Still in Guanacaste

In between Playa Flamingo and Playa Potrero on the Pacific side of Costa Rica.  We stayed for two nights in this relatively private area, played in the surf, burned our skin, and enjoyed the sea breeze.  There are few places like a beach on the ocean to make me happy.  :)

L-R: Wanda (Maritza's niece), Christina (her daughter); Maritza; me -they had to pull me out of the water for a picture; Zaida (her sister-in-law); Anita (her mom) and Pita (her sister).

I'm here!

Yesterday I flew directly from Atlanta to San José. Seeing the city from the sky reminded of me of flying into Cuzco, Perú: a valley of colonial-style architecture mixed with modern, surrounded by green mountains. Maritza and her daughter Christina picked me up at the airport, and after arguing with a few taxi drivers who didn't realize that she's a) smart and b) native, we finally found one who would take us straight to the bus stop. All the others wanted to take us, as we say in Indiana, "around Charles' barn" and charge us more. Then we sat on the bus for three hours through a landscape that was less mountainous than the Andes, but equally beautiful, to arrive in Cañas.  Glad to be here during their winter, I think the rain must temper the heat that surely comes without cloud cover. Maritza is worried that I will melt without air conditioning, so she goes around putting the fan directly on me, which I appreciate.

I was really tired last night, and I slept so hard that I woke up tired.  After my first cup of coffee and a little moving about, I think I'm recovered from the fatigue of getting ready to be away from my family.  I left them with 100% clean clothes and perhaps 50% clean house.  They're on their own now.  We talked via Skype last night, which we plant to do often, so I don't really feel that far away, nothing like 25 years ago when I was in Madrid and had to wait a week for a quick phone call from Rob.  The internet is such a wonderful thing.

Once the daily rains let up, we plan to go out and about so I can see this place where Maritza grew up.  I'm sure there's more to see than if I took her to my childhood neighborhood, which would be "There's another cornfield. Oh look, this field is soy! And here's the creek where we caught crawdads."  I don't know what plans she has for me for these next few days, but I do hope she gets over the idea that I cannot even pour my own coffee.  I think I could never live up to her high standards of hosting people in my home.

So I have until next Thursday here, at which time I will return to San José to move in with stranger(s), whose home I will call my own for a month.  More on that later...

Mi amiga costarricense y colega de Texas y querida amiga, Maritza, a quien pude ver en Cincinnati y a quien visito (con su familia esta vez) en Cañas, Guanacaste, Costa Rica. ¡Me faltan tres días!

¡Ya voy, Costa Rica!

With deep gratitude to the committee from the National Spanish Exams, I am thrilled to be able to study at the University of San José this summer. I got the scholarship! And I am stoked!

Video para la beca

I didn't want to make my friend holding the camera do another take, so here is the raw footage.  And for my non-Spanish-speaking friends, here's a translation:

Greetings everyone!. My name is Sinde Wickersham, and I am a Spanish teacher at a Catholic high school in Birmingham, Alabama.  I imagine that it's obvious that I'm American: I was born and reared in Indiana, where I started studying Spanish in high school and continued studying it in college.

With teaching Spanish as my objective, I knew that I'd have to study and travel abroad as much as possible.  With 25 years experience in the classroom -19 in Plano, Texas, and 6 here in Alabama- I need to go abroad again as a student, mainly to study, learn, and improve my teaching.  I prefer Costa Rica because I've never been to Central America, and I really would like to get to know the people there, and of course learn the history and culture. But what I would like the most is that my students and my own children see me with the desire and the initiative to keep on learning so that they know that life is always a great adventure.

I offer my deepest thanks for the opportunity to do this.  Thank you.

(Besides the other mistakes, or words that don't sound too clear, what are the odds that I taught the vocabulary word "aventurero" just minutes before attempting to say "aventura"?   :)   Clearly I need this practice by immersion!)

Here I am at work in my classroom at John Carroll Catholic High School in Birmingham, Alabama.  This year (2010-2011) I have ninety-nine students in five classes: two sections of Spanish II (regular and honors combined), two sections of Spanish III (also regular and honors combined), and one class of AP Spanish Language and Culture.  

By the way, I love these kids.

Since I can't be home eating bon-bons and watching General Hospital, I'm glad I get to be here.  (And being surrounded by my turtles is icing on the cake.)