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!