to Cape Cod. Once it was considered a delicacy, and now, thanks to shrimp farming, more of us middle class can afford to eat shrimp on a more regular basis. Unfortunately, one of my favorite foods is not always good for the environment: many mangrove forests are destroyed to make room for shrimp farms!

On the other hand, Central America and entrepreneurship is once again here to save the day. :) A woman from the US went to Belize several years ago to begin shrimp farming there. She and the people of Belize are now working together to not only farm shrimp, but to farm it sustainably, with less impact to the environment. (Note that Belize is a bit different, where clay soil is moved around to make big ponds for the shrimp instead of mangrove forests). She and the owner of Aqua Mar and several other shrimp companies, along with the World Wildlife Federation, are now working to create standards for the shrimp farming.

Take a look below!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5haEZ2OFbrY&feature=player_embedded#at=68

Awesome Bilingual Book!

2010-12-07T15:14:00.000-08:00

I found an AWESOME bilingual book I want to bring with me to Nicaragua. :) I'm so excited. The little kids will love the rhymes and songs and fun things to do while we read the book. :) :) :) :)

Check it out if you'd like to practice English/Spanish on Google Books:

The Bilingual Book of Rhymes, Songs, and...

I'm going to have to memorize some of the ones in Spanish to learn them. I found it while looking up "I want to go sledding!" because it's snowing here and I want to show the students on Skype. :)

Bringing it all back home

2010-09-01T18:04:00.000-07:00

Traveling abroad has taught me quite a few lessons. Yes, it taught me some more language. It taught me some more about different cultures. But it taught me something more important. I may only be one person, but what I do with my life affects the world, sometimes in a big way.

I've been flitting around a number of websites, which started at one that some Clarkson students work on: izzitgreen. I was hoping it would be a review of common products that I would want to buy, so it could tell me whether or not they are sustainable, but I'll have to keep looking for that.

Along the way, I've found that 'Chilean sea bass' live so long they should never really ever be eaten, and that many shrimp we buy cheap are farmed. I never recall eating Chilean sea bass, but apparently they live for 50 years and rarely reproduce, so harvesting them at all is not a good idea for their populations or the other animals (like whales) that rely on them for food. The more important thing for me was the shrimp. I NEVER knew that farmed shrimp would hurt the environment. However, apparently farmed shrimp are often produced in converted mangrove forests. If you are unfamiliar with mangrove forests, they are home to some of the coolest trees in the world, which live in more water than normal trees do. Go look for pictures. They're cool.

So in addition to buying local food, I'll be using this guide to help buy fish when I need some variety in my diet. Currently, I'm enjoying fresh homemade salsa, homemade tomato sauce, homemade pickles, local yogurt and veggies (including some of the sweetest sweet corn ever!), and fresh chicken from a local Amish family. It's pretty delicious. I have some purple potatoes from the local farmer's market (where I purchased the majority of the above) that are calling my name for dinner within the next few days. It's nice to be able to say that the food on my plate all came from within a few miles.

I do hope to continue to buy some of my favorite processed foods, however. This will require a little bit of research. At least R. W. Garcia made my purchasing of tortilla chips a little easier by labeling that their corn is non-GMO.

Well, I believe that is enough food research for the night. I'm hoping to speak with my students momentarily!

Skype Chats

2010-08-23T09:14:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm back at school (Clarkson University) for my graduate level work, so hopefully now I'll be able to speak with the students on the island via Skype more often.

I spoke with them twice this summer, and they were enjoying their new teachers. Horacio is doing well at the Ave Maria English school, and even gave an oral presentation in English!

A couple more of the students made it to level 3, so hopefully they will be enrolled, too.

I can't wait to talk to the students again! I miss them!

We can mail things to the school!

2010-07-08T15:05:00.000-07:00

My apologies for the delay in posting the address to mail goodies to, but here it is!

Alvaro Molina
Hacienda Merida
Apartado postal # 21
Volcan Maderas, Isla de Ometepe
Nicaragua, CA

Please keep in mind that anything deemed of value will be held by customs, so inexpensive things like children's books and little toys will go through just fine. Bilingual books are awesome. Small packages are best, as boxes will also get stuck in customs. Booyaka! Mom is going to send another package of Go Fish! cards soon! :) I'm excited.

Let me know if you have any questions if you want to mail anything!

Touchdown: The Happy Wanderer is HOME!

2010-06-30T19:46:00.000-07:00

I'm back in beautiful, chilly New York! I wandered around the beautiful town of Granada with Jeff another day yesterday, and this time we walked down to the waterfront. I took some pictures of the island from the mainland, and of the town. I'm going to add some photos as an afterthought. The dial-up at home is not much fun for photos.

After we wandered Granada, I took a bus from the station to Managua. On the way, I was highly surprised to see a Quizno's (even bigger than some of the ones in NY!), and a big mall on the way to Managua! What is this??? It was way too weird being on an old school bus, coming from an island with dirt roads, to a huge food place I usually see in the US and a huge mall! This was way too weird.

We got to the bus station, and I had been sitting next to a nice lady and her little son. He kept hiding behind Mom because I was trying to say hi. :) They wanted to help me find a cab, and showed me where they would be. I said thank you and that I would look for a little food first. (I had been previously warned to be careful in Managua, because people have been robbed here). I grabbed a tamale (mashed corn? in a corn husk, then cooked over a fire) because I figured it would be safe for me to eat. Apparently my stomach is not as strong as I had thought (remember how I ate street food at the border and got sick? And then got sick from being dumb and drinking sink water in Granada?). This lead me to be VERY paranoid about what I ate.

After that, I took a ride from a taxi driver, and ate the tamale on the way. He put the radio on after I stopped asking questions, and my favorite Enrique Iglesias song was on! I don't remember the name, but it has the lyrics 'cuando me enamoro' (when I fall in love) in it. We were soon at the airport, and it was air conditioned. (I didn't miss air conditioning; it dries out my hands). I bought a few last-minute souveneirs with my remaining Cordobas, and got some more food. On the plane, I met a Mom and her daughter returning with a group that had gone to Nicaragua to build a school. They were going with a group because each party in the group had lost a child. I think that's a really great way to celebrate the lives of their children. That plane went to El Salvador, and the second one left soon after we landed. The whole plane ride I was SO excited to finally be going home. I practically ran (I ran) through the airport to get out to Mom and whoever was there to pick me up. It was Mom and Gram, and Gram was calling me so loud. I am so happy to be home! We went to Connecticut on the way home by accident. :) I'm so happy to be home!!!

I still have some updating to do about the trip. I had an awesome time at Ad Astra, a rocket company in Costa Rica, and there are some other cool things I still have to transfer from journal to blog. Keep looking for photos, too!

Back on the Mainland

2010-06-28T06:16:00.000-07:00

I left my students and the beautiful town of Merida on Saturday morning, and took the long bus to Altagracia and then Moyogalpa. Darwin happened to be taking the same bus and I get teary-eyed both when he got off and again when I was on the ferry off the island. Man, will I miss those students. I miss them already!

