Like being a Freshman all over again...

Today was the first official day of classes where the entire university is open to ticos and international students. Last week, only international students and faculty were present. The school is much more crowded, but it was also very interesting to see how the Ticos interact with each other on the first day of their classes. However, it was like being a freshman all over again. I do not exactly know how things work or where things are quite yet, and the Ticos are like the upperclassmen. I am a bit of an intruder. Luckily, most of the Ticos were quite friendly and willing to talk to me in my Intermediate spanish.

This is the front entrance to Universidad Veritas. The university focuses on art, film, graphic design, etc. Therefore, the building itself is also very artsy. It is very "green" also.  Most the areas in the two buildings are open air so there is no need for air conditioning. 

Today I went to lunch with one my friends at a Costa Rican soda (simple, relatively cheap restaurant) that served really good rotisserie style chicken. Afterwards, a few of us gringos (it's actually not an offensive term in Costa Rica, but a description of an American) rode a city bus for the first time to the mall in San Pedro (a neighborhood within San Jose). Across the street from the mall there is a store called Pequeno Mundo where they sell food, toiletries, and clothing for really good prices. It is kind of like Salvation Army and the dollar store combined. Everybody goes there, but no one talks about it.

The mall was typical. The cinema on the third floor shows new releases on Wednesdays for the equivalent of two U.S. dollars. A group of us are planning to go see Tangled this Wednesday between classes. It will be dubbed in Spanish with no subtitles, so it will be quite the adventure!

First Excursion: Monteverde Cloud Forest, La Fortuna Waterfall, and Arenal Volcano

This weekend was my first planned excursion with AIFS. After Spanish class on Friday my resident director Rebecca, a tourguide, and thirty of my classmates got onto a coach bus heading for the Arenal Volcano, Northwest of San Jose. We made a couple of stops on the way including a suspension bridge that overlooked a beautiful river surrounded by our first glimpse of relatively untouched rainforest.

We reached the Arenal Volcano in enough time to get a rare glimpse of its summit. Most of the time, its summit is obscured by clouds due to the high humidity in the area. If you look closely enough at this picture, you can see the small sliver of the summit overtop of the clouds.

Arenal Volcano, look at the very top of the cloud to see the summit. 

That night we went to the hotsprings resort at the base of the volcano. There were dozens of pools of water naturally heated by the volcano. It was very relaxing, and every twenty minutes or so we heard a rumble of thunder. The rumble of thunder was actually the volcano erupting. It is quite active. If you look closely enough at night, you can see bits of lava spewing from the top.

The Saturday morning we woke up quite early to go on a long hike to La Fortuna waterfall. We hiked through the forest down hundreds and hundreds of steps to the waterfall and the river. Then we had a chance to swim in the rapids and the river for an hour or so before hiking back up to the bus.

La Fortuna Waterfall

Afterwards, we took these jeep-vans to the lake surrounding the Arenal Volcano. We took a ferry to a different part of the lake. This was approximately a 45 minute ride, because the lake was absolutely enormous. Unfortunately it was cloudy on Saturday, so we did not get to see the summit of the volcano, but we did ride past it in the boat. After we reached land, we took a two hour drive in the jeep-vans on the scariest road I have ever been on. In fact, they sell t-shirts that say, "I survived the road to Monteverde." It was a dirt/rocky road, that circled around the mountains. There were many times when I feared that we might fall over the edge of the cliffs. However, this was a really good opportunity to see the countryside, and the views were spectacular.

These were the girls who were in the same Jeep-van with me, our driver let us take a quick photo at the summit of one of the mountains. If you look off in the distance, you can see the Pacific Ocean. 

After reaching a town near Monteverde, we checked into the hotel. It was another nice hotel, and this was the first one that had both water pressure and warm water! That night we went to a local restaurant and checked out the town at night.

