Bats for my Birthday , the Miracle Cure and Halloween

Amazing, two updates in the same week! :)

Tuesday was my birthday (thanks for the bday wishes, cards and packages everybody, I really appreciate it). It started off a little rough, as I arrived at school to find at least 20 bats flying around our school. Apparently they had been living in the roof of the cafeteria, which is currently being rebuilt. So all the little bats were freaking out because they lost their home and all the little children, and my little boss especially, was freaking out from all the bats. It wasn't a very productive day with the constant screaming. The fact that I had taught 8 months with a large family of bats above my head and didn't know it grossed me out. (I'm currently "sharing" my director's classroom while the roof is being fixed....by sharing, I mean struggling to get a word in with four grades of kids, all doing different things or more likely, just playing around when my director frequently leaves the classroom.) I heard the bats moved to the roof of the house next door to the school, which thankfully isn't my house!

After the little bat incident though, my birthday was great. My host family sang to me, my classes sang to me (in Spanish and English...yay, they learned something!) and my host family threw a little party for me the night of my birthday. There was lots of eating, laughing and dancing to Michael Jackson. Albertina made me a delicious birthday cake too! This was exciting because all of the probably 10 plus birthday cakes I've had here pretty much taste like nothing. I got a key holder, a change purse, and lotion from my extended host family and kleenex from one of my students.

The kleenex seemed to be some sort of bad omen because the next day I woke up with a really bad, can't breathe out of your nose, type of cold. Needless to say, I used up the entire present within a day and spent the next two days pretty much laying in bed. Albertina kept bringing me tea, again made out of some unknown plant from the yard. On Thursday night, she brought in a lemon that she had heated up and squeezed hot lemon juice all over my back...which also resulted in hot lemon juice on my pjs, on my bed, on my pillow etc. but I was too tired and sick to care. I am now referring to this method as the miracle cure because I woke up on Friday morning feeling much much better. I'm not suggesting you try this, because it is a bit messy, but if you're desperate...:)

On Friday, we had an acto civico (assembly) celebrating all things English and also Halloween. Every class did some sort of performance for the parents. Kindergarten did a rousing rendition of "5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed," 1st grade did "The Wheels on the Bus" complete with thier own baby dolls to shush, 2nd grade had some very convincing animal sounds in "Old McDonald" and third grade did a play based on "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown." Unfortunately, there was no electricity at school that day and my computer decided to die in the middle of the first song, so I had to go a capella style for the rest of the groups. I don't think I was quite well enough to be singing at the top of my lungs, because I literally lost my voice for a good 3 hours after.

Thankfully, I didn't have to sing for the older kids. 4th grade explained the history of halloween, jack o'lanterns, and trick or treat in English and Spansih, 5th grade named many of the countries that speak English (we finally mastered where Australia is located) and 6th grade gave reasons why it is important to learn English in Costa Rica. Then came the big surprise....I had taught my 3 6th grade girls the Thriller dance. Between the Halloween theme and the fact that it was Michael Jackson (many of my students still think we were close friends in the US), it was a hit. Unfortunately, it seemed to be the day of things dying, first my voice, then my computer, then my video camera. So I only have about half of the dance but here it is:



Then we awarded prizes in the jack o'lantern drawing contest and went "trick or treating" around the school. I'd say it was a successful Halloween.