Day 1- Check!

My first 24 hours here have been a success. I didn't get in until around 8:00pm last night, so there wasn't much to do except eat a light dinner and pass out because of my severe lack of sleep.  This morning, I woke up wide awake at 5:30am and almost freaked out because I thought I must have slept through my alarm set for 7am.  You might say that I was a little surprised to see my room full of bright sunshine so early in the morning.  Even though I felt very awake, I made myself go back to sleep for an hour. 

Today was my first day of school at the Universidad Nacional, so my host mom took me to school.  Since I live in Barva, (about a mile and a half north of the university) I take a bus every day to school.  The bus charges 160 colones, which seems like a lot but only amounts to about .30 cents.  Luckily, there are a few other students that live in the same area, so we decided to meet tomorrow and ride together. 

The first thing we did today was to take our Spanish placement test.  It included about 4 pages front and back of multiple choice questions, 3 short essay questions, and a short interview.  I did much better than I thought I would and was placed in the intermedio class!  (The same class as the other UT student who has taken several upper division Spanish classes) I was very pleasantly surprised.   My real classes begin tomorrow with Professora Merityell at 8am...which actually doesn't seem so early here since it is so stinking bright.

Next, we took a tour of the Campus and the surrounding area.  I haven't taken any pictures yet, because I'm just trying to soak it all in, but I will soon, I promise! The area is pretty cool, but drivers here are CRAZY.  They drive on both sides of the road with no care for what they're about to hit.  The drive from the airport to my house was enough time for me to realize that I don't enjoy riding in the car with a Tico driver.  On the buses, you don't notice the recklessness as much, so that won't bother me. 


My host family is so so nice.  Tonight after dinner, (which I will talk about in a bit) they gave me a tour of the house and then we stood and talked Elena's room for a long time about things to do in Heredia and about the culture and people of Costa Rica in general.  I love it!  AND, I think that Elena is my new favorite person.  She is 10 years old and oh so adorable.  She's learning to speak English, so we will give each other lessons. :)  Also, my host house has so many more luxuries than I was expecting.  Since I only had Guatemala to compare with, I was a little blown away.

 1.  Wi-Fi in my room... I definitely was not expecting that. 

My bed & closet

2.  My own mini apartment set apart from the rest of the house.  It's small, but awesome.

My closet and desk

3.  Drinkable water from the faucet.  This may not seem like such an exciting thing, but you go brush your teeth from a water bottle for a month, and you'll understand my excitement.
 
4.  A comfortable bed- It's ten times more comfortable than my bed at home.

5.  Breathtaking views just outside my doorway.  But really.

View from my doorway.  Picture doesn't do it justice.

6.  An adorable French Poodle named either "Puffy" or "Poofy"  I really can't tell. 



I'm sure there are more, but that's all I have for the moment. 



The food so far has been excellent.   I told my host abuela that the only thing I absolutely will not eat is onions, and so far she has been really good about not putting any in my meals. Apparently onions go in practically everything, so I told her that if they were very small that it would be ok.  (Which, if you know me, means that I will have to be brave and at least try to eat the onions). 

One thing that has really surprised me is the Tico's attitute toward the climate.  This is their invierno (winter)  and they actually think it is a little chilly even though it has been in the 80's.  Nowhere has air conditioning, but it has not been a problem in my room since it gets cooler at night.  Another interesting thing is that there is hardly any barrier between the inside and the outside.   My host family leaves their back door open all day long, and my room has windows that don't really close. haha.  It's kind of scary to think of what could come into my room in the middle of the night.  I haven't had any terrifying bug experiences yet, but I'm sure there will be a few.  Also, many of the buildings on campus have plastic covering on windows that they only put down at night.  In the US, we spend so much money keeping the outside out and the air conditioning in. 

This entry turned out quite a bit longer than I expected.  I think I'm going to have to stop myself from posting so often, or else I will bore everybody to death.  Even if noone else reads it, this is pretty much my trip journal.  I'll probably print them out when I get back and make them into some kind of memory book for myself.  There are just so many new and exciting things to say that I probably won't be able to stop myself.  :)  Oh well.  ¡Pura Vida!