My first few days in Costa Rica

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My bedroom

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Wow. I can’t believe I’m actually here! It’s so strange actually doing something you’ve been thinking about for years. My flights weren’t bad at all. Having to get up at 5 in the morning sucked, but it was nice to arrive in San José at by 3:30pm. On my first flight (to Houston) I was upgraded to first class thanks to Mom being a “platinum member!” ☺ It was veerrrry nice. There was a little dog in the row in front of me though, but he only barked during takeoff. Other than that, the flight was uneventful. I slept and read the entire time. My second flight was also uneventful. I read more of my pre-course readings and tried to understand the Spanish announcements when they were given over the intercom by Jorge (the flight attendant).

I arrived in San José about 30 minutes later than I was supposed to because of delays related to a plane coming in from Nicaragua. Once I reached San José, I bought a phone card, changed money (at a terrible exchange rate, I might add!), and called Jake and Mom to let them know I got in safely. I couldn’t talk for long or call anyone else though, because I didn’t want to keep Don Fernando waiting. Don Fernando was the one who was supposed to pick me up from the airport. Turns out his high school age kids were there waiting for me instead. His son Juan didn’t speak any English and completely avoided any conversation with me. Fernando’s daughter, however, spoke English very well. So we chatted for awhile until their father came to pick us up.

The desk in my bedroom

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The drive to my homestay was about 20 minutes from the airport. While driving in the banged up taxi, I got my first glimpse of Costa Rica. It was much different than I expected. I had a picture in my head of walking out into a pseudo-rainforest, as silly as that seems. Obviously, San José is different. It’s a major city with many buildings, houses, cars, roads, and unfortunately litter. There are deep ditches on both sides of the road that have collected lots of litter. The first thing I noticed about the houses were the gates. Costa Ricans are very aware of security and take extra precautions to be safe. There are large gates surrounding pretty much every house.

However, there were some hints of the picture I had in mind of Costa Rica. Scattered throughout houses and commercial buildings are small parks with big beautiful trees and birds you would never see in the States. It made me smile to see some fresh greenery amongst the backdrop of San José. There is another thing about San José that was similar to my picture of Costa Rica: the mountains. They’re beautiful! They surround San José on every side with lush greenery. I can’t wait to start exploring them.

My private bathroom :)

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So, Fernando brought me to my homestay where I met Indira, Patricia, and Lana. Patricia is my homestay mom. She’s very nice and supportive. Indira is Patricia’s 21-year-old daughter. She’s due to have a baby in June. She’s wonderful! She’s goofy, fun, very nice, and endearing. Lana is the family’s Schnauzer. Such a cute dog! She’s very playful and fun. I also met Indira’s boyfriend later in the day. I believe his name is José. I just met the other person living in the house today. His name is Mauricio (Mau for short). He’s Patricia’s 30-year-old son. He’s living with Patricia temporarily because he recently separated from his wife. I haven’t really gotten to know him yet, but he seems very nice also. Yesterday and today I also met two of Patricia’s 6 sisters. She also has 6 brothers! Very large family.

The living room

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The house they live in is very nice, too! It’s located in Curridabat, which is on the outskirts of San José. The house is much bigger than I expected, although not large. The living room is a nice size with a couch, two chairs, a TV, DVD player, and small stereo. The living room is in the same room as the dining room where they have a small table with 4 chairs. The kitchen is attached to the living/dining room. It’s moderately sized with the basics of a kitchen (stove, fridge, sink, etc). Attached to the kitchen are Indira and Patricia’s room, Mau’s room, and the laundry room. My room is down the hall from the living room. It’s quite large! Probably only a little smaller than the one I have at MARV in Ann Arbor. It has a very large closet with a tiny bed and desk. The best thing about the room though is an attached private bath! I love having my own bathroom. I wasn’t expecting it at all! The bathroom is much larger than the one I have at MARV. The fun thing about the shower is the showerhead. Because most Ticos (Costa Rican people) don’t have a central water heater, they have an attachment on the head of the shower. It has heating coils inside that heat the water as it comes out. Needless to say, my shower today wasn’t very hot. ☺ The only unfortunate thing about my room is the noise. The house is located right on a busy street and my room is located next to the road across from a bar. My window also doesn’t completely shut, so the noise is quite loud from the traffic and bar. But, fortunately (and thanks to Jake!), I have ear plugs! They worked well last night even if they were a little uncomfortable.

