May 26

Today was a day with a lot of planning and a lot of family time! School was great and I actually know what I am doing with the bus system now. I have learned a lot and can actually carry on conversations now! Sometimes at school I will be thinking in Spanish, speaking in English, and listening to Dutch, its great fun! Today was my new friend from Japans birthday so we all went to lunch with our teacher to this amazing place! Two people could split a plate with two drinks for 3,800 colones = 7.50. After class we planned our trip for the weekend, there is 11 of us going to the Caribbean for 3 days. Its going to be wonderful laying on the beach and going to the national parks, our room only costs 10 dollars a night and the dance club is next door. I will be posting pictures on Monday. After the planning we went to the mall and watched Robin Hood with Spanish subtitles I learned so much there and the movie made so much more sense with subtitles. After when I went home I had a little scare, the buses are not safe after nine, and the boys were telling us scary stories, nothing happened but we got all scared anyways. When I got home I stayed up with my family and taught them how to make rosaries! I seriously love this place!

May 25

(picture of my classmates and my professor)

Buenos Dias! I learned so much today! We went over vocabulary for hours! I am actually starting to think in Spanish when I do things, no lie. I love love love my class! There are only four of us but they are so awesome! My teacher is named Susana she is from here and is wonderful, she is taking us to desserts on Thursday! One girl is named Magume from Japan, she knows no English and no Spanish its nothing like Japanese so its helping us more to attempt to explain things to her, or use charades in the end if needed. I’m really good at charades J Another girl Anna is from New Zealand, she is really cool and has been traveling for a year and a half, she has plenty of stories for us! Lastly my new friend Elisa, from England! I love having an English accent around again! It makes me miss Vanessa terribly but it is still wonderful. Today we had to describe a traditional dish from our home country, together we have sushi, roast lamb, roast beef, empanadas, and hamburgers… which one is from America? At lunch today I made a new group of friends! We stick together in the real world because Spanish is the only way to communicate. I ended up translating for directions for food and the bathroom and I ordered for two of us at Subway all in Spanish! Me groupo de amigas es Marlous from Holland, Enrique from Holland (they did not know each other before), and Imogene from Whales. Today we left dance class after an hour and a half of Salsa and Meringue to plan our trip for the weekend. Were going to the Caribbean! It only cost 40 dollars for two nights, and transportation there and back! I’ll be gone Friday-Sunday! At the school I found out that most students take class only Monday- Thursday for 5 hours because everyone travels on the weekends, so I changed my schedule today. All the new comers change within 2 days. My friend Marlous and I take the bus together because we live 10 houses apart, it’s much safer this way and our housemothers are friends. Tonight I taught

my vocab words to the family in sign language, “Lesco” so I practiced and they all laughed. It’s weird because I want to respond to everyone with the Portuguese words I know, or with the Spanish from the states, so different. Here pollo is said pojo and they say they are the correct Spanish here so im going with it. I basically love this place, everything is great, one of my favorite things is the different languages I just love the accents and the Dutch, German, Japanese, and Spanish words being spoken all around me! It’s very different and I am trying to get used to it here still but I am sure I won’t want to leave. I am still white, it has been raining off and on but it’s so nice, I think on the beach this weekend I will get some color, I hope! No bug bites yet! I love you all! Keep praying for me!

May 24

(photo is where we have lunch at the school my class room is the windows in the back)

