Una Fiesta Tíca!

Today, I experienced my very first fiesta Tica!  My host grandmother's brother, Marco, turned 50 today, which in Costa Rica is an enormous deal, just like the quinceañera for the girls.   There was a big surprise birthday party for him tonight which I got to attend with my host family!

The Mariachi Band!

My host sister Elena and mi abuela

Marco con sus hermanos, su esposa, y su hija

So, earlier today, my host mom told me that we would leave to go to the fiesta at 6 tonight...  I got home at 5:30 from a trip to the mall with a few friends, and changed quickly as not to be late.   At 6 o'clock, went downstairs expecting to leave soon, but I was the only one ready!  I have been told several times about "Tico Time"  where everybody is late to everything, but this is really the first time I experienced it.  Finally, at 6:45, everybody was ready to go.  When we got in the car, my host mom was telling me that the party started at 6, so we would probably be the first ones there.  (?)  So, if you're having a party in Costa Rica, and you want it to start at 7, you tell everybody 6 so that everybody will show up at 7.  haha.  I love it.  Turns out that we actually were the only people there for about 20 minutes!  The majority of people didn't even show up until around 8!

My host mom is on the right

 It was SO SO much fun.  There were so many cousins and other family members there that it was a little overwhelming.  Everyone wanted to talk to me and see how much spanish I knew. haha. They served us what my host mom told me was traditional food for fiestas, arroz con carne.  It was muy rico!  Later, after everyone finished eating, I was so surprised when a Mariachi band bursted through the door playing "Cumpleaños Feliz."  Overall, it was a great experience, and I'm so glad I have such a great host family that wants me to learn as much as possible about the Tico culture.

Adorable little girls clapping to the music.

Elena con su prima Maria Fernanda

Primas!  (Paola & Francela)

My host sister Elena and I!

Mi familia con Marco

San José

Today was my first adventure out of Heredia!  Five of the girls from my class and I decided to take a day trip to the capital of Costa Rica, San José!  Since we arrived here, we haven’t heard many positive things about the city.  We’ve been told that it was dirty, full of illegal Nicaraguans, and that people will snatch your camera out of your hands.  So why would we decide to go to such a horrible city?  Well…There are several things in San José that we felt like we shouldn’t leave Costa Rica without seeing…like the Teatro Nacional, el Parque Nacional, and el Museo Nacional.  Turns out, the city was a lot of fun and all the things worth seeing were very close to one another.   Our experience was actually the contrary of what everybody had been telling us about the city.  Except for being stared at everywhere we went for being Americans, (San Jose isn’t really a tourist destination) everything went smoothly.

The view from my window this morning

My day began by waking up and seeing the beautiful mountains outside my window.  I see them everyday, but never have they been as clear as they were today.  Anyway, I met the other girls at 8 at the Universidad where we started trying to find a bus to take us to San Jose.  We knew the general direction of where we could catch the bus, but it took wandering around for a bit and asking a few people in order to find it. 

When we arrived in San Jose, the bus let us off at a beautiful church called La Iglesia de la Merced.  We took pictures and then took out our maps to figure out if we were close to where we wanted to be. It took us quite a long time to get anywhere, because we kept getting distracted by parks, buildings, or other fun things to see.  Anyway, we found the Museo Nacional and continued on looking for el Teatro Nacional. (The Nacional Theater) We spent about 2 hours wandering around San Jose thinking all the time that we were somehow just missing the Teatro and overlooking it.  We had asked several different people, and each had given us different directions.  We decided to take a break for lunch, after which we ran into another couple people from our program!  We asked her if she knew where the Theater is, and we felt very stupid when we were standing about 300 yards from it at the time.  The theater is actually on the back of the Museo Nacional, but this was definitely not clear on the maps. Haha. 

While wandering around, however, we stumbled upon the train station…My host mother had mentioned that we should take the train, but we didn’t know enough about it to even try it.  Since we found the station, we decided to try it!  It was a few colones cheaper than the bus, and a much more pleasant experience.  

I don’t really have any plans for the rest of the weekend, but I my try to find somebody to go to el Paseo de los Flores (The mall in Heredia) with me to just look around. 

BUT, I don’t have to wake up at 6:30 tomorrow, which I am ecstatic about! 

I know this entry was kind of all over the place, but I’m about to fall asleep as I type this. Hasta Mañana!

I posted my pictures from San Jose on Facebook, but here are just a few of my favorites!

Un día de lluvia

Aye, qué lluvia!  Today, I experienced my very first actually rainy day.  Since it is "rainy season"  it is to be expected, but man!  It rained for hours and hours tonight!  The power even went out for about 2 hours.  My host mom lit candles and told me the Costa Rican "scary stories."  There was one about a carriage that rides by itself and another about a wailing woman looking for her lost child.  It was so much fun.  My host sister Elena got really into telling the stories! 

The clouds and rain outside my window.

