A WEEK IN THE LIFE — sisters tyne

A dear friend recently asked me what a day in the life of living in Costa Rica looks like. My rhythm and routine is constantly changing, but here’s what a week usually looks like, and what I’ve been up to as of late.

As an English teacher, I primarily work nights. Costa Ricans are busy, hardworking people who mostly work from 9-5. A lot of my students get off of work and immediately come to school. Their motivation to learn English and elevate their wages, employment, and quality of life is truly admirable. So most of us at the language school teach evening classes. They’re three hours at a time, which may seem like a lot, but I’ve found that any less than that doesn’t make for a well rounded lesson. My three hour classes are precious to me, and I love having the time to warm-up, go heavy on grammar, and also factor in fun activities and conversation.

One of the nicest things about my routine is having mornings free. I love waking up early, getting my yoga practice in, making breakfast, and reading before the world has really risen. I spend lots of time on my couch, windows and doors open, planning my lessons, creating new activities, and honestly? Staring at my calendar. The color-coding brings me peace.

It also means that the beginning of the day can be spent adventuring, hiking, or walking down the hill for groceries. One of my favorite things about living in tiny, historic Barva is that I have a bakery, butcher shop, cheese shop, and verduleria (fruits and veggies!) where I gather all my groceries. It’s my first time living in a walkable place, and I didn’t realize just how much I was missing until now.

I’m about to start some more classes in the mornings, which is great because $$ but also I like to keep busy. I have some online classes that I teach during the week, and I also dance at the academy in the city and take Spanish classes on occasion. The more I’m doing, the better. The past month, our days have been filled with watching the Olympics and following the USWNT play soccer. (But Lauren, the finals are on Saturday morning, don’t you have a class to teach? Why yes, I do. My teens will be diligently watching and using the past perfect and the third conditional to talk about how Spain could have done better against the best team IN THE WORLD.)

Barva Central Park at night, after getting home from classes

Thursday night is basically Friday night, since we have Friday and Sunday off. We religiously go out dancing on Thursdays, and frequently close down the bar dancing bachata or salsa. Fridays are for sleeping in, chilling, and going to the market. I’ve mentioned the market quite a bit on the blog, but we go with our Tico friend Michael and have a blast chatting with the farmers, trying new fruits and speaking Spanglish. Also to be able to get a week of groceries from freshly harvested farms all over the country? So special; one of my favorite things about living here.

Saturday mornings we all work with teens; they go to school during the week so Saturday is prime supplemental learning time. My teen class is a ray of sunshine on my week: they are advanced English speakers who are always making me laugh and inspiring me to go outside of the curriculum and create fun new projects. Right now we’re reading House on Mango Street and analyzing a film we watched in class, Fantastic Mr. Fox. This is all on top of the lessons that I’m designated to teach each week. I’m constantly in awe of how respectful, engaged, and motivated to learn these kids are. Now, if I could only keep them off their phones for three hours…

After classes I go to the dance academy or partake in some group activity we’ve planned, be it a bar crawl, a movie night, a spa day or an Olympic watch party. Everyone’s free Saturday night so that’s usually when you can find all of us on the property huddled around a table playing cards or arguing about asinine topics.

one of our recent shindigs: celebrating KT’s birthday the ~Tico~ way (yes she is punching the piñata with bare fists.)

And Sundays…ugh I love Sundays. Sometimes we do things on Sunday mornings like plan a day trip or go hiking. But usually its quiet, we’re watching movies, occasionally hungover or just relieved we don’t have to touch our computer for a whole day. The only nonnegotiable about Sundays is soccer at 4. All week long I look forward to Sunday soccer. It’s Monday morning right now, my body is in shambles from two hours of running and pushing yesterday, and yet I’m sad I have to wait six more days to do it again. My professor from the TEFL course, Mike, did such an incredible job of forming community around the International TEFL Academy in Barva, and he mostly did it through soccer. Organizing pick up games twice a week and always being so warm and welcoming to new people joining the group. I admire it so much, and it’s my favorite day of the week because I get a chance to be in this lovely community of people who are brought together by soccer and English and a love for Costa Rica. It’s awesome.

Apart from the fact that my life can be really cool, and filled with adventures and new experiences unlike anything I was doing in the United States, it can still be quite mundane. Normal. Peaceful. I’m not on vacation, I’m not studying abroad. I live here. (That still feels fun to say) In every way life can have it’s day-to-day, its blandness, it’s difficulty, it’s boredom and it’s normalcy. I’m in awe of how normal being on the bus has become. How normal the idle Spanish street chatter has become. How normal the sounds of traffic, barking dogs, doves outside my window has become. The normal is what’s so cool to me lately, so exciting, so new.

Thanks for following along x

-Lauren