The First Day

The flights to get to Costa Rica were long, but not too bad. Yesterday I arrived in San Jose, Costa Rica around 8:30 their time (9:30 Iowa time). Someone from the university picked me up at the airport and brought me to my host family. I had to go through immigration and customs, which took a while. Then I exchanged US dollars for colones. There are about 7 other students staying in the house. It's a full house! But we each have our own room, and there's about 5 bathrooms here. It's a big house! And it has a huge backyard, which is nice. I'm sitting on the porch outside my room now with the windows open. There's a nice breeze coming in. It's really hot here, but if you're in the shade it's not too bad.

My host mom is 71 and her son Elias is probably in his upper 30s. They're both really nice! Her husband passed away about 15 years ago, so that's when she started taking in students. The mom doesn't speak any English, but Elias speaks some. 2 of the girls living here now (they're leaving today) took me and Bethany (the roommate from UNI) around the neighboorhood and to the school to look around. We went to the store called Pali, it's just a little store where you can buy anything. They have a lot of American products. I bought a towel for 1000 colones ($2).

San Jose is surrounded by mountains, so you can see mountains everywhere. It's beautiful. There's a bakery next to the house, too, and also a smoothie shop and Pali. It took about 15 minutes to walk from the house to school.

My host mom (Argelis) just fed us lunch. We had ceviche. It's a raw fish covered with lemon. And they put ketchup on it! I ate it, but it was disgusting. The girl next to me took some of it for me when Argelis left the dining room :) I couldn't eat very much of it.

This is where I was sitting when I was writing this. It's right outside my bedroom.

Me and Bethany met up with our new friend Kaydee to look around. But, it started POURING really hard and for a long time. Well, when it started, we were outside still exploring, and we got caught in it. So we were running around in the rain for about half an hour. We were soaking wet!

It's 7:00 here and I'm exhausted. The amount of Spanish I have to speak and listen to is overwhelming. And, we walk everywhere, so I just get really tired. Plus, we eat a lot less here! For breakfast, Angelis made us scrambled eggs, tea, coffee, mango, pineapple, pan (fresh bread that she buys at the store every morning), and bananas. I had the coffee and it was good! This coffee is a lot different than America's coffee. They drink a ton of tea here, hot and cold sun tea. I like the hot tea.

Bethany and I watched I Am Legend in Spanish on TV. It was really hard to understand it because they talk so fast! I am trying to speak only Spanish, but it's hard because I don't have that good of a vocabulary in Spanish yet. And, I'm already sunburnt! I was outside walking for about an hour, and already got a tan. The sun is really strong here.

Argelis came home at 7:30 with chicken, so we ate supper. We had chicken, gingerale, and tortillas. Everytime a meal is ready she rings a bell and yells it's time to eat. It's weird having someone make your meals for you all the time and that I don't have to clean up. I only take my dishes to the sink. She has a maid come Monday-Friday to clean and do laundry. I gave her my gift of an Iowa hawkeye magnet, a Cedar Rapids postcard, and the Iowa toothpick holder. She really liked the gifts.

It's been storming and raining all afternoon/night. It is the beginning of the rainy season, so I guess it's expected! I am going to go to sleep now (10:15pm). The birds are going to wake me up bright and early tomorrow!