In Altagracia I visited Dave´s friends to give them photographs and t-shirts. They loved them. I took some more photos of them, which I will post later. I was amused, because the guidebook was right that they want to look really nice for photos. One woman even asked me to wait a few minutes (and someone brought me a chair to chill in for a few minutes) while she got her daughter, who was nicely dressed up for her photo.

After photo fun, Maira, who showed me where to go for the photos, and her sister Delba? walked with me to Si a la Vida, which is a group home for boys. I bought some of the gorgeous bracelets they make, because the Sandia prep school kids had been wearing them and I wanted to buy some, too. I had previously learned that the boys use the money from selling the bracelets for trips, so I bought a few to give away as gifts. Most of the kids were out playing a sport, but one was chillin watching TV and making a bracelet, so I sat and learned a little more about the operation. Noel, who works there, said that there are 16 boys there right now. I didn´t stay very long, which ended up being good, because getting off the island took all day.

As I got off the boat, a taxi driver started talking to me and asked if I needed a ride. I said I didn´t know, because I wanted to get to Granada. He offered the ride I´d
previously taken for 5 at $2, so we went to Rivas, only to find (as he had warned) that there were no buses to Granada. Not wanting to chill in a hotel in Rivas, I paid him to take me to Granada. It was a fun ride, and I was telling him about my little car and my cat. It turns out he´s friends with Byron at the Hacienda Merida! That worked out very well.

He took me right to the Hostel Oasis, which I had found in the guidebook Dave so graciously lent me (it´s coming in handy, so thank you!). The dorm price went up $3 from what the book said, but that was expected.

I drank the water, so I ended up being sick yesterday morning. I slept most of the day, alternating between bed, hammock, and chair. It was not fun. I met some people from Denver and a dude that´s living in Costa Rica right now, so we all went to a sports bar for dinner. I got a kick out of the fact that I saw a Braves jersey hanging up. I´ll be posting pictures of this gorgeous city later.

Today the dude living in Costa Rica and I are going to Volcan Masaya (an active crater), and hopefully also to a crater lake to swim. We shall see. Yay for volcanoes. :)

Rio Istian

2010-06-26T05:48:00.000-07:00

I took my students who did the most work within the last two weeks to the river yesterday! They were really excited to go kayaking.

Some of them were afraid of seeing caymans, though, like little Pamela in the middle of the boat. :) I told them not to worry, and it turned out we didn't see any caymans anyway. Well, Yuliana saw one from far away, but I was a bit disappointed that none were chilling in the open again. There were several other kayakers and a fisherman in the river, so they probably got scared off. We had a good trip, and my friends Randy, Yuliana and I were in one boat. It was pretty long for the kids, though, so we stopped twice to jump in for a swim. I should have planned for more time, as I would have like to swim more.

I magically made it back just in time for my little kids, too. We read and played and practiced pronunciation of words from flash cards.

Then I got to swim with some of my kayaking kids, and then gave out prizes last night.

Monkey Island at Last!

2010-06-24T12:43:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went swimming, and was happy to find that my friend at the Hacienda, who works in the garden, was going to feed the capuchins on Monkey Island! He had previously said that he could keep me company if I wanted to do something, so I asked if I could come along. He said yes, and got me a kayak, so I dashed off to get my sandals and camera.

First he fed the two on the island nearby, which I had seen. They made scary noises while they were eating. It reminded me of videogames. Haha. I think they're spider monkeys.

Then we visited the capuchins (white faced monkeys) who are rescued pets. One of them has a baby. :) I met the owner of the island (the big male monkey), and my friend had to make sure he didn't attack me. That monkey did not want us there.

I took some video, too, but I was on a kayak (to be out of their space) and the wobbling on it is making me dizzy. There was a cute little baby that was running around on a branch and playing a bit. It was fun to watch them.

Now for a more detailed post.

2010-06-24T12:26:00.000-07:00

Last week a lightning bolt killed the internet, so I've been getting more and more homesick daily without being able to contact people at home. Thankfully it's back.

It is winter here, and apparently the flu is going around. I'm glad I knew what it was, because then I didn't worry when I had a fever for two days. It was pretty miserable, as I had some pretty inconsiderate roommates at the time (staying up late, leaving the light on while sleeping, reading til 1am with the light on... blah). Oh well. These things happen. I spent Saturday alternating between bed and hammock all day, hoping someone would visit me, but it didn't happen. Sunday morning I woke up at 5:18 (and mistakenly woke up said roommates thinking it was 7, when they had wanted to get up! Oops, it was 7 in NY time...). I was wide awake, so I decided to slow poke it to the Istian River.

I left at 6:45AM, and brought my rain jacket in case I got cold. I ended up putting it on to protect myself from the sun even though I was really warm. I saw bats, lots of gorgeous birds (yes, I forgot my camera...I may go again tomorrow!), lots of big turtles, and 4 CAYMANS!!! ! Yessssssss! I saw Caymans!!!! Whoooo! They're like mini crocodiles, about 4ft long. It was sweet. I was about 4 feet away from them, too. It was really cool. I was playing a bit, too, pulling the kayak up and over some fallen logs to try to get further up the river. Adventuring is fun. :)

I moseyed back watching cormorants and egrets and other awesome birds, and people doing laundry in the lake. On the way, I wondered why I saw a speedboat heading toward me (I was really close to shore), and saw that it was from the Hacienda. It was Byron, worried about me! He said I was taking too long (it's usually a 2-3 hour trip, and by now it was 10:30!) and they were worrying because I was alone and not feeling well. I told him not to worry, because I just go slow when I'm sick. So he headed back and I moseyed along some more.

I got back, had lunch, and got bored again, so I visited my dear friend that gave me gripe. She wasn't home yet, so I chilled talking to her parents and little siblings (one is a student of mine, one of my jokesters :) ). When she got there, though, we had a good laugh about the two girls with gripe.

I stayed for awhile chatting, and they were making a roost for the chickens. A few years ago National Geographic filmed a special on vampire bats, and it's true that they feed on chickens. They suck the blood from their legs, where they can't feel it.

They walked me back, and my little guy was calling me 'mother.' He's funny though, because he's nine, so I suggested 'sister.' They sure do feel like my siblings. :) I'm going to be sad to leave my students in just two days. :(

I'm alive!

2010-06-24T08:31:00.000-07:00

Well, the a lightning bolt killed the internet for a week, but it's fixed now!

In case you were wondering, I am alive and well. I had gripe (the flu) this weekend for a couple days (it's winter here so it's going around) so I had a fever for two days. Now I'm better! A little homesick, but the internet should help now! I'm getting on Skype and calling Gram!! I haven't heard from here in foreverrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Ok. I'm alive. Off to class!

