Day 2

Last night I was finally able to get some rest! I needed it bad. But I got a great night of sleep and woke up feeling very refreshed. At the hotel we had breakfast provided for us and it was great. Normal breakfast stuff: fruit, eggs, toast.... The fruit was amazing though- Papaya and pineapple... I could live off of that stuff!

We had a meeting with our professor after breakfast to get some things settled with schedules and what not. After the meeting we had some time to kill before we went to our host families house, so of course being girls, we checked out the local mall. It was only few blocks away so we walked. Little did we know we would be risking our lives to cross the street. It was a little scary. Cars just fly through town, honking their horns like crazy, tailgating, and weaving in and out of traffic. It was funny to recognize so many stores in the mall, I was not expecting that. Our group of girls turned a lot of heads, we are very obviously tourist... I'm pretty sure that is something we will just have to get used to.

In each home stay there are two girls. Liz is the girl I'm living with and our Hostess is Marcela. She is a single woman and then she has some help that stays in the house with her. Marcela is wonderful! She showed us around town a little bit and everything is pretty much walking distance. The only thing about getting around in Costa Rica is that there are NO address. It is so bizarre. Streets don't have names, and there are absolutely no numbers. That is going to take some getting used to for sure. You just have to ask someone, and so I'm staying in the white house with blue trim across from the market....

In our homes, breakfast and dinner are provided for us. When Liz and I arrived we were offered bread pudding, and surprisingly it was wonderful. I know my dad would not believe it, but I actually really liked it. Maybe if I can get him to make it like they do here, I would eat his!! Dinner was a delicious pasta with a light cream sauce and some veggies and then some gazpatcho soup. All very good, I will not be going hungry here. Breakfast is served at 7am and dinner at 6.

The rest of the evening was spent just vegging out. I spent sometime looking at a map of the streets so that I can get to my agency on monday morning and to church tomorrow. They are both walking distance, so we will see how it goes. My Host Mom tried explaining to me where the church is, but like I said- no numbers or street names so I'm hoping that as I'm headed in the direction of the church I can find someone that knows. That's all for now, love you all!!

-A

This is our group- from r to l: Alejandra, me, Liz, Professor Miller, Shannon, Kirby, and Beth

I didn't bring my hair drying or straightener, so good by straight hair- its going to be frizz city for the next two months!