So, I moved to Costa Rica about two weeks ago. I’ve decided that keeping my friends and family updated via e-mail is sooo 2008, so I’ll be modifying the format of my blog a bit to allow for some more personal posts about my mishaps and adventures here in the land of Pura Vida. For those of you are who are interested in updates from me but weren’t on my original email list, here is the message I sent out on June 26, 4 days after arriving:
Hi beautiful people,
Considering I just up and moved to another country, I thought it would be a good idea to e-mail all of you and let you know how I’m doing. I’m currently sitting in Ale’s living room, procrastinating writing lesson plans and listening to a torrential downpour. I was taking a nap earlier (some things never change) and heard the loudest clap of thunder ever. I swear it exploded in my soul. So yeah, welcome to rainy season in Costa Rica!
I arrived on time and sweaty from carrying my 30 pound carry on (through which I avoided a 50$ heavy bag fee, so it was worth it) on Tuesday. On Wednesday, I had an interview at New Learning Academy, a private language academy that teaches English, Spanish, French, German, Mandarin and Portuguese. The person that interviewed me is a friend of a friend, so she was really nice. Long story short – I GOT THE JOB! Funny to think that my first “real” job happened to also be the easiest one I ever got! Basically, one of the teachers is leaving Costa Rica sooner than expected, so she really needed me to start as soon as possible. On Thursday, I went for a short training, where they just told me all about the structure of the Spanish lessons, the text book they use, etc etc. On Thursday night I went out with my friend Alvaro and some of his friends that I had met before in Costa Rica. It was fun, but it was also wierd not to be out with my friends from studying abroad. I didn’t stay out too late, because I had to get up early this morning (look look – me being responsible!) Today I had to give a demo lesson to four volunteer students so that the people from the academy could give me some pointers and get a glimpse of my teaching style. After that, I sat in on the last hour of a Spanish class. As an employee, I can take any language course for free. The Spanish class is a full of other teachers, and is below my level, but it was a good review of a lot of grammar and vocab that I haven’t studied since high school.
My job also comes with a gym membership, which I fully intend on using, considering how lazy I have been the past couple weeks. They have also provided me with some leads on apartments in the area. I definitely think it’s a good idea to live as close to the Academy as possible – considering I got lost getting there twice already. It’s in a good neighborhood – Guadalupe. It’s closer to Ale’s house than where I lived before, but it’s still relatively close to downtown San Jose, so a good location overall.
My first real class is tomorrow. I know, I know, work on a Saturday. But it shouldn’t be too bad – I get Fridays off, and because of Costa Rican holidays, I have two Saturdays off in July, coincidentally when two of my friends will be here. Also, when a new teacher starts, I will get promoted from Saturdays. In addition to my class on Saturdays, I will be teaching Monday through Thursday evenings. I have one class that meets on Monday and Wednesdays and one class that meets Monday through Thursdays. All in all I’m only working about 16 hours per week as of now, which is ok with me. It will allow me to ease into teaching, and I’ll still have time during the day to look for apartments, go to the gym, and find my way around the city. My schedule will change in the next couple weeks as more classes open up. So we’ll see how it goes!
I’ll try to keep everyone updated as much as possible as I am settling in, but if you know me, you probably know that after about a month or so I’ll forget to keep doing this. So please, keep in touch, hit reply and tell me about all the stateside (or abroad in some of your cases) fun you are having! I love you all 
<3 Jenn
