School!

School is an adventure... After a week of school, I still have no idea what is going on. Ever.  I don't know when we have school;  I have yet to figure out the class schedule;  I'm not really sure what class I'm in even while I'm in it (which is rare).  As a general rule, school in Costa Rica is five days a week from seven in the morning to four in the afternoon.  Unlike in the US, you have one group of classmates, and you move together from teacher to teacher.  We also have to wear a uniform.

In reality, there seems to be at least two holidays a week, and therefore no school.  Even on days that I have school, I may only have two or three classes because not only are we given like 4 hours off in free periods, if a teacher isn't at school, then there is no class, and more often then not, the teacher isn't there.  Furthermore, when there actually is class, the times are flexible.  A class might be supposed to start at 7:40, but the students don't actually get there until eight.  Then the teacher will talk to students for another ten min (usually unrelated to class),  then spend another ten minutes attempting to gain control of their class, which leaves five minutes for actual class time.  It's no wonder that half the class generally doesn't feel that it's worth their time to show up. 

During off periods kids will hangout in the library or out in the “hallways”.  Teachers don't give homework too often so very little work is done, but I'm not complaining. These times generally get rather boring for me as I don't understand Spanish so I sit with my friends generally confused.  I found it amusing that when kids don't go to class, they really don't have anything better to do or anywhere else to be, so they end up still at school, sitting outside a different classroom. 

My friends, or rather the people I follow around ;)