Settling In/ Initial Reactions

           Costa Rica is not as different as first imagined. My host family, mainly Mrs. Maria Joaquina Rojas is the sweetest lady that I could ever imagine. She makes us breakfast and dinner and even cleans our rooms! She is very helpful and her children are even more helpful. Her son, Juan Jose, is 24 yrs old and he speaks very good english and acts as a translator between us and the parents. The parents speak some english, but not much, but speak spanish very slowly so that Bob 'my roommate´ can understand her. Thanks to Bob´s spanish skills, he can speak spanish very well and also translates for me. The only down side is that our walk to Universidad Veritas is 30 mins and not a straight shot by any means. However, Bob and I trek it together which makes it bearable.

Costa Rica has almost any American restaurant that you could ever want. Other than that, the country is very different, most notably the weather. Its very nice weather, not too hot thus far, but it rains everyday. I have been told that we have arrived just in time for the rainy season to begin. I am antzy and ready to get out of the city and see what Costa Rica has to offer!

I am meeting many new people and Saul and Glenn are taking good care of us. I have just found out that I forgot both books we are supposed to read, so I will take that added challenge one day at a time. Another challenge is that communication amongst my classmates is very very very hard. No cell phones, no laptops= hard to makes plans and meet up with people. We make plans to meet up at the escuela around 9 PM before we hit up the bars. It seems to be working pretty well so far, but we will see. I am pleased to see that my cell phone works here with a few exceptions. Texting works perfectly, but i can only make local calls. I am VERY excited to see my cell phone bill, I know it will be really pretty!

The people here are extremely nice and willing to help. It is in the Costa Rican culture to be caring and loving. Again, an exception occured. Last night 5/18, Bob and I were taking a cab back and we handed the address to the driver and he stopped at what he thought was the house, but it was not. anyway, we had to call Juan Jose who talked to cab driver to the right house.

To be continued=