The flight was normally annoying. A cattle call with the only empty seats where my two students should have been. We arrived around 6 am and made it out of customs and baggage claim relatively quickly. We were on the road a little after 7. The participants were exhausted and many slept on the bus.
The hard part came when we arrived in town around 11 and had to disperse the students to their home stays. The bus driver, from the next village over didn't know many of the families. the directions were like : 50 meters west of Sol Y Mar, the third green house on the left. There are no street names or numbers. I am not sure how mail is handled. It took a good hour to get everyone where they needed to be. I could see the stress on the student's faces. It was awkward for them to suddenly get dropped off at a stranger's house. Also the differences in the appearances of the houses were striking. Two girls got dropped off at the nicest houses in the block and the rest of the group didn't hide their jealousy.
Finally I was dropped off. However, Wolfgang and Maria Fernanda, whom I have stayed with for three times weren't at the house. Sadly, Maria Fernanda suffered complications after surgery and she is in the hospital in San Jose. The other tenant, a German or Swiss named Peter met me with the key. He seems nice enough. I see him occasionally when he puts food in the hummingbird feeders. It looks like he has a local girlfriend.
After I dropped my things off, I went to La Vela Latina for lunch.I was also able to email Michael, one of the two who had missed the flight. He had focused on the dates August 4- 24th. He had never looked/read my emails or attended the meetings because he was in Jordan most of the summer. Knowing he had just traveled in the middle East, I was confident he could make it to Samara. However, Katie had me a little more nervous. She did have some international travel experience. I emailed the both of them with each other's phone numbers so they could at least travel together. I heard from Mike, got him in touch with Lindsay, our fix it girl and expected them the next day.
That night we met at the school, had a brief orientation and tour of Samara. We had a nice dinner, on the beach at El Ancla. It was a good way to start the trip.
The hard part came when we arrived in town around 11 and had to disperse the students to their home stays. The bus driver, from the next village over didn't know many of the families. the directions were like : 50 meters west of Sol Y Mar, the third green house on the left. There are no street names or numbers. I am not sure how mail is handled. It took a good hour to get everyone where they needed to be. I could see the stress on the student's faces. It was awkward for them to suddenly get dropped off at a stranger's house. Also the differences in the appearances of the houses were striking. Two girls got dropped off at the nicest houses in the block and the rest of the group didn't hide their jealousy.
Finally I was dropped off. However, Wolfgang and Maria Fernanda, whom I have stayed with for three times weren't at the house. Sadly, Maria Fernanda suffered complications after surgery and she is in the hospital in San Jose. The other tenant, a German or Swiss named Peter met me with the key. He seems nice enough. I see him occasionally when he puts food in the hummingbird feeders. It looks like he has a local girlfriend.
After I dropped my things off, I went to La Vela Latina for lunch.I was also able to email Michael, one of the two who had missed the flight. He had focused on the dates August 4- 24th. He had never looked/read my emails or attended the meetings because he was in Jordan most of the summer. Knowing he had just traveled in the middle East, I was confident he could make it to Samara. However, Katie had me a little more nervous. She did have some international travel experience. I emailed the both of them with each other's phone numbers so they could at least travel together. I heard from Mike, got him in touch with Lindsay, our fix it girl and expected them the next day.
That night we met at the school, had a brief orientation and tour of Samara. We had a nice dinner, on the beach at El Ancla. It was a good way to start the trip.
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