Second Week

I am officially half way through the program and I'm getting more excited about being here daily! This week, I taught for the first time! Well first two times. I scored a B+ with my first class and an A with my second class. I'm feeling pretty good about it all!

I also started applying for jobs during week 2. I lined up 3 job interviews and have completed two of them. I'm excited to see what happens going forward! I will be applying for a bunch more jobs this week. My goal is to work and live in the San Jose area, close to San Pedro or Zapote. Hopefully, I'll have more information in the next few days.

I will officially be finished with my program in 2 weeks! We've been warned that week 3 can get pretty intense! Pray for my sanity! I will also, hopefully, be completely settled on my own in no more than 3 weeks. I'm really looking forward to truly starting this journey!

I'll be back to post more sometime this week!

Until then, Travel, Live, and just Be. 

Love Always, 

Kelli Marie 

First week complete!!

So I'm writing this as I'm sitting looking at the scenery in the photo above! The first week of my TEFL (teaching English as a foreign language) course is finally complete!!! Yesterday was the last day of class and we spent today traveling to and on the beach. 

I'm feeling pretty good about this course so far! We got an introduction to TEFL and a bunch of grammar refreshers. We also started lesson planing since we start student teaching next week. My first class is Monday!!!! 😳😳😳 

It's all good though! I'm actually pretty excited about it! My first lesson plan was approved and I completed my second for Wednesday with assistance from my instructor. I'm feeling pretty good about it all! 

The week was intense! Long days and lots of "homework"! Unfortunately, from what I understand, it's only going to get worse! However, everyone that I've spoken to says it's completely worth it, in the end! I believe that. 

In addition to classes this week, the Festival of Barva is happening! They've had a carnival-like set up in the town park all week. Yesterday, was the day of St. Botolomé. The town's citizens dressed up in crazy outfits and scary looking masks and danced in the streets. They also carried pig bladders filled with water and hit people with them. It was crazy!!!! 

Now, I'm sitting on a beach in my happy place! Looking forward to spending the weekend here. Another post about this weekend is yet to come! 

Until then, Travel to new places, Live unscripted, and Be FABULOUS!!! 

Love always, 

Kelli Marie

Lions, Tigers and Waterfalls???

Ok so I haven't seen any lions or tigers but the title made me chuckle a bit. hehehe

Well, I've been in Costa Rica since Tuesday and it's been a pretty eventful week. I met my host mom's mother, brother, sister-in-law and nephew on Wednesday after we walked to the school. Thursday, we met my host mothers daughter in downtown Heredia and went to El Mercado de Heredia (the market of Heredia). They introduced me to this really good candy that tastes like butter!! mmm, yummy!! A couple of my classmates, Spencer and Margaret came in on Thursday evening so we made plans to meet on Friday. We met at the school and then walked to Spencer's host family's house, hoping to meet some other classmates but found their flight was delayed, after a 40 minute walk! It was still cool though, We met his host mom and another student from a previous class, Andy. The four of us went to a local bar to hang out and ended up staying until about 7pm.

                                          Me, Spencer, Andy and Margaret (Left to right)

Saturday, my host mom and I went to downtown Heredia again for her to run some errands. In the process, she ended up locking the keys in the car. It took, 4 people, in addition to me and Maria, 45+ minutes to get us back in the car. When we got back, I met up with my classmates again and got to meet some others as well. My roommate came in last night around 7pm. Her name is Casey Cochran and she's from Kansas.

Today, the school offered an excursion to La Paz Waterfall and Nature Gardens. The tour typically goes to Volcań Poas as well but the volcano decided to become active back in April. The park has been closed for obvious reasons ever since.

A group of 10 students, plus 3 staff members from the tour company, met at the school this morning around 6:45AM. Our driver drove us through the downtown Alajuela area first to tell us a little bit about the history of the country.

After that, we drove up into the mountains/volcano's, and stopped at a coffee plantation. Our tour guide, Filander or Fila, had a wealth of knowledge about the country, the coffee and everything in between!

                                                                Kelli & Filander (Fila)

                                                                     Coffee Plantation

Shortly after visiting the plantation and trying their coffee, we stopped for a traditional Costa Rican breakfast of Gallo Pinto. It's a dish that consists of rice and beans together. Then we continued on to the gardens.

While in the gardens, we saw and learned about so many different species of flowers and fauna. We also saw many birds, butterflies, snakes, jungle cats, frogs and more.

After visiting the nature gardens, we hiked down to the waterfalls. It was amazing! The views were crazy and even though the trek down was steep and scary (I'm afraid of heights), it was completely worth it! I will say this though, the journey back up, reminded me why I need to get my but up and walk/run daily! I thought I was gonna die climbing those stairs!!!!

All-in-all, the day was amazing and the memories and new friendships created were worth every penny!

Class officially starts tomorrow so I'm looking forward to continuing this adventure and sharing it with you!

Until then, Live out loud, Travel the world and Be authentically you!

Love always,
Kelli Marie

Arrival

It's been a long time coming! I've been planning for this move since February 2017 and I'm finally here! My goal was to post this first entry yesterday but it was a ridiculously long day and I was exhausted. Now that I'm well rested, I can tell you a bit about my new, temporary digs.

I arrived in San Jose, Costa Rica, yesterday, August 15th after about a 4-4.5 hour flight. After breezing through immigration and customs, I met with my driver, John, who brought me to my host family. John was really cool and get this, he's born and raised Seventh Day Adventist!

Anyways, my host family is pretty nice.The mom's name is Maria Eugenia and the dad's name is Jose Fabio. They have 3 grown kids, one of which lives with her husband and kids in the annex apartment behind the main house. They also have two dogs, India and Uncle, as well as a lot of chickens and a turkey!

I have my own room and will have one other student staying here in the room next to mine. We start class on Monday, August 21. Yesterday, while going to get a Costa Rican sim card & phone number, my host parents drove us past the school so that I could see my walking route. It's about a mile or so away from their house. I'll actually walk it today so that I can get accustomed to the route.

That's all I have for now! Looking forward to seeing what each day brings and sharing my journey with you all! Until then, remember to Travel often, Live your life and just Be you!

Love always, 

Kelli Marie