I Passed!!!

Oh herro, this is me in my teacher clothes! I taught my first observation lesson yesterday and it went really well. We have two observations in this practicum where one of our Western professors comes to class and evaluates us. We use the SIOP (Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol) teaching method, so we are evaluated with this comprehensive form with like thirty different points. So basically, it is a lot of stuff to keep in mind!

I passed, though! My teacher had some constructive criticism, of course, but she also said my lesson was one of the best practicum lessons she has ever seen in Mexico. Yay! I owe a big thanks to my wonderful students and mentor teachers. Now, of course, my professor expects me to do just as well on the second one, so that's a lot of pressure. Glad I passed, though!



This is Teresa, my host mom.

She looked so cute yesterday as she set up for her weekly girls' night. She plays cards with a group of seven other friends every Tuesday. They play at a different house every time, so when it is her turn to host(roughly every two months) it's a big deal! She spent so long cleaning and rearranging furniture, kind of like when you have a PEO meeting or ladies lunch in the States, Grandma! The setup was so cute...each table had a tray with a bowl of cheetos and gumdrops for her friends. She's a precious little abuelita! (I miss my real grandma, though!)

First 2 Days in Class

...and it´s great! The fifth graders are so sweet and cute and they know a lot of English! The main teacher, Olga, did a great job creating a welcoming environment for them on the first day. I haven´t done any teaching yet, just observing, but I am preparing for my first lesson tomorrow. I am using an article from their workbook about Miley Cyrus (yes, THAT Miley Cyrus) to teach about adjectives and other things. It should be fun!

If I weren´t working in an internet cafe with a suuuuper slow connection, I would add pictures of my first day outfit. My professor told me I looked ¨beautiful¨ haha. She also told me that my mentor teacher is one of the best, so I hope to learn a lot from her!

Other than that, not too much is going on. I have only gone out one night, because I have to get up super early. We went to some REALLY classy clubs this weekend, though. Like more luxurious than any I have been to in the U.S. or Canada. (Of course, that comes with a price...hello $10 cover and $80 bottle service! Good thing there was a big group of us to split that.) Things are also fine with my host mom. She sometimes annoys me because she is forgetful and also likes to spray insecticide a lot, but she is so sweet I can´t be mad at her. She also makes me sweet little fruit platters every morning for breakfast...guava and cantaloupe this morning :)

Well, wish me luck on my lesson! It´s preparation for my big observation next Tuesday!

P.S. I got A´s in all 4 of my other classes this summer. BOOM.

Love you all!!!

P.P.S. My lack of regular internet, plus the fact that I am consumed with my own lessons is leaving me out of the loop about all your lives and current events back home. If anyone has news to share, just drop it in the comments; I would love to read it!

Michael Larkin is a MexiCAN, not a Mexican't!

Hola everyone! Once again, I am abroad, doing what I do best: gallivanting around Latin America in the name of higher learning! Here's a little background for those who may not know:
This summer, I have been taking classes full time in the TESOL (Teaching English to speakers of other languages) program. That's my minor at school. At the end of the program, everyone has to complete a teaching practicum to show what they have learned. This practicum can be completed in the States or abroad, depending on your interests. The program at Western is great, because we had the option to go on a faculty-led trip to Querétaro, México. Thus, I am south of the border, preparing to teach a class of fifth grade Mexican students!

I am living with a host family again. Well, actually a host grandma, because it is just an older lady named Teresa who lives by herself. Her daughter and granddaughters visit often, though. There is also another student living in my house. He is a middle aged electrical engineer from California. His name is Roberto and he is studying Spanish here at Olé. That's the school where our program is based. (But not where I am teaching my practicum.)

I want to tell everyone that there is nothing to worry about here. The México portrayed on the news is completely biased and not representative of this entire, wonderful country. Querétaro in particular, is very clean, safe, and calm. It is a much bigger city than I was expecting, though. My school is located in the largely historic downtown. It's so fun to just walk around with a michelada (flavored beer) or sit in the plazas. Here's a picture of me and the other new students from Western:

Mariela, Rebecca, Emily, Me, Jessica, and Ariana @ Jardín Zanea

The past few days have been SO busy that I don't even know what to say. A few exciting things:

-Yesterday morning, the Olé coordinators took me to see my placement site. It's a private primary school called Erik Erikson. My cooperating teacher's name is Olga López. I'm going to be working with a fifth grade class. That's a little bit younger than I prefer, but I am still looking forward to it. The only downside: I have to be there at 7:45 every morning, which is really early considering it's about a half hour walk from my house. I start Monday!!!

-Friday and Saturday, the other new students (including my friend Jessica) and I spent time with "Mexican pals". Our school set us up with them so they could walk us around the city and practice Spanish with us. Today, our amigo Marco took us to a market. It was similar to the ones in Costa Rica. However, the meat section was terrifying. There were things there that looked more like live animals than steak or chicken breast. Jessica saw someone with a whole dead pig on his back. I saw a bucket full of pig heads, still intact. At least it was after I ate a delicious "gringa" (think quesadilla made from spit-roasted pork, pineapple, cheese, and cilantro...deliciosa!!!)

