Pretty sure this airport is a bit sketchy

Today, we are leaving La Fortuna via Nature Air, which is a carbon neutral airline. Since we are traveling as a group of 28 or so, we are taking two planes. Because we won't all fit on one plane!

Actually, it's fine and safe; I am not scared. I actually like flying in these little puddle jumpers. I think part of the reason we are flying to San Jose is because the road to get there is mostly gravel and very curvy. Last year it was a 5 hour drive by bus. For us, it will be a 15 minute flight. Nice!

See this fabulous runway?

ZIP

Zip line? Piece of cake! We spent our afternoon zip-lining through the canopy. What a rush! I think I'm an adrenaline junkie now! I took some footage with my Flip camera, so I will share it with you next week. I'll just sat amazing and leave it at that.

Tonight is dinner and shopping on our own in the city so my "work" duties are done for the day. Tomorrow we are flying on a carbon-neutral plane to San Jose to begin our journey home. I am excited to see my family and of course, all of you, but I hate to leave this fantastic place. I have so much to tell you!

I'll leave you with a photo from today. This is me and one of our guides, Eduardo. He is some kind of superhero! This was after our lunch at a restaurant overlooking the Arenal volcano.

Agricultural school, volcano and mineral springs

Today was a busy one! We checked out of Selva Verde (green jungle) Lodge and headed to the Arenal volcano area at La Fortuna. Along the way, we stopped at an agricultural high school and it was quite an experience. The students start there in 7th grade and choose a "major" such as agriculture, ecology, ecotourism, etc; they take the appropriate classes and also work 4-6 hours a day in their major. For example, the school runs a farm, complete with vegetable gardens (where I got to "plant" some hydroponic lettuce), pigs, goats, cows and chickens, all of which supply the cafeteria with ingredients. I was most impressed with the hotel that is run by the students! They have a patio for dining and even have a botanical garden for guests. It was a student endeavor right down to the last detail - even the artwork on the walls was student-made.

Then, off to La Fortuna, only a 45 minute ride. After we all checked into our bungalows at the base of the Arenal volcano, we had a productive teacher meeting and fantastic dinner, followed by a nice, long dip in the mineral spa. Tomorrow is hiking, probably zip-lining and then some free time in the city. Shopping, anyone? I can't decide whether to shop or visit the hotel spa on my free afternoon ;-). Just kidding. Shopping always wins. It's a bit cloudy (have I mentioned that sometimes, just sometimes, it's a little rainy here?) so we haven't seen the top of the volcano yet, but I am hopeful we'll see it before flying back to San Jose on Friday morning.

More to follow! Hope all is going well!
Hoping to post some zip line pix tomorrow. Until then, take a look at this lovely poison dart frog I saw on my way to breakfast this morning. Cute, huh? I have found tons of frogs, but most have been the famous blue jean variety, which is also poisonous. I've only seen three of these little green and black fellows!

Pura vida!

Machete

Today I got to use a machete! We chopped down invasive plant species, then took a 2 hour hike in Selva Verde, another rainforest. We saw howler monkeys, peccaries, toucans, and three toed sloths; not to mention the bullet ants, leafcutter ants and crazy huge centipedes. It was nuts - I almost expected a T-Rex to pop out at any minute :-)

Tomorrow we move to the Arenal Volcano area and visit a school along the way. I am ready to hike and then relax in the hot springs.

I went swimming out in the pool to cool off this evening, just thought I should let you know that since I heard it is SNOWING in Vevay!

I must now go as some of us are learning to slack line tonight. I really stink at it! Here is my roommate, on her first try!

Adios, amigos.

Two more items crossed off the bucket list

Today we hiked in the Tirimbina reserve (twice, actually); once to a chocolate growing & processing demonstration and once just to see what we could find. My two biggest moments were seeing a troop of white-faced Cappucine monkeys and then seeing a howler monkey. It was just indescribably awesome, something that I will remember forever.

I also crossed a hanging bridge that was 800 meters, if I remember correctly. It crossed the rainforest and two rivers. Not scary at all! I filmed a few minutes to share with you all when I get back so you can see how shaky it was up there.

