Getting my feet wet in Costa Rica

Today is my second day of classes and I'm hoping it goes a lot better than yesterday. On Friday, when Laura, one of the program coordinators, gave us our schedules, I asked if she could change one of my classes. I wanted to swap geoecology for environmental geology because I thought it would transfer more easily with AU. She said it should be no problem. Just come to her on Tuesday before that class. So I went to my Spanish class yesterday morning and it was with only other students from the program and it's tailored to us, so it was fine. Then I went to see Laura before my next class and she tells me that the class is full, but that I'm on a waiting list. So I left there, assuming that meant I should go to geoecology until my spot was assured in environmental geology because that's how it would work in the US. Well, after having the hardest time finding the room (navigating the campus could be a whole nother blog post, but let's just say it's very hard to do), I go in and the professor takes roll call. First, it was very intimidating because I only caught the gist of his introduction to the class and the students seemed to speak so fast that I couldn't even catch their names or where they were from. When my name was not on the list, he had me go to the head of the department to see why. The head of the department, a kind enough woman, pulled up a list on the computer and it showed that I had been dropped and I realized Laura must have dropped me so I could get into environmental geology. I tried to explain to this woman the situation and why I wanted to be in the class until I knew for sure that I was in the other one, but between the language barrier and the fact that students at UNA don't have that flexibility (they have very little choice in their class selection), I just gave up and decided to go talk to Laura. I had to awkwardly go back to the room, knock on the door, get my stuff, and tell the professor that I had to go sort things out. On the way over to Laura's office, I'm thinking to myself, what am I even doing here. My Spanish is not good enough for this. After talking myself down and chalking it up to a rough start and a rough first day, I concede to myself that I need to take another IFSA course (a class with only other students from the program). So I decide I'm going to take 20th century latin american literature. Seemed interesting enough (only later will I find out it's 4 hours a day on Monday). I get to Laura's office and I'm ready to tell her I'm going to switch to literature. But before I can, she excitedly tells me that she got me into environmental geology. She hands me my new schedule. Environmental geology is evidently three times a week. One of the days is Saturday (no way I'm doing that) and the other is on Thursday (which conflicts with another class). So I have to tell her that doesn't work for me and that I'd like to just switch to the IFSA literature class. She says ok that's fine, but then she tries to update my schedule and finds out that the system is down. (#typicalticostory) She tells me that we can make the change tomorrow. It's strange how things that would be mildly frustrating in the US become extremely frustrating here because you're in a foreign country and things are just done differently and something so basic as communicating with people can be a real challenge. Well, I got some ice cream and went to a park and just relaxed and I felt better. Hopefully my two classes today will go a lot smoother. Next time I'll tell you about my trip to the beach this past weekend, which was a lot more fun and the opposite of stressful.