Touchdown: The Happy Wanderer is HOME!

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

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

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!

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.

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!

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 her in foreverrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Ok. I'm alive. Off to class!

Chemistry Class is not fun

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

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!!!

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

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

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

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

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.