Chemistry Class is not fun

2010-06-20T11:54:00.000-07:00

Well, I thought Chemistry class was hard in high school, but trying to learn it in another language with no textbook in a hot classroom is even harder. I finally got to the school the other day to observe class, after having missed one because the teachers had a meeting together, and another because my student had other work to do during class.
As I had already learned from the PIECES blog, the classroom had little lighting, and the only ventilation was breezes from the windows. I had a lot of trouble focusing on the teacher, because I could hear other students in other classrooms. This became a big problem when he wanted to dictate a law, and I couldn´t hear what he said. Since I´m more of a visual learner, I would have been lost in class, or copying someone else´s notes all the time. They did have a good white board, which he used to write down changes from grams to moles and molecules and such. Not everyone had a periodic table, so that was getting passed between groups, too.
Now I´m trying to put myself in their shoes. The only way I passed physics class in high school was by obeying my professor´s rule of keeping 15 pages ahead of him in the textbook every day. As much as I often did not use textbooks for some college classes, this was only when the professor gave out great handouts for class. There were no handouts in this class. It seems that it would be extremely difficult to learn when your teacher asks you to go research the topic for the next class. You will then either need to bring a bottle of trash to the Hacienda Merida to use their internet for an hour (thank goodness they have this, or I don´t know how some of the kids would get work done), be lucky enough to have the textbook for that week, or find some other way to get the information. This often encourages copying, and I think that the teacher started the class with a lecture on what a problem that is.
Next, try to think about what kind of learner you are. There are auditory learners, who do just fine with a lecture and get a lot out of it. There are visual learners, who need to see something in order to learn it, and then there are kinetic learners, who need to be doing something in order to learn a topic. Without all of the awesome videos and demonstrations my teachers and professors had in chemistry and physics, I would have been lost forever. At least without a drawing.
In conclusion, the question is, how do we get these kids some textbooks (at the very least), and then, how can the teaching methods be improved to make classes like chemistry more digestible? I don´t even think the idea of chemistry lab can be in their mind right now, as chemicals are expensive.

Charco Verde

2010-06-15T10:46:00.000-07:00

Some of my companions on the sailboat. Volcan Concepcion is in the background.

Volcan Maderas.... As I took this I felt like I was taking a picture of an island I can call mine in a home kind of sense. :)

My youngest students... A group of 8-14 students who 5,6, and 7 year olds. We are writing numbers.

On Saturday I had class until noon, and some other tourists here at the Hacienda wanted to go to Charco Verde, a nearby lagoon. It was a great trip out on the Hacienda Merida's sailboat. :) We didn't sail on the way out, but we sailed in rain on the way back.

Charco Verde is a small green lagoon, and we walked around the biological reserve there. We saw lots of lizards, iguanas, and butterflies. We swam at a gorgeous beach with dark sand because of the volcanic rock. I had a great time. Surprisingly enough I haven't been swimming too much (I prefer not to swim alone), but this was awesome.

On the way back on the sailboat we got caught in a rain storm, so we got drenched, lol. It stopped before we got back, though. My student, Eduardo had waited for me for a couple hours (he didn't realize that we have no class Saturday afternoons), so he and I had dinner, then I went walking with a couple of other students. It's nice to have a day off once in awhile. :)

We Hiked the Volcano!!!

2010-06-15T06:41:00.000-07:00

Well, Sunday I was finally able to hike up Volcan Maderas, and it was AWESOME!

I actually had some of my students who said that I shouldn't, because it's hard! Ha. I wanted to go, and someone saying it's hard is certainly not going to stop me, so Martin from Canada, Roberto the guide, and Eduardo my student went up yesterday. We left at 7:15, and made it to the top around noon.

On the way up, I was thinking about how hard it was, and considering stopping before the top, because I needed to stop often to stop my heart from trying to jump out of my chest. That said, we had to rest a lot for me to rest; I have spent a lot of time hammocking and teaching, with little time exercising.

We go some gorgeous views from the volcano on the way up, and the plants are awesome. I love that I traveled with a biology professor just before this, because then I was paying attention to the change in type of forest on the way up. There are a lot more epiphytes as you move upward in altitude, and the forest gets more moist and cool.

Roberto said that we weren't allowed to hike upward after noon, so I really pushed myself and we made it up just before noon. It was a challenge, but a good one because I was grabbing all kinds of awesome roots and trees and rocks to get myself up the volcano.

Eduardo's picture of a snail we saw near the bottom.

Eduardo holding a mountain crab. We saw three of these guys on the way down. It was pretty sweet, because he wanted to pick all of them up and hold them after I show him how not to get pinched. :)

Sweet flower growing on a tree.

View from about halfway up. This was one of my first views of the other side of the island.

I couldn't help but take pictures of all the awesome things growing on the trees.

Another view of the island.

This tree had to be my favorite. If I can find a way to make some kind of art that includes this, I will. We shall see, though.

View of the lagoon from the top. It was pretty misty when we were up there, so we had to be patient (like Poas! :) ) and wait for the clouds to clear.

Eduardo and Martin at the top!

Another view of the middle of the island. There's a river there that I plan on kayaking soon.

More awesome trees.

Here's another search and find. Our guide, Roberto, is in this picture. So is the trail. :)

Pez Diablo

2010-06-10T10:54:00.001-07:00

Well, on Sunday I went to watch the sunset from the dock, and it was GORGEOUS!!

There was a man fishing on the dock, and I asked him how many fish he had caught. He said eight, and went back to fishing. A few minutes later, he caught the fish you see below. He said that it was ugly, and he was going to kill it because it was new. In his two years of fishing, he had never seen this fish. When he wasn't looking, I picked it up and brought it to the tour guides by the comedor. They confirmed that it was called 'pez diablo' or 'devil fish,' (Hypostomus panamensis, family Loricariidae). I looked it up online, and it is not an introduced fish, but one that migrated here from southern countries such as Costa Rica and Panama. It survives better than many other fish in low-oxygen environments, and is a warning sign of a process called eutrophication in lakes. This fish is a problem for everyone that uses the lake, because it can displace other fish and will multiply more rapidly without a top predator, according to these articles (pop them into Google translator if you don't know Spanish, it does a decent job):
http://www.elnuevodiario.com.ni/especiales/44082

http://www.lavozdelsandinismo.com/nicaragua/2009-03-25/pez-diablo-causa-alarma-en-nicaragua/

http://www.universalocean.es/el-pez-diablo-amenaza-el-ecosistema-del-lago-cocibolca-en-nicaragua/

Now I want to take the Clarkson Alumni class on water ecology, so I can learn more about water quality issues.

Weekend Exploring

2010-06-06T15:34:00.001-07:00

Gorgeous butterfly sitting on the intake pipe for the hydro generation station powered by the falls.
View from a little ways off... The pictures can never do it justice. It's so high!!!

Me swimming in the waist-deep water at the bottom of the falls. It was SO refreshing!! :)
Can you find the iguana in this picture??

Well, I had yesterday afternoon and today off, so I looked at snowmobile stuff and then went adventuring. It's nice to rest a bit.

Yesterday I swam in the morning, then had class until noon. After playing looking at stuff on Greenland with the snowmobile and such, my friend Noldan was about to leave after having been on a computer here. He took me on a bit of a tour of Merida, and that was my little walk for the day. I was going to go to the waterfall, but I got out of class too late/ vegged around too much after class. It was cool. It was funny, though, because they have a saying here that says if you eat the red fish (the native red fish here), you will never leave. We walked around for a bit, then we went to his house and I met Mom, Dad, his 5 month old baby sister, a younger sister Maria Jose, and saw my two other students Yasir Antonio and Maria Eugenia.