AIFS

Some of the girls

After a very early breakfast on Sunday, we drove to the Monteverde Cloud Forest. In a part of the cloud forest, there is a Zip-lining place. We were given harnesses, helmets, and gloves with a leather piece in them to hold on to the lines. There were fifteen different zip-lines total that overlooked different part of the Cloud Forest canopy. We started out with shorter ones. While on the zip-line, we were able to pick up a lot of speed, at the end we used the special gloves to hold onto the line and slowdown. At the end of each zip-line, there was a worker that transferred us to the next line. One of the lines was 3/4 of a mile long! I even got to do this Tarzan swing where that had a huge drop. It was practically like bungee jumping, but it was safer because we did not jump headfirst.

On the way back to San Jose, we drove past the Pacific Ocean. There were a lot of Ticos also returning to San Jose from the beaches, so the police closed the other side of the road to oncoming traffic. We ended up driving on the wrong side of the road most of the way back to San Jose.

My first close-up of the Pacific Ocean, later I will get a chance to swim and snorkel in it!

3rd Day of Classes

I am starting to get used to having Spanish for four hours a day, but my brain is tired of switching between Spanish and English. Every day I learn so much more during those four hours, and I go back to my Tico family and feel much more confident speaking with them and understanding them. The weather today was much warmer than it was the past couple of days but still very cool in the morning and evening. My host sister complained that she is cold, so I guess it is still cooler than usual.

Unfortunately, I had an upset stomach all day. Luckily, my Tica mom and dad make even just plain rice taste good! They also made me chicken with a garlic sauce, but I did not want to chance it. My mom also made me really good green tea with dinner. After Spanish and Intercultural Communication today, I walked home with two girls whose host mother is my host mother's mother. We stopped in a paneria or bakery on the way home. It smelled sooo good! I returned to school later in the day after my first skype session with my real family :) for Tropical Ecology.

Tomorrow after Spanish I will leave for the Monteverde Cloud Forest, the hot springs, and La Fortuna Waterfall. This excursion is with the other students in AIFS (American Institute of Foreign Studies), and it will be my first real look at the countryside. Monteverde is one of the most famous ecotourism attractions in the country, and we plan to take a zipline canopy tour. I am very excited for my first excursion, and I will be sure to write about it upon my return.

2nd Day of Classes

Today was the second official day of classes. I woke up this morning to the barking of the annoying dogs next door. I am glad that my perro Tico named Tiki is not like that. I ate breakfast and then walked to school with two girls who live behind my house. We were able to shave the time down to fifteen minutes this morning, but it is a bit of a hike to get there. Each day we have to cross this crazy highway. Pedestrians do not have the right of way here, and some of the cars speed up when they see people trying to cross the street. It is a four lane highway with two additional turning lanes. The only thing separating the traffic is a poor excuse for a median. It is kind of like playing frogger!

I had Spanish again today. The intensive Spanish class last one month, and it is four hours a day every day.  I am definitely finding Spanish to be a bit of a challenge, but I am learning a lot. For class today we had to interview a Tico or a Tica about the meaning of some words and how they celebrate holidays here in Costa Rica. Afterwards I ate lunch at Veritas with a few new amigas. For the equivalent of about four dollars and fifty cents, I got a plate with frijoles, arroz, plantanas, juevos, y pollo. (beans, rice, fried bananas, eggs, beets, and chicken) The meal also came with limonada o te frio (lemonade or iced tea)

After lunch I worked on my homework in one of Veritas' computer labs. They have a number of computer labs including those for pcs and macs, which I personally enjoy. Midday, I walked back to my house and got a relaxing view of the barrios (neighborhoods) Zapote and Cordoba (where I live).

At six I returned for my evening class, Documentary Appreciation and Production. I am very please with all of my electives. This one seems just as interesting and exciting as the other two. The only problem with taking evening classes Monday through Thursday is figuring out how to get home safely in the dark. There is a free shuttle normally, but we got out an hour and fifteen minutes early because it was the first day of class. Two friends and I had the Veritas security guard call us a reliable taxis to take us home. Luckily taxis are really cheap when you are riding with other people. For all three of us to get home, we only paid the equivalent of sixty-five cents a piece. Once home, I ate dinner while my host mom and sister were working on a puzzle in the kitchen. I had bisteak y arroz con jugo de "pears" (Steak, rice, and pear juice).

