La primera semana: exploración, entusiasmo, y diversión

I had a fabulous first week living and studying in San José, Costa Rica. This week was filled with exploration, excitement, and fun, and I would like to believe that I settled in a lot easier to this new place and culture that I had anticipated. Costa Rica is a natural beauty, with views for days, and the Pura Vida lifestyle of the Ticos is something I can definitely get on board with. In the United States, we are always in a hurry, worried about everything, and fail to take time to not only appreciate our country, but also to simply live. Pura Vida is a lifestyle that embraces life and all that it has to offer, and throughout my stay in Costa Rica, and hopefully my immersion into this beautiful culture, I hope to learn more about it and embrace it. While settling into this new culture, I also began classes, including my intensive studies in Spanish, and I anticipate that I will enjoy every piece of my study abroad experience, including my courses and professors.

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On Monday, I started off the morning first with breakfast with my familia Tica (Costa Rican family/host family) and then headed to Universidad Veritas to start my half-day of orientation. When we arrived, we were seated into a large auditorium to undergo a presentation about everything we needed to know about being international students: how the classes worked, our resources on campus, activities to get involved in, safety, etc. Unfortunately, it was almost an exact repeat of the orientation provided to us the previous day from ISA (the program I am studying abroad through). I sat in one of the back rows, and behind me, was an entire row of ISA boys. At one point, I looked back, and saw them all asleep. Considering we had gone through all of the information the day before, I couldn't blame them.

At some point, we had a campus tour, but I can't remember if it was before or after the formal presentation. The campus is much smaller than I am used to. Weeks later, I am still deciding whether that's a good thing or a bad thing. The campus spans a lofty three buildings, only one of which I utilize for classes. The building across from where I have my classes houses the auditorium, a cafeteria, and the room where the dancing club is held. Students also have classes there, just not me. The third building houses a little store and I am assuming more classes, but I haven't ventured into it quite yet.

La banda y los masquerades

Los masquerades - un abuelo y un pasayo

After orientation, Veritas hosted a surprise welcome activity. We though the extent of the activity was pizza and socialization. That was not the activity. Out of nowhere emerged a band consisting of brass and percussion instruments followed by people in large costumes with giant heads, known as "masquerades." 

conga line

These groups are a large part of Costa Rica's culture, especially when Costa Rica celebrates Día de la Masquerada on October 31. They danced and encouraged the international students to form a conga line, which did happen This lasted for a food 10 to 15 minutes or so. As the music died down, they exited without an explanation. I spent the rest of the day confused by what had happened.

The local currency is colones.
One U.S. dollar is approximately 527 colones.
In my opinion, la plata (money is not called dinero here)
 is much better looking that the money in the U.S.

Sometime after the activity, I finally figured out what. I needed to get done the rest of the day. First, I needed to exchange my U.S. dollars into the local currency, since I wasn't able to do that on Sunday. I headed to the bank with some other ISA students and made that happen. Luckily, VISA cards are widely accepted here, so I've been able to use my credit card for everything. The only fees that happen are some minor foreign currency conversion fees. I didn't take out a lot of cash before leaving the U.S. because I didn't want it to get stolen. Little did I know, that would happen anyways later in the week. For me to pull out cash here using my debit card, I get charged hefty fees, so I didn't want to resort to that. I keep the local currency on hand for the event that a place does not take cards. In my couple of weeks here, I've run into very few places where that is the case.

The live band

Long Island Iced Tea

During the evening, my roommates and I went to a popular gringo (American/Americanized) bar. I tried my first Long Island Iced Tea and socialized with other people in my program. Little did we know that they had a live band playing that night. We ventured into the dance floor and listened to the band, that played tunes I was actually familiar with, as well as tunes I was unfamiliar with (all in Spanish of course). It was a ton of fun, though I wasn't a big fan about how Americanized it was. The other areas of the bar played a lot of music that is super popular in the United States right now, and there were few Ticos in sight. Despite that, I had a good time overall.

