the 12 days of Christmas...Costa rica style

This is all the confetti in the streets of San Jose...Basically the people used it as snow and had a massive, everyone is invited, snowball fight...it was awesome.

So it has been brought to my attention that I have been slacking in the communicating home department the last few weeks so here is a short recap of what ive been up to. And no these events have not actually taken place on the first 12 days of December but well I thought it would be fun to write in the style of the 12 days of Christmas. Also an added bonus for all you at home…if your super bored and no one is around you can sing todays blog!

On the first day of Christmas Costa Rica gave to me…Thanksgiving, a week late and without yummy bars but still delicious.

On the second day of Christmas Costa Rica gave to me…a whiteboard filled with “once upon a time” stories made by two bored ESL teachers without any students

On the third day of Christmas Costa Rica gave to me…a day at the pool getting sunburned and playing soccer.

On the fourth day of Christmas Costa Rica gave to me… A meeting about campamento that made me both very excited and very nervous

On the fifth day of Christmas Costa Rica gave to me…ALL FIVE STUDENTS showed up to math!

On the sixth day of Christmas Costa Rica gave to me…a going away ice cream from POPS for our departing Canadian…it was delicious.

On the seventh day of Christmas Costa Rica gave to me…a sleepover with CFCI from El Salvador…complete with popcorn and a movie

On the eighth day of Christmas Costa Rica gave to me…a very short count-down to when my family gets here!

On the ninth day of Christmas Costa Rica gave to me…a day of babysitting the host siblings, did crafts, played outside, and ate popcorn…definitely a success.

On the tenth day of Christmas Costa Rica gave to me…the festival of lights, a parade and fireworks show which we started off with about a 30 minute walk down the side of the highway.

On the eleventh day of Christmas Costa Rica gave to me…a Confetti snow ball fight in San Jose…everything was covered in confetti including me…it was awesome.

On the twelfth day of Christmas Costa Rica gave to me…a Gingerbread house making day…which is where I’m off to this afternoon.

So yeah as you can see I have been very busy with parties and end of the year festivities so sorry the communication has been lacking. Merry almost Christmas everyone! And Shoutout to Becca who turned 18 yesterday...Happy Birthday little sister!

Love you all!

KT

Happy Thanksgiving!!

So Thanksgiving is a mere 5 days away and I am going to miss it sorely. We are having a missionary party with all the fixings but its not till Dec. 2 so I have to wait an extra week to get my turkey coma. But since the tendency would be for me to lament missing such a delicious holiday…and the fact that even when we do have it there wont be yummy bars. I have decided to make a rather obnoxious but still incomplete list of things I am grateful for.
I am thankful for…
1. Jesus Christ dying on the cross for my sins
2. my family
3. my friends
4. Costa Rica
5. Diversity
6. Host families
7. Food
8. Shelter
9. sunshine
10. rain
11. snow
12. kids
13. the elderly
14. school
15. my education
16. books
17. bubbles
18. mountains
19. plains
20. beaches
21. oceans/rivers/lakes
22. clean drinking water
23. public transportation
24. different languages
25. ice cream
26. chocolate
27. peanut butter
28. any combination of the above mentioned 3
29. freedom
30. the choice to give up some freedom to experience new cultures
31. the internet
32. fotos
33. sunrises
34. sunsets
35. cultural blunders
36. language barriers…like the fact that twice I have used the word for dust in place of the word for turkey thus making me ask a lady at a café if I could have a dust sandwich 
37. the hustle and bustle of the city
38. the calmness of the country
39. alone time
40. time with friends
41. fruit
42. the texano sandwich I just ate which contained BBQ sauce the first time ive had it in 2 months
43. travel
44. jeans
45. avocado, jelly, and guacamole…3 things I swore I hated before I tried them about 2 years ago 
46. laughter
47. good health
48. allergy medicine
49. tissues
50. toilet paper
51. art
52. dance…watching it that is…like the break dancers I watched in San Jose…I felt like I was inside Step Up 2…ha ha
53. the Olympics
54. curling and golf…to remind me that some people have radically different likes than me
55. journals
56. blogs
57. oxygen
58. gallo pinto
59. youth groups
60. honesty
61. bookbags
62. fotocopy shops
63. churches
64. the Bible
65. telephones
66. bicycles
67. the ability to plug my ears if I don’t want to listen to people making out
68. doctors and nurses…even if I never go to them
69. soccer
70. the ONU soccer team…who I should mention have their first round of NAIA playoffs today!!
71. ONU in general
72. street performers in San Jose
73. natural abilities/gifts
74. being thrown into difficult situations
75. English
76. Christmas lights
77. Love
78. Forgiveness
79. Patient people
80. Listening ears
81. Corny Jokes
82. rainbows
83. flowers
84. wise counsel
85. airplanes
86. teachers
87. librarians
88. coaches
89. the poor…who so often have their priorities in the right order, we can learn a lot from them
90. second chances
91. Disney movies and great friends to watch them with…Wingapo!
92. Bourbonnais
93. Music
94. Eyes with which to people watch
95. tourists and their khaki safari outfits
96. animals
97. being a middle child
98. the unknown
99. curly afro headed children
100. the realization of how blessed I really am

