Everyday Life Part 1: Home, School and "Lego Bloggers"...

There is a temptation when you are writing something like this (for consumption by friends, family and who-knows-who-else) to succumb to the modern tendency to write only about the positives and never about the negatives.  But that’s what I now call a “Lego Blog” (“Eeeeverything is Awesome!”).  The world is filled with “Lego Blogs”, “Lego Tweets”, “Lego Facebookers” and so on.   (for those of you who don’t get the reference, go watch The Lego Movie and you’ll figure it out within the first five minutes).

As we hit Day 10 in Costa Rica, we are definitely going through some to-be-expected ups and downs.  Luckily there are more ups than downs — which we will take considering we are two days into school in another country, still trying to get used to living up a mountain, etc.

The House…

— I think this is our biggest question mark right now.

— The funny thing is, the adjustments re: the house have little to do with “whoa…we’re in Costa Rica!” and more to do with “huh…everyone else we have met lives down in or near town like we used to in Milton but are in an area that everyone HERE views as ‘being out in the country.’”  The nearly universal response when we tell people where we are living is “oh cool…you are going to live up the mountain to start your year?  When are you moving down to town?”  When we say “ummm…we were thinking we’d stay up there all year” the answer is invariably “ohhh…ummm…that’s great!” (then a change of subject).

— On the plus side, the house is amazing (cool architecture and decorating and all that jazz).  The views are incredible.  There is fresh, cool, mountain air and no pollution.  We have cows as neighbors (we seriously get stuck in “cow traffic jams” every day when they are being walked up and down the road to/from the milking facility a few hundred meters from us).  There is a great little restaurant right down the road.  There is a neighborhood roaming dog that has adopted Liadan as her new pal.  And so on.

— BUT there is a reason that all of the Costa Ricans we have met say “oh…you’re living way up there?!?”  It’s 10 minutes to get to a small store and 20 to the kids’ school and to the main shopping areas.  It forces a ton of planning ahead because you aren’t going to want to keep going back and forth 4 times a day.  The internet service suuuuucks (although we are working on that).  And the winds can be strong.  And i mean “feels like the house is going to blow over” kinda strong.  Wind has only been bad on two nights since we arrived but evidently November into December is the crazy-windy month.  And then there is the fact that the house has TONS of glass (for the views)…but no heat.  It is perfect during the day and fine at night if it isn’t windy.  But on windy nights, the house IS uncomfortably chilly.

— Flipping back to the positives, though.  It IS an amazing and unique place and who knows how long this area will still feel “quiet and rural.”  We do feel lucky to have the chance to experience it.  But there IS that wee bit of doubt creeping in as to whether we should stay up here for the entire year or move down the mountain a bit at some point and sublet the place.  We shall see...

The School…

— Two days in and given that the kids are at a new school in another country and all that jazz, they are adjusting SHOCKINGLY well.  Although no school is perfect, I will say that the European School goes out of their way to be incredibly open, casual, nurturing, etc.  For example, on day one we were dropping all the kids off at their classrooms.  It was a bit chaotic b/c tons of other parents were doing the same.  We didn’t get a chance to talk to Jack’s teacher other than “here he is…have a great day” but we weren’t EXPECTING anything more than that.  Yet two minutes later, as we were leaving, his teacher chased us down to apologize for not taking the time to chat and then proceeded to talk about class, about Jack, etc. for five minutes.  Ella was swarmed by the girls in her class as soon as she showed up.  Etc.

— Kid-by-kid Part #1…Liadan:  She is a very happy camper two days in.  After the first day she was upset about only one thing…they have to take an instrument and she thought she was going to have to take the violin but she wanted to do the recorder.  Problem solved (phew!).  And after day two she was beaming.  She has a few little friends (who don’t speak much English but at that age she somehow doesn’t even seem to notice).  Loves her teacher.  Etc.

— Kid-by-kid Part #2…Charlie: Another happy camper.  Loves his teacher.  Has made a few friends.  LOVES the focus on art and music in the school. And unlike the other three (I’ll get to that in a moment) doesn’t even mind the lunch policy (he might be the only kid in the school who has zero complaints about the lunch policy).

— Kid-by-kid Part #3…Ella: Socially (which is key for Ella getting comfy in a new environment), things have been great for Ella.  She was like a little rock-star on day one with the other girls (“look…we’ve got a new kid in class!”).  The girls continue to be incredibly empathetic and friendly with her.  However, she had a rough first two days because the SSL teacher (Spanish as a Second Language) doesn’t start until next week.  Normally, Ella and Jack will be pulled out for SSL while the other kids are doing Spanish Language Arts (grammar, literature in Spanish, etc.).  She was freaking out a bit about this after day one (sitting in a class with no English where she couldn’t follow a single word) because she thought it was going to PERMANENTLY be that way.  We cleared it up the next day but she still has to sit through this first week.

— Kid-by-kid Part #4…Jack’s had the most “mixed bag” experience after two days.  It seems that if you are a sixth grade Costa Rican boy at the European School, part of the way you rebel a bit is by NOT speaking English at all when hanging around in the classroom between classes, etc. (they are supposed to at least try).  And he appears to have the only grade in the school with only one other native English speaker (an American boy who is in the other class).  Combine this with the same issue Ella had (SSL not starting until next week) and it was a bit of a rough start for Jack socially.  BUT, he has been a total trooper.  He gets right in there and plays with the kids after lunch and says they are very nice even if he doesn’t totally understand them.  : )   And he is very into his classes.  The “integrated curriculum” approach is great for a kid like Jack (who LOVES to dive deep into subjects).  An entire year of African history, literature, etc. taught by a South African teacher…THAT’S what gets him up in the morning right now.

     For a final, general comment on the “good side” I’ll go back to the “very nurturing environment” comment that I made earlier.  Given this culture at the school, we are confident that the kids will work through these growing pains and have a good year at school.  They even have a yoga class for moms twice a week after drop-off and Audrey has already met a group of women (with whom she is going away for a two day yoga retreat in a month)!  And EVERYONE goes out of their way to be helpful (sharing tips, making calls to help introduce you to people, etc.).  A real community.

     No description of the European School would be complete without one final “not so good” item (from the kids point of view)…the lunch policy.  It’s going to be a painful burn-in process before our kids are comfortable with the fact that every day they are going to be given a big salad and whatever happens to be on the menu (no food can be brought from home).  You HAVE to eat it all and if you aren’t done by the start of recess, you are moved to “the slow table” to finish while others are at recess.  On the flip side of this issue, the good news is that after a year of this lunch policy, I can only imagine who much less picky our kids will be at home.  Miss Anne (the headmaster) will have broken them in for us once and for all!  : )