I was telling the parents what awesome students they have given me for class. :) Maria Eugenia said she may want to be a doctor, so I said 'sweet, let's give you homework, then..." LOL. They gave me mangoes and cookies, and I was already full from before, but I ate the cookies because they would be hard to carry and they were yummy. :) I brought the mangoes back with me to eat later. We chatted for awhile, and I was trying to figure out what to teach to the advanced students like Noldan next.

Haha, then they asked me if I wanted to try fish soup. I was still really really full, but I wanted to see what it tasted like because they make it often on the island, and I hadn't tried it yet. I asked for a tiiiiny bit un poquito, but they still gave me a decent amount. They also gave me a whole red fish! As full as I was, it was so good I couldn't do anything but eat an entire half of it, and a decent amount of the yummy fish soup. On both the way there and the way back we were practicing new words. It was sweet.

This morning I went with a couple of people from near San Francisco, CA to the waterfalls. We hired a guide, Roberto, to take us there. We had a great time learning English and Spanish words. He said he may come to my class this week, too. I learned the word for hollow, which is hueco, for when the matapalos (strangler fig trees) have killed their host trees. We had a lovely yet tiring hike, and by the time we got to the waterfall I was REALLY happy to just go jump in the 2-3 feet of water under the falls. They're reeeaaalllyy high! I had a good time. I've been finding a lot of people to hang out with at the Hacienda, which is cool. There are lots of travelers from all kinds of places. I went kayaking with a Canadian dude the other day to the smaller of the Monkey Islands, too.

Mini Update: ESL Websites

2010-06-04T07:37:00.000-07:00

Well, today's plan is to talk about the word like. We can talk about all the different things we like, and what everyone else likes. This way once I get more students (or if I have the same large amount I had the other day!) we can play the name game where each student says something like "My name is Jeannie and I like cats. This is Julia and she likes dogs." The game grows to add more people, which makes repetition of the I like phrase, the he/she likes phrase, and best of all, helps me learn their names!!!! :)

I have class in just a few minutes (it's 20 minutes to 9 here), so this will update be fairly short.

Patty sent me a good website from about.com about ESL, and I'll giving the older students quizzes from it. Thank you! Darwin said he took the one I gave him yesterday about prepositions (on, at, in, etc) and only got one wrong, so that's good.

Place Prepositions

http://esl.about.com/library/beginner/bl_bgprepplace.htm

http://esl.about.com/od/beginningenglish/u/start.htm#s8

listening help and other quizzes

http://esl.about.com/od/beginningenglish/u/start.htm#s10

My absolute favorite for most kids, because everyone can always learn some vocab (and be entertained!!) so far has to be:

www.englishflashgames.blogspot.com

I also just found another site with some lesson plans:
http://www.eslflow.com/speakingandcommunicativeicebreakeractivities.html

We'll see how it looks.

Class time!

Edit: I'll be adding more websites here as I find them.

Memory with animals:
http://www.2flashgames.com/play/f-629.htm

Touch Typing:
http://www.2flashgames.com/play/f-1029.htm

General Flash Games for Learning English Site:
http://www.2flashgames.com/learning_english_games.htm

Young Age Groups expectations:
http://members.tripod.com/~patricia_f/prek.html

Three Classes - And Some Challenges

2010-06-01T10:47:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm seeing that I need some more exercises for the classes to do, because I need a little more structure in these lessons.

There are a lot of motivated students here, and yesterday we worked on some verbs, reading, and pronunciation.

I really need help with teaching some of the girls pronunciation, because it's hard having two sets of rules for the same letters.

I tried to ask Alberto and Johnson to read "Top Secret" and tell me about the prologue. It was easy for Alberto to draw a picture based on the prologue, and Johnson needed help with narrator vs. narrator's, but otherwise did well.

I want to try to work on writing basic sentences and answering questions, I think.

I also need to start documenting each child, so I can leave something for new teachers that come. One of my biggest challenges will be to determine each student's level of study and teach them accordingly.

Alright, off to go look at TOEFL prep websites! It's expensive to send poor kids to take tests, so I need to work on getting them as prepared as possible for when they do go take the tests.

My First Class Went Fairly Well! :)

2010-05-31T12:42:00.000-07:00

Well, I've been here for almost three whole days now, and I love it!

My stomach is allowing me to finally happily eat, and I just had a gorgeous plate of salad and green beans. :) The green beans are from the garden, so I'm glad I ate some.

This morning I went for an hour kayak ride, and saw some magpie jays and other birds I've seen on my travels. There were also several men fishing, and a few kids swimming.

After that, I had some breakfast, and we had our first class at 9am. It went on longer than expected, all the way until about noon. I started to teach them Black Socks, and we went over some verbs, and read The Rainbow Fish, and then went over some words around the Hacienda.

I need to prep for my next class, so I'll update again later!

New Friends, New Places

2010-05-30T07:30:00.000-07:00

Well, in addition to having several gorgeous rooms for conventional guests, there are dorms here for budget travelers. Staying in them I have already and will be meeting many, many people from all over the world.

Dinah and I met Susie, a German who is passing through here on her travels. We went for a walk to look for someone selling bananas yesterday. Haha, I learned weeks ago that they are 'los bananos.' I can see now that Alvaro was right when there would be people for me to explore with here. :)

Well, I can at least start to tell you a bit about Haciena Merida. It once produced coffee, and there are train tracks and a few ruins of the building where they proccessed the coffee that remain. I'll have to be exploring those at some point, because I should be able to recognize some of the components now. :)

I can rent a kayak for the length of my stay for $15, and as soon as my stomach settles I'm going to head out in one. :) I will not forget after this that you do not eat things where people touch your food with their hands, as sanitation is not the best here. Hopefully I'll be working on that with the kids here. I got some ideas for children's books this morning, and perhaps we can come up with some good ones to sell as fundraisers or something.

It seems that I'll pretty much have to work with whatever I can grab from the internet, and whatever is already here or can be purchased nearby, as shipping things that have any value can be difficult with customs.

As for the food here, it is AWESOME! I had some porridge for a late breakfast yesterday, and it was whole grain oatmeal with granola, cinnamon, and some other yummy things. There is also a dinner buffet most nights, and I had lots of vegetables (with many of them from the garden here!) and rice and beans, and a little bit of pork that they purchase nearby. This morning I had a gorgeous vegetarian omelette, some home-made brown bread, and some avocado and tomato. They grow green beans, passion fruit, coconuts, eggplants, lettuce, basil, corn, tomatoes, 'lemon oranges,' mint (anyone have any good recipes for mint? They have lots here!), bananas, and soon some fruit and cashews. They take food scraps and compost them for the garden, too. Dinah, Susie, and I learned how to make tortillas yesterday! They're ground cornmeal and water, and then we learned how to make them into their circular flat shape. Haha, I made a fairly circular one, but then took a few tries to learn how to place them on the stove to cook! Yay, intertia... it works much better than trying to drop it with your fingers. Instead you place two flat hands, palms up, under the tortilla then pull your hands apart to drop the tortilla on the stove.

We also met Fiona the donkey, and learned about how they are trying to reduce the amount of garbage on the island and reduce water usage at the hotel.