So yeah if you read all those…Im impressed. And even as I write those about 100 more pop into my head.
So if your having a bad day or are feeling down right annoyed with the world I suggest making a similar list because when your thinking of all the good there is its really hard to stay ticked off.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
I’m thankful for YOU!
KT

2 months gone already????

So the first week i got here was the week of September 18. One of the first things i talked about with my host family was birthdays. Mine is May 3 and my host sisters is May 1...when we discovered this Emily got really excited for her birthday. I laughed and told her it was really far away and that we hadnt even gotten to Christmas yet. Which immediately made her excited about Christmas. Which I also thought was funny becuase it was so far away. Well here it is November 19th already and places are starting to get decked out for Christmas. As you guys eagerly away the turkey comatose that comes with thanksgiving we here jump straight to Christmas (seeing as there is no holiday here to commemorate native americans dressed in loin clothes and pilgrims dressed in black sitting down peacefully at a banquet)
Either way my point is that I cant believe how fast time has gone here.
In only 4 short weeks things will be wrapping up for the year in La Carpio and I will become a full time play mate to my host siblings here in Lomas for at least a few weeks.
We have finished one semester at the Refuge and are now starting our next one where i am the 7th grade math teacher and Tuesday soccer coach.
English classes are continueing caotically as usual.
Our remedial classes are now switching to playing thinking games because school is almost over and the kids wont come if we keep making them study.
Wednesday Kids Club is continueing as usual.
And Saturdays we are continueing with youth group and I am continueing to get to know the girls for Campamento.

Things are going well and Im loving my time here.
Thanks for all of you who are praying for me.
Pura Vida
KT

Savor Your Chocolate.

So if there is one thing I have learned here in CR its that ticans know how to savor Chocolate. Yesterday my host dad brought home two packs of peanut m & ms to share between the 6 of us after i devoured my first 4 i looked around at my family and realized they were all on their first one. Well...feeling slightly awkward at my inhaling i kept my mouth closed and pretended to be sucking on my last one. Then everybody got 2 more (remember i have young siblings...there is shouting and occasionally tears if one person gets more than the other) and i decided to attempt to savor it. What I learned?
1. savoring M&Ms is rather a messy option seeing as how if you bite them you wind up with spit and chocolate on your fingers.
2. the taste does not change at all if you savor it.
3. and finally I learned that when the candy is in your mouth long enough to savor your brain has enough time to register the enjoyment and not leave you wondering where the chocolate went.

Why does any of this matter? Doesnt really. Just wanted to remind you all to savor the little things in life. Like Chocoalte. And like a student telling you they had fun in math class. And the opportunity to read to your six year old sister while she snuggles on your lap...even if you would rather be reading your own book. And laughing out loud while you walk past a group of gringos in san jose dressed for safari. And strawberry smoothies. And the fact that as soon as i post this im going to go eat some chocolate... and attempt to savor it.

So...as my dearly missed soccer teammates would say...carpe diem.
Sieze the day.
and sieze some chocolate.

pura vida
kt

Surfing in Nicaragua!!!

