Adventures!

Im here writing with a full stomach of gallo pinto which is a breakfast dish with a mix of beans and rice. Here Costa Ricans eat beans and rice for basically every meal. I love it!
I also love how Costa Ricans are so into SOCCER. The FIFA games are the TV shows that my family watches or what all of Costa Rica watches. No more American futbol, Costa Rica futbol baby!!!!! On the last day of school before vacation (this last Thursday, June 24th), I was the only girl in the whole school who played soccer with the guys. I had a blast with them! They were shocked that I wanted to play. Whenever I did a move, they would make noise, ha ha good times. Girls here do play soccer but I guess they dont like to play with the boys (a cultural thing). I broke that!
It has been hilarious to be in the English class as well because the teacher is not always correct. All the 17 teenagers in Fabiola´s class got back English tests and some of them asked why things were wrong. You dont think of it grammatically when you are a native English speaker. Also Fabiola and her friends have `English time.´ Its where they try to speak English. Randomly, one says English time and we start talking. They have hilarious Costa Rican accents!
Here, every day Im learning new words and cultural differences, as well as slowly but surely understanding more Spanish. The last few days Fabiola, her friends, and I have been sharing music. They know all the popular songs, movies, everything! Just last night, I saw Toy Stoy 3 in 3D with Fabiola and her sister Kathy. I recommend it to all. Yeah, its a children´s movie but you can learn so much from simple things. ¨You got a friend in me, da da da, you got a friend in me...¨
Today we are heading to San Jose which is the capital of Costa Rica. Fabiola, my host sister, has three weeks of vacation so now we are traveling and they said they are going to take me zip lining (canopy in Espanol) through the rain forest one of these days!!! WOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! That is what I have always dreamed of..and now it is going to come true. ¡Pura Vida! as they say in here in Costa Rica. Until next time...

First Days of Costa Rican Life!!

My adventure began two days ago now where my group (Partners of the Americas) arrived in the capital of Costa Rica-San Jose. We took a bus to a far away jungle bungalow, as you may call it, where we then stayed the night. Costa Rica is basically one big tropical jungle! That is when it hit me that Im actually going to be here for TWO MONTHS!!! The day after, my host family picked me up where we then went to an incredible restaurant with cultural food--beans, meat, strawberry milkshakes..so good.
People here do speak Spanish quite fast but my very kind family understands that I can only understand so much. I have a very nice host sister who is 16. Today I went to her private school where there were tons of kids every where. Sometimes it was so loud you could barely hear the teacher. It was also very interesting to see how they learn. Instead of the students moving from class to class, the teachers are, and they teach all levels in that subject for all classes. Interesante!
More adventures to come! I just played the guitar with my host sister. I taught her a few chords and now we are playing worship songs together!! Pura vida! (pure life as they say in Costa Rica). ¡¡Hasta luego!!

The Adventure is About to Begin

It's the night before I leave, just trying to get packed. I'll try and post regular updates about my travels and experiences in Costa Rica.

Just for your information, I'm going with a program called "Partners of the Americas." Where Oregon is partnered with Costa Rica.

I will be there for about two months, from the 19th of June to the 14th of August 2010!

I'll be living with two different host families, but I do not know who they will be yet, or where they will be living. I'll figure that out on the plane.

Hasta Luego!