Hmm, we're talking to Alvaro right now, about how there is an excess of avocadoes and mangoes right now. So I'm going to go look up ideas for perhaps freezing guacamole or avocado, and maybe some mango preserves for yummy souveneirs. If anyone has ideas, please let me know!

Finally Made it to Hacienda Merida!

2010-05-29T11:55:00.000-07:00

My trip yesterday was reeaaallyyy loooooonnnnngggggg. I got up at 2:30AM at a hotel that Luis, our driver, found near San Jose. The owner set me up a taxi to the station, and I bought a ticket to the border (la frontera) from the first place that opened, as the other bus might not have had room, and left later. I was traveling by myself at first, but ended up meeting an Australian, Mike, who was visiting Nicaragua as a break from teaching English in Costa Rica. We figured out how to get through the long line to depart from Costa Rica (it's Mother's Day here tomorrow, so everyone was coming here to visit Mom!), went down the road to where someone checked our bags, another person checked our passports, we went to Nicaraguan customs, and then we changed some money, found a bathroom, and got something to eat. We went outside what looked like a gate to get to the bus to Rivas, and another person checked our passports and we paid an entry fee to Nicaragua. The bus was pretty cool, as there were people selling food, and I met a Nicaraguan Chemistry teacher who was practicing her English with me. Hopefully she'll check out Dr. Jim's Chemistry Magic Show on Youtube and her students can learn some more chemistry from that. :)

After the bus ride to Rivas, Mike headed to San Juan del Sur, and I got a taxi from Rivas to San Jorge, where the ferries to the island leave from. I asked the guy for his papers, and told him why I was so paranoid (some international girls from Camp Ma-He-Tu were once trapped in a taxi for a little bit while the driver saw they had more money and wanted it), and why I agreed on a price and held that much money in hand before getting in the taxi. He was cool, though; he's 24 and lives nearby, and apparently likes light-skinned, green or blue-eyed girls... I'm getting used to people flirting a lot in Central America.

I found out where the ferries leave from, and got on the boat, waiting for a little bit before we left. Someone on the boad had a baby parrot, and I wanted to say something about how they're so often stolen from the wild, and didn't know how best to start a conversation. :sigh: The reason why many gorgeous birds are disappearing is because a combination of habitat destruction and people stealing babies right out of their nests for the illegal pet trade. RAWR!!! There are signs up here about not buying birds from people, but I'd like to figure out what kind of educational program might help.

Once we got across the lake on the boat (Oh my gosh, the view of both volcanoes covered in clouds was AWESOME!!), I met another traveler, Dina, from Norway! She was going to Hacienda Merida, too, so we both took the public bus (which was about 50 cents) across the island. I had to stand for most of the ride, and it was REEAALLLY long and crowded, though, so I was beat by the time we arrived.

I met Alvaro, and got my dorm key and showered and went to bed. Not before petting one of the dogs, though, and being informed that they carry over 60 diseases to humans here.... Sooo I won't be petting the dogs anymore :(

Well, I start classes on Monday, so it's time to pull together my plans for the first lesson!

El Fin De La Clase (The end of class)

2010-05-27T17:07:00.000-07:00

He cumplido el viaje porcion de mi clase, y mañana yo voy a ir a Nicaragua. He conocido a muchas personas amables e interesantes. Me gusta el pais de Costa Rica. (Disculpe, yo no tengo los acentos en esta computadora). Solo necesito escribir un ensayo, y cumplira toda la clase.

Yo quiero mencionar algunas personas y cosas buenas y interesantes. En Heredia, una parte de la ciudad cerca del capital, San Jose, yo conoci a mucha gente muy amable. Habia el anciano quien tiene una artesania cerca del Hotel America, quien nos regalo muchas cositas, y abrazos como un abuelo. Hay Roberto y Oliver, quien me regalaron algo para convertir de la tarjeta en mi camera a USB para ayudarme poner fotos en este sitio: !muchisimas gracias a Oliver y Roberto! Pueden ver que lo me sirve bien.

Luis, tu eres lo mejor conductor que yo he visto en toda mi vida. Ni aun puedes conducir bien y evitar los perros y otros animales (y otros automoviles), tu conoces tu pais y el gente bien. Muchisimas gracias por todo, y te voy a recomendar a todos mis amigos quien quieren visitar a Costa Rica.

Mucho Gusto!

Y claro, la gente de Costa Rica. Nadie podria decirme que importante a la gente de Costa Rica es el ambiente. Parece que hay mas programas aqui para reciclar, compostar, y ayudar a la planeta que yo podria imaginar. Yo espero que yo y los otros estudiantes en la clase pueden ayudar a los E. E. U. U. y todos los otros paises posible ver como hacer negocios que pueden funcionar bien y cuidar el ambiente.

Mañana yo voy a Nicaragua para enseñar ingles a niños en la isla de Ometepe. Espero que yo puedo compartir con ellos como cuidar el ambiente como los Ticos.

Se puede utilizar el traductor de Google para ver muchos de mis puestos en español:

http://translate.google.co.cr/#enes

Check out Google Translator if you´d like to see how well it translated most of the following for you! :)

I've done the trip portion of my class, and tomorrow I'm going to Nicaragua. I have met many kind and interesting people. I like the country of Costa Rica. (Sorry, I have no accents on this computer). I just need to write an essay, and then I will be done with the class.

I want to mention some great people and things I found interesting. In Heredia, a part of the city near the capital, San Jose, I met many nice people. There was the old man who has a craft shop )known here as an artesania) near the Hotel America, who gave us many little gifts, and hugs as a grandfather would. There are Robert and Oliver, who gave me something to convert the (SD)card from my camera to USB to help me put photos on this site: Many thanks to Oliver and Roberto! I hope they can see that it serves me well.

Luis, you're the best driver I've seen in my entire life. Not only you can drive well and avoid dogs and other animals (and other cars), you know your country and people well (He didn´t just drive, he recommended some REALLY great places and things to do, and helped us get some discounts. :) He also helped me find this hotel!). Thank you so much for everything, and I will recommend you to all my friends who want to visit Costa Rica.

And of course, the people of Costa Rica. Nobody could tell me how important the environment is to the people of Costa Rica. It seems that here there are more programs for recycling, composting, and to help the planet that I could imagine. I hope that I and other students in the class may help U.S. and all other countries we can see how to have businesses that can work well and look after the environment.

Tomorrow I am going to Nicaragua to teach English to children on the island of Ometepe. I hope I can share with them how to care for the environment as the Ticos do.

Cahuita

2010-05-27T17:00:00.000-07:00

Well, you´ll notice from now on that I won´t be updating things chronologically. If you´re interested, my trip went: Heredia and Volcan Poas (near San Jose), Santa Rosa (Guanacaste Province), Monteverde, Sarapiqui, Cahuita (Caribbean side), and then back to the capital, San Jose.

We just spent a few days on the gorgeous beaches of Cahuita, a small Afro-Caribbean town on the east coast of Costa Rica.

