FrancisCorps Family Fun Weekend

Last weekend was the first in a month that all four of us were home in Moravia, so we scheduled some serious house bonding. We began on Friday night with homemade margaritas in our new blender, brownies, and homemade tortilla pizzas. The preparation was quite the team effort, and made dinner all that much more enjoyable. Later, we were in the mood for a chick flick (but let's be honest, when aren't we?) so we watched Leap Year to celebrate, well, the leap year!

Earlier in the week we had compiled a list of possible activties for Saturday - everything from hitting the beach to an art fest in San Jose to a picnic in the park. When we woke up to a cloudy, windy morning we opted for an indoors activity and hit the road to the San Pedro Mall. There, we treated ourselves to a double feature beginning with Beauty and the Beast (in 3D!), and followed by The Artist.  The Beauty and the Beast was dubbed in Spanish which was really fun. I didn't know anything about The Artist - more specifically, I didn't know it was a silent film - until I got there. I'm glad we saw it, especially since it won Best Picture the following night!  On our way home we stopped in a park for a quick photoshoot with some of the doves who have resided all around San Jose for the past few months; they are part of the "Peace Parade." We don't know a lot of details about Peace Parade, but we know that the doves are really cool pieces of art!

We got this very clever Valentine's Day gift from Friar Rick...as if we need a reminder ...

We wrapped up our bonding weekend with mass together at St. Francis and then a gourmet pancake and fruit brunch at home. [Sidenote: summer in Costa Rica = lots of yummy summer fruit for wicked cheap. We have had some of the sweetest, tastiest watermelon, cantelope, and pineapple I've ever tasted in my life lately.  Since it's mango season now, you can buy 4 mangos for $1.  It's delicious, local, and well within our food budget!]  After brunch we worked together to give our house a good spring (er, dry season?) cleaning which made us all feel better.

At Centeno this week, we are finally back in the swing of full days. All 9 of my students have yet to show up on the same day, but honestly I'm a bit nervous for the day they do. We have a really wide range of needs, energy levels, communication abilities, and aggression levels in our class, so I think we're all a little nervous about the new group dynamics.  In the meantime, though, I've had a blast with Guiselle and Ale and the students. Juan Gabriel is such a love; he practically won't let me talk to him in Spanish anymore...he's all about practicing his English with me.