Hola amigos y amigas!
After 2 full days in Costa Rica I am so tired I could die, and its not even 8 PM! I would like to share with you a brief schedule of what our days are like here (or at least what they have been for the past 2 days) and after I will share some thoughts and opinions of my time so far!
A typical day so far:
6:30 AM: wake up, get dressed eat breakfast. Breakfast consists of fresh fruit like pineapple, papaya, melon, and bananas, coffee with milk and "azucar negro" which is essentially brown sugar, and a tiny quesadilla with cheese. It sounds weird but it all is so good! Especially the coffee!!!
7:30: catch the bus about 2 blocks from our house and take about a 25 minute bus ride to ILISA (the school). The traffic here is out of control. If you thought the bikes/trams/cars/buses in Amsterdam were crazy, compared to San Jose they are nothing. The roads are more steep than the hills I go skiing down in Michigan. And the drivers are the definition of loco. I will try to take a video of what the streets are like because it is just downright dangerous.
8:30: arrive at ILISA. After the bus ride we have about another 20-25 minute walk from the bus stop to the school. The past two days we have had activities at 8:30. Today was a walking tour of San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica. Even though the scenery is incredible and unlike anything I've ever seen, the city was very dirty, with trash literally everywhere. It's also extremely loud with all the traffic and multitudes of people. I've definitely decided that a crowded city is NOT for me.
12:00: eat lunch at school and get ready for our tutoring session.
1:00: a one-on-one tutoring session. Yesterday we had a small interview and then they paired us with a teacher who can help us most with our problem areas or levels of Spanish. My tutors name is Ilse and she is great! We work in a workbook, but we also have lots of conversations and I have found it very easy to tell her stories and important aspects of my life at home in the states.
4:00: the tutoring session ends and we either go home or have an after school activity. Today we had a dance lesson of Merengue and Salsa! It was fun, but in a very small room with about 30 people and no ventilation! But I learned how to move to the Costa Rican music, and hopefully I will get to try it out this weekend!
After the dance lesson myself along with a few other girls decided to try to find a place to have some margaritas before returning home for dinner. We asked for directions but inevitably got lost and wound up in a "bar" with a bar tender who didn't know what a margarita was..... So we got the heck out of dodge and decided to just go home.
By this time it was about 6 and near dark out. The instructors at ILISA told us not to take the bus after 7, and today was the first day we had to take the bus home alone....
My roommate Katie and I were kind of freaking out, but we managed to find our bus stop, and recognize where we needed to get off the bus by our house. I can not even begin to explain how big of a miracle this was. God was holding our hands because there is absolutely no stinkin' way we did this on our own!
For dinner last night we had the most delicious carne asada steak I have ever had, with fresh, homemade pico de gallo, scalloped potatoes, and freshly made mango juice. I could have eaten for 4 hours. It was unbelievably fantastic. Tonight we had a cream of squash soup, a fresh salad with lettuce, tomato, onion, cilantro, corn, and pineapple, and a sort of chicken pot pie kind of dish. Can you believe I ate every last bite?! I didn't think I liked squash but this soup was incredible, and that salad? I never eat salad and I had 2 platefuls. Sandra is a wizard in the kitchen, I want to bring her back with me to cook for me next year!
After dinner Katie and I take quick showers and try to be in bed by 9! It sounds early but after a 14+ hour day it's not early enough because tomorrow we get to get up and do it all again!
While at times it is difficult to speak with Sandra especially (she is very strictly only Spanish with Katie and I) I have been trying to talk with them more, and I think I am getting through to them. However, Katie has less experience with Spanish and so our host parents mostly only talk to me! No pressure though...
I can't believe only two days have gone by and I'm in love with this country! I am so excited to see the beach this weekend and other places outside of San Jose. I have even started thinking in Spanish! In fact it has been kind of hard switching gears to English in order to write this post, so I apologize if my grammar is a bit off ;)
I hope you have enjoyed, hasta mañana!
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