The first day we wandered the town a bit, and Luis said the National Park´s beach wasn´t far at all, so despite the rain we went there. They were closed, as it´s only patrolled from 6am to 5pm daily, so we walked back through the town.

Unsure of where to go next, we were looking around, and were stopped by an interesting yet polite woman who told us that one way was the white sand beach (the national park), and the other way was the black sand beach. Then she politely asked for some money to eat, and I embarrassedly gave her some coins. Another man asked us if we wanted avocados, and ended up cursing us by the end of the night, because we were all afraid of buying stolen avocados!

Despite a shaky start, we had a great time in this cool little town. That same night we had a great dinner of pizza and fish in cocorico (coconut, yet spicy!) sauce, and a great dessert of crepes with nutella, and someone ordered coconut ice cream, which was AWESOME! We went back to the hotel, El Arrecife (The Reef, in English), and hung out in the hammocks. A mama cat came by, and when I picked her up, I asked her if I could see her kittens. She didn´t show me til the next morning, when I saw all of profe´s children petting them! I was so excited! I´ll add pictures of the little cuties later. :)

I was up early, and the whole class went to the beach, and paid the voluntary, but suggested admission to the park. We got a little talk about this set-up, which I really like. Although the park was once owned by people that lived in it, it was set up so that the fees for the park would only go to improving it, and more importantly, for improving the community surrounding the park. This acts as a bit of compensation for those who no longer own that land. During the talk, we learned that the voluntary fee has been working well, as the locals, who should not have to pay as much, will pay a few hundred colones or so, and visitors are often generous enough to pay more than the suggested donation. They have used the money in the past to make schools and centers for the elderly, and the park is patrolled and well-kept, with showers and changing rooms. They also have some information about the area and wildlife you can see in the park. :)

We all had a great time playing in the water, as the waves weren´t too rough, and there were plenty of sand dollars to pick up and inspect. After we felt we had enough sun, we could hide under the shade of the palm trees and look for howler monkeys, lizards, coconuts, crabs, and lots of leaf cutter ants. Leif and I went back in the afternoon (Oh man, after the sun was a little less intense!) to explore the rest of the trail, and found that it went all the way to where a stream came out, and we continued down the rest of the gorgeous beach.

That evening I had chicken in the cocorico sauce this time, and it was SO good!!! While we were eating, I think we were watching the owner of the restaurant help his daughter set up a stand to sell empanadas to make some money. They speak a mix of English, a native languag, and Spanish, and he spoke to us in English, mostly. As he was preparing he said to us, Well, we all need to live. That seems to be the way of life in this area. You need to make sure you do something to make money to live.

The next day, we went to the black sand beach near Limon. We had a great time, as Profe (if you haven´t figured it out by now, that´s short for professor) found us a guy to take us out on the reef snorkeling. Jane, Leif and I went with him, and he wanted $5 each for a guided tour. I paid another $6 for renting a snorkel, mask, and flippers nearby, and we walked out to where we swam to the reef. It was great, because we saw a few different kinds of coral, lots of gorgeous fish, he caught a few lobsters to show us and we saw even more, and I even swam under a tunnel in the reef. He didn´t catch any lobster that he could sell, though, as they´re regulated in Costa Rica and must be a certain size. He was talking about what a shame it is that they overfished them in Panama, and also about how everyone needs to work together to keep the beach clean. He seemed like a really cool guy.

That night we had dinner at the hotel, which Profe set up for us, complete with Caribbean rice and beans, yummy chicken, and a calypso band! We had a great time eating, dancing, and hanging out on our last night together on the trip.

The next morning a couple of us got up bright and early for another beach walk, and then played with the cats. I was happy that George bought some cat food, because mama cat was looking pretty thin!

We went to a pineapple plantation after leaving Cahuita, and it´s a farm called Ojo de Agua. They sell pineapples to Del Monte, so they´re often the ones we eat up in Potsdam! We learned that pineapples are related to some of the epiphytes we found on the trees in the forest, and that they grow from the ground! I had already known that, but it was pretty darn cool to see a whole plantation. We also saw how they wash and pack them, and then how they core and cut them up to be dried. The guides told us that they are required to make sure that none of their pesticides go into the river, so they have a system set up so that the water for the pineapples seeps into the ground, so it is filtered there before it gets to the river. We also tasted the best pinapples we´ve ever eaten! Nom nom. :)

Monteverde

2010-05-21T19:26:00.000-07:00

After traveling to Monteverde, we took a quick romp up the hill from our hotel, El Viandante, to a HUGE climbing tree. Strangler fig trees are just like climbing a ladder, and this one went over two stories up.

We climbed up inside the tree, which was hollow in the middle, and had a lot of interconnected branches. It was really cool. I only went about 12 feet up, as I get scared of heights sometimes. Leif went up as far as he would fit, though, where the tree started to curve and go a little more horizontal than vertical. It was a lot of fun, although you can see from the picture, I'm in hikers, which are not built for climbing.
Haha, the whole way up, I was wishing Dad had come with us, because he would love this tree. He told me about how he used to climb up a water tower, and this we certainly not as high, but definitely as cool.

Further up the mountains, epiphytes grow on trees like this, and a whole new ecosystem can start on one of these. We saw some covered in other plants, and they have to be great places for animals to go.

After that, we bought a watermelon, some juice, and an avocado for dinner. Nom nom. Another night we bought queso tipico (Costa Rica's most common cheese at meals) and a restaurant made us some homemade tortillas! We had breakfast for dinner. :) Delicious.

Monteverde Cloud Forest

2010-05-21T18:51:00.000-07:00

Well, I spent the last few days catching up on our travels in Santa Rosa, which is in the Guanacaste Region of Costa Rica. Now I'll have to catch up on Monteverde. A few days ago we got on the bus again to travel to the Monteverde Cloud Forest. Wow, the ride up the mountains was gorgeous.

For a little background on the area, the Monteverde Cloud Forest has several reserve areas on mountaintops, and these were either made by the Quakers (more about them in the next post) to preserve watershed, and more recently with money collected by children in the US and Europe. Monteverde's mountaintops are made up of tropical moist forest, which means there are a lot of tall trees, and tons of epiphytes (plants that grow on trees) , and clouds surrounding the mountaintops much of the time. It is a gorgeous place, with many brightly colored flowers, insects, and birds.
This first video is in a lower range of the Children's forest, and although it is not the best, you can hear something that sounds a bit like a squeaky door hinge. That is a glass bird call. We heard a LOT of these sounds throughout the cloud forest.

We saw toucanettes, and many other birds, and were even able to hear a quetzal call.

The fern trees in the forest are huge, and a great sight to see.

There are huge strangler fig trees that grow around other trees (yes, and kill them), but then they leave a hollowed out network of branches that intertwine, making climbing them easy. I got to see a heliconia plant, which has really pretty flowers that hummingbirds pollinate.

I think my favorite part, other than the awesomness of the variety of plants in the forest, was seeing at least four different kinds of hummingbirds. The best part about hummingbirds is that their feathers are iridescent, which means that they shimmer and have different colors depending on how light hits them. The Children's Eternal Forest Reserve has an area where hummingbirds flock to eat, and you can see many of them interacting with each other. I have never seen this, and it was quite a show.

