MAGIC IN HEREDIA — sisters tyne

Shelbie and I stumble into magic, everywhere we go.

Sometimes it feels like it’s following us, but most of the time it feels like out of nowhere, we walked into a room filled with joy and light and inexplicable energy that is palpable and wondrous. It’s happened in Colombia, in Iceland, in Croatia, on our Roadtrip across the US, all over the place. And although it’s uncanny how much magic we’ve found in our travels (and life), everytime it happens I just get overcome with gratitude and shock and…luck? I always feel super lucky.

And I think that’s happened again here in Barva, Costa Rica.

We are officially in Week 3 of our 4 week TEFL certification course in Barva, a tiny town in the Heredia Province just north of San Jose and nestled close to the mountainous and volcanic region of Central Costa Rica. Barva is quiet, uncomplicated, and happy. The people are friendly, the dogs are yappy, and the coffee. is. endless. Shelbie and I wake up every morning to the sound of roosters that live on our homestay farm. We have breakfast with María, our host mom, and walk the ten minutes to the ITA Academy where we’ve been studying. Our days are filled with lessons on past participles, receptive skills, and technology in the classroom. (And so much more!) Our nights are filled with studying, lesson planning, and textbook reading. For the most part, it’s simple. That’s one part of the magic.

As promised, I am writing from the thick of it.

It hasn’t all been sunshine and daisies. There is a lot of homework. We spend 10-20 hours a week outside of class time just working. It’s fast-paced, it’s intense, and there’s so much information to absorb in such a short amount of time. Last week was our first week of real-life teaching, and I felt like I was being thrown into a pool without swimmies. The morning of my first grammar lesson, I was up at 5:30 in the morning simply panicking. Being responsible for someone else’s education is a weight that presses on me from the second I start planning my lessons. And though I do think that that stress will ease with time and practice, I don’t see myself being any less anxious about students actually learning things during their time with me.

Overall though, it’s been surprisingly great. I have my high school teachers (and IB) to thank for that. Handling a heavy workload, speaking in front of others, putting in hours perfecting things, are all skills that were beaten into me for so long that it’s muscle memory. (Traumatic? Maybe. Beneficial? Yes.) Thankfully. Finding the intrinsic motivation has always been the hardest thing for me, and with this program, I have it. There isn’t anywhere else in the world I’d rather be right now.

The magic is alive in the downpours we get, at least once a day, making raincoats essential. It’s alive every Wednesday, when Shelbie and I play soccer with people who are quickly becoming our friends. It’s there in the excitement exuding from our advanced students who are so interested in class. The magic is there every morning when I walk into our abundantly green classroom, and am greeted by my nine newest friends.

My nine new friends in my very green class!

Traci, Birdie, Undra, Mollie, Livia, Kathy, Carl, Bea and Alice. The two weeks I’ve spent with them has flown by, and yet I feel like we’ve been here for a lifetime. Some days it’s a vacation, a breeze. Some days, it feels like we’ve all been banished to a deserted island in some sort of Survivor-type TV show. Whatever the day brings me though, I have this feeling of we’re all in this together. Every single person in class has cultivated this feeling of togetherness. We didn’t have to get so close, and laugh so much, and bond so quickly. But we did. And that’s the magic I wasn’t expecting. It seems like everywhere we go, Shelbie and I stumble upon these fully alive and present humans whose existence makes ours just a little bit more radiant. If I’m being honest, I think that’s what’s made the course so digestible. Knowing all my friends are around town, grinding away on lessons, reading the same chapter I am, freaking out about the same difficult paper that I’m freaking out about, makes this whole deal so much sweeter.

I hope to share more with y’all about these lovely people I’ve met since arriving here in Barva. There are so many wonderful things I have to say. But alas…I have homework. So for now, I’ll just share a couple of pictures from our time, and hope I get the opportunity to sprinkle a little bit of this magic on you all in the coming months.

All for now, wish us (all eleven of us!!) luck!