On the off chance people are reading this

*************************************WARNING***********************************
The following paragraph has nothing to do with my actual travels, just what I believe about travel itself. If you don't care what I think about travel and just want to know what I've been up to, skip to the next paragraph.


Ok, I must admit I've had a really hard time writing on this blog. It's not that I haven't done anything exciting. It's just that I don't want to bore people with long winded stories. That, and I realize that I view the concept of travel itself differently than how some people view travel. Personally, travel is not necessarily a means to self-discovery or self-enlightenment. If I truly wanted to "discover" something about myself I would join a monastery or meditate for a few years or something like that I guess (I don't even know what it means to discover oneself). I just like to travel, have a good time, and meet new people. It's pretty self-serving in the end and I'm aware of that. But, honestly, I think that travel to everyone is a self-serving, whether anyone wants to admit it or not. So, when I was thinking of what I should write on my travel blog, I could never come up with anything deep or inspirational. I mean, the highlight of my trip thus far is (and this is taken out of context so if you keep reading this I just might explain what that concept is) walking around an indigenous village at two o'clock in the morning drunk with two indigenous guys I just met, talking about nothing in particular. What did that teach me about myself? Well, here's the answer, I guess. If some guy I just met buys me a forty after I've already had 7 beers, I'll man up, drink it, hang out with this guy the rest of the night drunk and be hungover in the morning. Honestly, did I need to leave the country for that? Nah, I could have found that out at home. But at least I had a good time, and I have a memory. Whether you (rather, the person reading this) believe that I'm just another stupid American who travels just to party, it doesn't really matter to me. I've got that experience, but in the long run it's really not that important to who I am. Sorry, this is way too bullshity even for me. I'll stop with the rant and go into what I've actually been doing here. Sorry if I offended anyone.


I've been here for almost three weeks and I must say that I've been enjoying myself much more than I originally expected. The area itself, Quepos/Manuel Antonio, is quite gorgeous and the beach is just amazing. Unfortunately, we're still in the tail-end of the rainy season which means that for the past two weeks it's rained basically every day in the afternoon. Fortunately, the past 5 days has seen much nicer weather with sun and I've gotten in a few quality beach days. The problem with beach days is that my TEFL course is much more demanding than I had originally foreseen. For the first two weeks, we were in "school" Monday through Friday from 8:30-4:30/5:00. Since the sun sets here around 5:30, there really wasn't much time to go to the beach after school. Ah well, I am learning a lot. I'm learning more about teaching methods than actually teaching itself, if that makes sense. Like different types of learning styles, teaching scenarios, class room management, teaching philosophies, etc... It has all been very interesting and all the information is applicable to any teaching that I do in the future, not just teaching English. This past week we have actually been teaching classes with actual Costa Rican students. Teaching students is a lot harder than it looks. Believe me. I have a much greater respect for all good teachers at any level now. There is so much material to prepare that when I'm not teaching, I'm spending the whole day lesson planning or preparing materials. It's all worth while work, since I know that when I "graduate" from the program, I will be well qualified to teach anywhere.

As far as living in Costa Rica itself, my host family is the bomb. They are all 100% Barucan, which is a very very very small indigenous group that lives in Costa Rica. When I say small I mean there are only 1000 left on the entire planet. It's crazy. My host dad is awesome. He actually works for TEFL as the community liaison and organizes all the teaching schedules with the Costa Ricans. He speaks perfect English as well as Barucan, so I've been learning a bit of Barucan as well as practicing my Spanish. After the first week of the course, he took a bunch of students on a field trip to see his native village of Baruca. It was absolutely amazing. Baruca is tucked away in the mountains and is practically inaccessible. It was like going back in time. We all stayed with host families and my host dad's family cooked us a Barucan feast will all sorts of native food. We also got to try chi-cha, which is an indigenous liquor made from corn. It was surprisingly good. Needless to say, that is where I got kind of drunk with a couple of indigenous guys. It was worth it.

Other than that, I've just been around Quepos/Manuel Antonio and it's been fun. My classmates are absolutely amazing and they are so much fun. We all have a good time together. Well, I'm tired of typing and I'm sure you're of typing. If you want, I'd love to hear from some of you. I know I do a bad job of communicating but I'm sincerely curious to see what people are up to. Let me know. OH!! I will be coming back to Minnesota for Christmas as my awesome parents bought me a ticket home as a Christmas present. I will be home from December 20-27th so if you're around, give me a ring. That's it, really.
Con mucho amor, Jon