Hola everyone,
Back from the short trip across the border to renew the visa. I went to the little surf town of San Juan del Sur in Nicaragua and it was wonderful.
1. because everything is cheep in Nicaragua (meaning that I ate very well)
2. because I was there for 3 days and ate 3 different kinds of ice cream
3. because whatever Im allergic to here in CR is not where I was in Nicaragua so I didn´t have to blow my nose nearly as much
4. and most importantly because I WENT SURFING!!
Thats right the townie who four years ago had been to exactly 4 states has now been surfing in another country :)
I should probably clarify that all attempts at surfing count as going surfing...there does not have to be much success.
So this is how it all went down...Saturday we were chilling on the beach and i was building a sand-snowman when Corey our resident vacation planner and fellow short term missionary found us and said who wants to go surfing. So off we went to another beach with better waves and got an hour surfing lesson and then spent another hour? or so in the water (mostly fighting the waves) I pretty much only got up with the help of the instructor but thats ok by me. It was awesome and I was able to check it off of my invisible list of things to do before I die. (Best part about this list...it doesnt really exist so every time i do something cool and out of the ordinary I check it off...I have a 100% success rate :)
Only bad part is that there are exactly zero photos to prove my surfing adventure. Before we left we decided to only bring one camera so we didnt have to worry about it and well the girl who brought her camera forgot it at the beach. So I shall just have the memories of salt water in my eyes and you all will just have to trust me that I really did go...and i did...for the record.
Anywho weekend was great...absolutely didnt want to wake up and go to work this morning but even that ended up going well. And tomorrow I start teaching math...were going to play review games for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division since i have no idea where these girls are at in their educations :) Should be fun.
Also this morning was actually chilly (i should note that it is now back up to its hot and sunny normal weather) and reminded me of fall which reminded me of you all :) hope your having a great day!
pura vida
kt

Travels

So I have been traveling a bit lately. Last weekend I went to the USA and this weekend I am going to Nicaragua...
Now before you get all upset that I was in the USA and didnt contact you I should probably clarify that I wasnt really in the USA it just felt like I was.
We made last sunday Gringo day for the short termers here and went to an international english speaking church. It was a one hour service and the pastor appoligized when he thought he was going to go 2 minutes over...definitly a USA time conscious feel to it. It was really nice to completely understand the service though. Then we went to a mall for lunch and this mall is at least double the size our poor little one back home. It was huge and pricy and I had lunch at Subway. Felt like I was back in the states. Which ended up providing a bit of culture shock without even leaving the country! I new there were wealthy here in CR but i didnt know it looked like that, completely westernized. So monday I was happy to be back in la Carpio.

This past week I translated for a short term medical team that came down to Carpio. It was a nice change of pace and it was fun to be able to help in a new setting, although I definitly had to act out some words that I didnt know in spanish. I also became a bit of an expert at fitting people for reading glasses since that was where i did most of my translating.

And tomorrow I leave for Nicaragua, just till sunday, to renew my visa. Its earlier than I need to go but I wanted to go with the rest of the short termers so there are 5 of us going...should be fun. Anywho thats what Ive been up to in a nut shell.

Hope all is well!
Pura Vida
KT

Rules I never thought I would make as a teacher...

So ESL classes are going well. The kids can be wild and the ability levels are all over the place but I am enjoying it. If I actually had a list of rules posted in my class (yes I am an ONU education failure for not clearly posting my rules in my class, but my classroom is also a church, tutoring center, hang out for bible club, and occasionally a clinic so i havent done much decorating) anywho...these would be some of my rules...
1. Please don´t bring your dog to class, yes he is adorable but he is a distraction.
2. Please don´t whistle at me to get my attention, I will ignor you.
3. Please crawl under the table and do not walk on top of it to get to the white board.
4. If we are playing pictionary,and your word is foot please do not spend 5 minutes drawing a high heel, foot, leg, and skirt.
5. Please don not lie to me about your birthday, I will not break eggs over your head on that day...I promise. (side note-this belief is not a nation wide thing here)
and
6. Yes the classroom is hot sometimes but please refrian from dunking your head, neck, sholders, and school uniform into the water at the sink while I am teaching.

These rules...were they actually followed would make class much calmer...but also a lot more boring. So for now I shall continue to allow dogs in class so long as they dont pee, I shall continue to be patient while they whistle and walk on the table, I shall continue to take the marker away from the student when they pass the 2 minute mark on pictionary, and I shall continue to hide my smile when you return to the table dripping wet from the sink. And with any luck the students will continue learning important english words like ice cream and believed which they pronounce believED

Hope all you teachers and non-teachers are having a delightful day.
Pura Vida
KT

Miel, Cebolla y Ajo

So today i shall begin with a riddle...
1. what is winnie the poohs favorite food?
2. Shrek tells Donkey that Ogres are like _______...they have layers
3. what is a food that is good for warding off boyfriends and vampires?

