December...the month of Goodbyes

Hasta Luego Nicaragua

The first weekend in December I made my final trip up to Nicaragua with my host mom to say goodbye to my Nicaraguan family.  I brought a few small gifts with me, for Ana and her family for hosting me on my trips to Nicaragua, and one for my little bestie adoptive cousin Nasa.  Since Nasa is seven and a big fan of Disney Princess stuff, I bought her her very own set of Disney Princess playing cards, and a Disney Princess picture frame with a picture of me and her inside so she wouldn't forget me :)  And she LOVED the gifts (yay!).  She walked around showing everyone the frame, and we, no surprise, got a LOT of use out of the playing cards.  I might be Go Fish-ed out for the rest of my life! hahaha  We also taught Nasa's uncle to play, and I jokingly mentioned that he could take my spot as the Go Fish go-to after I left.  I'm not sure he was so much excited about that...muahahaha  But it was a lot of fun to visit the family in December.  They had their Christmas tree up and some lights so it felt festive.  We also ended up taking a little ride in the horse-drawn carriage again to visit all the other members of the family, which was nice.  I felt like I got to see everyone one last time and say my goodbyes.

Adios EVOLC

The second weekend in December I made a little trip down to San Jose for my "exit interview."  In preparation for the trip I finalized my lesson planning for my remaining classes and made any copies from my books that I'd need as I dropped off my teacher books when I was there.  Sad.  That weekend was the first time I'd been in San Jose since I arrived six months before.  It was weird how familiar everything felt, but also how much had happened and changed since I had been there before!  Instead of being nervous and self conscious, I was confident in my teaching ability and felt a lot more comfortable in Costa Rica.  I was no longer nervous and anxiously wondering what was going to happen and whether I had made a good decision in coming to Costa Rica.  Instead, I knew I had made a great decision and was just lamenting the fact that I would be heading back to California in just a few weeks time.

Interestingly, when I originally came to Costa Rica, Kristi gave me a presentation about culture shock and what to expect when I got to my host town/family.  At the time, I thought "I won't go through culture shock, I'll be fine, I already feel great" only to fully go through all the phases of culture shock when I got to Liberia.  (Fortunately all the stuff Kristi had told me/prepared me for fully helped me cope!).  So it was fitting that on my final meeting, she would review reverse culture shock with me.  As my date of departure grows closer, I've already been thinking about what things will be like when I go back "home", but it was, as it always is, nice to have Kristi validate my concerns and put a name to the things I was feeling. 

For instance, I was already going through stage one: "disengagement."  This is where you simultaneously already miss the friends/family/town you've become accustomed to (even though you're still there) and you might also keep yourself purposely busy so you don't have time to think about how sad you are to go (I planned a week long trip to the Caribbean, which would be followed by my family coming to CR for Christmas).  Yea, stage one, check.  When I get back to Cali, I get to look forward to the three remaining stages: initial euphoria (yay! I'm home and I get to see my family and friends!); irritability and hostility (bleh, I'm over home, alienation, disorientation, the US is lame, I want CR back); and finally, readjustment and adaptation (the meshing of my "old home" with my new feelings/attitudes to create a "new home").  In a way, reverse culture shock is a more tricky beast than straight up culture shock because it's more slippery and harder to pin down.  Hopefully knowing what's waiting for me will help me cope, and I have great family and friends who I'm sure will make the transition a lot easier, but I'm just planning to give myself a break and will try to "go with the flow" when I get back home.  Wish me luck!

But in more fun news, Kristi took me and Miyoshi (an Evolc volunteer who was leaving for the US the next day!) out to a delish restaurant for some dinner!  We started with cheese and bread and wine (YUM!!!! I miss good cheese!!!) and then some excellent paella!  Being in San Jose actually functions as a "taste of the U.S." because it's obviously a much bigger city and has a lot of the conveniences I'm used to in the States.  That actually made me miss California and I know that while I will definitely miss CR, I will be glad to be home too.  