Some of my classmates and I at a restaurant near la U.

One thing I haven't said much about is the money.  Costa Rica uses the "colón."  500 colónes equal 1 US dollar.  It's so weird to buy something and cost 1500 colones.  (Which is only 3 dollars)  I feel like I am one of the few people on the trip that hasn't spent quite a bit of money. Most of the people bought phones (about 50 US dollars)  even though we're only going to be here 6 weeks.  I don't feel the need to get one.
This huge stack of money is about 120 dollars.  Crazy, right?  
These coins are so interesting to use as well.  The 10 cent piece only equals about 2 cents, and the 100 cent piece about 20 cents.  It's really kind of ridiculous to have such a large coin for such a small amount.  But, these are what I use to pay my bus fare each day.

So, I've gotten into the groove of speaking spanish without mixing in too may French words.  Today, however, I received an email from my university in France for next semester, and for a couple hours after reading the email in French, I had a very difficult time speaking Spanish.  It's kind of ridiculous how hard it is to keep the two separated in my head.  Oh well.  I've learned to not be ashamed of my numerous mistakes when speaking Spanish.  They just correct me and then say "Tranquilo"  which is a very common phrase in Costa Rica along with "Pura Vida" ,both meaning "No Worries."  This whole country has that attitude, and It's going to be hard to go back to the US where life is so much more fast-paced.  I'm loving the laid back atmosphere.  No one gets upset when people are late or when things don't go as planned. Everybody just goes with the flow for the most part.   Anyways, it's late, and I have to get up at 6:30 tomorrow morning!  ¡Buenas Noches!

Exploring Heredia

Today was an excellent day here in Costa Rica!  I had my first solo adventure on the bus today in order to get to and from my first class!  It was a super short class today from 8am-10am, but a very good one.  We basically just spent the time talking about ourselves and getting to know one another.  Class tomorrow and for the rest of the summer will be longer than today and will last until 12 or 1 each day.  Since it was a short day, some compañeras de clase and I went to explore the city close to the University.  We walked around for about an hour just looking at all the shops and just taking in the incredible scenery.  Here's a picture, but  pictures could never measure up to seeing it in person.

After our little exploration of the city, I went back home and took a much needed siesta.  When i woke up, I went downstairs where my host sister Elena was working on a project for her English class.  She has a presentation tomorrow on Volleyball, so I helped her translate some sentences and helped with her pronunciation.  It was so much fun, and she also helped me a lot with my Spanish pronunciations.  Like "cada" and "cara"  Both involve tongue movements that we Americans aren't used to.  Anyway, I feel like my spanish has already improved after only being here 48 hours.  I hope that is a good sign of how much I will improve by the end of this experience!

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!

I made it!

I'm here!  AND, I have wi-fi in my room!  Right now, I'm wishing I were staying longer than 6 weeks.  I'll fully update later, but just wanted everyone to know I arrived safely. :)

Airport Stress

In a perfect world, I would be in Costa Rica right now.  Unfortunately, airports always seem to have something going wrong.  As I type, I am sitting in Dallas- Forth Worth International Airport.  It is 2pm, and my flight isn't for another 2 and a half hours.  BUT, I am very very glad that I am getting to Costa Rica today.

You see....This morning, I got to the airport at 5:45am... 2 hours before my first flight.  When I got to the check in counter, I was informed that my first flight was delayed due to "crew rest."  I mean, really?  So anyways, this delay meant that I would not be able to catch my connection to Costa Rica.  The next thing out of the airline woman's mouth were the words, "The earliest we can get you there is tomorrow."  I almost freaked out right there.  Then, she started looking and came to the conclusion that the only way I could get there tonight was if I were to drive to Atlanta and catch a 5pm flight to Costa Rica.  I then called my uncle who lives in Atlanta to see if he could possibly take me to the airport so I could leave my car at his house.  Now, my uncle flies all the time for his job, so he got online and said that there were other options and that I shouldn't drive to Atlanta.

I basically stood around for an hour while my uncle talked to the airline folks on the phone.  Apparently he's much more forceful than I am, because he somehow managed to get me a flight out.  And here I am...in Dallas listening to horrible elevator music waiting for my next flight.  I wish I could say that my stress ended there, but I still had the problem of needing to inform my host mom of when to pick me up.  I was supposed to get into Costa Rica at 1:30pm...I will now be getting there around 7:30pm.  For some reason, the people at ISEP don't like for us to call our host families directly.  I tried and tried to get a response from the coordinators via email, but finally broke down and dialed the cell number of my host mother about an hour ago.  It was amazing to finally hear a voice on the other end of the line, but I was super nervous to try and speak in Spanish to her.  Fortunately, she knew enough English, and I knew enough Spanish to have a comprehensible conversation.  Anyway,  everything seems to be running smoothly now, and I hope that it will continue to do so for the rest of the day at least. :)