If you answered 1. honey, 2. onions, and 3. garlic
then you now know what the title of my blog means in english.

Next question...what do these three items have in common?

Answer...Absolutely nothing.

However, to me in the last 3 days they have become a mildly unpleasant addition to my diet. Why you might ask? Because I have a bit of a cold. Dont really even feel bad just have one of those fun hacking coughs that causes people to turn around on the bus...then once they realize that the large, manly sounding cough is coming from an average sized gringa they are thouroughly confused and continue glancing back at regular 2 minutes intervals. Anywho, I told my family here that I would go to the clinic (run by our ministry) on monday if i still wasnt feeling well...b/c well i hate taking medicine. That was when my host mom told me she had a natural remedy...im all for natural things so i told her sure i would try it. I was then presented with a jar of smashed garlic, chopped onions, and a bunch of honey. It was...interesting. After my first spoonful my host mom luckily told me that this little concoction was an expectorant (GROSSNESS ALERT...if you are currently eating or just have no tolerance for snot you should go back to checking your facebook)...aka...its going to make me hack up phlem. And let me tell you, it works!
So moral of the story is? I´m not going to make any new friends this week b/c my breath (as my host sister regularly points out) is rather nasty.
Hope your weeks are going splendidly and that you are enjoying your fall and all the sniffles and coughs that come with it.
Pura Vida
KT

Soccer makes me happy.

so todays blog is a shoutout to soccer and all my wonderful soccer teammates...who better be following my blog otherwise we are fighting.
This tuesday began my first tuesday of training with the girls soccer team at the refuge. they have an actual coach but she can only come friday and saturday so i add tuesdays for a little extra practice. Tuesday went really well...i learned that i know very few soccer words in spanish and so i did lots of demonstrating and saying "do this." Then wed we had a practice for the tourney we are having this coming monday and...thursday i could hardly walk :) i was reminded for not the first time in my life that when one is going to do extreme exercise one should probably ease into it or suffer the consequences. So like i have chosen to do countless times before...i am now suffering the consequences...but secretly loving the daily reminder that i finally did some physical activity here. Also i scored a goal and did not get a yellow card in the practice tourney so i´m already doing better internationally than my previous attempts at futbol.
on another note i learned this week that i am truely truely horrible at futbolin...aka foosball...not only that but i learned that my host dad is a legit champ at futbolin meaning that i lost approximately 30-3 and no that number is not one of my typical exagerations.
and finally wed we had a pizza and praise night for the short termers...it was the first time in a long time that i sat in a circle and sang with a guitar praising God...made me very much miss my team. it also reminded me that i cannot sing high notes.
so basically this week has be extra divertido b-c i have finally gotten to get reinvolved with the sport that has shaped so much of my life. So shoutout to the ONU soccer team...keep playing hard. And to my fellow alums...miss you bunches!
Currently giving praise to God that i chose to play an internationally loved sport!
pura vida
kt

Things that make me smile :)

So I desperately want to take a photo of this one sign i pass every day in the bus i´m just not sure how to do it yet but i will describe it to you and hopefully you can create a visual image in your mind.
Here in Costa Rica there is a restaurant named Spoon. It looks quite good and hopefully i will get to try it out one day, anyway...you know those street signs for restaurants that have a fork and knife on them indicating that a restaurant is up ahead? well this particular sign includes the name of the restaurant so the sign that makes me smile every day is the one with a drawing of a fork and knife with the word Spoon written boldly under it :)
Other things that make me smile...a candy shop next to a dentist office :)
-Getting free hugs from kids every day. :)
-Playing memory 10 times with my 6 year old sister and only winning once (and yes i was trying :)
-A compitition I have with my brother Jonathan...we each pick a soccer team and whomevers team wins that person gets a point. We also get points for correct answers on who wants to be a millionaire in spanish. So far I am losing 10 to 6...but as i tell jonathan every day...i´m here till may and i shall win! (but in all likely hood i will lose...he kicks my butt at who wants to be a millionaire in spanish :)
-Birthday cake :)
-the fact that the jonas brothers and demi lovato have a concert here in october...and bon jovi was here earlier. :)
-finding out that there is a mini soccer tourney in a week and i´m going to play and then hopefully start helping the girls team here
-the fact that it only downpoured one day this week...and october is suppossed to be the wettest month of it all :)
-my view out my window right now is blue skys over a mountain with pretty fluffy white clouds :)
-Chocolate :)
-Taking Fridays off :)
-Hearing about my wonderful ONU soccer team :)
-Knowing that next wednesday we are having a pizza party :)
-Knowing that oct. 31 I am breaking open the bag of mini-snickers i brought for my host family in honor of a holiday they dont celebrate :)
-and the list could go on and on. Basically when i stop and pause for even 30 seconds...or for an hour and a half on the bus...i wind up thinking about all the little things that make me happy.
So hopefully you are having as delightful of a day as I am...and even if your day stinks right now pause and remember that God has given you this day and if you look hard enough there will be things to make you smile.
Pura Vida!
KT

