Bailamos!

For breakfast I had papayas, which I didn't really care for, mangos, scrambled eggs, coffee, and pan and jelly. It was my first day of actual classes today. I had class from 8 am - 12 noon, with a 30 minute break at 10. There are 6 people in my class. Me, Bethany, Raychael from UNI, Jack is from Arizona, Alexa, and Renee is from Colorado. My teacher is Eugenia Yglesias. She's really cool. The class is really laid back. Today we just talked to each other, introduced ourselves, interviewed others to get to know them, and talked about Latin America and Costa Rica. It's going to be reviewing verb tenses and vocabulary. The only homework I have today is to do 1 page of an activity and read about verb tenses and vocabulary, so it's not too bad. Kaydee, another UNI girl, is in Advanced I and has to do 10 minute presentations, a ton of vocabulary, quizzes and tests. It sounds hard!

After class, a few of us went to Las Lenitas for lunch. It's really close to Veritas. It's a little mexican restaurant and I had chicken tacos with queso. It cost about $6. It's harder to order in Spanish than I thought it would be, especially since there's so many foods and ingredients that I don't know the names of. And, most of the time you have to go up to the counter to pay when you're done eating. We were sitting at the table waiting for the check, but then we found out that they don't do that.

Now I'm sitting in my room ready to take a nap. Today it's so cloudy, the mountains are hard to see. My favorite thing about Costa Rica is the mountains. San Jose is surrounded by mountains, so everywhere you look there's mountains. It's beautiful.

I just ate dinner. Tonight we had roast beef, potatoes, lemonade, and a broccoli/tomato salad. Yum! We ate with the ticos tonight, and they all spoke so fast to each other. It's hard to follow along. They need to slow down!

Now, Bethany and I are getting ready to go to our first dance class at Veritas! It's an hour and a half long. I'm pretty sure a lot of the Iowa and Illinois students are going. And it's pouring right now, so we're taking a taxi. Hopefully the Veritas bus will take us home when it's over. Luis and Victor are the guys at Veritas who take care of the "foreigners." :) They are awesome! They're the ones who picked us up at the airport and brought us to our families. They are also bringing us on our excursions. They're pretty fun.

I just got back from my dance lesson, it was pretty fun. We learned merengue, where you move your hips a ton, and salsa, which is mostly steps and turns. We also learned cumbia, where you do kicks and jumps. It was a workout! Bed time now. Buenas noches.