Thursday:
Spanish Level: Not so hot. I tried reading the newspaper this morning and I couldn’t understand a bit of it? I was truly surprised when I couldn’t even read my 5 line horoscope. :(

I had a lot of homework today so I got up and started working on it early. It was raining cats and dogs outside. I mean I thought the house might wash away. About 11:30 Stephanie and two of her classmates came home from school. School was canceled there was so much rain.

Jocelyn, one of her friends, was very friendly and talked to me a long time and corrected my Spanish. She wanted to know how many people I knew in Hollywood. Atlanta is literally closer to Costa Rica than it is to Hollywood. I showed her my little picture book and she went through every picture with me. Thanks mom! Then the girls worked on some science experiments. I tried to help them with one but I couldn’t even read their text book. I figure I am a 1st or 2nd grade reading level if Im lucky. Then they asked me to translate a song in English to Spanish for them. The song was sung by a Hispanic person with such an accent I could barely tell it WAS in English. By the time I got an ear for her voice I’m sure the girls thought I was nuts. I didn’t know enough Spanish words to tell them what the song said.

My family has a dog named Kimba. He is little like Rusty but has thick fur. Here they don’t let dogs in the house much. Most people think it is dirty to have a dog in the house.

My class was in town today. My teacher and I walked around. We talked about thing in the stores and the streets and how much rain there had been in the morning. It was nice not to sit in a classroom all afternoon. We also watched some locals practicing a traditional dance ‘of the grandparents’. One man there was 98. Pura Vida!

Wednesday:
Spanish Level: This morning the phone rang, Wilbert was asleep he has been working overnights this week, Carmen was shopping and Stephanie was at school so I answered the phone. It was Carmen’s sister in law and I told her where everyone was and she said I did pretty good with the Spanish! All this was in Spanish of course.

The mail man came by on a motorcycle. I have no idea how they deliver mail here as there are no addresses on any buildings and no street signs either, or only a few on the main road. They give directions by what something is close to or next to and often by who owns the building. A lot of folks get lost as you could imagine.

My host mom is a great cook. After dinner tonight she took me to her brother’s store and we bought some ice cream bars for the family. An ice cream truck could really make some $$ here. I watched the end of Shrek II with subtitles in Spanish. Also we watched the news how about that man with 40 wives??? and a show Carmen likes a lot, a spoofy weekly show sort of like ‘SOAP’ was back in the US I forget the name of it?.

I gave Carmen the host gifts tonight (some water guns and some nice book marks) thanks Aunt Carol! Stephanie reads a lot and loved the book marks she has Harry Potter and the Chronicles of Narnia. Carmen loved the water guns.

For those of you trying to contact me; I have used the internet 2 days now at a café here but the connection is VERY slow. It takes about 30 minutes to pull up my email and reply to about 2 notes. If I don’t type the note fast enough the email ‘times out’ and I have to start over. This is sometimes challenging as most of the letters are rubbed off on the keyboards. I have not been able to get my Vphone to make calls from the café PC’s either. I am receiving your emails and voice mails. Hopefully I can find a place to use my laptop over the weekend and to catch some of the Auburn game. WAR EAGLE! I write these posts in the mornings at home, save to a thumb drive and load at the café so it is faster. I don’t have internet at home. I miss you all! Wish you were here!

Tuesday:
Spanish Level: Still bad. Today at the bus station, I asked a lady where the bus to Manuel Antonio was (or I think that is what I asked) we waited for 30 minutes and when that bus arrived it was not the one for Manuel Antonio. ?? One of my class mates asked someone else, and we finally got on the correct bus. sheesh…

When I got up this morning my family asked me what time I was leaving for the beach. They seemed pretty surprised when I said I was not going to the beach today because I needed to study. My host father was happy I wanted to learn and he worked with me for a few hours on answering some simple questions people might ask like: When did you get to Costa Rica? How long will you be here? What did you do last night? How are you? etc… This was great practice as he doesn’t speak English and it was conversation I could actually use because a lot of people are asking me these things.

My house has no hot water, they don’t have a hot water heater. Dad, this is a great way to keep people from taking long showers, just get rid of the hot water heater at the house. My classmates say they don’t have hot water either so I guess it’s pretty common. Yesterday I just thought I didn’t know how to work the “hot” in the shower.

When I got home after school my host mother told me there had been a drug related shooting in our neighborhood, Boca Vieja. Columbians had driven into town and shot two men point blank over some cocaine incident and left town. Columbians are the drug lords here too. The shooting was just outside a store Wilbert took me by the night before. My family was very upset over it. Boca Vieja is about 5 city blocks square, a very small area and everyone knows most everyone.

After dinner, pico de gallo, my classmates, Gary, Steven and Jeff wanted to go out for a walk around (we planned this before we knew about the shooting). Carmen said it was safe. We met at Carmen’s brother’s store it is the happening place to be in the evenings. It is well lit and there are pay phones there so folks sort of mill around. Come to find out, 5 of the students from Escula D’Amore are staying within 2 blocks of me, one is right next door. We stopped by each others houses and met the moms and dads and walked to a bar at the end of the street. The only thing that is COLD here besides the showers… is the beer, and it is ICE COLD!!!

This is the first night it has not rained… The night sky is so dark here you can really see all the stars brightly. And the clouds in the sky are sort of outlined by the light of the moon, looks like one of those paintings on black velvet. I can’t wait to see the light of a big full moon reflecting off the water.

Monday:
Spanish Level: I tested out at my school as Beginner level II. The other three people who started school today are all Beginner level I. Thus my class right now is one-on-one with my teacher.

