Hola de Costa Rica!

Today is the beginning of my second full day here in San Pedro. I typed out on my laptop last night what I wanted to post because I did{t know how much time I would have at the computer lab and i didn{t want to haul my laptop around all day, but for some reason, i can{t copy and paste from word into here, so i will just smmarize. also, i apolgize to those of you who will be bothered as much as i am about my lack of captilization and seemingly horrible puncutation. the keyboards are different here, making my typing skills seem poor. i even had to ask someone how to get the @ symbol. even as i type this, another girl is asking how to get that symbol....so you{ll have to bear with me. :)

ok, well, i arrived in san jose with no trouble at all. after checking through customs and grabbing my bag, i walked out of the airport as i was instructed to do and immediately saw a man holding a sign with my name on it. success! :) we waited to pick up two more guys who were doing the same program i am. then they drove us to our host homes in san pedro, which is about 30 minutes east of san jose.

my host family is actually just one older woman, named Vicky. She is so wonderful and welcoming! she showed me to my room where another girl was already reading in bed. she{s also in the program, but is doing childcare for just the week. she{s from florida. there are also two other girls staying in the house, but they are in a study abroad program and are attending the local university. i quickly unpacked and was glad to go to bed, even though it was pretty early.

yesterday morning was orientation. vicky made us a huge breakfast, which i think i{m going to have to start getting used to. it was rice and black beans, called gallopinto, eggs, bread, fruit, and orange juice - but way better than any orange juice i have ever had. Vicky then walked us to our bus stop and rode the bus with us to the maximo nivel office where our orientation was. there were about 40 or so of us. they gave us a bunch of information that i will hopefully remember when i need it. i decided to take spanish lessons while im here so i took a placement test and then one of the people here took us on a walking tour to help orient us, which was great. there are two maximo nivel offices so i had to learn how to walk from one to the other - it only takes about 5 minutes.

one thing that is super confusing is how they give directions. they gave us maps with street names, but those are hardly useful as there are no street signs - they use landmarks to give addresses and directions. For example, one of the offices is 50 meters south and 25 meters east of *the old fig tree*. but it{s not actually a fig tree at all...it{s a wire statue in the ground that is over the place where a fig tree used to be until it was cut down 20 years ago. so of course that{s what it{s called...oy. so my identifying landmark skills will definitely improve while i{m here.

after orientation, i grouped up with 3 other people and we walked around, exchanged money, signed up for spanish lessons, and grabbed some lunch. i took the bus back to my house for a couple hours and then went back to the office at 5 for a teaching english training session. after that, we had free salsa lessons, so i stuck around for that. i{m not sure that salsa dancing is my calling in life, but it was fun to try it. :)

this morning i will be going to my project with the other members in my group. i{m sure i{ll have more to post later on that.

overall, i{m doing well. my emotions kind of range from excited and confident to nervous and ready to be done, but i think as i get more used to things here and more comfortable with my surroundings, the fear and anxiety will subside.

thank you all for your prayers - they are so appreciated! i{m going to go put sunscreen on before i leave for my project. :) hasta luego!