A little side bar on CR

So I thought that I would try and write something to at least update those who are interested in what have been going on since I have arrived in Costa Rica. Concluding on the Friday that just past… Friday the 13th none-the-less wrapped up orientation for us. In orientation week we were all together and traveled together and had someone from our host family drop us off and pick us up… but as of now… NO MORE! The philosophy that the program has taken is throw us into the environment and then it is pretty much sink or swim… so I am little nervous about this philosophy, but there is not much I can do about it! On Monday I have to find my way to the LASP office with includes finding two buses and all of the directions so that is a little scary and hope for my sake that I get there in time!

I live in a city called Cornado. It is a neat little town. My family whom I live with in Costa Rica includes a papa whose name is Jose Luis Cordero Garro and he is 61 years old. My mama name is Eunice Aguero Chavez who is 48. My father here is retired and my mama does physical therapy stuff and kind of a cosmetologist kind of profession. I also have two brothers who are 16 and 20 years old. My 16-year-old brother’s name is Jose Eduardo and my other brother who is 20 is Carlos Luis. It is very interesting… Carlos is studying intercommunication in college here and actually knows quite a bit of English, however he is not suppose to talk to me in it… which kind of stinks.

Like I was saying earlier my classes start Monday. I have a Core Seminar class, which is going to give me a brief overview of a lot of cultural and other important parts of Costa Rica. And concurrent with my Core Seminar class I am taking Spanish classes every day for about three hours a day five days a week. I am not what level of Spanish I am in yet.. but I hope they figured out what level I am suppose to be in correctly or else it is going to be hard for me to understand. For my language classes I have to go to a place called the Institute of Language Espanola, which is actually an institute where missionaries go so that they can learn Spanish. So it is a neat place.

The weather here is beautiful. I wake up and it is kind of cool about pants and a long sleeve shirt.. then in the middle of the day it gets to where you could be in shorts and then by about five o’clock it is time for a long sleeve shirt again. I am excited to start my concentration here which will not start for four or five weeks, but when it does I will be studying science and traveling a lot! The food here is a little adjustment for me especially if you knew me at all… because in the states I was quite the picky eater, but since I have arrived here I have began to eat whatever I am given and not ask questions. I have not had the opportunity to take many pictures yet, but I plan on taking some more but I suppose that I should start huh?