AISB’s new EC4 homeroom teacher, Barbara Cruz shares her meaningful move to Romania as well as her passion for her career and favourite activities while in her home country, Costa Rica.
What follows is Barbara’s story, in her own words:
“I am from Costa Rica, I was born there and I lived there and I was around 30 when I decided to move. I’ve been living abroad since 2009, so now it’s 15 years, and I go back every year, but I don’t know if I’ll go back there to live.
Well, what I really enjoy about my country, in particular, is that it’s very small, and you can do everything in a very short amount of time, so you can go to the beach, you can go to the mountains. Something I enjoy during my holidays when I’m at home is going to the mountains with my book and my family, having a cup of coffee and enjoying the conversations, the time, and just relaxing. Usually in the mountains, it is a bit colder and that is really nice; it’s very peaceful and very quiet and you get to see a lot of animals. I love the rain, and it rains for nine months in Costa Rica, so I really enjoy going to the mountains with the rain. It is a nice time for us. And it rains really hard, hard enough that you have to stop what you’re doing. So it is a really social time when you can sit with your friends and your family, and you drink your coffee, and you chat until the rain stops. That is something I miss, in more of a nostalgic way and I take it with me wherever I go.
The early childhood program at AISB is very unique and I really enjoy it as a play-based teacher, which means that we try to do everything through play and here I feel supported in that way. It is a very different way of getting to know the kids when you do it from their natural way of learning. The children are playing, and you are learning about what they like, and they are telling you more about their lives through this, and how they connect what they are doing at school with home. So it is a very unique way of getting to know them.
A piece of advice for my younger self will be to take it easy, breathe in, and go through things and everything is going to be ok.“