And the rest is still unwritten...

Day 1 in Costa Rica:

Complete success! Well.. I guess it was better than I expected so I consider that a success. Not that I was expecting it to be bad at all.. but I must admit, I was a little scared and nervous as I boarded the flight this morning.  And while we are admitting things.. I will start by saying that I started blogging again for the single purpose for friends and family to follow me in Costa Rica.. So I’m going to share ALL the details, good and bad, tears and laughs on this adventure. I apologize in advance for an extremely long post.. the rest won’t be this long [or maybe they will] but being the first day in living in a foreign country, I have a lot more than normal to say!

All honesty. I swear. Here it goes…

I woke up at 5:40 this morning.. I took my last long, hot, wonderful American shower for a month..  I got ready, finished up some last minute packing.. and my dad loaded the car. Thankfully I wasn’t making the journey to the airport alone. I was riding shotgun as my dad drove, and my sweet mom and grandmother rode in the back seat. We made small talk as I put my make up on but there were so many mixed feelings that it was difficult to carry on a conversation. I know that this is a great opportunity and my family is so excited for me, but I also know that it was even harder leaving me at the airport. I know this because for a few moments while waiting in line for security, I also turned around and ran after them. But after that point, it was smooth sailing. I checked through security beautifully [which for some reason always makes me nervous.. not that I’m any kind of threat in an airport, because I have NO CLUE at what I’m doing most of the time.. but it still just makes me nervous]. I then headed towards Gate E. After walking for what seemed like miles, I couldn’t help but wonder if I was walking to Costa Rica… but shortly after my pity party in my new cute shoes [thank you Nana], I reached my destination… Gate E06. It didn’t take me long to recognize other West Georgia students… I don’t know that it is, but college kids just stick out like sore thumbs. We introduced ourselves and shared all of our thoughts about the trip we were all about to embark on together. Soon after, they called our zone to board the plane.

I’ll skip details of the 4 hour plane ride.. nothing exciting or anything really needed to blog about.

Our flight landed in San Jose right on time! I excited the plane and headed towards customs.. which wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be.. took about 10 minutes and then I was off to baggage claim. First bag I spot, my big-bright-hot pink luggage! Yessss… that never happens! After grabbing my luggage, I headed towards the money exchange. Got some Costa Rican dollars and was off to meet my family… except after my name was NO WHERE to be found on ANY sign… a quick panic set in. A nice little lady asked who my host family was… of course not knowing anything other than the BARE minimum.. I pulled out my information and she called my host mother. She was walking from the parking garage and met me only a few seconds later. What a sweet little lady! She reminds me a lot of my grandmother.. very stylish with hair and make-up down beautifully… and then I quickly learned that she speaks pretty close to ZERO English.. ohhh boyyy!! Talking about an adventure.. This adventure was starting right outside the sliding glass doors of the airport. Luckily, my host family has a friend living with them for a few weeks that is fluent in just about every language out there.. so with her help and what little Spanish skills I have.. communication ran smoothly in the car ride from the airport to the their house. We drove about 20 minutes from the airport and arrived at their house [or my house for the next month].. very cute two-story green house right in the city.. very Costa Rican. I was showed to my room.. which I have to admit, was a little different than I expected.. but its my new home… so I’m gonna love it. My family gave me time to unpack all of my things and then called me down for lunch. First meal in Costa Rica… BAM… chicken and rice?! Who knew?? It was very delicious though and much better than any Mexican I have ever had. Everything was so fresh and delicious.. First meal.. check! I approve! We then sat at the lunch table and TRIED our best to have conversation.. thanks to the help of their friend, it wasn’t that awkward and we did communicate more than I thought we would. My host mom then asked if I was tired… I responded with Si [yes] so she proceeded to give me TWO cups of BLACK coffee… yuck! But being the nice borrowed daughter that I am.. I drank them and told her there were [delicioso].

After lunch, I got to relax for a little while before a meeting at the school. When it came time to leave, my host mom walked me to the school [which is a beautiful, old gated building]. I went inside to meet with the rest of the students and we had an interview process to be placed by the professors. My sweet host mom waited for me until I was done because she wasn’t sure if I understood the directions she gave me. I’m pretty sure I have it mapped out now, however, the short “15 minute” walk she told me about turned out to be more like a short “30 minute walk”. But I enjoyed seeing different parts of the city so I couldn’t complain too much. Tonight, we had dinner with their son, daughter, and two grandsons. They are very nice as well and speak some English, which was awesome! Another student is living with my family and she is also studying at the same school. She will only be here a week but I’m glad I have someone to talk with and hang out with while at the house. And I’m super glad that I have someone to walk with in the mornings to school!

Here are a few things I have learned so far:

1.       I know more Spanish than I thought. I have been able to pick up on more than I thought I was going to be able to so that has made the first day here a little easier. Maybe I underestimated myself? Who knows!

2.       I know a lot less than I thought I did. I know you are thinking to yourself… what?? She just said that she knows more… but the truth is… some of the easy little phrases I thought I knew have seemed to left me since traveling here. Although I have picked up on more than I thought, I can’t seem to remember some of the things I thought I knew. So maybe this makes sense…

3.       The majority of the Costa Rican streets in the city DO NOT have lines in the streets!!! I was amazed when I rode from the air port. Drivers here are crazy… needless to say.. I won’t be getting behind the wheel in this country.

4.       Stop signs are merely a suggestion. Cars stop if they want or zoom right on by if they want.

5.       Bars are everywhere! They line the streets here… for a second I thought I ended up in the wrong city and landed on Bourbon Street… but I quickly changed that thought as I looked up and couldn’t read any of the names… they look like cool places though. Maybe I’ll have to stop by!

6.       You don’t flush toilet paper here. All paper goes in trash cans… kinda gross.. but whatever.

7.       Its extremely humid in Central America… like worse that I thought. 79% humidity.

And my personal favorite so far….. My host family thinks I’m muy bonita… translation… very pretty! I guess its not every day they see someone with blonde/brown hair and blue eyes… they are amazed at blue eyes!

I might not know what I’m talking about or what I’m doing or suppose to be doing half the time, but for now… I’m just smiling and saying “Si Senora” [yes ma’am]… it seems to be working so far!

Tomorrow is my first day of classes… I’ll report tomorrow on Day 2 of living in Costa Rica. Thumbs up so far!