First Day of School

Today marks one week with my family! This experience is really stressful. I knew it would be, but I didn't realize it would be this hard this quickly. Luckily, I know it will all be much easier soon!

On Thursday, I went to the plaza with Mariana, Caroline, and Annika. After a little while, we left and came back to my house. We played MarioKart, and it was a lot of fun! It's really nice to hang out with the other exchange students. It was fun to be with Mariana and exchange friends because I was acting as a translator. It's a little confusing to go back and forth between Spanish and English, but I was proud of myself.

Friday was my first day of school! I was really excited for it, but it wasn't as great as I had hoped; however, I did meet a lot of really great people that I hope to be friends with. The most stressful part was not being able to understand people. Luckily, it didn't seem to bother them, only me. Another thing that was frustrating was my inability to understand anything my teachers said. I had an opportunity to look at some of the material we're working on in Chem and math, and I have already learned this stuff. That was relieving because I need to pass my classes to get credit in the US. Worst case scenario, if I don't pass any of my classes, I'll do online school and regular school at the same time second semester.

Yesterday, I hung out with Annika, Caroline, and Jacob. We went to a cake shop in the center of town, and it was delicious! After that, we walked to Annika's house. It's interesting to see all of the different houses here. When I heard about the rainy season here, I had pictured Tallahassee thunderstorms that are strong for less than an hour. I had pictured it incorrectly. When it rains, it doesn't pour, but it doesn't let up for a very long time! Yesterday, it rained for over 24 hours (started raining Friday around 4), and it's raining again today. You can never leave the house without an umbrella!

Today, I just hung out at the house with my family. My nieces came over for a few minutes, and they are so cute! Lucia (1) is still warming up to seeing me, but Emily (5) is so sweet to me! When she got there she gave me a big hug. At one point, we were all sitting down, and Emily came over and gave me a kiss on the cheek. I love having nieces (:

Tomorrow, Caroline is coming over before school (doesn't start til 10), and then I start my second day of school. It's about half as long as my first day, so that should make it easier. After school, Julie and I are hanging out.

Things are tough, but I'm glad I'm here. Now, I just need to focus on making the best of it!

Friends and Family

Things here are going really well. In the mornings, I always miss home, but I am always better by 11 at the latest. In my last post, I forgot to mention a few things. First of all, you have to wear shoes in the house. I don't quite understand why, but my host mom says that I'll get sick if I don't wear my shoes. This takes a lot of getting used to, but now I always wear my flip flops in the house. The bad thing about this is whenever I leave the house, I always forget to change into my cuter shoes! Also, there are always lizards on the wall in my living room. This doesn't seem to be an issue for the family because when I mentioned it, they just said it's good because they eat the flies. I guess that's a good thing because there are flies everywhere that land on you, but the lizards never leave the wall. 

Tuesday, I went with my host mom and Mariana to school to enroll. EVERYONE stared at me the whole time. I guess that is just a little taste of what my new school will be like. It was kind of weird because I go to a public school, but I had to pay to enroll. I always wonder how some of the host families are able to host due to money issues, but I have my answer! I pay for my bus ride each day, and I pay for my lunch at school. Then, at the end of each month, I tell AFS how much I spent, and they reimburse me. I guess AFS pays for anything school related. I got my schedule, and it is so complicated! The important thing to know is that I'm taking 13 different classes. Also, on Mondays I don't start school until 10am, and on Thursdays, I don't start school until 1pm. On the other days, I start school at 7am. Every day, I finish school at either 3:50 or 4:40. It's definitely different than in the United States.

Yesterday was a really great day. In the morning, I hung out at the house with Miguel and Caro. At 2:45, I met Caroline and Annika (two other exchange students) at the movies. I assumed that since we were seeing Ice Age 4, and since it just came out, that it would be in English. I was wrong! The entire thing was in Spanish, but surprisingly, I understood a lot of it. Going to the movies in Costa Rica is way different than going to the movies in the United States. It was more like going to a midnight premiere of a movie. It was really inexpensive. Wednesdays are the cheapest, so my ticket was only $2! Food for all three of us was only $10. Another difference? As soon as we got there at 2:45, we had to get in line to buy our tickets for the movie that didn't even start until 4:10. The line to buy tickets took about 20 minutes to get through, and once we were done in that line, we had to get in another line to get in the theater. Even though the movie didn't start for another hour and a half, the line was already crazy long, but if you didn't get in line, you weren't able to sit with your friends. We were lucky that we got in line when we did, because we got the last three seats together that weren't in the front row. We were in the third row, so by the end of it all, our necks hurt. At least we got to sit together! When I got home from the movie, a lot of my family was there for dinner. It was me, Miguel, Caro, Mariana, Mama, Henry, Jeimmy, Emily, Lucia, and Chema. It was so much fun! First, some of us played MarioKart on the Wii, then we ate. Henry is a big jokester, and I'm finally able to understand his jokes without explanation. It makes them much funnier when they don't have to be rephrased a thousand times. After dinner and hanging out a little bit. I Skyped with my mom for almost an hour. It was so great to see her (and the other people in the room with her). After that, I was able to call my dad using google voice, and it only costs one cent per minute. It was a nice way to end my day.

