Back To School

It seems you can always tell when it´s back to school time. Stores are full of kids and their parents buying new backpacks, pencils, and notebooks. The older high school kids go to the park to enjoy their last day of freedom (including the couple I couldn´t help but notice making out under a tree while finishing today´s run). And most noticable, while going past the high school, the slightly off-tune band gets in some before-class practice for all those passing by to hear. In Costa Rica, students large break is much different than in the U.S. Students got out of class right before Christmas, but do not go back until tomorrow. It´s still odd for me to see "Back-to-School" ads in the local paper and it being the start of February not August, but that is definitely the excitement here. Another source of continued excitement here in La Fortuna is the filming of the new Will Smith movie, "After Earth" for which his Will and his son Jaden are currently in the area filming. Last night after class, the current supervisor police officer was telling me how he had served as some extra security at the shooting site and got to see the film crew working! I am so jealous!!! Not only would it be awesome to see Will Smith, but for me, just seeing the production crew on that scale in action, would be incredible! I asked the officer if I could go with him today, but he said that wouldn´t be possible. Nonetheless, I think I´m going to have to be persistent in asking whichever officer is going to the shoot to see if I could tag along for just one day! In the mean time, I´m still enjoying my free time before classes by running and walking around town and reading. Although I try not to spend very much time watching T.V. while I´m here, yesterday morning I did spend a chunk of time with our television to watch the old movie "Twister." When I was younger in the 90´s when the movie first came out, I watched the movie over and over. However, I had not seen it in quite a few years and definitely not since my own experiences with the F-5 tornado that hit Joplin this summer. It was pretty incredible how different it was to watch the movie and be able to compare it to the reality I saw just months ago. Nonetheless, yesterday I did get out and went to my little local gym and rode my replacement D'Artagnan and got in a good workout. I don´t think I´ve yet to completely adjust to the heat down here as I sweat so much that when I left it looked like I had jumped into a pool. I am super excited for this upcoming weekend as I will be joining my friend Lindsay and her friend that will be visiting from England to go rafting for the day on the river! Tonight I will be having my first class with the other group of police officers. This group will be challenging as there is a wide range of English abilities between some of them. Perhaps I will make them endure my less-than-great artisitic capablities and draw out a person on the white board to go over body parts in English like I did with last night´s class.