Tonight, we capture and measure bats.
And later this week, we head to the volcano. This is the place I'll be staying: www.arenalparaiso.com

Looks pretty sweet!

Enjoy the photo of an iguana we saw today. You may have to supersize it. A little blurry, but all I had was my phone at that moment.

Good morning and Happy Monday

Hola, amigos! It's really Sunday night here, but wanted to wish you a happy week and let you know I survived the night hike. A few of us veered off on our own adventure and ended up in a HUGE rainstorm, which was really scary and fun. And very, very dark. My pants were soaked with mud from the knees down - but totally worth it!

Homestay...seeing how the ticos really live!

So, last night (Saturday) was our homestay on a finca, or farm. Thankfully, I had a Spanish speaker in my group of four, because our hosts did not speak any English!

It was a rustic farm that at one time had been a commercial coffee plantation, but is in the process of becoming "organic", meaning chemical-free; no herbicides, pesticides, or fertilizers. We did a lot of hiking and it was just amazing to think that these folks get to wake up to and work this beautiful place every day. We heard howler monkeys, saw leaf-cutter ants, found anteater traces (but here, they call them ant bears), learned a lot about medicinal plants and simply enjoyed the views! Looked for blue jean frogs (google it for an image) because I had found some earlier in the weekend, but no luck.

Our host was a young 71 years old and very energetic. His lady (long story which I will explain later) cooked fabulous food for us and let us watch her make a Tinkerbell birthday cake, as she teaches cake decorating. The home, as I wrote, was rustic, but comfortable. Plus they had a cat which made me so happy because I was getting a little homesick and "Saul" reminded me of my pets back home. They also had parrots, parakeets, chickens and, oddly, a raccoon.

We left today to head to a lodge in a different part of the rainforest. Tonight, we have a night hike. I am so excited!!! Hoping to see some crazy stuff ( we hear there will be a lot of snakes! )

A little bit of my heritage here in Costa Rica

Saw this on a shelf at a local farm and it made me smile. My dad retired from Dow Corning and I worked there in the summer of 1991.

Yeah. Still raining.

"Oh, look, it's raining.".

"Hey, it's a rainforest.".

Those have been the running punchlines among my hilarious colleagues the last few days. Funny, eh? Actually, we are not complaining at all, it IS a rainforest, that's why we came! We have been doing and seeing some pretty extraordinary things, rain or no rain.

Things that surprised me: there are armadillos all over this place. Did you know there were armadillos in the rainforest? Also, practically no windows on the buildings at this university. "True indoor/outdoor living" as they would say on HGTV.

Yesterday we visited a few sustainable processes at the university (this place is huge!): a banana farm and a dairy/piggery. Yes, it is called a piggery. Very exciting technology going on, but not rocket science. They just use good, common, Earth-friendly sense, like using cafeteria waste for pig slop, or using the animal waste to produce methane for fuel. Workers are treated and paid well, animals are treated humanely, just a very inspiring operation here. Enjoy my photo of the bananas being carried down the line (from the field to the processing plant).

Today, we head to our homestays, where we stay on a family farm. We will be in groups of four & and I know that one of my team is fluent in Spanish, so that's a relief. Cross fingers for cocoa bean farm, ok?

Public versus private school

So, today we visited a local tech high school, which focuses in getting students ready to enter the work force. Sort of like the Southeastern Career Center, but they also have traditional courses like biology, chemistry, foreign language. There were about 800 students grades 7 - 11 and it just happened to be their last day of school this year (they go back in February; this is their summer break) so there weren't a lot of classes in session. I did rat out a student using her cell phone, though. We teachers gotta stick together!

They had what I can only assume is their version if Field Day. But instead if playing dodgeball, they wrestled cows. Our guide called it a Costa Rican rodeo. It was nuts! The students would be dragged through the mud, the crowd was screaming, and of course it is raining buckets the whole time. Utter insanity but very, very exciting and fun!

We have some classes and meetings this afternoon followed by a BBQ with some local teachers, so a pretty quiet afternoon in store for me. Going to go get a cappuccino!

