Week number one (because I'm too tired to be creative)

First of all, let me apologize for my lack of posting for the past seven days. If you read on, you will see why. I still love and haven't forgotten about all two of my followers. Thanks Mom and Hillary. So here we go with a week's worth of posting...

Monday was the first day of orientation. My Mama Tica walked with me to the bus stop which is right across the street from my house (how convenient!) and rode with me into Heredia where we walked to the ISEP office and met up with the other students and their host moms at 9. I think the number of students is 17. After an exhilarating 7 hours of discussion (and by discussion I mean listening to our director talk) about living with our host families and being safe and all that jazz we had a dance class. Going into it, I was thinking ok, they'll turn on some salsa music and we'll learn the basic steps. Me equivoca. The class started at 4. At 6 when our Mama Ticas picked us up we were all dripping in sweat. Literally. We looked like we had all showered with our clothes on. It was really gross. My excuse for not posting on Monday is that I had to shower and I thought "Oh well, I'll have plenty of time tomorrow". Once again, me equivoca.

Tuesday morning I woke up with a swollen throat, but figured it would get better throughout the day. We met at 8 in the morning in order to take a Spanish placement exam and tour the campus. My Mama Tica asked me on the way to the campus if my school back home is big. I was like, nah it's pretty small, but not too small. Compared to the UNA campus, however, it's microscopic. Seriously, this campus is massive. Beautiful, but massive. So I am sure that I will have a ton of fun for the whole first half of the semester trying to find my classes. Fantastic. Anyway, then registration started. And sucked. During registration, I was feeling really feverish; I felt like I was cold but on fire at the same time. Hard concept to explain. What seemed like five billion hours later, I was finally done (the last one to be done). My Mama Tica was there to pick me up and asked how I was. When I told her I felt sick, she felt my head and made quite a fuss about how warm I felt. I had to go to the bank afterward, so we walked quite fast in order to beat the rain that seemed inevitable judging by the color of the clouds covering the beautiful Costa Rican sky. When we got there, there were about a million people there, so we took a number and my Mama Tica fussed over me some more. After speaking to a few people, she managed to get the boss-man to see us earlier because I was feverish and needed to get home. So, at this point my face was not only bright red from the fever but also from embarrassment. Cool. While in the boss' office, it started pouring. Like torrential downpour complete with deafening thunder and lightning. Then the power went out. My Mama Tica didn't want me to get my feet wet since I was sick, so we had to wait in the bank until it calmed. Two hours later, she decided that we could go as long as I wore giant black trash bags on my feet. Yes, you read that correctly. Giant black puffy trash bags tied with rubber bands just below the knee. As if I didn't already stick out enough. I put up quite a fuss about it, but she didn't back down. A few other American students were there so I made them swear not to take pictures. The boss of the bank was also threatening to take pictures. He thought he was funny. I didn't. After my host dad drove us home I went straight to bed after my Mama Tica forced some hot tea with honey down my throat. That woman just wouldn't quit. She reminds me of my mom. The next day I was still feeling ill, but I medicated myself with Advil and Pepto Bismal so I was able to accompany the rest of the group to San Jose. We toured the National Museum and ate at Pizza Hut, which was really nice! Fast food here is apparently a much bigger deal than in the states. That night I came back and fell asleep early.

Thursday morning we left for Sarapiquí in a multi-passenger van. That day we did a tour of a pineapple farm and checked into our hostel. It was absolutely beautiful! We took up all of the rooms which were up on a hill while the kitchen was down a bit from the rooms. There was a short path through the woods to a pavilion and a small river just beyond that. The next day was the chocolate tour, which was awesome, and yet more talleres. Then horseback riding and returning home exhausted on Sunday.

I have just realized how obnoxiously long this post is and I want to apologize to and thank those of you who are still reading. Those of you who have skimmed to this point: for shame!

Anyway, there will soon be a post including some of the good pictures from the weekend and then another about my first week of classes. Sorry this blog is somewhat chaotic so far. I’m pretty new to it all. I’ll get it all sorted out, I swear.

Paz y Amor!!

Bienvenidos a Costa Rica

¡Hola a todos! Bienvenidos a mi blog.

If you are reading this, you probably already know the circumstances under which I am here, so I will go ahead and delve right in.

This morning I woke up at 5:30 en la mañana to go to the airport. My parents and I went by the post office in order to intercept a form sent from the Costa Rican Consulate, but were unable to. So hopefully I will get that in time to get my Visa. I finally arrived after a delayed flight, a minor freak-out about a possible lost suitcase (don't worry, I got it), and some confusion in customs about my lack of visa. I waited outside the airport for my host mom and brother for about ten minutes, which caused a bit of concern on my part, thinking they forgot about me. But they showed up and were super nice and brought me back to the house to unpack and such.

Shortly after I arrived, my host mother's sister and brother-in-law came over with the student they are hosting. Her name is Abby and she is my age, although one year behind me in school. She seems really nice and I am looking forward to having her close by. I had a great time visiting with my familia and everyone today, but am exhausted from traveling and thinking in Spanish. So I am going to try to get some sleep.

Until next time.