Goodbye to host families, off to the airport

The university of Costa Rica was cool.  Unsurprisingly the kids were hungry after the tour though. We walked over to the mall San Pedro for lunch in the food court.  Then I went to get money sent to us from the school's go fund me account.  I traveling with one of the boys to get the money from western union while the other chaperone's took the boys to CRLA to print our boarding passes for our return flight home. 

 

Once we had the money and all the boarding passes we went back to the mall to buy ourselves Pura Vida shirts and to buy gifts for our host mothers.  All the boys LOVED their host mothers.  I allowed them to vote of how the $200 of he go find me account would be used and that was their decision.  So all the moms got teddy bears that said "te amo" ( I love you) and we all got shirts that say Pura vida, costa Rica's national slogan.

Once we were done gift shopping we got on the bus to go home for dinner and to spend our last few hours with our host families.  The buses came to get us at 10pm

Below pix of us in Costa Rica Airport with matching shirts. 

Below on Ft Lauderdale airport waiting to board our flight to Atlanta! 

Below in Atlanta on our way to waiting family and loved ones. 

Bugging out at the University of Costa Rica

Immediately after our small graduation ceremony we didnt have any time to lose, we had an appointment at the University of Costa Rica, we would do a little informal tour of their campus and also visit their insect museum.  The boys' teachers were our tour guides. 

UCR tour video: http://youtu.be/w0dCQbO6puw

Their campus was lovely and included so many different schools of study.  Finally we arrived at the "insectarium" to learn about the many many insects of Costa Rica and other parts of the world. 

Tour video: http://youtu.be/JCBbFlzzX3U

After the official museum part the museum curator took us to the petting zoo part of the museum.  Only me and one of the boys were brave enough to "pet" the insects! 

Touching bugs and eating bugs at the UCR video: http://youtu.be/0TK04aoOtcs

Insect museum curator 

Insect museum video:

Once we were done at the insect museum we hung around campus.  Some of the kids made friends and played games. 

Chilling on campus at UCR: http://youtu.be/iMCQDB5qNB8

Graduation from Costa Rica Language academy

2 weeks of Spanish classes in Costa Rica is something to celebrate!  So we did.  I've very proud of all the boys and I hope you are too. While their peers were home chilling, playing video games our boys were in class learning... And doing so much more!  

Graduation video: 

http://youtu.be/9jBgUeSoZ4A

Fun and games with San Benedict

I we had a blast playing games with the kids from San Benedict.  First off our students played soccer with the older and younger kids.

Futbol with new friends: http://youtu.be/jYkY087ih5I

Teaching basketball drills to our new friends:

http://youtu.be/AB30Etu-7Lc

BEST and San Benedict friendship games (basketball): http://youtu.be/r_GU5ZOKED8

Immediately after our friendship games we had a surprise birthday party for one of the BEST boys.  It's been planning it for a while with one of the coordinators from CRLA.  One the teachers and students at San Benedict heard that he would turn 18 while visiting their country they insisted on celebrating with us at their school.  While he was playing basketball in the gym we set up in the cafeteria area.  He was pleasantly surprised to see we thought of him. I think he thought that we'd forgotten about him!  Never that! I'd been planning his party, but the boys in our group would never let me forget about their friend! 

Bday surprise video and group picture video: http://youtu.be/GzlW7KTGZ3s

After eating cake and celebrating theSan  Benedict kids had to go back to class and we had to go back to CRLA for our graduation ceremony and University of Costa Rica tour. Before leaving though, it was time for pictures with friends! 

English class discussions at San Benedict

This morning we arrived at San Benedict at 8:30am.  Our students attended two classes one group was in English conversation class and the other group was in Spanish literature and biology.  

Here are pix and clips from those classes:  

Video: English class discussion

http://youtu.be/NnFySN68VYg