Week 7: Sports begin, Subbing and Home Sweet Home!

Sports Begin:

After school sports started last week and the boys are loving it.  Ray is involved in both soccer and basketball and John is involved in soccer.  The nice thing for Ray is that he is able to play with high school kids so he is definitely learning a lot.  Hopefully they will have some games against other schools soon.  The difficult part about sports after school is that it is so HOT (usually 90 plus degrees-plus, there is a lot of humidity right now).  The coaches make sure to take a lot of water breaks, but it is definitely a challenging factor for the boys.

Subbing:

Last week I was asked to sub for an English teacher who had a 3-day planned absence.  Of course, I jumped at the chance!  I was able to teach 7th, 9th and 11th grades-fortunately for Ray, not having to teach him and his peers! I got to revisit 3 classics-“To Kill a Mockingbird”, “The Catcher in the Rye”, and “The Great Gatsby”.  The students were great and I hope to have a chance to go back again.  Having said that, the same day I took my sub job, Mark was asked if he could cover for a science teacher they “let go” that day and will likely be working at the school for the next 3 weeks.  Funny enough, we were placed in classrooms right next to each other!  He loves the idea of subbing, but is just a bit concerned with the subject matter-Chemistry, Physics, and 6th grade Life Science.  He needs to study up these next three weeks!  The pictures below show what it looks like right outside Mark’s classroom door.

Home Sweet Home:

We love our home here!  It is definitely small, but I think we have already learned that we do not need a lot of space and a lot of “stuff” in our lives in order to be happy.  Although the boys struggle (at times) to share a small room and sleep in the same bed, things are going better than expected.  Mark and I love our bedroom as this is the first king size bed we have ever had!

Other interesting notes:

• The boys actually LIKE having uniforms!  As a parent, I have to say that uniforms make life SO much easier.  I wish we had them more in our public schools in the states!  The picture below shows that we are ready for the week; pretty simple.

• Manta Rays actually jump out of the water-kind of like a flying fish.  They come in to the shallow areas of the ocean and seem to enjoy swimming among the waves and current as much as humans do (they don’t have a stinger and can’t hurt you).  It was hard to capture a picture of them as they are so quick, but I have found an image that is pretty accurate.

• Of course, Costa Rica has McDonalds (and Burger King, and Subway, and Taco Bell!).  We went to Liberia, which is an hour away, to run some errands and treated the boys to their favorite meals.
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  Until next week, Pura Vida!

  Ray, John, Janet, and Mark (from the gates outside our house)