It was a little hard at first to adjust. This is a different culture and I was very shy about using Spanish at first, knowing I would make a lot of mistakes. I still make a lot of mistakes, but now I'm coming out of my shell and just going for it.
I had a big decision to make today. My first day of classes I went to the Advanced 1 grammar and conversation class, which would count towards my Spanish minor. It was very difficult. I knew the grammar, but I had never had a teacher stand in front of me, talk rapidly and completely in Spanish and then expect me to reply quickly. It was overwhelming. I talked to the teacher today and she had me try out a conversation only class. I think it will be just what I need. It unfortunately does not count towards a Spanish minor, but this could be a big step towards me being actually able to speak Spanish. The more I think about it, the more I see that now and in the future, what will help me most is being able to semi-fluently speak Spanish. A handful of the students here can already rapidly talk in Spanish. It was really intimidating at first. As I got to know them more, I found out that some had already lived in Mexico or Spain or some other Spanish speaking country for months at a time. One of my friends here has already had a job teaching high school Spanish for 2 years! Since this is my first venture, I feel a bit better.
My tica mom and I are starting to understand each other better. Tico is the general term to refer to native Costa Ricans. At first, there was a large language barrier. She does not speak any English and I was shy with my Spanish. The house is pretty quiet, quite unlike some of my fellow student's houses, since it is usually just her and me, but I am getting used to it. We also have homework assignments often, which require us to ask our host families questions. This has given us something to talk about.
It is almost always cloudy. It pours almost everyday for two or three hours in the afternoon. Thankfully, this is nap time. I love the sound of the rain! The other day, we got caught in the rain at the park and I forgot my umbrella. One of my friends shared with me, but we were soaked by the time we got back to our houses!
We also found these plants at the park, which provided us with quite a lot of entertainment. They are commonly called touch-me-not and when touched or shaken they leaves fold inward!
It has been quite an adventure! For food, I have been randomly trying things, since I often do not know what they are. So far, almost everything has been delicious! For almost every dinner, my tica mom has sort of a salad available. It is just lettuce with usually fresh tomato or some other vegetable, but it is delicious. She must prepare it with some kind of lemon wash or something. There is no salad dressing, but it is very flavorful and probably a lot more healthy! I will have to help her prepare it one of these nights. This weekend we will be going to Puerto Viejo, a beach on the Caribbean coast. It is supposed to be beautiful and more sunny over there. I am quite excited to get out and start seeing Costa Rica!
Pura Vida!
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