Chao Estudiantes
After I returned to Liberia, my focus turned to my last week of classes and to planning a little graduation ceremony for my students.  My first last class was with my beginner students on Tuesday night.  I had decided to spend the first hour of class finishing up the lesson we had already started, and instead of starting a new lesson (which seemed sort of silly), I spent the second hour playing a bunch of the games/activities we had played over the previous six months.  Not only was it a super duper fun way to end class, but it also functioned as a sort of little test to see how much "old stuff" my students still remembered (they did pretty good. pfewf!).

During the break, my students started planning an "after party" for after the graduation on Thursday, and after class, a few of my students (Diego, Rafael, Emilio and Garcia) hung out to fill me in on the plan.  I gave Garcia a hug goodbye because I wasn't sure if he'd make it to the graduation.  So then of course I was handing out hugs and gave a big hug to Diego, who promptly left, and Rafael said it was because he was going to cry (okay, get teary eyed....I doubt he was like going to break down and sob or anything! ha).  That made me feel simultaneously sad (I'll miss him too, don't cry) and happy (aww, he'll miss me!).  When Emilio and I went out to dinner that night, there must have been a sad song playing on the radio or something because the prospect of being done teaching (and, okay, leaving Emilio too) fully got to me and I almost lost it.  That was definitely the saddest I've been so far, when I was thinking about leaving my students and friends and CR family and Liberia in general.  :(

But, then it was on to the next last class, which was with my intermediate students on Wednesday night.  Again, we finished up the lesson we had been working on, which took a little longer since we sometimes get sidetracked in that class since there are so few students.  My intermediate students had already told me that they wanted to take me out to dinner after class, so we wrapped up and headed to Sabor Porteno (delicious/nice seafood restaurant!).

 After dinner, my students totally surprised me with a gift!!  It was SOOO incredibly sweet of them!!

It had some yummy cookies and candy, and the most delicious smelling coffee ever (I can't wait to drink it!!) and a little carreta (which is a traditional Costa Rican ox cart that I happened to learn about in my Spanish class) filled with Guaria Morada which is the national flower of CR.  Such a perfect little reminder of CR.  I loved it!!!

 Awww, Feliz Navidad and happy pre-graduation!

Finally, Thursday, December 15th, also known as "Graduation Day" and "My last day as an Evolc volunteer English teacher" came around.  I was nervous all day as I just wasn't really sure what I should say or do for my students.  So naturally, I spent the day doing a little decorating in my classroom and procrastinating in Cafe Liberia.  Finally it was time to head to class to set up the cake and snacks kindly provided by Calitur (my local partner) and to "get the show on the road."

When my students were learning the present progressive, I had made cards for charades where the student had to act out what was on the card and the other students had to identify what the student was doing.  At first, I was just going to make my students do a warm-up before handing out the certificates, but at the last minute, I decided it would be more entertaining to make the students act something out in order to "graduate".  They all thought that was hilarious, and I did too.  It made it a little less sad and depressing because everyone had to be a goofball!  Also, half way through handing out certificates I realized I had forgotten to sign them, so after the "ceremony," while everyone was eating, I went around and added my signature.  Oh jeez!  While we enjoyed our cake and snacks, we also took a bunch of pics and I felt like such a celebrity...taking pics with all my students!

 Me, Margarita, and yummy foooood!

 Katthya getting dirty while cutting cake!

 Diego showing off his muscles...I mean certificate....

 Diego and I bonded over our love for coffee...yum!

 Group shot!  YAY!!!! Congrats Students!

 The girls!

 The boys!

And on to the after party!  We hung out in a local restaurant where we ate and drank and then moved on to the Casino for some dancing!

And my students bought me a random shot...I guess to say thanks for all that English I taught them ;)  Yikes!

Overall, I couldn't have asked for a better graduation celebration, or opportunity to say goodbye to my students.  Everything worked out better than I had expected, and while it was so sad to know it would be my last night ever even seeing some of my students again, it provided some good closure and we definitely ended on a high note.  Plus, I'm facebook friends with almost all of my students and I told them we have to keep in touch, so hopefully we will!  Yay!

After graduation, I headed off on a little mini trip to the Caribbean side of CR, and while I still have some final goodbyes left to give, I'm glad the one's I've done so far have been so nice.  My students, Kristi and mi familia de Nicaragua have all made me feel loved and so glad I did this program!