Here I am typing in my bedroom in Costa Rica! It reminds me a lot of my room that I had in Brazil, actually this whole place reminds me of Brazil. I missed having people my age to hang out with all day and night like we did then. Although starting tomorrow I will have a group! My classes start tomorrow and I will be placed with around five others and everyone says that’s who your closest with. Today I arrived and my host mom Annabel fed me eggs, fresh bread (like brazil), fresh orange juice then took me to see the city. I thought my brother and the rest of the people in Orange County were intense drivers, I was wrong. Here the buses will get within one inch of each other not exaggerating and the motorcycles will drive between the bus and the curb to pass through traffic. It’s insane! When I was on the bus my mother told me you will know when to jump off to come home when you see that restaurant and to get to school get off after the mall. If you miss get off and call a taxi. Don’t worry everyone, Michelle the one who is great at directions is mastering the know when to jump off system, I already took the bus once myself! Ah, another thing about directions here, there is not addresses, you get directions with landmarks, “walk about 300 meters, at the tree go right, the house is three past the blue one, then when you see the door with the writing it’s the next beige house.” Yep its pretty crazy, sometimes they use land marks that aren’t there anymore and are just known by the locals, an example, turn right at the big tree, the big tree was cut down years ago.” I don’t think there is a better way to prepare me for LA Term! Back to the school, it is beautiful! I love it and the people are so nice! They really encourage you to use Spanish but if you cant they find someone to translate. I thought most people would be from USA but I was wrong, there is are few but majority are from Europe. Today my dance partners were from England and the other Switzerland. I found my friend Hanna on campus (about 20 classrooms total) today and she introduced me to everyone. All the students are really close and plan something fun every night. I know that 5 people arrived from Germany today so I think I will be getting to know them soon! It’s just so easy to meet people here because we are all in the same boat. Thank God English is a common language because no one has Spanish down yet. In between classes and during free time everyone speaks English, its nice to have that break. My family doesn’t speak any English, which is good because it is really forcing me to try and come up with words and new vocabulary to carry on conversations. My mom has already picked up on my picky eating habits but I am trying everything once! I have my own little house in the back yard with my own bathroom and its awesome! The city is pretty loud and there are a lot of animals. These little bugs that look like baby cockroaches keep coming under the door but there is nothing I can do so I am working on getting used to that, it is only my first night. The family goes to bed around 8 here so I have some time to myself, but if dance class gets harder I am sure to be wiped out as well. Today we learned the basic steps to the meringue!!! I had orientation and am deciding on traveling to Panama or Nicaragua possibly! The choices are really endless here. At the school I feel like I am already in a rainforest or close to the beach, everything is open patios with birds flying around and a giant yard with tables surrounded by trees. The music from dance class floats through windows and everyone is talking in different languages. It is just going to get better from here! I can’t believe I still have a month left! Miss you all! I will keep updating you with my life here! Please keep me in your prayers!

May 23

Well … Blog .. hm .. this is something that I have been meaning to do for a while now and sitting and waiting in the airport is the perfect opportunity to start one! Hello world! It is funny to think that people are reading this, hopefully, somewhere in the world. Its awesome to think that I am blessed enough to have friends all over the world! Shout out to Brazil! So blogging time.. I am here at Gate 67 A waiting for my flight to Costa Rica! I am early.. way early its 6:45 and I don’t board until 7:50 so I am hoping to make some friends. So far I have made friends with the lady at the check in who decided to wave the fees of both my over stuffed 49.5 and 51.0 suitcases so I just saved 50 $!! Thank you God for that one! Then I made friends with the two ladies at the security checkpoint. They thought my butterfly was cute in my hair and asked if they could buy hairpieces I made.. I told them how to make them instead. It was a nice little chat that I could only have when I was not rushing through the barefooted check point. I love being barefooted so it’s no problem for me! My shoes are off as I type! Then I made friends with a police officer on my walk over to the gate. I love new friends, so I decided to claim a spot on the floor next to these two women, they had just arrived from New Zealand, we got to talk about the long flights and the interesting things in that area of the world. Australia officially takes longer to get too. They have boarded now and I am all alone… weird. Costa Rica here I come, dance class here I come, fried bananas here I come, conquering the Spanish language here I come!!

I am now sitting in seat 5a next to the window on the way from Denver to San Jose! My last flight was uneventful, except I happen to be the only one to go through security again, randomly picked.. I think it was because I was the only one nice to the check in people. I made it with a10 minutes time frame to transfer to this flight! I have an empty seat next to me, what a blessing! 5 hours to go until im on the beaches.. kinda.. oh and my new friend who is sharing the empty seat is named Zoltan! How awesome is that! Good night world!