It is raining. In the rainforest. Go figure.

We are currently at EARTH University and believe it or not, it's raining! Yesterday we hiked in a cloud forest and saw a hog-nosed pit viper, a three toed sloth and leafcutter ants. Amazing! Right now there is a lizard called a basilisca on the tree in front of the university. When someone said basilisk, I got pretty excited, thinking about Harry Potter, lol.

Today we are visiting another school so more time on the road. The roads here are narrow, bumpy, curvy and sometimes, paved. Just like home.

Happy turkey day!

This is a school!

Can you imagine coming to school with weather like this every morning? There are open courtyards in the buildings so they are very connected to the outdoors. Just lovely!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Just wanted to say Happy Thanksgiving before my students left for the long weekend!

Here is a pic of the view from my hotel room this morning. We are headed out of the city for the next 9 days!

I feel so official!

I was a guest at the U.S. Embassy today! It was really, really cool to say the least. We couldn't take in electronic devices, had to show our passports, had our baggage searched and went through a metal detector. Only 5 of us were allowed in the entry booth at a time. We had four speakers, each of whom works for different agencies in the Embassy: one from cultural affairs, one from economics, one from environment and one from the office that helps Americans while they are visiting Costa Rica. I learned a lot and it was pretty darn cool to be in the Embassy. Wish I had pictures!

We had two other lectures today (and, yes, I took notes! I am a good student). The first speaker was a scientist (Dr. Pedro Leon) who was an advisor to the former President of Costa Rica. He spoke to us about Costa Rica's environmental goals as far as becoming "carbon neutral" by the year 2021.

Our final speaker was the Minister of Education, Dr. Leonardo Garnier. He had quite an interesting perspective on education - Costa Rica has a lot of the same issues that the U.S. has, but more on that when I return!

For dinner, a bunch of us decided to go for Thai food - I know, go to Central America, get Thai, doesn't make sense, but we have 10 more days of Costa Rican food, so we thought we'd change it up a bit. Let me just say that 12 Americans plus a map of San Jose does not equal an easy trek! We finally found the place and the food was great, totally worth the 10 block circle!

More to come, we are headed to sn affluent school and then EARTH University tomorrow and our first real hike!

Pura vida!

This picture is for Jason and Noah

Saw this street poster and thought you'd like to see where Megadeth will be this December!

Like a Big Sore Thumb

That's how I stick out here in San Jose! With my camera bag and backpack, I don't blend too well. But everyone had been extremely nice and speaking to me in English. I have exchanged some dollars for colones and need to download an app that calculates conversions for me. I never have been able to calculate prices in foreign denominations, I get all confused while shopping! So many pretties, lol! I saw an awesome bookstore so will definitely be going back later. Ladies, there were lots of shoe stores but I need to save room in my luggage, so I held back (for now).

We are staying right in San Jose for two nights, and I am happy to report that it's a five star hotel! Apparently, it's the only 5 star in San Jose. We had a fresh fruit buffet after we checked in and all I can say is "yum"!

We walked around town a bit; it is really a very small city! We have already seen parakeets (I think) and there were coffee beans growing in the city parks - how cool is that? I learned that coffee beans are hand-harvested because not all the beans in a plant ripen at the same time. Quite labor intensive!

I promise to put up some pictures tomorrow. I used my iPhone so much on the plane that I had to charge it while we were walking around. I took photos with my good camera, but it's much easier to upload from my phone. All I have now is a picture of my 48,000 colones! I'm rich! Not really, you just get 500 colones per dollar.

Later! I hope you had a good Monday! Miss you all (seriously!)

Good morning! Am I really up so early?

Yes, up at 3:30 this am to meet our ride to the airport. And we all know I'm not much of a morning person :-). Where's the coffee?

We catch a flight to Houston, and from there, we are Costa Rica bound! So, by the time your school day ends, I should be checked in to our hotel and walking the streets of San Jose.

Thanks for the hospitality, San Antonio! We enjoyed the food, the Riverwalk, the Alamo and especially our day at Toyota's truck plant.

