Nicole's Adventures

As I posted in the previous post, I ended up staying a bit longer in Rosario than originally planned because of a few things. Mainly because I felt as though my help was truly needed, but also because the other teachers father died and classes were canceled for a full week and I didnt want to leave without saying good bye to the kiddos! That week I studied and did some farming, and extra time to explore around the area. Unfortunately most afternoons were rainy and the nights usually very rainy... This really made me want to head out. My host brother and I ended up becoming quite close and the extra conversations really helped me a lot with spanish and to understand a lot more about life in Cuellaje or Rosario than what I could see from the surface. It was really truly a challenge to keep the kids entertained... usually they just wanted to play games from the very first minute of class. Discipline was quite difficult at times, and the wide variety of levels like I said in the previous ...

    Profesora Blanca is truly a hero for teaching thirty five students grades one to seven herself without any assistance.  Obviously my help was much appreciated and welcomed by her , the students, and the parents. I taught English to the students Monday to Thursday´s and on Fridays taught Physical Education.  This was much more challenging than my other experiences teaching students English in Asia.  I taught four classes a day with two grade levels each class, and grade seven alone.  Class sizes varied from four to eleven students. The vast array of skill and knowledge in these classes was huge and one of the challenges. Some of the students remembered things from previous volunteers like it was taught yesterday, others didn´t remember anything at all. Energy and motivation of the students also varied a lot. I focused most of my teaching on speaking English and tried to get the kids speaking as much as possible and also when possible, movement....

The start of Ecaudor was quick. The morning after I arrived I did a free walking tour of old town and historic center of quito! That was really helpful to learn all the information and know where you are headed. He also talked a lot about the fruits and food of Ecuador.. It seems somewhat similar however some things slightly different. A few of the fruits have different names. After the walking tour I checked out one of the cathedrals with two guys I met on the walking tour. The hostel I stayed at in Quito was pretty unique. Pretty small and cheap and just run by one lady, her sister and mother who had kind of adopted this crazy indian guy who spoke no english and spanish and sits around and watches youtube clips of some sort of sport mixed with fighting and cricket? No one had any idea what it was! Some of the guys staaying there from argentina decided to organize a new years dinner. The following day we headedto the market to shop for that.. Originally it was about 10 of us then we...

Hola Amigos! Ahhhh I had soo much on my heart and mind to write about Colombia but as always when traveling sometimes you value the moments on your trip more than writing them down.. which in many cases I sort of regret because that means sometimes you forgot some of the amazing details or things that made you laugh. Playa Blanca, is incredible.. and what a fun little journey on a motobike to arrive there, sleep in a hammock for 5 dollars a night. Elena and I, one of the couch surfing girls and I brought all our own food because we heard the meals there were a bit expensive. There was not a kitchen but we just had tuna sandwiches stuffed with veggies and cheese, (cheese isnt refrigerated here) and fruits for breakfast. We made friends with the kiddos of where our hammocks were and enjoyed chatting with them and trying (for me) to dance salsa. The water was an utterly perfect light blue and white sand.  The next day I headed into the city to do a mud volcano tour which was al...

The rest of my time in Costa Rica was awesome and a little dried than before, thank goodness! And to update you... I didn't have any problems with my ATM cards, turns out it was all of the three machines in Monteverde which apparently don't accept mastercard even though the banks say they do! Crisis averted :) I spent my birthday on a bus and a boat gtting to Montezuma. Montezuma was soo cute, and small. The atomsphere was fabulous.  I headed to the beach as soon as I arrived and met some French Canadians who were throwing a frisbee. We went out to dinner and they treated me to my bday dinner. After, I hung out with an Aussie I met in my hostel and the bar made sure to play their cheesy "feliz cumpleanos" song and some free shots of Casique.. the Costa Rican sugar cane rum.. Which is quite rough, kind of like rubbing alcohol. The days after that I enjoyed a waterfall hike with Adam, the Aussie, days on the beach, and a snorkeling tour. After Montezuma, I headed...

HOLA from Costa Rica! Pura Vida is the perfect way to describe this country. It is so easy going and laid back, friendly and just lovable. I can see why so many tourists love this place. The first week Tyler and I were here we did a little tour of San Jose, mostly it´s just a typical city. We walked around and found an adorable pink school, and all sorts of crazy hustle and bustle traffic. The next morning we headed straight to the beach on the carribean side. We enjoyed relaxing so much over there that we decided to make the most of his short time away and hang out there for a week. During the week we spent time surfing, biking, and visiting a jaguar rescue center. We didn´t see any jaguars there but got to play with baby monkeys, see an anteater, owls, snakes, red eyed frogs, sloths, and toucans! It was really awesome. The people there were so sweet and so much fun. Tyler got to learn how to climb a coconut tree and use a machete to get to the stuff out of the coconut!  For Tyl...

Happy September :) I just returned back from a road trip to Wisconsin with my mom but more on that later! Let's get everyone caught up on the last two months!  The rest of the SSP summer went really smoothly. There were very few major hiccups during the weeks of campers. We did have a bit of some challenges during week 6, which is the last week of campers and when all the projects are supposed to be completed. We had a day and a half of rain.. so one day all the projects had to hang out in the gym.. We had a team help the cooks prepare lots of meals for the week, and another two teams helped do some cleaning at the senior center, but the rest hung out and played games. The next day, most of the teams except roofing and painting were able to do some work. However, this time was essential for finishing our projects in time.. Because of this delay and a few other material delivery delays, we had half a roof to finish, lots of balusters to be placed on a deck, and some touch up pai...