Pura Vida

I've started my blog a bit late so the first one will just be a brief recap of what I've experienced so far in Costa Rica.

The trip to Costa Rica was a breeze and what made it even better was that it was only about 5 degrees in Chicago when I flew out! There were about seven other students on my flight who are in the same program as I am so we got to know one another on the plane. However, as soon as we landed and got our luggage we were split up because we got picked up by our host parents. This is what made the first night a little hard for me because I was in a strange city with a family I didn't know, I had no way of communicating with anyone else (until I luckily discovered wireless in my little apartment!) and I had no idea where my house was in relation to the other students. The first night I got a little homesick and I was scared that I'd be homesick for most of the trip but then the next morning I got up and felt fine and I haven't been homesick since!

My tica family couldn't be better. I live on the main street of our town in a little house next to my host family's house. I have a papa tica, William, a mama tica, Ivette and tons of family! I live in the apartment with the twenty year old daughter Susana and if you go into my backyard you can get to my tico brother's house. Ricardo is 35 and has two kids but he is divorced. If you go further through my backyard my other host sister, Joli, 42 lives in a house with her husband and 5 kids. Also, another student is staying at this house. In my parents house lives my other host sister, Ivette (after the mom). Ivette is 25 and has a job in San Jose. The grandmother also lives in our house. I have one more host sister but she lives in San Jose. So basically I live on a little family compound with my tico parents, grandma, 1 brother, 4 sisters, and 7 nieces and nephews. Phew! I really enjoy having such a big family around all the time. Lunch gets especially rowdy as most of the family comes to eat at my mama tica's house. I've put in some pictures of my house that I took in my backyard. The first one is the patio to my mom's house and the second one is a beautiful painted oxcart in the backyard.

After spending the night getting to know my host family I went to bed exhausted and woke up the next morning to go to school. My host mom walked me there (its about a 15 minute walk) and tried to hold my hand when we crossed the street! For the next week we would have several meetings at the institute about safety and earthquakes and things of that nature. We also went on a overnight trip to see some of the surround area and we stated at a pretty resort in Cartago. We also visited a coffee farm and got to see how coffee was made as well as pick our own.

About a week after I arrived in Costa Rica we started our classes. I'm taking five classes: Intro to Latin American Literature, Litarary Analysis, L.A. Cinema, L.A. Music and conversation. All of my classes are very interesting and my professors our very laid back and like to be called by their first names. Some of my classes only have 6 students in them and my largest class is about 20 students; a far cry from the 700 person lectures at U of I.

The biggest difference between being at home and being in Costa Rica is the lack of cell phones. Our group has gotten into a groove though and if anyone is going anywhere at night they meet at a bar called Bar Alex down the street from me at 8:30 and we go from there. We tend to make plans at school during the day so if you don't have class one day you tend to be totally out of the loop. However, the good thing about not having a cell phone is that life is much more relaxed. It isn't uncommon for people in Costa Rica to be a minimum of 15 minutes late for everything, operating on "tico time". Overall, I love my life in Costa Rica and am enjoying my study abroad very much!

Pura Vida!