The dining room

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Talking with the family has been a bit of a struggle but not terrible. They know some English words so that helps a bit. I have my trusty dictionary, which I bring out occasionally. I can’t believe how much Spanish I don’t know! Even though I’ve studied it for 4 ½ years, I feel like I know nothing! But I guess I was better than the last person they had staying with them. Supposedly, she didn’t speak any Spanish! Eventually, I hope to be able to communicate without much trouble. Also, the family loved my gifts! I brought them each a Michigan mug, Michigan dried cherries, Jelly Bellies, chocolates, and hand cream for the ladies. I also got Lana a cloth dog bone.

So, anyway my day yesterday was good. I watched a movie with Indira. It was some movie with Cameron Diaz and Shirley MacLaine. It’s funny how they have a few DVDs (most of them in English), but I’ve only heard of one of them. Like tonight, we watched Raise Your Voice, a Hilary Duff movie which I didn’t even know existed.

the family dog Lana (so cute!)

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Moving onto my day today: it was pretty relaxed. I had an ICADS orientation from 2-4pm. There I met the other students and the professors. We also took a tour of ICADS and were given information about security and other things like that. ICADS is beautiful! It’s a big adobe style house with pink outer walls and adobe tiles on the roof. The inside is very nice and airy with many small aulas (classrooms). It has a small kitchen where we can get free coffee and tea. It also has a wonderful courtyard with gorgeous plants surrounding it (very similar to my picture of Costa Rica!). Also, there’s wireless internet throughout the building! Yay! So, I’ll be keeping my laptop there in order to use it during my breaks. ICADS currently houses 6 stray dogs. The director likes to take them in until she can find them a home. They’re so cute! It seems there are no large dogs in Costa Rica, only medium or small (from what I’ve seen thus far, at least). I love having animals around all the time! I think this is going to be a wonderful place to learn.

The kitchen

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Anyway, my professors seem like really great people. My classmates all seem very nice, as well. I’m very excited for the classes to start! It’s going to be a lot of hard work, but I think it’ll be very interesting. Tomorrow we’ll be doing more orientation stuff and we’ll go into the heart of San José. Then we’ll have Spanish exams so they can place us at an appropriate level. Each Spanish class has no more than 3 or 4 students. The aulas are very small with a round table and 5 chairs. Most of them open onto the courtyard, too.

As for the food, it’s very delicious! My family knows I’m a vegetarian who prefers not to eat dairy. They even bought soy milk! So far, I’ve eaten things like gallo pinto (rice and beans, the staple of Costa Rica), pancakes, delicious fruit, a dish that has a tortilla filled with spaghetti and fried plantains, and marvelous frescos (fruit juice using the freshest fruit you can imagine). Overall, I’m very pleased with the food.

The first couple days of classes haven't been too bad. We had orientation stuff in the mornings where we visited San Pedro, the bank, and the post office. When I was trying to cash my travelers checks, I almost couldn't because my signature didn't look exactly the same! Thank goodness she finally cashed them. On Monday we also had our spanish exams which weren't too bad. There were two written ones (multiple choice fill in the blank) and about a 10 minute oral one. Then we unfortunately had some class. :( But the teacher is really nice. Her name is Maritza. We switch teachers every week for the four weeks we're in spanish classes. This is so we can learn about different accents and get used to different people speaking spanish. Anyway, the class (which consists of three other girls besides me) was basically conversation based. Yesterday's class was conversation and a bit of vocab. It's a good way to learn.

Last night I went to a dance aerobics class with my homestay mom and my friend Joanna. It was great! It was in an park on the basketball court. They had a boombox and a teacher who led us through some dance moves to these amazing latin songs. It was such an experience! I'm defintely going back. My homestay mom goes two times a week, so we'll see how often I can go. Today we're going to visit San José and the central market. I'm hoping to take more pictures then. Then we'll have our normal 4 hours of spanish class. Our day lasts usually from 8-5:30. A veeerrryy looong day.

Some quirks about Costa Rican culture: - They always wear shoes in the house. - They take at least one shower a day (and think you're weird if you don't). - They don't flush toilet paper. They put it in the trash. It clogs up their septic systems, I guess.

Alright, well I'll write more as soon as I can!

Hasta luego!