The picture on the right is from Friday night when our family went out to eat with Bwana Chad.

Last week on the weekend Bwana Chad, the MK leader, took us out for the day. He took us bowling and skating. In bowling I came in third place out of five. Then we went and had a pizza party. After the pizza we went skating. There was a big race that whoever wanted to race could race. It was all one big group in one race. I came in first every time, except I got tagged before they called time is up and called the winners. I was so close! After that we went to the Planet Mall, which is a big mall, and went to the food court where it had an ice cream shop and we got these humongus ice cream cones!

Monday we practiced a skit that we're going to do in the downtown market. My mom signed me up for it and I was surprised because I hadn't been in a Spanish play before. I was a little shy when I met all the people that were acting. I was the little boy in the skit. That night we went to this place where all the people that were doing skits at the market were watching me do my skit and then I watched them do their skits. I felt proud that night.

~Alex

Last weekend I had a blast! There were a couple of things that I did. I was with Bwana Chad (the ISMK director) and he paid for stuff that we would do! So most of the MKs gathered together to do something. First we went bowling. It was fun, but I was last place. But I was the only one who got a strike on the first try! The teams were from 5 to 7 and the other team was 8 to 9, I think. The bigger kids, which was two kids, played bowling, but they weren't on teams.

After we went bowling we went to Pizza Hut. We had to wait at the door to get name tags. After we did that, when all the kids were ready, we went to play on the playground until the pizza was ready. When the pizza was ready we got on our shoes and went to the bathroom and washed our hands. Then we came back out and ate breadsticks. Some of the pizza was already out. That was a pepperoni. So the people who wanted cheese pizza had to wait until the cheese came out. After kids finished they went back out to the playground. Me and Rebekah had to climb under the table because all the chairs were so close we couldn't get out.

After that we had to walk a little ways to get into the car. There were two groups. Me, Alex, Taylor and Kenedie were one group. The rest of the MKs were in a different group. When we got to the car we got in and drove to a skating place and we waited a while because the people who drove us had to go park the cars. And then a lady came out of the skating place and we went in without the drivers. We got to pick what kind of skates. There were skates with wheels in one row only and there were skates with two wheels in a row. There were two rows, which I didn't know how to use those things! So I got skates with one row of wheels, because I was used to those. I fell down three times. I skated with the lady who drove me and I skated with Bwana Chad quite a few times. And then he said one more time around and then we were going to go, but we ended up going around TWO times!! And then we had to gather all the other people. And then we turned in our skates and put on our shoes. They gave us an orange. We ate them right away!

Then we left and walked. We didn't take the cars that time. So we walked quite a ways. We went through the street and passed a fountain. We went to the mall close by the apartments where I live to get ice cream! It took a while to find the ice cream store. But finally we found it! We had a choice to get chocolate or vanilla. It was big! Kenedie ate all of hers, but slowly. After everyone finished they took us back home. Right when we got home the person who drove us gave us goodie bags! The boys got glow stick necklaces. The girls got glow stick glasses and jacks. Alex had a ball that was squishy and I wanted one, so I gave him cheese puffs for the ball because I LOVE SQUISHIES!!!
~Maggie

Hi, this is Alex! I've been having a good time, but I've been too busy to blog for the past month. Last night we went to this yummy pizza shop and the crust tasted like crackers. We go to a market called the Feria and also a bigger market that's downtown. The downtown market I bought a little clay pig and a picture of a house with the volcano erupting in the background painted on wood.

At school I've been learning Spanish for a while and I'm getting the hang of it. I am on a soccer team on the first level. I should be on the second level, but I'd probably get beat up with the ball! In soccer I usually score a lot of goals since I'm in a higher grade than most of the other players. At the end of the semester I am going to switch levels. In soccer Profe, my soccer teacher, has been teaching us drills. He teaches us how to get the ball past the defenders of the other team. Also at school I've gotten an ID and I'm going to use it at school because the school is doing an ID check and is getting a new guard to check them.

From the US I've missed my family and all my friends. I don't have all of the good foods of America, but I'm finding new foods that are good down here in Costa Rica, like Chickys, which are these rectangular cookies with chocolate on the bottom. I also like empanadas, which are tortillas wrapped around beans, chicken and cheese.

I'm hungry for Chickys right now!
~Alex

Hi. This is Maggie! I have had a good season. I have had fun. I enjoy the house and the back yard. Some Sundays we went to church, one we did not. We went to one of the churches twice. Once I have been in Alex and Taylor's class at church. They were not like in the USA. They were older looking. There have been a couple of changes at school. Mr. Riley, my principal, got a bunny. The bunny's name is Cookie. The whole school had a vote of what the name for the bunny would be. I'm the one who thought of Cookie. A kid in my class thought of Mr. or Mrs. Chunky. Some people voted for Johnny Appleseed. You would not be able to pet the bunny because it would bite you. They do not know if it is a girl or a boy yet.

I have learned a lot of new things. I started history in this school. There are different levels of Spanish classes. So if you only know a little bit you would be in the first level. If you know a little bit more, you would be in the second level. If you knew a lot you'd be in the third level. And if you knew a ton of Spanish you'd be in the fourth level. I am in the first level because I don't know a lot of Spanish.

~Maggie