Fear and Trust

When you tell someone in Costa Rica that you work in Carpio and live in Pavas they shudder and ask why. These two towns, Carpio in particular, have reputations for being places where bad things happen and where police are constantly around. To me these places are home. Maybe it is ignorance, maybe it is simply a defense mechanism, and maybe it is trust in God but I am not afraid when I am in Carpio and Pavas.
I was only afraid once and that was when we took the wrong bus to a shady part of town but the bus driver was super nice and we got home safe and sound. This sort of fear is natural and fine as long as it doesn’t consume you but more recently I have felt a different kind of fear. It’s the fear of the unknown. But not in the typical recent-college-grad-doesn’t-know-where-she-will-work-the-rest-of-her-life but something different. This fear of the unknown is the fear of what God will ask me to do in the future.
I’ve been reading Oswald Chambers book My Utmost for His Highest as a morning devotional…amazing little book and I highly recommend it…as long as you’re willing to be challenged. A couple of quotes that really have stood out to me are the following:
“No enthusiasm will ever stand the strain that Jesus Christ will put upon His worker, only one thing will, and that is a personal relationship to Himself which has gone through the mill of His spring cleaning until there is only one purpose left—I am here for God to send me where He will.”
Sometimes I worry what that spring cleaning will look like in my life. Which of my desires will God mold and change, however painfully, so that I become the person he has designed me to be?
And this quote,
“God does not ask us to do the things that are easy to us naturally; He only asks us to do the things we are perfectly fitted to do by His grace, and the cross will come along that line always”.
God doesn’t ever tell us that life will be easy. I love the verse Jeremiah 29:11…”For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” And 29:13… “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” But the more I cling to that verse and the more I see the world around me and the more I pray and read about God the more my perspective begins to change. I don’t see it anymore as a promise that God will grant me a comfortable living filled with prosperity. I don’t read “not to harm you” and think that my life will always be safe and comfortable. I read “plans to give you a hope and a future” as a promise that He will not forget me and that he has a purpose for my life. And when I read verse 13, I see an important truth that I have often over looked in the past…I will find God when I seek Him. A relationship with God is not a one way street. I can’t put him on the back burner and call on him only when I need a hand or when I’m nervous about something. Following God is not a part time job, it’s a full time/ life time commitment. And that scares me like crazy. I have never really understood when people say to fear the Lord. Why would I fear the one who created me and who has great plans for my future? OF COURSE I SHOULD! Who knows what sort of crazy thing He might ask of me if I follow him!
And this is where my mini-epiphany came in today. Despite my fear, I trust Him. He won’t always take me on the easy road. He may not show me more than one step at a time in the grand scheme of my life. But I trust Him. Completely.
So despite my uncertainty, my nerves, my fear, and the general lack of a game plan for the rest of my life. I trust God. He has plans…to prosper me…maybe in a way I can’t even fathom right now. He has plans not to harm me…he won’t ever abandon me in the difficult times. He has plans to give me a hope…even when all seems lost…I will find hope. He has plans to give me a future…a wild and unpredictable and unknown future that will always include Him.
And so…I Fear the Lord…and I trust Him with all that I am.
And I look forward to the unknown. Because it is all in His hands.
Joshua 1:9: Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous; do not be afraid, for the Lord your God will be with you where ever you go.
Que Dios Le bendiga!
KT

My Life Is Average...but not really :)

So for those of you who know me well you know that i rather enjoy the blog site My Life Is Average...if you havent already been there dont go...you will either get addicted to it or will be thouroughly confused by the harry potter and ninja references. anywho...so i have a tendency to take funny/average moments in my life and put them into the MLIA format and qoute myself. When you live in a foreign country experiencing a million new things a day you begin to think wow my life is not even the slightest bit average...and then the clock strikes 4 o clock and a string of average events happens. So this is my afternoon in MLIA format...

