On Sunday we drove the 40 minute dirt road to church again. There were about 20 more people in attendance, and one family is American. Caralee and Tom and their three kids have lived here for a year. Tom taught last year at Educarte, an early education bilingual school nearby. They loved it so much, that he signed a two year contract with Country Day school and will be staying for a while. The week before last they were in the States, which is why we didn't meet them, and they said this visit, they were so ready to come back to Costa Rica. I guess after some time, you just get more and more accustomed to the ways of life here, and I imagine that perhaps I will have another tough adjustment back when we come home next summer. Interesting to think about. Caralee and Tom live in Huacas, which is where the kids' school is, so they are fairly close, and Caralee works at a "club" near our home, as the athletic manager. We have heard that there are actually two MORE american families moving into the branch in September, both from Utah, one with 5 kids, the other with 7! I'm not sure how they will fit everyone into the chapel, and the parking lots has enough room for 6 cars.????

Second week of school was better than the first for the kids. Owen and Jed cried less, but Jed still tells me everyday he doesn't want to go....absolutely heart wrenching! I thought he'd adjust more quickly and enjoy having kids to play with, and I think he does once I drive away, so I'm not sure what the hang up is....I think it just makes for a long day, and he's just exhausted. Twice this week he just went in his room, lay down in his bed, and went to sleep (at 6:15 or so). I started classes this week as well, and had two other gals in my class. One a psychology professor from Oregon taking a sabbatical, and the other from France, traveling with friends and learning a new language. She already speaks french, dutch and english with spanish being her 4th language. I'm still not sure why we do not implement earlier in our schools an in depth second language (or third and fourth like many countries). I am seeing how very, very difficult it is to learn a new language for me and the kids, and think how amazing to just "know" it because it was just part of life as a child. I also met a couple there from Norway, just traveling and studying...they also speak english and "always have", plus they said, "Everything is in English...movies, books, etc, so we just know it, we have to."

My Spanish classes were great, and I learned so much that I really didn't have time to absorb it all, nor practice it all. Most of the students are living with homestay families, so they are speaking and hearing it all day. I think I may plan to take a week of classes, then take a week to study, and so on. I've also heard that it is very helpful to do one-on-one classes, so perhaps I will try that as well....

The kids are graduating from boogie boards to surfboards. Owen and Tia have especially taken a liking to surfing. Kaylee and Ethan would rather boogie board and play in the sand building things and throwing sand balls. Jed still has a slow transition when we go to the beach. He likes to play in the sand, but doesn't like any crabs, bugs, ants, or what not. He loves to play in shallow water and have me help him jump the waves. We go out literally every afternoon once we get home from school and have a snack. Zach is usually finished with work and we play until dinner time. Then it's time for bed since we are on an early schedule. The Costa Rica clock is perfect for our early-to-bed, early-to-rise family... the sun goes down around 6pm and comes up around 5:30, the kids wake up around 6am.

I had another cucuracha experience the other day. As we were leaving for school, I was standing in the doorway and heard a flapping, buzzing sound near my ear. I looked down to see an enormous cochroach on my shoulder. I flung it off onto the ground and it immediately ran into our house. I hollered for Zach (I catch or kill most things in our house, but don't have the stomach for anything crunchy....) who stomped on it and told me he was having such interesting memories of Argentina....yuck! The bugs, ants, cochroaches, crabs, etc are just part of the experience....it didn't take long for me to just start ignoring the single, large ants. They are just all over, if you killed one every time you saw one, you'd spend a good deal of your day doing just that. The other animals that hang out around the house are howler monkeys, that we usually hear in the morning, and raccoons, that usually jump onto our roof any time during the night and scratch and fight with each other. They are loud and it sounds like someone is stomping on the roof. The owner warned us of this, but still, the first few times it happened, I thought for sure someone was on the roof.

We had also been warned about theft here. There is a gate around our entire house, and we have a guard from 6pm-6am every night. We've been careful to always lock the house and protect our computers etc. The owner even told us to lock the back gate or people would come and take swim suits, towels, etc off the back porch. So we've been super cautious about that as well. However, Sunday afternoon, Zach went looking for his tennis shoes, which he couldn't find...then he asked me where my running shoes were..... we quickly realized someone must have hopped the fence while we were at church and taken what they wanted off the back porch. We gradually discovered we were missing two pair of running shoes, Zach's flip flops, my Chacos, Zach's new swim suit, and two bottles of sunscreen. They left all the kids suits and shoes. They must know what sells for the best prices, because we're out about $400! Now we don't keep anything on the porch, sandy or wet or whatever. We also take our computers with us when we leave anywhere together. Usually Zach is here, but on occasion we're both gone. Bummer!!!! I had to reassure myself, so I again asked the owner to reassure me that we are safe, and we are, it's just that people steal anything. He and his wife lived here 20 years.....

I'm getting more and more comfortable with my new duties....cooking almost everything from scratch, including all the kids' snacks. I can't just serve up the usual snack- crackers, cheese, dried fruit, etc. Anything imported is VERY expensive. A box of wheat thins-$7, 1 lb of cheddar cheese - $10, small bag of goldfish crackers $3..... interesting since you can grab some authentic tico food in a nearby town- rice and beans with salad and fish or chicken (really delicious and a good serving) for about $5. I've made granola bars, banana bread, cookies, flatbread/crackers, and so on. If you have any ideas for snacks, I would LOVE them! Overall, we are well. I am learning so much and I know the kids are too. We are planning on sending some post cards next week....... Hope to hear from you soon.