Have a great day, biology students at SCHS, and enjoy your endangered species research!

Deep in the heart of Texas!

Did some walking and boating around San Antonio today - and you can't go to San Antonio and NOT see the Alamo (by the way, it doesn't have a basement. PeeWee was right. Students, you probably won't get that. But people my age might. If they watched PeeWee's Big Adventure.)

Also got to visit with bff Wendy at the airport in Dallas - a wonderful coffee break! So nice to see her! By the way, she and I also vacationed together in San Antonio a few years ago.

More tomorrow, I am tired! Mrs. Smith needs her rest.

Leaving on a jet plane...

Heading out today and so far, so good. I am not always the luckiest traveler when it comes to flight delays and lost luggage :-) but I am ever optimistic that this time, all will be well.

Can the Vevay folks identify the landmarks in my picture?

Panic mode!

Oh my, oh my, oh my! How to fit two weeks of "stuff" into one suitcase? Hmmm. And how big can my purse be before it's considered a second carry-on? :-)

One suitcase plus a backpack plus a handbag. I can do this. Actually, I am more worried about fitting all the stuff in on the return trip. These are good problems to have, I think!

Adios, going over my list one more time!

It's getting closer...

...and a little more real now that November is here. So much to do, so little time! I have been doing a lot of reading lately, obviously about the Costa Rican flora and fauna, but also some fiction books written with Costa Rica as the setting. My fav so far is by Barbara Ras; it's a series of short stories so it's just right for reading a few pages at a time. I don't seem to have any long stretches of time for reading these days! Looking forward to potential snow days in January and February for that.

I am working hard on creating some cool projects for my classes, but don't want to give away too much just yet. I am also working on my packing list and I believe I might just be able to fit everything in my bag. Now coming home may be a different story! I am bringing a few things that I am not in love with, so I can leave those behind should I need to make room in my luggage on the return trip. Learned that tip from traveling to Europe in 2009 with a colleague (Denny Jackson for you locals) and it has served me well!

Until I have something interesting to say, adios!

PS: The photo above is my family on our Fall Break getaway to a cabin near Gatlinburg, Tennessee. We rented a place with two other families, so 6 adults and 6 boys, oy! My friend Jackie took this photo and I am pleasantly surprised that Sam is not frowning or turning his head away. :-) Love you, Sam!

The countdown begins!

I realized this evening that a mere two months from tonight, I'll be packing and repacking (and panicking that I'm forgetting something) and sneaking in extra hugs with the kids! I am sure a sleepless night will follow - I can never sleep the night before a big event, just too excited, usually. And this trip definitely qualifies as a "big event"!

I received my itinerary, complete with suggested packing list and safety information. Did you know that Costa Rica boasts 135 species of snakes? However, only 17 are known to be venomous! I am mostly putting these facts in for my mom, she has an unusually intense fear of snakes. At any rate, I stocked up on bug spray, sunscreen and aloe today before it all disappears from the store shelves in Indiana. Couldn't find any snake repellent, though :-) Sorry, Mom.

The trip starts with our group meeting up in San Antonio, Texas (love that town!!!), then flying into San Jose, CR for a day or so. We'll visit the US Embassy, visit an archeological site and learn about education in CR. We then head to Guacimo to Earth University to study sustainable agriculture, visit a rural school and do home stays on local farms. After that, we will be in La Selva, Sarapiqui (rainforest!) to learn about biodiversity, native plants and invasive species, and, best of all, the itinerary reads "Cacao and Chocolate". The food scientist in me is doing cartwheels! After the rainforest, we head to La Fortuna (Arenal Volcano) where we will discuss ecotourism, volcanic activity and the geologic history of the region. The last leg of our trip takes us back to San Jose for debriefing. I can't even think that far ahead at this point; I am just too overwhelmed with all the wonderful experiences I am going to have. Have I mentioned that I am excited? And lucky? And grateful?

Off to get ready for a new week. My Sunday nights are always packed full of "What do I need to grade?"(answer: everything) "Which nights are we busy this week?" (answer: all of them) and "Gee, why can't this be a 3 day weekend?" (no good answer to that one)

PS...High five to my handy husband for fixing the hot water heater Saturday. And for checking the coolant on my car. And for taking Ben to breakfast this morning, allowing me to sleep in until, gasp, 9:00 am!!!!

