If you don´t know, that means I´m here! I arrived in Costa Rica on Tuesday night and am currently at an internet cafè planning to catch you up on my life during the past few days. Here goes...
Tuesday morning began in West Palm Beach as my time visiting Luke came to an end. It was such a good experience to hang out, laugh A LOT, and meet his friends down there. That afternoon he drove me to Miami Airport and had to drop me off curbside because of the traffic. When I walked inside, it seemed like mere chaos as I was looking for one LASP representative. Luckily all us students had to put orange luggage tags on our bags which led me to a group of girls who led me to the LASP rep. I checked in, made it to the gate, and sat around for an hour or so meeting and talking with other LASP students. Our flight was supposed to leave at 7. We boarded at 6:15 and sat on the plane for 2 hours due to technical problems. After 2 hours, they finally got us a new plane, we switched gates, got a snack, and were off to San Jose.
We arrived to a retreat center where we all spent the night. I stayed in a room with Caroline Bumpus, Rachel Jones, and Jessie Strange. It has been so nice to have them here with me to go through this together and have each other as a comfort zone. Wednesday morning we began orientation after breakfast at 8. They gave us some information that we would need during the first few days, but mind you, they left a lot for us to figure out on our own. This program is very much experiential learning so they don´t just give a bunch of generalizations to comfort us.
Before lunch we drew our families. That is literally how in depth the process was to pick families. I drew a small family consisting of a mother and her 2 daughters, Vanessa and Fabiola. At 3 the families came and picked us up and off we were into the real world of San Jose. My mother is so sweet, constantly giving me hugs and encouragement. Vanessa is my age, 21, and Fabiola is 16. They are very fun and sweet, and I´m excited to have them to hang out with and show me around town. Their house is 2 stories. The downstairs consists of the kitchen, study room, dinning room, and sitting room. Upstairs contains 4 bedrooms, a bathroom, and a living room. I have my own room, which is very nice since many share bedrooms with siblings in this program. Their accomadations are very modern: warm water in the shower, refrigerator, microwave, oven, TV, car, cell phones, and American products like Nestle chocolate milk mix.
Of course there was the normal awkwardness upon meeting. There is so much unknown about each other, but yet you are family right away. We communicate, but I struggle with fishing for words and having to ask them to repeat stuff a lot. They are very patient and understanding and helpful. The girls speak English (although they are not supposed to around me), they do help me with words. I am so excited because I can already tell that I am going to be learning so much on a daily basis.
I spent the night unpacking, going on a walk with the mom, going to the store with Fabiola, dropping a friend off at her house, eating dinner, and journaling. I went to bed around 9:30 because wake up was at 4:15 this morning!!!! That´s right I got up at 4:15. I had to get ready, make my bed, eat breatfast, help make my lunch, and wash dishes. Mi madre and I left for the bus stop at 6. We got to the city by 6:35 where we met everyone at Teatro Nacional at 7. Today we had placement interviews, a health talk, and the rest of the day is being spent in small groups getting to know the city through a scavenger hunt type thing.
Well, that´s what I´ve been up to and now for funny stories. The funniest thing that has happened to me so far is what I´ve been eating. Yesterday I had beans and rice at every meal (and yes that includes breakfast). Lucky for me I love beans and rice. And you´ll never guess what I had this morning for breakfast: scrambled eggs, rice and beans, a piece of cheese, orange juice, coffee, and A HOT DOG! Haha, not the bun, just the weiner. Surprisingly the hardest thing to get down was the cheese. It just tastes kind of slimy and gross.
Well I must go because my hour is up. Love and miss you, mis familia y amigos!
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4 comments:
Hi sweetie,
It was great to get the impersonal email from the director of the program, saying your group had arrived safely...but SO MUCH BETTER
to hear from you in your own words via the blog. So glad you like your new family -- just don't forget about us, your real one! j/k
You're in our prayers.
Love and miss you so much!
So glad you're there! Thanks for updating the blog. Sounds like you've got a cool family to stay with. Love you tons!
haha grody...at least it wasn't something like pig's tongue or something like that...maybe that's to come:) j/k... I'm so glad you made it and to hear about your family situation! that is a relief and sounds like it could be a really good thing...have fun exploring!! can't wait to hear a/b it and classes! good luck...love you!
ummm..so maybe holly beth is a better friend by reading the blog first...but i still love you just as much:) Im so glad to hear about your family! that sounds awesome especially having your own room...and your going to be amazing at spanish when you get back and im sure youve gotten into the swing of things by now with your weekly routine. we still miss you here and i actually said a prayer for you today...so your in my prayers and i love you and miss you.
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