1st Day of classes

Today was the first day of classes. I got into every class I signed up for! Every morning, Monday through Friday I take a four hour long Spanish class. I surprisingly placed into Intermediate 1, so it is a challenge to keep up with my professor. It is also difficult to constantly transition between English and Spanish for my classes, host family, friends, and other interactions. After Spanish in the mornings, I am taking three elective classes in English. Today, I had Intercultural Communications and Competence and Tropical Ecology. Both of my electives seem really fun. The ecology class also includes two overnight field trips!

This is the view out of the window of one of my classrooms. All of my classes except Ecology have a beautiful view of the mountains surrounding San Jose which is situated in a valley. Luckily, I get to study a lot of the Ecology outside anyway.

I am quickly making friends, which is especially important because I do not have any housemates. This makes it a bit more challenging to find people to walk home with during the day and at night, but luckily I am quickly meeting the students that live in the houses around me. In fact, several of the students live in a homestay where their Senora is the mother of my host mother.

After getting lost yesterday, I figured nothing else could go wrong, but I managed to lock myself inside my house. Fortunately, my host mom was just a phone call away. All of the houses here are surrounded by gates with razor wire on top. There is a locked gate and door in order to enter my house, but I did not realize that it also locked from the inside.

 My host mother made breakfast for me this morning which included eggs, toast, bananas, and juice. I found it interesting that my family keeps the eggs in a basket on top of the refrigerator instead of inside it... it seems to work though.  For lunch I had to fend for myself, and I decided to try a burrito vendor on campus. Despite the fact that I am a picky eater, it was very good. For dinner, I just had tacos and tortilla chip while watching a bit of the Sugar bowl in Spanish and a bit of Shrek too.

Orientation Day

Today was Orientation Day at Universidad Veritas. I woke up and ate breakfast at my house with my host family. I had scrambled eggs with pepperjack cheese, toast, and applejuice. My host parents and host sister talk to me in mostly Spanish...only English when necessary. After breakfast, my family and my host dog and I walked to Veritas for orientation. I had the opportunity to meet with other international students, especially my classmates in AIFS. Veritas is gorgeous. There are two main buildings with a lot of open air spaces and plants. As you are walking up the stairs, you can look out and see the mountains and low clouds that surround San Jose. The view was breathtaking.Everybody took an oral spanish placement exam to accompany the online exams that we took before arrival. After an orientation session in the university's auditorium, we went for lunch as a group to Pizza Hut. It was much more formal that most Pizza Huts I have been to. It was a little cooler and windier than I expected today, but it was definitely still short-sleeve weather. We got a tour of campus and chose our classes for the next few months after lunch. Later, we were assigned a Spanish class based on the scores of the two exams. I was lucky enough to find a few people to walk home with, but I managed to get lost anyway. Luckily, my host mom was just a cellphone call away. For dinner, my host mom and dad made frijoles, arroz, pollo, y jugo de manzana (beans, rice, chicken, and applejuice).

Ready for Takeoff!

Me at Washington/Dulles Airport...Bright and Early

     Mother, Father, and I arrived at Washington/Dulles International Airport around 7:30 this morning. After a difficult goodbye, I was on my way through security. The process went smoothly and was not any different then when I went to Egypt last year, even with the new regulations. I met up with two other students from my group, and we boarded a rather small connecting flight. The flight to Newark, New Jersey was turbulent and very noisy, but I really enjoyed seeing all of the snow. We also had a clear view of the New York City skyline including the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty. Now I am enduring a five hour layover in New Jersey with my two classmates, luckily we were able to find Internet. Now I am a lot less nervous and even more excited than before!!!

View from the plane...New York City