On the go blogging!

Just an attempt to blog on the go via the blogger app I just downloaded. I took a photo of the hiking shoes I found at the Zappo's store near Louisville, Ky- aka - the happiest place on Earth! Shoes, shoes, shoes. Of course I picked up a few other things; it would be silly to drive that far and only get one thing ;-)

I spy with my little eye: a 3 day weekend!

Yahoo -it's Friday, it's payday and it's a three day weekend! A trifecta of goodness!

I took my students to the computer lab today to make sure they could all view my blog from school and I believe we are good to go. I had them complete a fact sheet and locate Costa Rica on a map, so at least they have a idea of where I'll be in just a few months.

At this point, I am busy reading the posts and blogs of my traveling companions to see what they plan on packing, what technology they are bringing, etc. I am not a light packer, but I vow to be one by November, as I'll be the one lugging the suitcase :-) And I need to leave room for souvenirs. I'm thinking a Capuchin monkey would fit nicely in my carry on!

Enjoy the long weekend and STAY COOL. It's a hot one out there.

Local Festivals and Such

Two weeks into the school year - it's going by so quickly! Very busy but having a wonderful year, I have great classes; the students and I are getting to know one another and they are getting used to me, my corny jokes and my vast shoe collection.

Big weekend in Vevay: our local annual Swiss Wine Festival is taking place as I type. Ostensibly, it's a celebration of our town's Swiss roots, but it always seems to be a class reunion/homecoming/party event by the time it's all said and done. So fun to see everyone and get caught up! It looks to be a great weekend, weather-wise, so we'll have a good turnout. I volunteer a few hours at the main gates with my Tri Kappa sisters and also with our high school's Key Club (I am the sponsor). It's busy, hectic and exhausting but I'm always so glad to be a part of it!

See you at the tasting tent :-)

So long, summer!

It's the official first day of school here! Can plaid skirts and sweaters be far behind? Dare I say it, boots???!!

The new year always brings challenges, the worst of which for me is remembering the new names and faces. I'm just not good at that. I'd probably be better at remembering numbers, should I just assign each student a number a la Dr. House? "Number 7, sit down!"

Otherwise, I am excited to start the new semester and to see my colleagues and former students again. It just makes me smile when a former student stops by to say hello and talk about what happened over the summer.

I'll miss sharing my first cup of coffee with Matt Lauer and Al Roker, but I'll be back to visit at Christmas and of course, we always have next summer!

Welcome!

New blogger here! This is the first of many posts, I hope. I created it as a forum for sharing my upcoming travel experience with my students, friends and family. I am the (very excited) recipient of a grant, courtesy of the Toyota International Teacher Program, that will allow me to travel to Costa Rica this fall with 25 other teachers from the US. Truly the opportunity of a lifetime!

Background info: I am a science teacher at my own alma mater, Switzerland County High School, in Vevay, Indiana (southeast corner of the state). I graduated from Purdue University in 1994, but worked in the pharmaceutical industry until 2007. I began my teaching career on an emergency license; I started as the Integrated Chemistry & Physics teacher and then added Honors Chemistry to my roster. I was also a student at Indiana Wesleyan University while I was teaching. I received my professional teaching license in late 2008. Busy times, but it was worth it! Last fall, I took over the Biology teaching position, which means I teach Biology, Honors Biology and Anatomy & Physiology. I love teaching Biology, but I sorely miss the previous teacher, Mrs. Ann Roller, who retired and recommended me for the opening. I am very fortunate to be colleagues with many of my former teachers! Sort of completes the circle for me.

At this point, I have no really exciting things to say, just wanted to get the blog started prior to the rapidly approaching school year. The blog will probably be required reading for my classes (cue the groans) as I hope to be able to update daily while I am traveling. I am also using http://www.edmodo.com/ as an assignment/grading resource, but that site is for students only.

Until August 12th...Cheers!