Here is a picture of a strangler fig tree covered in epiphytes.

Heliconia flowers.

Strangler fig roots.

Picture of the group in the forest. The trees are TALLLLLL!!!!

This butterfly's wings are see-through!

When a big tree falls, it will take down several others with it, creating a clearing like this, which is a chance for new trees to spring up.

Agricultural Farm Visit

2010-05-19T06:59:00.000-07:00

In Guanacaste, we visited an educational farm that is run by an agricultural school. If you go to this school, you can study to be an agricultural engineer, learning to produce food in a more environmentally, socially, and economically friendly way.
I think the most important thing that I learned, as a consumer, is that most sugar takes a big toll on the environment and the people that harvest it. The cheapest sugar you buy has the biggest social and environmental effect, and we learned why during this visit.
In order to harvest sugarcane, the product you see the gentleman (our guide at the farm) holding, many harvesters will burn the field to make the sugarcane easier to harvest. This reduces the amount of effort and also the amount of waste that the harvesters have to worry about. The part that he is holding is the only part of the plant that is used. There are many leaves that are waste. Also, harvesting sugarcane from a freshly burned field can be difficult and dangerous, as sometimes the canes of sugar are still hot, and the harvesters will get covered in the soot from the burnt leaves.
So the people who work here are experimenting with different kinds of sugarcane plants, and also different methods of harvesting it to try to reduce the social and environmental impacts of harvesting sugarcane.

The next thing to note about sugar, is that although white sugar is the sweetest, it takes the most processing, and therefore has the greatest environmental impact. Also, raw sugar, or brown sugar (which both take less processing) will still have the molasses, which gives a nice flavor. :)
We also learned about harvesting mangoes, and while we were in the fields, I felt like I was in an apple orchard. We were allowed to pick mangoes right off the trees and eat them, and man were they delicious!!! :) Apparently there is a process that involves heating them before they are exported to kill fruit flies, and it changes the taste of the fruit.

Mangoes apparently bloom whenever they feel like it, and the managers will apply certain chemicals to try to convince the trees to flower, so they will produce fruit at the time when it will be most economical to harvest them.

Finally, we looked at some rice fields. Rice needs to be floated in order to grow, so it needs a lot of water to produce. In addition, there is a lot of nutritious (fertilized) waste water after growing rice, which is often flowed through lagoons filled with another crop that can be sold for market before the water is released into local waterways. I think this may be where my paper grows. I asked about it, and right now they grow lettuce and another crop, because they can sell it. If they were able to sell it, algae would be a viable option. This is where algae biodiesel fits in. If we get a marked for the biodiesel, they can grow it and make some money off that, too.

I also learned about an alternative to composting, one that involves some kind of fungus or microorganisms to break down food and plant materials. It sounded pretty cool.

The Squirrels of Costa Rica

2010-05-19T06:11:00.000-07:00

Well, if any of you know me at all, you know that I find squirrels really amusing. That being said, I've been able to photograph two that look distinct from each other so far.
The first I found in the city of Heredia, in the park near our hotel, the Hotel America. There is a beautiful church there, with a garden right next to it, and I had to jump up and run over to this little guy when I saw him.
The picture doesn't quite do him justice, but he's thin and gray with a little reddish near his tummy.

The next squirrel we saw was at Volcan Poas. He was incredibly friendly, looking for food from all of us. He seemed either a bit chubbier or a bit fluffier, I'm not sure which. :) He was right at the overlook for the volcano, where I took the picture of the plumes of vapors.
This second picture here is of Cory, one of the guys on the trip, trying to get the squirrel to come visit him. :)

The Beautiful Tropical Dry Forest in Guanacaste

2010-05-18T15:44:00.000-07:00

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Oh, my goodness, there are so many animals in the tropical dry forest! I'd only heard about rain forests, but the dry forest has so many animals! I'm going to post lots of pictures here. :)

We went on a number of day and night hikes, and both kinds were awesome. I didn't take any pictures at night, because it wouldn't do the animals justice, but we saw lots of frogs and toads on the roads into the park, and also a cool bird that might be called a whippoorwill. It flies around at night, landing on the ground, and has big brown eyes. It's a brown bird, and flies up and then back down in short bursts, and has been known to trick people into going into the forest. We also saw the largest toad in the world, the marine toad, and I got to feel a tree frog's feet. :) We also saw two kinds of scorpions, one being a whip scorpion.

Apparently my professor, Tom Langen, is the world's expert on the magpie jay, which we learned has interesting social habits. A group of females will all help raise the young of one lead female. They're gorgeous birds, and we first saw one flying back and forth across the road as we entered the park.

During the day time, we were about to see agoutis, which are the small brown mammals you can see in the picture. They look about the size of a house cat, and run around eating. We saw a bird that reminded us of a turkey, but was black with a red neck. We saw several big iguanas, and a bunch of little lizards. We also caught a gecko! :)

There are so many birds! We also saw two snakes, one venemous that someone had killed, and another that looked black and white and reminded me of checkerboards.

We saw a number of deer in the park, and also, coaties!!! :) (Pronounced co-aa-teee, here they call them pisote. :) ) I saw them in Iguazu, Argentina last year, and they were scavengers there, but not here. :) We also got to see two kinds of monkeys!!!! Above I posted a picture of a white faced monkey, and we also got to see howler monkeys. :) With that white-faced monkey, that's another animal from my ceramic piece! Whoo! :)

2010-05-14T07:34:00.000-07:00

I was on my first volcano!!!
It was SO awesome, because when we were going up the mountain, it was really misty because it´s a cloud forest, I think. When we got up there, though, we were worried because it was so cloudy we couldn´t see the crater of the volcano!!!
Hehe, it was funny, though. There was a guy there, and I asked him in Spanish if he worked there, and he said yes, so I told him ¨The clouds are going to part and we´re going to see everything.¨ He just smiled and maybe laughed a little, and I continued looking around.

I kept asking for it, and gracias a Dios, the clouds blew away! We got to see the whole crater, complete with acid lake and plumes of vapor or smoke coming out of the lake!!! :)

I think from now on I´ll post pictures after text. I think it´ll be easier. We shall see.
At the coffee tour, there was a butterfly tent!!! I got to see the big blue butterfly that´s on my ceramic piece. :) If you are unaware, I´ve wanted to go to Costa Rica for years. Now I´m looking for as many of the animals on the ceramic piece I made when I couldn´t go as I can.

We had a great drive around the mountains, and there are not as many rocks in them as in New York. There is a major problem with erosion on all the mountain roads here. They also have a lot of earth quakes, which contributes to the destruction of the roads.

Exploring Heredia

2010-05-12T07:01:00.000-07:00

Good morning, we have pictures!

Yesterday was our first full day here in Heredia, Costa Rica, which is a city in between two sets of mountains.

We wandered a bit in the morning, changing money at the bank (the exchange rate is about 535 colones for every $1), and exploring nearby shops and an indoor market. We found a great artesan shop, with all kinds of wooden carvings, furniture, and plates. As you'll see in the following picture, Zem bought a water coconut, and several of us tried it, and it was sweet and delicious.