-We also had a welcoming party at Olé last night. We helped make the food and it was so good. Even though it was a school party, there was plenty of beer and a few bottles of tequila...and the obligatory piñata. There were also these traditional dancers. I'm one of only two guys in the program so the girl kept making me dance with her! It was kinda embarrassing, but super fun.



Okay, I feel like I just wrote a massive amount. Gonna leave the café soon so I can take a siesta and then figure out my plans for tonight. Love and miss you all! Check back this week to find out about my first few days in the classroom!

Back in Bellingham

Finally!

I feel like I need to write a reflection about my last three months, especially for my personal benefit, but right now I am just so happy to be back in Bellingham. It was extremely hard to say goodbye to my family and friends in Costa Rica. It's nice to return to a place that I love, though. I will probably post more pictures and stories from my last week in Costa Rica...just need some time to relax and unpack my room first.

xoxo

Rafting el Pacuare

Sorry for the delayed posting! These last few weeks have been filled with so much to see and do, so I've been pretty lazy with this blog. I still have to share all the pictures from my visit to the coffee plantation and my weekend in Puerto Viejo. First, though, I wanted to tell y'all about my rafting adventure!

So a few weeks ago, when Jessica's sister was here, we tried to go rafting. We woke up at 6 AM and waited for over an hour, but the tour company never picked us up. Since we booked the trip through our study abroad program, we talked to them about it, and they were extremely apologetic. They refunded us and even gave us a free trip! So last friday, Jessica and I both got to go on a $75 rafting trip...for free!

It would be totally worth the money even if we did have to pay, because this river is gorgeous! It's called the Pacuare, located about 2 hours to the northeast of San José. National Geographic named it "one of the 5 most beautiful river trips in the world." While it was my first real rafting trip, I have to agree with them. It was a four hour trip through some amazing rocky canyons and rainforest. The Pacuare is also the perfect amount of excitement for me; a few class IV rapids, but mostly smoother stuff, which allowed me to absorb the wonderful scenery. They also made us breakfast before the trip and we stopped for lunch in a beautiful place next to the river.

Some of my pictures are kinda blurry because I had water on the lens. I'm so glad I have a waterproof camera!

PS Nobody (in our raft) fell out in the rapids!


In my rafting gear


Rainforest :)




Waterfall!



Taking a swim (with Jessica)

Safety Update

Hey y'all, just wanted to reassure everyone about my safety this weekend. As you know, that earthquake in Japan was enormous, and I have received tsunami warning information from my program and the embassy here. Fortunately, San Jose is inland and not at risk for any kind of tsunami activity. I'm not planning to go to the beach this weekend, either, so I should be okay (a lot of people are cancelling or changing their plans, which is unfortunate). Okay, I just wanted to make sure no one was worrying about me! A more interesting post will be up later this weekend. Take care, everyone! Xoxo

Family time!

Our family finally took us on their beach trip, last weekend. All but 2 of the daughters came....and about 13 gringos as well! They were mostly Steve's friends, two of which were celebrating their birthdays, so it was just a big party weekend. The gringos taught the ticos how to play college drinking games like beer pong and flip cup. Super fun!

I stayed in a little compound with all the other gringos, about 5 minutes down the road from the rest of our family. The place was still technically "under construction", but we stayed there because our family's cabin didn't have enough room. We occupied 2 of the 6 colorful cabins that were JUST built. The landscaping wasn't even finished around the pool,but it was still a great set-up with the individual houses and common pool/hangout area.

The beach wasn't that spectacular, in fact it was kind of dirty, because a lot of garbage gets washed up in that area :( There was this really fascinating rock plateau, though. My friend Kristi and I had an adventure, walking between the ocean and the sheer rock cliff, trying to reach the other end (where we could safely climb up) before the tide came in....it was a close call!

So overall, this weekend was pretty relaxed, we mostly just hung out, switching between the beach, our pool, and the pool at our family's cabin. I should mention, though, that Ticos are the most disorganized people in the world. Our family left for the beach the day before us and forgot literally everything...ALL the meat, ALL the toothbrushes, their dvd play, karaoke equipment, etc, so they were frantically calling Steve and I before we came to meet them. While we remembered to bring almost all of their ridiculous requests, we forgot the meat and one daughter's toothbrush. SO of course, that was OUR fault, and we were kind of chastised for the first day. Seriously, though, how can you go to the beach for 4 days and not have ANYONE in the family remember to bring the meat or toothbrushes? They are kind of stressful to travel with because of that....and they also caused QUITE the fiasco when we were trying to get back to San José (think lots of crying, praying, name calling, flying down dirt roads in a rickety van, and watching the bus that we should have been on pull out three cars ahead of us, forcing us to chase it down...) Okay maybe I just had a mini-venting session about them, haha. It all worked out, though, and we are a happy family again.


Our cute little cabins!


The pool...as you can see, my life is awful here.


The beach. Not the prettiest, but the rocks/tide pools are fun.


Sunset, as seen from the plateau above the beach.


Bonus picture: Monday was my sister Ely's birthday, so we had a delicious kahlua cake from Spoon :)

Soon to be posted: my trip to the cafetal (coffee plantation)!