Thursday, February 26, 2009

Mi Horario


These are more images of my campus. (Thanks to my friends who let me take these pictures from their profiles!)

My class schedule:
Monday- 
8:00 am-9:30 am Spanish
10:00 am-12:00 pm Syntax

Tuesday- 
9:00 am-11:30 am Women's Studies Class 1 (General Topics) 



Wednesday-
8:00 am-9:30 am Spanish 
10:00 am- 12:00 pm Syntax

Thursday-
5:00 pm- 8:00 pm Women's Studies Class 2 (Communication from the Perspective of Gender)

Weekends OFF!

La Explanada y La Calle









Pictures of La Explanada, the main entrance to the campus of "La UNA" and the central street that runs next to it. It's difficult to get the full perspective, but in the pictures with the cars, the tree in each one is the same tree. 

El Viaje

Well, starting at the beginning, this is the view that you would see as you are coming into the airport. I didn't take this picture (or any of the ones I will post) because my camera stopped functioning in the first week. Anyway, when I was looking at these beautiful mountains, I was very, very nervous. My first journal entry in the journal that Joc gave me for Christmas starts out like this, "I'm scared to death." Haha, I guess it didn't really hit me that I was leaving the country that I belong to until I was in the air. Marissa had given me a letter with some pictures in it to open on the plane and it was perfect, she has always been able to read my mind. She reminded me what I was coming to Costa for: to learn spanish- a language that I have fallen in love with, to find confidence, to have the courage to adapt to a new lifestyle, and to strengthen my faith. The entire trip was very emotional.

But as you can see, Costa Rica is so gorgeous, and I started to get excited when we were directly over the country. I didn't realize that this was going to be the last time for a couple weeks that I felt like I was in reality. Once we landed in the heat I was immediately sweating with my NY clothes on. And then the man in customs was asking me questions in spanish. From then on, everything was like a whirlwind. My host Mom, Mayela, and the little girl she watches, Mariana, were waiting for me outside the airport with what seemed like a hundred other people (waiting for their family, etc.). They had a sign with my name on it and it was so cute! I had been imagining this for months and it was finally happening. 

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Four Months To Go!


Well, this is my first post for this blog! I finally decided to take the time to write about my experiences here in C.R. And no better day than today, because in exactly four months I will be headed back to the United States. I have almost a complete month's worth of stories and experiences to recount, and I will start on that as soon as possible. Right now, I am sitting in the library of the building where most of my classes are held: La Facultad de Filosofìa y Letras. (It's the building in the picture) It is an open building that has no roof in the center, where palm trees and tropical flowers grow. It´s nice to walk out of a classroom and see the sun coming down through the middle of the building, or even rain. Speaking of rain, it "mists" here almost every day, therefore there are rainbows all the time. It's just beautiful! It's time now for me to go home and eat lunch. My host mom expects me home usually around midday. It's a custom here for almost everything to be closed down from noon until one so everyone can have a full lunch hour. Everyone. Just one of the many things that reminds me how little Costa Rica is, and how all of the customs are pretty much country-wide. More later about...EVERYTHING!