Today was supposed to be my first day of school. I thought it was a great day to start, because on Thursdays, I don't start school until 1pm. I was mentally prepared, and then I found out that my class has a test instead of our first two lectures, so then I wasn't going to go until 2:20. I just found out that they also have a test for our third and fourth lectures, so if I wanted to go to school today, I would only be going for 40 minutes. Because of this, tomorrow will be my first day of school. They also have a test tomorrow morning, so instead of starting at 7, I don't go until 8:20. As long as I actually go tomorrow, I think it's going to be a good time to start. Another exchange student, Eva, texted me earlier to see if all of the exchange students wanted to go out after school today. Hopefully we will be able to, because it's nice to be able to talk in English to people who are experiencing the same things as me.

I'm very happy here, and I think I am adjusting well! 

My First Few Days

I´m at my house in San Isidro del General, CR. The keyboard here looks the exact same, but the buttons don´t all do what they say that they do, which makes it difficult to type. AFS has a phrase that goes something like ¨It´s not better or worse, it´s just different.¨ That is one of the most true things that I have ever heard. The water in the shower is SO cold, and when I say cold I don´t mean not hot, I mean it is colder than Wakulla Springs. It´s really stressful to have no one to speak English with, and it´s hard for me to understand everyone´s Spanish. My spanish is already getting better, but it is still really hard. The food here is really different. I like it a lot, but it´s much richer than the food in the US, so it is hard for me to eat a lot of it.

The orientation in Miami was boring, but I liked all of the AFS USA students, so it was still fun. The orientation in San Jose, Costa Rica was also boring, but it was nice to be able to meet students from all over the world. There were 140 people there. A lot of the people at the orientation shared one huge room with a ton of bunk beds, but me and some other people got lucky. I had my own room with my own bathroom, and the water was fairly warm. Sunday morning, we all got in buses to meet our host families. There are five other exchange students in my town, and one other goes to my school.

It was so nice to meet my family! I have met tons of people so far, and a lot of my family lives on the same street as me. Sunday, we hung out at the house, and I went to other family member´s houses to meet more people. My house is nice, but very small. I share a room with one of my host sisters. Our bathroom doesn´t have a sink in it, and you throw your toilet paper in the trashcan, not in the toilet. Yesterday, we went to the town center. I bought most of the things for my uniform, and I bought a cell phone that I can use here. We went to the market, and I was able to show that I actually have a decent vocabulary. It was a great way to learn more words. Last night, some of my dreams were in Spanish! I was very proud of myself when I woke up. Later today, and I am going to my school to buy the rest of my uniform and to enroll. My first day of school will be Thursday. Two of my cousins go to the same school as me.

I really like my family, and even though it is stressful to constantly be thinking and speaking in Spanish, I am happy here. I love and miss you all!

One More Week!

I can't believe that this time one week from now, I will be in Costa Rica! I just learned that I have another cousin who is 16 and in my grade at my school. It will definitely be nice to know someone at school. When I received the information from AFS about my host family, it said my family had one dog. I have since learned that they have three puppies! They are still so small. I leave for Miami (my departure point) on Monday, so I am currently in the packing stage. This is typically really stressful for people, but luckily, I got most of it out of the way when I left Minnesota. At this point, I'm just deciding what NOT to bring, and that's not too bad. I'm truly surprised that I'm not completely freaking out this close to my departure. I would say I'm 95% excited and 5% nervous. I know that this is going to be an amazing experience!

Host Family!

Emily (niece) and two of the dogs

Host Family

June 29 was an amazing day because it was the day that I received my host family! The email that AFS sent me said that I have a mom and three siblings, but after talking to my host sister, I found out I have a fourth sibling. All of my sibling are older than me, so I know that will be fun, but definitely different than I had expected. Claudia is 20, Caro is 21, Miguel is 23, and Henry is 31. Henry also has two daughters, Lucia and Emily, who are 1 and 5 respectively, but Henry, his wife, and his kids don't live in our house. Apparently, I also have a cousin who is 15, and she goes to my school. I am hoping she will be in my grade at school! I will be living in Palmares, San Isidro del General, San Jose, Costa Rica! My school is named Liceo Fernando Volio Jimenez. The only thing that I know about it is that it is 2km from my house, and the uniforms are navy blue with light blue. I live 40 minutes away from a beautiful beach called Dominical which apparently has great surfing. I am so excited to learn how to surf! I've been talking to my host sister, Caro, a lot over Facebook, and that is making me so excited to meet everyone.