Well, I've made it to Costa Rica. Today is my fourth day here and things are going really well. The first day we were here, we stayed in a hotel in Heredia, which is where I'll be living for the rest of my time here after this week. So I landed and took a taxi from the airport to the hotel. I got to say I was a bit nervous to make the trek from the airport to the hotel on my own. But it was fine in terms of communicating. It was just a harrowing journey because my taxi driver was a mad man. I thought I was going to die several times. Oh well, I made it to the hotel, which was really nice. It had these extensive gardens in the back with all of these tropical plants and a pool and a tennis court. The other 14 students and I in the program all kind of slowly found each other as we arrived. There was no one from the program there to welcome us and the program coordinators didn't get there until the next morning. That was kind of weird. We just sort of had to figure things out on our own. Typical Ticos (Costa Ricans). Not much planning. Well, the weather was beautiful when we got there. As it is every day. The sun shines every day and in Heredia, the high was 80 I think.
Monday morning we had orientation at the hotel. That was the first of many long orientation sessions and Spanish classes. They told us we were going to leave for Monteverde, which is up in the mountains, at 1 pm, but we left an hour and a half later. Ticos are never on time. The bus ride was 4 hours and the first two hours were fine. We had a slow crawl out of the city in stop and go traffic that I slept soundly through. But when we were two hours away, the roads became unpaved, more steep, more windy, and more narrow. I was fine with it at first, but it just kept getting worse. I kept grabbing the head rest in front of me as if that was going to save me if the bus suddenly toppled over and we careened off the side of the steep mountain to our all but certain death. Needless to say, it was at this point that I asked my friend, Audrey, if I could have one of her dramamine, which she had the foresight to bring. As Brian Regan likes to say: well it seems like my insides want to be on my outside. (That one is for Duncan).
Well, miraculously, we made it there. I was exhausted and starving and I've never helped myself to so many servings than at the dinner that my homestay prepared for me. I was glad that I'm not rotund because the family's first impression of me would have been: great, we got another gluttonous American student. But in reality, food is a big deal for Ticos. My homestay parents make elaborate meals, even for breakfast, and they cook all of them from scratch. The food is really good and they want nothing more than for you to eat a lot of it. I can definitely get use to having the freshest fruit I've ever had every day.
Today is the second day that we've had Spanish classes and orientation sessions all day from 8 until 5. Yesterday we had dance classes for 2 hours though. I learned how to dance merengue, salsa, and something else. I was not good at salsa, but my friend Sidney and I nailed the merengue dance they taught us. We even busted it out at the bar in town that we went to last night. There are 15 of us in the program: 13 lovely ladies and 2 of us guys. Everyone is really nice and everyone comes from very different backgrounds and very different places in the US. It's been really fun getting to know everyone so far. The Spanish classes and orientation sessions are mentally exhausting because I have to concentrate in Spanish for an extensive amount of time. But slowly, it is becoming easier. With time, I hope it becomes nothing. I talked more at dinner with my homestay family tonight, so that's good. They are very patient with me, which is nice, because sometimes it takes me a while to form a sentence. I've always been sympathetic to people speaking English when it is not their first language, but I definitely have a newfound understanding for how difficult it can be to communicate with someone when you are speaking in a language that is not your first language.
The weather is just amazing and the views are simply stunning from up here in Monteverde. The high every day is about 70 with ample sunshine and the mornings and evenings are a bit cooler in the lower 60s. We begged for Spanish classes outside and this afternoon they were granted. It was great. The major complaint of the group is that we can't enjoy the beautiful weather and natural beauty of Monteverde because we are in classes all day, but the next three days we get to spend a lot more time outside and in the forest preserve, which I am super excited for. And as my Spanish teacher told us, it's like this all the time here so you'll have plenty of time to enjoy it. Ok well this is probably too long already. I could go on. Four days and I've already done so much and have so much to talk about. Pictures to come. Ciao.
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