A really, really full week

The last seven days have been very busy. During that time it was:

• Our last week at Intercultura
• Mother’s Day in Costa Rica
• Claire's last week at Yimboré
• Our fifth wedding anniversary
• The birthday party for another friend of Claire's
• Claire's first day at her new school

Our week in pictures:

This was our last week at Intercultura - we will miss the amazing people there, but honestly could use a bit of a brain break. Twenty hours of intense Spanish lessons each week is a lot to process... We ended on the Advanced 2 level, so are pleased with that. Really that just means we know what we're SUPPOSED to say - generating it properly in the moment is another matter. Practica, practica, practica...

Our last class: Graham, Patricia (from Illinois), Jesús (the ever-marvelous), me, Carey (from Texas), Debbie (from D.C.), and Thai (from Maryland but currently teaching English at Intercultura)

We had a lovely graduation ceremony on Friday with fresh fruit (I’ll miss that!) and were introduced to another local item – the green apple guava. It was rather hard and tasteless – maybe ours wasn’t ripe. And the seeds are REALLY crunchy. Not my favorite, but better than the nance...

The green apple guava

Friday morning we both went to Claire’s school for a Mother’s Day celebration. The Costa Rican Día de la Madre is always August 15, and if it falls on a weekday it's a public holiday and everyone takes the day off, so the celebration was Friday. A woman spoke for an hour (in very rapid, pause-less Spanish), then the kids gave a presentation, with each group doing something in English, Spanish, and French.

Claire and her compañeros

Here’s the French song Claire’s class sang… (partial - my camera was slow, sorry)

…and the Spanish poem, both with her class...

 ...and just her so you can hear the words better

I missed the English poem (phone malfunction), so here’s Claire’s version (note the slight Spanish accent – too cute)

After the presentation Claire gave me a beautiful family drawing she made and an angel key chain...

...and we all had a snack together. Dads helped with the celebration so Graham actually got to be there, which was nice.

Saturday we had another school friend’s birthday party at an indoor kids’ park called ChamiTicos. A couple of notes about Costa Rican kid birthday parties: 

1. The honoree doesn’t open presents AT the party. We think this is wise, as it takes pressure off the birthday boy or girl and the kids can spend the time playing instead of stopping the action dead in its tracks.
2. Every party ends with a piñata. The birthday kid goes first, followed by the littlest, then the girls, then the boys, older kids, and other heavy-hitters. It makes a really nice conclusion to the party…

 Claire loved the indoor sandbox...

 ...and she and Daddy both loved the soccer pitch.

Riding with her friend Sophia

Taking a swing at the Lightning McQueen piñata

Friday was our fifth wedding anniversary, so Sunday night we went out to eat to celebrate. Graham found a really lovely Argentinian restaurant in downtown San José called La Esquina de Buenos Aires (the Corner of Buenos Aires). Since we went to Argentina for our honeymoon, it was fun to revisit Argentinian food. We discovered it’s a bit of a challenge having a romantic meal with a three-year-old, but we wanted to bring her with us and we all had a lovely time.

Us at a little corner of Buenos Aires in Costa Rica

Claire started at her new school today – the American International School (AIS). It’s a 10 minute walk from our house, which we love. For some reason they have a ton of pre-kinder kids but only two pre-school kids, so Claire and a girl named Chiara (pronounced key-ah-rah) have a teacher all to themselves. They share the room with ten pre-kinder kids, so are exposed to what the older kids are doing. She loved her first day, especially playing with Play-Doh.

An excited girl in her new uniform with her new Backyardigans backpack 

Claire and Chiara bonding over cooking fake food 

Claire and Daddy after a fun fun day at her new school

The Spanish summary:

Esta semana fue muy muy ocupado:

Fue nuestra última semana en Intercultura . Vamos a extrañar la gente allá, pero necesitamos un pequeño recreo de los cerebros.

El viernes fuimos a la escuela de Claire para una celebración del día de la madre. El quince de agosto es siempre el día de la madre en Costa Rica y es un feriado, entonces la celebración fue el viernes. Los niños cantaron para nosotros y cada mamá recibió un regalo.

El sábado fuimos al cumpleaños de otro amigo de Claire que se llama Gabriel. Lo disfrutemos mucho, y yo di cuenta de algunas cosas sobre las fiestas de cumpleaños en Costa Rica: 

1. El homenajeado no abre los regalos durante la fiesta. Nos encanta esta tradición, porque es más fácil y más divertido para todos.
2. Cada fiesta termine con una piñata. Es una buena forma para terminar una fiesta.

Viernes fue nuestra quinta aniversario de boda también, entonces fuimos a cenar el domingo. El restaurante es de Argentina, donde fuimos para nuestra luna de miel. Muy romántico, a pesar de la pequeñita.

Hoy Claire comenzó su nueva escuela, American International School (AIS), muy cerca de nuestra casa. A ella se la encanta, y ya tiene una amiga que se llama Chiara.