Today was my first day of school. There are 4 students who already have classes in the morning; everyone who arrived today will be in the afternoon 1:30-5:30 for at least a week. The view from the school is absolutely gorgeous. Thank heavens the school is not right on the water or we would not be able to get anything done.

Steve, Jeff and Gary are the guys who started with me today. We walked down to the Manuel Antonio beach on our break for lunch. Most things are closed here on Mondays.

My teachers name is Marilyn, she is very nice and a good teacher. Very patient and only speaks to me in Spanish.

My host father, Wilbert, came to pick me up at school today… “oooughh the luggage”. My host mom is Carmen and their daughter Stephanie (16) also lives with them. They are very very nice and speak very little English so I am forced to speak Spanish. No A/C, it is HOT here. This is a lot tougher than I imagined. I want to be able to talk to them so it is a GREAT incentive to “get busy learning” because right now I can barely understand any of what they say.

Wilbert took me around their area of town. Carmen’s brother owns a corner store just a block away. There is a fishing dock is about 3 blocks away. Carmen’s parents live just down the street. We watched the sunset from the dock next to the ice factory. The sky facing the sea is beautiful at sunset. We came back to the house and had a great dinner. I studied a little and went to bed.

The sun comes up at 5am every day, sunset is at 7-7:30 every day. I have not used my camera much since I have been here but I promise I will start taking pictures now that I don’t have to lug around ‘the luggage’.

Sunday:
Spanish Level: Getting lost had an amazing impact on my Spanish. I am infinitely better than I was yesterday but still terrible.

After a great breakfast included with my hotel, the bus picked me up and headed for Quepos. Wonder how you say “oooughh the luggage” in Spanish? The bus trip was absolutely beautiful over the mountains south of San Jose and down to the beach front. Everything is so green here it reminds me of rainforest areas of Hawaii. The view from the mountains was very beautiful.

On the 4 hour bus ride I met another girl traveling alone just out of law school who planned her trip on Craig’s list and was here working as an intern amazing. I also met a man who was in the hotel consulting business and now lives in northern Costa Rica. He drove his motorcycle down from Chicago on a 5 month trip (stopping in Guatemala for Spanish school) also amazing. There are a lot of tourists.

My hotel in Quepos was GREAT too but the temperature is a balmy 90, much hotter than San Jose. I took a public bus 10 minutes into the town of Quepos to get a feel for where I will be the next 4 weeks (this is when I got lost). I was feeling awkward and pretty stupid, thus the first stop the bus made … I got off. I had no real idea where I was, all I had with me was a map that is much like an amusement park map with attractions and a few streets on it. I walked down the street to an open air restaurant (there are a lot of these here but this one seemed very clean and nice). I stopped to get some lunch and directions. No one spoke English… I managed to mutter through some Spanish and with the help of three 3 ‘ticos’ (locals) helping me. One told me go 300 meters and gestured ‘turn left’ 100 meters (damn!! the metric system… I have no conceptual idea how far 300 meters is, but I started walking like I did and I got un-lost.

Saturday:

Spanish Level: After asking 3 people and being corrected by my taxi cab driver I still can not pronounce the name of my hotel correctly. Hotel Anarjuez good thing I came here for the lessons.

Smile of the Day: In line at immigration I got my first smile of the trip, thinking I’m ACTUALLY here and soon I’ll be able to talk to Hugh (the interpreter for Candlewood whom I have a crush on) in Spanish.

After a somewhat grueling and stressful send off from Atlanta and a 4 hour flight with Lita Ford singing “do you know the way to San Jose” in my head, I arrived in San Jose, Costa Rica. Everyone I have encountered so far speaks English as well as I do so I have not practiced much, of which I am glad because San Jose is a bit intimidating. Most of the buildings are built touching one another and are all enclosed by iron fencing or chain link fence topped off with looped razor wire like you see on top of prison fences. I expected it to be more like NYC, but the streets look more like Techwood before the Olympics for you Atlantans or like Harlem (when we took the wrong bus in NY Ange).

My hotel was GREAT inside however. And the temperature in San Jose was a very nice 75 degrees. I stayed in my room too long on the Vonage phone and missed the hotel dinner so I had to walk to the corner for some food. The store was run by an Asian person thus I had Chinese food my first night in Costa Rica (ironic).

p.s. dad ALL the restaurants here have a chili pepper on the sign.

Ok. Lets start with a little of the boring stuff. Costa Rica is nearly due south of Atlanta, GA yet they are two hours behind Mountain Time, for those in the U.S.. Costa Rica is 10° North of the equator and 84° West of the Prime Meridian. This is the farthest south I have been so far. Still haven’t made it to the Southern Hemisphere.

I fly to San Jose (the capital) on Saturday about a 4 hour flight and will stay in San Jose that night at Hotel Aranjuez. www.hotelaranjuez.com On Sunday I take a 3.5 hour bus ride South to Quepos/Manuel Antonio and will spend the night at Hotel Mono Azul the blue monkey. www.hotelmonoazul.com Monday morning is my first day of school and when I will meet my host family who I will live with while I’m in Quepos.

I enrolled for a 4 week session having 4 hours of lessons every morning M-F. I am attending the same school my aunt Nancy thanks for the recomendation!, Sister Nancy, attended when she was here. Escuela de Idiomas D'Amore. www.escueladamore.com
School info for mom: (Toll free number 1-800-261-3203; P.O. Box 67-6350, Quepos, Costa Rica; email: info@escueladamore.com)

My return flight right now is booked for Sunday, 26 November 2006. Some of you may have already calculated that this is more than 4 weeks. For the remaining 2 months, plans are open. There are many schools in various cities in Costa Rica and other Central/South American locations. The plan is no more detailed than to return to the US when I know the language (or when the money runs out) thanks for the bread Carol & Toby!. This is how the adventure begins…