I´m here!!

Hi everyone!

My plane landed in Costa Rica yesterday afternoon, and I´m safe and sound now in my new home. The flight was great (although I was a bit nervous the whole time). On the flight from Houston to San José, I just happened to end up sitting next to a very nice girl named Jessica who is in the same program as I am, so we talked about meeting our host families, how much Spanish we knew, saying goodbye to family and friends....basically all the things that were stressing us both out, which destressed us both considerably. ¡Gracias a Dios por nuevos amigos! Blessing number 1 of my adventures here.

After landing, customs and all that went very smoothly. I had to wait a little while for my host mother to show up, but I met a nice woman named Claudia who works with USAC who talked with me (in Spanish) until my host mother arrived.

My host family is fantastic. I´m living with Elizabeth, who is around 50 (although we´ve already established a little joke between us that she´s actually 25), her husband Luis, and their two children, Jessica (pronounced "YESS-ee-ca") and Erick ("Eh-REEK"). Elizabeth is very hospitable. She speaks a little English and Jessica speaks even more, but neither use it when talking with me unless they need to help me with a specific word. From what I´ve seen thus far, Elizabeth is a fantastic cook, and is in the kitchen often. Jessica is extremely nice, and very understanding of my slow Spanish. She has already taught me many idiomatic expressions and local gestures that I should know. I learned more (and spoke more Spanish) yesterday than I have for a long time. I´m having trouble understanding them when they talk amongst themselves, but they slow down when addressing me. Apparently, they´ve hosted over 50 students before me, so this is not a new thing for them at all. Luis is very nice as well, but still speaks a little rapidly to me. Erick I just met today, and haven´t had the chance to talk with him. There is one dog here (Charley), and a gazillion birds. Elizabeth loves to hear them sing all day (and sing they do!!), but it seems to drive everyone else nuts. I don´t mind it...I´m too busy taking in everything around me.

The house itself is very nice. Like virtually all residences here, it has a large gate in front with a small driveway/patio just outside the front door. Out back there is another small patio (where Charley and a few of the birds live [including Melissa and John, parrots, who occasionally speak loud Spanish phrases just outside my room]). Beyond the back patio there is a small coffee field, and beyond this (easily visible from upstairs) there is a fantastic view of San José, which is beautiful at night. Upstairs is the computer with internet access, though it´s not wireless so I use the family computer for online stuff. Downstairs is a living room, kitchen, and a few bedrooms including mine and Elizabeth and Luis´s, and a bathroom. Apparently hot showers are possible, but I couldn´t figure it out this morning and had to take a cold, cold shower. It reminded me of bathing in Rainy Lake in northern Minnesota (I asked Elizabeth afterwards how to work it, so hopefully tomorrow morning will be a little less frigid).

Today I had my orientation to the university (Elizabeth accompanied me there, showing me the proper bus route), although we didn´t so much tour Heredia or the campus as get a bunch of helpful information on living in Heredia, what classes are like, safety tips, study tips, language practice tips and things like that. After taking a proficiency test (which I discovered was optional after all but took anyway), I found that, based on the results, I was in fact up to par by their standards for "Track IV", the highest level of language classes they offer here. Class starts monday (yikes!). I met many more of my fellow USAC students today, although as always I´m having trouble remembering names. It seems like the grand majority of them are going to school in California or Nevada, particularly UN-Las Vegas or UN-Reno. It seems like a good group, and I think I´ll have a good semester. I have not yet met anyone else in Track IV (I think there are very few of us), nor do I know anyone yet who is staying the whole school year like myself.

After orientation a group of six of us wandered around downtown Heredia for about an hour (we had plenty of spare time before our host families were supposed to pick us up). While waiting for Elizabeth, I conversed with a friendly old tica (Ticos are Costa Ricans) who was waiting for her student to get done with registration. She was very kind, complimented my Spanish, and said I already sound like a Tico myself (though I didn´t believe her....I know I´ve got a long ways to go =D). Elizabeth found me a little after 4, brought me back home (again, by bus), and here I am having strong tea and small galletas (cookies/crackers). Tomorrow I´m going to go to church with Elizabeth and probably rest/study for the day.

That´s all for now - thank you all for your kind words in the emails you sent. I´m thinking of all of you.

¡Pura Vida!