Today, i went to get out of the car and my leg bumped my bag, which holds my absolutely necessary umbrella, and hit myself in the face...I now have a semi fat lip. MLIA :)

then about 30 minutes later i had this little bit of averageness...

Today, i asked my tica mom for the keys to the house. I couldnt get them to open the gate that leads to the stairs that lead to the door. the gate is metal and has bars so i stuck my hand through the bar and tried to unlock it from the inside. it was raining and my hands were wet. i droped the keys. the bottom of the door does not have bars so i couldnt get them out. i took the walk of shame back to my host mom and told her i had dropped the keys inside. she laughed and pretended to scold me and then got the spairs from the neighbors house and walked in the now pouring rain to let her poor incompitant gringa in the house. MLIA

Yesterday, i was telling my host family about why we were taking the bus in the mornings now and not getting a ride with our neighbor. i was exhausted and the spanish was coming out a bit sloppily. i told them that we couldnt ride with Domingo anymore because his car was ugly. they burst into laughter. and when it subsided i corrected myself and told them his car was broken. there is no doubt in my mind that Domingo heard about my calling his car ugly and that being the reason for me taking the bus. MLIA

Anywho. in all reality life is anything but average here and i am loving it. For example my host family bought peanut butter...Amazing. Also this morning i was served hot chocolate. made my day. even on the most exhausting of days there is always at least one little unexpected bit of goodness...like going to bed at 9 last night. Things are getting busy with the ministry as i am getting a bit more responsibility and am sorting out the way we want to run the ESL ministry. I´m learning my bus route...although my next door neighbor is a gringa as well so i rarely go alone...and getting comfortable in my surroundings. Dont miss the physical comforts of home just the people :)

So for those of you who spend all day thinking of questions to ask me and then never get responses (hi aunt shirley :) here are some of the every day details to help paint a picture of what i do here...
Host family is dad-randall, mom -ebruana, 12 year old bro-jonathan, 8 year old bro-emanuel, and 6 year old sister and roomie- emily, and a cat named kele...that i actually really like...mostly because it acts like a dog :)
Monday through Thursday i teach ESL in the mornings from 8am till 11 or 9:30 depending on the day.
then i hike up the hill about a half mile or less with my teaching partner and help tutor girls at el refugio, the alternative high school here for girls that arent in regular school for one reason or another. i usually help with math b-c i´m the only one there who enjoys-remembers it. Thank you elementary ed major. :) this is till 12 when we break for lunch, rice beans and something else, almost every day
then in the afternoon there is more tutoring and usually a craft of somesort that i sometimes help throw together and sometime in the next month im going to start helping with a bible study for the girls.
then monday and thursday afternoon we walk back down to la segunda and tutor young kids who just need extra practice...im super helpful as long as they are not doing spanish work...i have discovered that although i can read at probably a 5th grade level in spanish when it comes to first grade type things like syllables and rhyming words...i am sorely lacking :)
wed afternoon is kids club, basically a bible club where the kids hear a story and do a craft...there are anywhere from 40 to 50 kids who all want to hug and tickle you. Tuesdays end a bit earlier...thus the reason im home on the computer. and fridays are all at el refugio.
so there that should cover just about everything you could want to know for now logistically.
If you made it thus far...thanks for sticking in there...now go find a book to read, or get back to work shipping books...hi sandy and pam and ladies!
Love you all
have a great day
pura vida
kt

1st week done!?!?

