boring...

So...I can't really compete with the thriller dance from last Saturday...hence, the title "boring." Thanks for all the comments on facebook by the way. I feel as though I have made a lot of people proud :). Well, this week has been good. I feel like me and my students are finally in a good routine...really getting the hang of it. Of course there are times that things are a little crazy, but I'm just really happy with their progress. They are starting to read!!! Thanks for those of you that were specifically praying that would happen. I was concerned at first...but it's really amazing how something just clicks in their brain. I am so thankful for that because for a while...I was concerned! They are learning English so well too. I am so happy for them. I love seeing them understand and try to reply. It's so unfair how quickly they catch on. So school is going well...things at home are well. I'm learning a lot of Spanish, learning new foods and having new experiences. I've been battling the big cockroaches for a while now and they're even becoming a part of life. :) But besides that I am just excited about what the Lord has going for me. I'm going to go to bed now, because tomorrow we are off school and we are going to the beach! I am sooo excited. :) Thank you so much to all of you who send encouraging notes and are still praying...I really appreciate it and feel your prayers with me. It is such a blessing :)

Thriller...

Please click here

So today, I got my thrill on. :) I think I mentioned on here before that our school is putting on a play. Today we did some fundraisers and one was a coffee house/talent show. Kim, Kim and I decided that we need to participate in some form of dance for this coffee house...and clearly there was no option but doing the Thriller dance from Micheal Jackson. It was awesome. I have attached it for your viewing enjoyment. Other than that, we have just been doing lesson plans, learning Spanish, taking some salsa classes, and trying to entertain the little children. THings are going well. I'm praising the Lord that my Spanish comprehension has improved greatly since moving in with a family and getting a tutor. I'm definitley loving the food, loving the warm weather, and getting used to the monster cockroaches :). Nothing too funny going on...just my everyday awkwardness that just comes with me wherever I go...I think I am rocking it :)

God will provide...

So I'm learning more lessons about life again...here are some more insights that you are probably figuring out in your life too. So God has provided for me in some great ways this week...and has showed Himself to me...mainly financially. For that I am thankful. There has been some little blessings and answers to prayer that are just evidence to me again that God is taking care of me and knows about the little details of my life :). He will always provide! I am also learning to not be so competetive...not always trying to be the best. We aren't to compare ourselves to others or strive to be well known and well acclaimed. Our job is to serve where Jesus has asked us to serve. It doesn't matter what people think. We aren't asked to be the best missionary, the most spiritual pastor, the teacher with the best class, the most talented athlete or artist, the most beautiful woman, or have the most friends. What matters is how we serve God and if we are doing what He has asked us to do. Tonight the chapel leader said something that hit me hard. He said, "You are the only one that can do what you are doing...God is equipping you to do exactly what He wants to you do. Why do we try to compare ourselves to others?" It almost took my breath away. Learning Spanish can almost be a competition down here...among other "opportunities" to try to be the best. But that's not important. God is equipping me with everything that I need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3). I will receive what I need to serve Him best...not what I think I need, not necessarily what I want. If we are all created to do different things and carry out what God has asked us to do personally, why do we compare ourselves with others?

hmmm...

So I haven't posted in about a week, but I really haven't said too many funny things or climbed mountains or ate weird stuff :). Things have been going well. One interesting thing is that the girls and I have started taking these salsa dancing aerobics class. Oh it is hysterical. First of all, I am fully convince that white Gringa (N. American) blood was not made to move in that way. Secondly, I am convinced that we are very entertaining to the Ticos taking the class. It is so funny. I am dying laughing pretty much the whole time. Especially when they are asking us to bust out these moves that I haven't seen since high school prom. LOL. it's super cheap, roughly a dollar, so I can actually afford to go :) I wish I could video stream it for you! Another fun thing that happened is that we made some more Spanish speaking friends and went to their house. I was so awkward. We were playing pool and speaking Spanish and hanging out with guys, three things that I am not super-confident in...lol I'm sure you can imagine how I awesomely handled that situation. lol and we're probably going bowling on Saturday... great. Also on Sunday, we went to this huge church to see this guy named Nick from Australia speak. You might have heard of him before. He was born with no arms or legs, but he goes around and "walks" using two small stubs. He shares the gospel and just has an amazing testimony. It was really great. It was also great because he speaks English...so for once they were translating English into Spanish...excellente :) Well...I must go do some things for tomorrow...adios!

Mountain climbing...

