I think we can officially call THAT the start of the rainy season...

Ok, so today started out like any other day in May here in CR, really hot and muggy in the AM, cooler about 11, and cloudy by 12:00. Well, at about 12:15, God apparently got very angry with Costa Rica and let the flood gates open. It started with a ridiculous amount of lightning strikes and thunder that shook the buildings. This of course was followed by a whole building of kids screaming after every one. Then the rain started, and I use rain as a mild term. It was POURING, more than i have ever seen CR pour. There was so much rain and I could not even hear my kids yelling over the rain. Then the wind started and my kids, who have lived here all their lives, said it looked like a tornado in a snow storm. The water was no longer dropping vertically, but perfectly horozontally. I got a video of part of it, this is at the tail end when it calmed down a little, but you get the ides. ( listen to my kids going crazy in the background, especially as the power goes out :) ) VIdeo is at the bottom.

And then while all of this is going on, all of the above elements combining to make the most ridiculous storm ever, the principal telling us not to let the kids out of the classroom because it was dangerous, half of my class about to pee their pants, I look over and there is a solid inch of water covering the floor of about 1/4 of my classroom. Water is pouring in from under the walls (not the door THE WALLS of a very poorly leveled hallway that slants in towards my classroom and then has no water seal, aparantly). Well after about 10 minutes of this, the hallway got so flooded that the water stared pouring in under the door. Well at this point, I brave it, send two kids to the office to tell them my room is flooding, and they come back with a beroom. No "oh maitence is coming" or anything, just a broom for me to start sweeping. Well, fine ok, I don't need to teach today, so my kids are "silent reading" (yeah right) while I am sweeping water out of the door. It is still pouring,and every time I sweep water out, more comes in.


See, don't they look like they are completely wrapped up in their books?

Well, a mintence lady finally walks by my room and helps me get the majority of the puddles out. We covered the floor with newspaper so no one dies, have to replace it all 5 minutes later, and keep sweeping. Once the rain finally slowed down we got the hallway cleared so it would stop coming into my room, then got the room all the way cleared, and then she started mopping up.



Even Ali, the permanent sub, got roped in to help us sweep!

As soon as she finished mopping (so the floor is damp but looks fine) then, and only then, does my general director walk in to see what happened. So not olny do I look crazy, but I look like a crybaby! Anyway, it was such a crazy afternoon, and I got NOTHING taught, but that's ok, it's not like I'm running short on teaching days anyway!

So favorite quotes from my kids today:
"Why does Ms Kathy get to take her shoes off?" "Becasue they are full of water"

(to the sub helping mop up) " Why are you taking a picure of Ms. kathy" "becasue this is ridiculous"

(in a TRULY concerned voice) " Oh no, my house is up on a hill, that means all this rain is going to be on my house first, and it's going to be even more flooded than our classroom!"

"Do we get to go home becasue he floor is wet?"

and my favorite

"we made this happen. At recess we saw the clouds, so we did a rain dance and chanted "come rain come rain" " Well, we get to blame you for this then :) NEVER do that again!"

So needless to say, the countdown has begun (16 more teaching days left) and I CANT WAIT to be done. I have a list about a mile long that has to be finished before the end of May, one double that size before June 16th( the last day of school) and the list grows as soon as the kids leave. But I'm going to make it, unless I get struck by lightning, then I'll know I was never meant to finish my first year teachng (becasue I still can't believe I've gotten this far with out kiing someone or being killed).

Love and miss you all!

Kathy