Day one

Yes! I have arrived in Costa Rica. So far I am unable to post pics as I brought my small camera out today but it won´t read the card, I am assuming because it is either 8g or because I formatted it to my dslr. I was stuck with iphone photos but have yet to upload them to the pc. Some are on facebook. Wifi is limited here, so far only at the mall and the school but awaiting to find out the password at the school.

Yesterday I quickly met the group from Wisconsin about two minutes before boarding and was unsure if I would recognize them after the flight. I boarded without having a chance to get lunch in my run across the Houston airport and was concerned until they came around with a meal. Yay! We then arrive around 2pm here and got through immigration rather quickly and then off to be dropped off at our host families´homes. I was concerned when I found I had no roommate and no one else would be near me.

My host mom welcomed me with open arms! We had some interesting/confusing conversations at first about whether I was tired and hanging up my clothes. I unpacked and then watched some television while she made dinner. I of course watched American movies in Spanish.

I then had dinner, I should have taken a picture but I was a bit out of it just trying to get by with my Spanish. It included a bean like broth soup (no beans in it) with a boiled egg inside. A veggie like salad with cauliflower, carrots, onion, tomato and another salad with cabbage, tomatoes and cilantro then rice. It was pretty good.

I then met my host sister, she is about twenty years old and her boyfriend. We then walked a couple blocks down the street to watch her boyfriend´s futbol game. It was very entertaining, full of yellow and red cards and quite a bit of arguing on the field.

I stayed for the whole game although I was asked about a hundred times if I was tired or cold. It wasn´t cold at all maybe 70 or so but I had jeans and a sweatshirt, warmer than a night in Washington right now. After the game we went out to tacos. It ended up being a taco that was similar to a taquito but with cabbage and sauces like ketchup and mayo but dont really taste like it.

I then headed to bed to find out that the street was very loud still and my pillow very flat. I definitely didn´t sleep well but didn´t want to complain in the morning. There are actually chickens in the yard across the street and the rooster was making noise every hour all night. Maybe he is blind and couldn´t differentiate between day and night cause he didn´t make any noise when it was actually morning.

Oh, the most humorous conversation with my host mom was about the fact that it is ok to put TP in the toilet but not tampons. This is what I understood as she pointed at the toilet paper and the toilet and said aqui but then had difficulties with tampons as I didn´t know the term for garbage. But it was also a little confusing cause I had just used the restroom and had read that some septic tanks can´t handle tp and was worried she was telling me I didn´t something wrong because I forgot when I went. But turns out it was ok after a very silly conversation.We also had one conversation that I never understood which was something related to the cemetery but I didn´t understand if they were talking about tombstones or ghosts...they gave up on that convo. They also keep telling me my Spanish is good although they must repeat a couple times before I get a question. More later...