Well this week has definitely had its ups and downs...literally and figuratively! I did climb up and down a mountain this weekend. It was crazy. Basically the whole city of San Jose is encircled by mountains. We took a bus out to one and hiked up it. On your way up the mountain, you climb to reach three crosses. The first is at about 5,000 feet altitude, the second about 6,000 ft, and the third around 7,000 feet. It was beautiful. You could look down and see the whole city. It was a pretty tough climb, but well worth it. You can see pictures above. I was so tired afterwards, and I thought my knee could fall off, but we made it. Then we all went to Kim's for a Superbowl Party...it was a big deal. Yes, it was on the TV. Needless to say I was pretty sore Monday and not as prepared as I would like to be to work with the children...they were a tough crew Monday and Tuesday for some reason, so I really struggled, but today was better...thank you Jesus. Let's see what else it going on....we started some basketball up, Kim started auditions for the spring play she is going to direct, and we all are looking forward to a staff retreat on Friday :). lol, so my blogging just got interrupted by a phone call. One of my previous students, Elim, and her family called me. lol they are from Korea and are just learning Spanish as well. However, they don't speak much English, so here is me speaking Spanish in my English accent and them speaking Spanish in their Korean accent. It's a little crazy. They are in Mexico now they said and really liking it. Super cute. Anyway, I guess I'll end with a good language story for you. So on Saturday I woke up and I must have slept wrong, so I kinda had a kink in my neck. I told my family, and they told me the word that started with a "t". Later on we were talking about recipes and we talking about putting bacon in something (bacon in Spanish also starts with a T). Later that night, we were talking with some Costa Rican friends about this neck problem I was having, however I mixed up my "t" words and told them that this morning I was hurting because there was big bacon on my neck. lol they laughed....I'm just keeping it interesting.

This week has been a good one. I'm getting worse and worse at blogging...sorry! I think it is because I'm getting used to how different life is here. I love it a lot...but it's still hard to think about how far away from home you are and what's going on there. Especially when your best friends at home are going through a hard time or planning weddings. I think that's the way that I am asked to sacrifice. It's not really a sacrifice for me to eat different foods, learn to speak in a new language, live in a different culture, do things different, live poor. The sacrifice for me is leaving the people that I cherish at home and knowing that I'm missing out on their lives. Sometimes that is a little hard to swallow, but I know God has me here for a purpose. I think living with a family makes me think about that because it makes me think how my family does things or interacts. I'm not homesick necessarily, sometimes it just hits you that you live in a different country. I think I'm also thinking about these things because I'm talking to my director about possibly staying longer. I'm praying about a lot of different things, so if you could join me in prayer, that would be wonderful. There is talk about making me the special education teacher only here, which would mean quite the undertaking (for a lot of reasons), and it would also mean that I might be here longer than 2 years. I'm also looking at getting my masters online and just pondering life in general. I just want to be sure that I'm exactly where God wants me to be and obeying Him without hesitation. So there is what I am contemplating in life. I want to be a servant and I want to someday meet Him and hear, "Well done, good and faithful servant." And to achieve that, I believe that means I must surrender to him my comfort, my future, my finances, my relationships and my life.

The pool (and sweatshirts) in January

This week has went really well. Extremely busy as usual, but fun. The weekends are a alot of fun too. Now that we don't have all the chores of cooking and cleaning all the time, we actually have fun on the weekends. That's a huge blessing. Nothing too exciting has been happening, just doing a lot of everyday life stuff. Saturday was fun, we went to the open market and tried a lot of foods. Then we went to a pool nearby for a little bit, trying to not be so obnoxiously white here :). It's been fairly chilly the last few days, so laying in the sun was great. Then last night we went pretty far away to a place called Escazu. We heard that is where all the rich people live. lol it was a pretty nice area. We went to an actual mall...it seriously looked like one in the states. They had a lot of normal stores from America and there was a lot of English. I was suprised at such a nice place in comparison to where we usually go and shop in my neighborhood. We saw a movie, which was really depressing. The movies here are usually in English with Spanish subtitles, so that was good. But the movie, Seven Pounds, was really disturbing. blah. It's okay, it was only $4 for the ticket. The mall also had a TCBY! Can you believe that? I loved that place in America, but they all shut down near me. I was so excited to eat that ice cream :). Anyway, today we went to church. I love my church. I love that it is Assembly of God. They are so excited about everything. It's great. Today we are going to my "abuela's"(grandma's) house for lunch. That should be fun and a good mental exercise in Spanish. Hopefully I don't do anything too embarassing! Well, that's pretty much all for now. Nothing too interesting. I'm getting used to large cockroaches and eating random foods (with the exception of sopa negra or "black soup"). This soup was the liquid left over from boiling black beans. They fry an egg over easy and put it and the yoke in the bowl, then mix some rice in. It was tasting okay going in to me, but I was not extremely well afterwards. lol I need to remember that black beans need to be eaten in moderation. My family here and my family in the U.S. both thought this was wildly hilarious, but I am still have nightmares ;). lol enough for now. Adios!