We also bought some mangoes and passion fruit. Leif and I ended up at a pastry shop, where we tried something called 'oreja' which is Spanish for 'ear.' By the size of it, the whole name should have been elephant ear, because it was a large crispy piece of sugary dough that appeared fried. After that we found another market, which had little shops that served food inside. This is what we had (fajitas de pollo, casado), which was chicken cooked with onions and bell peppers, chayote (that green chopped squash), rice, beans, pasta salad, and plantanos maduros (those yummy ripe, sweet fried plantains again! :) )

Well, sorry about the weird order of the pictures. The top picture is of passion fruit, which I was surprised to find had a squishy middle that reminded me of pomegranate, because you suck on the seeds to get the fruit you eat off them. I'm not actually all that fond of it, as it's such a messy process. :) I'll stick to drinking the juice.

The sun is shining in Costa Rica!

2010-05-11T07:45:00.000-07:00

Greetings from Central America! We have arrived in Costa Rica. :)

We arrived late last night, and will be going exploring shortly. :)

I had papaya, watermelon, gallo pinto (fried rice and beans) for breakfast, and fried plaintains ´maduros´ which are ripe and sweet. Nom nom.

I´ll update more later, hopefully after I buy an SD card reader so I can upload pictures!

[As you can see, I have uploaded pictures of breakfast! I also added a picture of the view from the hotel in the morning]

About Ometepe Bilingual School

2010-04-24T10:04:00.001-07:00

In less than three weeks, I'll be leaving for Central America! I'm working to finish all my homework and studying before I graduate from Clarkson University, and then two days after graduation, it'll be time to get on the plane!

I've realized I haven't given the website for the Ometepe Bilingual School! Here it is:

http://www.hmerida.com/en/kids.htm

During the month of June I will be teaching 40-50 students between the ages of 5 and 18 (although I hear there is a 2-year-old student at the school now!). I will need to come up with some good lesson plans that can engage all of the students, no matter what their level of English.

If you are interested in providing me a with a lesson plan you would like me to teach, please let me know!

Some ideas I already have are songs from Camp Ma-He-Tu, games, and hopefully some lessons from professors here at Clarkson. I hope to give each child a little bit of what I have learned throughout my education, so they can see how much fun learning can be!

Visas, Preparation, and PIECES

2010-03-30T13:19:00.000-07:00

I'm getting more and more excited about teaching in Nicaragua. I looked up whether I would need a visa today, and it seems that for 90 days or less is is unnecessary. :) This is good, because I didn't want to have to send my passport anywhere. Ah, the laziness of the busy college student. I looked at http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_985.html and it looks like I'll just have to purchase a tourist card when I get there.

I'm trying to look around for lesson plans, suggestions, and supplies to make a fun teaching atmosphere. One of the resources I was given by the Ometepe Bilingual School director is the PIECES blog at: http://www.thepieces.org/pieces-blog/
It is a blog posted by students from Switzerland who traveled to Nicaragua in February to teach, and I have been using it to get an idea of what works well in teaching the students, and what I should focus on as I prepare. According to the blog, there is at least one student interested in engineering, so hopefully I can come up with some good lesson plans that show how much fun engineering can be. :)

A staff member at Clarkson, David Bowen, has lent me a book on traveling in Nicaragua, and has offered some travel tips. He's traveled there in the past, and by our conversations I'm getting excited about meeting the people that live on the island.

Hopefully I'll have a decent amount of time to devote to preparing to teach, as I've been trying to both keep up with school work and prepare our electric snowmobile for its trip to Greenland. The semester is almost over, and that means I'm that much closer to Costa Rica and Nicaragua!

2010-02-12T23:27:00.000-08:00

Below you will find an article that was sent to me by Alvaro Molina, who runs the bilingual program on Ometepe Island.

Summer Camp for low income students
Young people improve their English in Granada
* 81 participants from around the country come for a week of reading, listening and learning a second language
* Six volunteer teachers from the U.S. and four teachers from Nicaragua
* U.S. Embassy, Peace Corps and American Nicaraguan Cultural Center promotes the studies

Some 20 young people laugh and shout English words to the teacher who is in the middle of the class. They're playing: they have to find out about a famous person. Is it female? – ‘’No’’says the teacher. Is it an actor? "No" he replies. Is it a singer? "Yes. Is it black? "It was black," replies the teacher. It's Michael Jackson! Shouts a student. "Right."

Thus, 81 young people improve their English in summer camp at Tepeyac, on the outskirts of Granada. Children from 12 to 18 years come from all over Nicaragua to participate. They met the necessary requirements to enter the "Summer Camp Intensive English", held for the second time in Nicaragua. It is aimed at outstanding students from secondary schools, public schools, and from families with low income.

Among them was Darwin Antonio Barrios, from Merida, Ometepe. The boy is 15. For two years he worked in a hotel to help his parents. The hotel owner found the website of the United States Embassy, which made the announcement about this program. Once aware of the program, Darwin Antonio Barrios then applied. There was a total of 160 youths who applied. Some were aware of the program by radio or television ads.

For the Communities:
Only half of the candidates were lucky enough to be able to participate and speak English. One advantage is that Darwin knew enough English because he learned with the tourists at the hotel. Darwin says that the English he learned in public school would not have let him pass the phone interview program.

"The 40 percent of the youth come out for the first time in his community," says Lizzet Gonzalez, Logistics Coordinator at the U.S. Embassy. And here they meet and practice their English: in different rooms of the retreats in El Tepeyac. They get up at six in the morning and then have intensive courses in small groups. Then attend classes in American culture, going on outings, doing assignments in the afternoon, and to finish the day they watch a film in English. Their day ends at 9:30pm.

The participants appreciate the intensive program. "Although the days are hard, children are raised without complaint and collaborate," rejoices the American Misty Ferguson, who is in charge of programming. The program for children costs 19 thousand dollars in total. But, students need not pay anything, just your ticket. They also receive workbooks and a dictionary. This program is driven by several institutions, among them, the U.S. Embassy, the Peace Corps, and the U.S. and Nicaraguan American Cultural Center.

Improving Young People’s Life:
According to the coordinator Gonzalez, these programs have a multiplier effect. Students share their experience and knowledge of English to others in their schools. Also, it helps them find work in Nicaragua, and gives them the opportunity to participate in access programs in U.S. universities.

Young Darwin Antonio Barrios dreams of becoming an English teacher or tour guide someday. "I like to communicate with tourists and attend to them," says Darwin before returning to class. Like the other 80 students, he will study English until the last day, which will be next Saturday. More young Nicaraguans have the same opportunity: the next summer camp in Nicaragua is already planned.

Preparing for the Adventure

2010-02-12T23:12:00.001-08:00

Hello!

This is my first blog about my adventures. :) This semester I am taking a class on Costa Rica, and will be visiting the country in May. Afterward, I will take a bus to Nicaragua, to teach English on Ometepe Island, in the middle of the biggest lake in Nicaragua. This will not only allow me to continue to explore the world, but also to immerse myself in another language, and help others learn mine. I hope that my adventures will enlighten those that I know about other cultures, and bring me to meet more of the wonderful people that this world holds.