welp first week at carpio is done. it was very enjoyable but exhausting. i shall be sleeping in tomorrow morning...till at least 7 or 8 if the roomie permits :)
so here is what i have learned so far...
1. do not tell a child with an accent to say the word easel...it will not sound like easel and he will wonder why you are laughing so hard.
2. i have absolutely no ability to guess the ages of costa ricans...b-c they all look about 10 years younger than they are :)
3. my cue to get off the first bus is this...pass the burger king, ring the bell when you see the subway. ha...love it.
4. if jaclyn the canadia short term missioner...brings her umbrella...it will not rain until we are home from the bus stop
5. if one host sibling shows you a picture...there is a very good chance a younger host sibling will drag a heavy box from her room and show you 100 pictures :)
6. lab dogs are adorable in every country
7. my new least favorite way to be woken from a nap on a desk is via a change in the wind that brings the smell of garbage from all of san jose :)
8. if i am on the computer i will have at least two host siblings in the room with me...so i test them by writing there names in the blog to see if they are trying to read it :) ...they are.
9. spanish keyboards are still annoying. <ñ this is how my smily face turns out if i´m not careful
10. rice and beans are still yummy

thats all for now...i´m sure i have learned some much more meaningful things but well my brain is fried and i wish to take a nap so thats all i got
however
here
is my
mailing address here
if you
get the urge
to mail me.
takes about 2 weeks. cards or letters are almost guaranteed to get here. boxes not so much. expensive to send much bigger than a letter so...letters are best :)

Katie Gremar, CFCI
apartado 509-2350 San Francisco de Dos Rios
San Jose, Costa Rica; Central America

its a po box number so make sure you get it down right :)
love u all! thanks for the thoughts and prayers!
pura vida
kt

Soy missionera : )

so...absolutely love the ministry here and the work i am doing so far. i´ve been teaching ESL to 2nd through 4th graders in the mornings for 1.5 to 2.5 hours then i hike up a hill to the edge of la carpio to help with the tutoring of some girls at an alternative school. these girls have amazing stories and for many it is an absolute miracle that they havent given up hope completely. afternoons are more tutoring, some crafts, and tomorrow there is a chaotic thing called kids club that i plan to help with. my host family is absolutely amazing...super funny...so even if i´m not particularly funny in spanish i still get to laugh a lot. the other missionaries here are excellent as well...although the canadian i teach ESL with and i had a debate over whether Z is Z or Zed. i think we may have confused the kids just a bit :)
I get introduced here as a missionary which for some reason is really odd feeling b/c i would always say i am going to teach for a missions organization before i left. It makes me take my responsibility here even more seriously, knowing that i am seen as a representation of Christ has been rather humbling.
I realize that i am still in the honeymoon phase where everything is new and exciting but I genuinely enjoy what i am doing here and feel as though i will not loose interest anytime soon. hope all is well in the USA! miss you all! take care y pura vida!
kT

Day one ramblings

so here are some random shout outs to you all reading back home.
1. Becca...i have another brother named emanual and i saw the name manuel grafitied on a wall...ha ha ha
2. hannah...i have a cat...it is a healthy weight.
3. sarah...my host family was trying to remember the word new hampshire and they said manchester...i thought of you
4. i live in a pink bedroom filled with princesses...dream come true
5. when they say katie with their accent it sounds like KT...makes me happy.

k my new 6 year old sister wants to bond...she hasnt quite grasped the whole we have the next 8 months to bond concept just yet :)
love you all
pura vida
KT

Hellos and Goodbyes--Holas y Adioses

So in a few short hours...and I do mean very few, I should probably be sleeping right now...I will be up in the air heading back to Costa Rica. This is my third time making this journey which is a comfort but I still get mariposas in my stomach when i think about what I am about to do. For 8 short months I will be doing...actually I don't know what I will be doing yet. :) Sooooo....just like me...you have to wait to find out. :) Anywho. I hope that the journey I embark on will be filled with exciting and entertaining moments...otherwise no one will read my ramblings. For real though, thank you for taking the time to read my blog and more importantly to pray for the people I will encounter in Costa Rica. For the next 8 months I want to live outside my comfort zone and I want to encounter God in a way I never have before. Hopefully you will be able to experience this amazing and faithful God through the my random thoughts on this blog. Buenos noches y'all.

Pura Vida
KT

On the road again!

As promised I said I would keep this up again the next time I went back to CR and indeed in a week and a few days I will be back in San Jose. September 18, bright and early in the morning I leave for my home away from home. I will be staying with a new host family and working with Christ for the City International. The details are still coming together but I expect the next 8 or 9 months will be an amazing time of challenges and growth. I look forward to keeping you all updated with God's story in my life!
Pura Vida
KT