First few days

The first few days here have been kind of hectic. 

With me jetting to San Jose the day after my brother's wedding, I've been trying my best to settle in and get myself on track. I arrived in San Jose at around 8:00p.m. on Sunday. Thankfully, I made a friend on the plane named Gaby who kindly gave me tips about Costa Rica and helped me through the busy airport to find my transportation. She even gave me her phone number in case of emergencies, what an amazing lady! 

When I arrived at my home stay, I saw a young woman with blonde hair, holding a puppy eager for me to get to the door. Her name is Madelaine, she is staying in my home stay with me. She is from Mississippi, attends Ole Miss and has the cutest southern accent I've ever heard and she is an absolute doll. The dog she was holding is named Homero (you don't pronounce the H's in Spanish so his name sounds like "Oh-mer-oh"). My host mother is named Camila, we call her "mama tica" which means "Costa Rican mom." She is absolutely wonderful. She wakes up every morning with us, offers coffee and cooks breakfast. She is always interested in our days and loves when we speak Spanish with her. I gave her some presents from MN (by the way mom: Camila told me to say thank you, I also showed her a picture of you and she thinks you are so beautiful and skinny!). 

On Monday we had orientation at Veritas University, it was pretty basic, same as any other university...lots of presentations and talking. I took a Spanish placement test that morning as well (which by the way, I thought I absolutely bombed and I was terrified). Turns out, I was placed in Avanzado 1 or Advanced 1: grammar and conversation, which is the second highest Spanish class offered at Veritas! I was convinced they may have made a mistake but I was assured I was in the right class. My spanish teachers at Grand View will be so proud :)

Today was the first day of class. For the month of September I am taking the intensive Spanish course which is 8am-12pm every Monday through Friday. First day was rough, since we are an advanced class we are NEVER supposed to speak English, quite frightening for someone who didn't really take the time to brush up on her Spanish all summer.....however, I found myself able to understand the professor. She was kind enough to speak a little slower for us, gracias! To wrap up my rather long blog about my first couple days: I've been loving it here. The weather has been perfect so far, absolutely no rain (as soon as I wrote that it started raining, of course). My roommate and host mom are amazing women! Can't wait for more adventures ahead! Hasta luego! Until next time!