Alright well I  landed yesterday in San Jose, Costa Rica and met most of the people who will be studying at the same university as me. We arrived at 7 pm and it was already dark! It gets dark so early here. Here is a snapshot right outside the airport as we all waited for our but to drive us to San Ramon to meet our host families.

Yes yes my true photogenic self came bursting through that picture but hey, I can help that beautiful smile. We finally arrived at at San Ramon and my host mother Maria gave me a big hug and was just the sweetest short little Tico ever! (Tico is what Costa Ricans call themselves, im getting culturally diversified I am) I told her I spoke very little Spanish and she said,  "Yo hablo cero engles!" So we have a nice little language barrier but I could just tell she was a nice one :) We took a taxi to her house she lives in this completely gated little lot with an amazing mini forest going on in her front yard. The house was really big from what I was expecting and I actually have my own room and bathroom. I didnt have time for taking pictures or even unpacking because we had to get up early so I could catch the bus again to go on my Costa Rica tour. I told her I was feeling hungry and she just popped right in the kitchen and whipped me up some rice, beans, pineapple, and tortillas. Now I kinda know what it must have been like to have a wife in the 20's ;) It was a little odd because while I ate dinner we couldnt really talk to each other so she just literally sat there and watched me eat, and trust me, I ate every bite. From what I could gather from our attempted conversation, she lives there alone with her two dogs, which are huskies, and she has two daughters. One lives right down the street and is an Engineer and the other lives in San Jose and is a Microbiologist. Her house is right across the street from the Universidad, which is fantastic!! I dont even have to rent a bike to go to school. I just hop across the road, which I should note is actually extremely dangerous here. Yielding to pedestrians means nothing here. No crosswalks and if you are in the way of any vehicle, they will just play chicken and win.

So in the morning I got in the shower and I am going to have to learn to enjoy the wonderful cold showers of Costa Rica. Hardly anyone here has really hot water and the water in the shower just never really warms up. Not even luke warm but on the positive side, at least I already have goosebumps while I am shaving so I just get off more hair and the shave lasts longer haha. Then once I was out of the shower Maria had my breakfast all cooked and was out just happily waiting for me to engulf it, which I pretty much inhaled. Muy delicioso! After I was all packed back up and ready to leave for the bus, she gave me a set of house keys because I guess she might not be at her house at the time I arrive from my mini vacay at the Blake Resort. I was pretty surprised she just up and gave me her keys, but I do have one of those "I just want to trust you" faces. Haha. We waited for the bus in front of the beautiful Catholic Church in the middle of the park.

We all piled on the bus and traveled for about 5 hours to get to our lunch point which also had pretty good food. So it turns out I dont actually think I will starve here like I had anticipated. The food all had been pretty tasty. Good thing I like beans, rice, and french fries. They come with every meal.

After lunch we had free time at the Osa Conservation beach. Not only was it amazingly beautiful, but the water was soooo warm!! It was fantastic! I have never actually been in a large body of water that was warm and it felt wonderful. It was so much warmer than my shower too! Thanks to my amazing mother, I have a waterproof camera that I could take right into the water with me and I got some fun shots of people getting smacked pretty good with the waves.

We even played chicken while in the water and I swear we almost drowned the poor guy who was holding me up but he took some pretty hard waves. Aaaaannnndddd of course, on the most important note, my team won :)

A couple of girls found a coconut and broke it open and we had wild coconut and coconut milk. I felt like such a barbarian on the beach!

So after the beach we went a little longer in the bus and made it to our final destination, Sierpe. We had dinner here and I was able to take a very hot shower=HEAVEN!!!! Dinner again was amazing and now I am just writing this blog in my hotel room with lizards running all over the walls. Its been a pretty good day :)