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On Tuesday, classes began. I entered my first classroom, a tiny room with one fan and 15 desks squished together. It was smaller than my freshman year dorm room! My first class of the day was Spanish, from 8am to 12pm. Because the language classes are four week intensive courses, we have them every day for four hours each day. With my placement exam, I was placed in Básico 2 (Basic 2), though the ISA placement exam put me at Intermédio 1 (Intermediate 1). I had already started off the morning not very happy about this, especially considering I've taken Spanish on and off since first grade. I browsed through the workbook we received and determined that I had to get out of that class; the material was only present tense, something I learned long ago, as well as concepts I learned in SPAN 2001 back home. After two hours, we had a thirty minute break. This concept of breaks to get coffee or snacks is very common here, at least in all of my classes. When my professor returned to the classroom, I asked about moving up a language level. Her response? I had to take another placement exam, which I did. I spent the rest of the day hoping that I would not be stuck in a class learning concepts I had already learned and felt comfortable with.

lugar para estudiar ADENTRO de la universidad

At noon, I headed to the ISA office for our weekly meeting. The ISA office is around the corner from Veritas, so it is super convenient. We learned that our first of three weekend excursions would be to Tamarindo, which is a beach town about four or five hours away. I became really excited, as the excursion would be the first time that I would see an ocean and step onto a beach. I couldn't contain my excitement. 

Afterwards, I spent time at the office changing into a communications class, Intercultural Communication and Competence, where a spot had just opened up. It had started already when I arrived, and I was famished from not having eaten since breakfast, so I reluctantly sat through the class, counting down the minutes until I could eat again. Next was my Human Rights in Latin America course. Before the professor arrived, I managed to head downstairs to the on campus deli and grabbed a ham & cheese sandwich. I was in the middle of eating the sandwich when my professor arrived in the classroom. What an awkward first impression! However, as class started, and my hunger subsided, I came to the conclusion that I would love the class and the professor. Having taken an international law & human rights course back at home, I was already on the right track.

After a bit of homework and dinner, I decided to check out the dancing club that was offered to international students. The club meets twice per week for an hour and a half each. It consists of learning traditional and popular dances of Costa Rica and practicing them with partners. I thoroughly enjoyed learning some steps of bachata, salsa, and a couple other dances I cannot recall. I think I'll become a regular at the club.

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Sandwich de jamón y pavo con jugo de frutas

On Wednesday morning, I was told that, indeed, I should have been placed in the Intermediate 1 Spanish class. I had passed the placement exam. As a result, I was moved into the new class and was finally at peace with that aspect of my adventure. Later that day, I ate lunch at The Whisk, a nearby artisan restaurant, with a couple of my ISA buddies and ran some errands, including getting copies of my passport made for ISA and changing into a different communications class, Creative Conflict Resolution, making my schedule what I envisioned before I arrived in Costa Rica. I stopped at the Auto Mercado, a local supermarket, and grabbed some food for lunch and snacks, before heading back to my homestay for the night. I did have class at 6pm until 8pm (Creative Conflict Resolution) so I missed dinner. Luckily, my mama Tica has agreed to put my dinner upstairs on Mondays and Wednesdays so I can eat after my class. Overall, it was a perfect day.

La cena -- yum!

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On Thursday, I attended my classes as a good student does, and stopped at Mr. Charles' Restaurant for lunch with a couple of friends. The evening is when things really took off for me. In multitasking with preparing and packing for my excursion to Tamarindo and studying for my first Spanish test, I somehow found time to Facebook video chat with my cats, who I miss so much, attended the dancing club, and followed the dancing club to show off our moves at Club Castro's. It was a night of sweat, fun, education, dancing, and so many other things. It was such a great day; I just hope to have many more days like this day.

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Friday was the day. It was the day that I would visit my first beach, take my first steps on the sand, and see an ocean for the first time. It was the day, that is until I realized that somehow, I had lost/or someone stole from me 30 mil colones (the local currency, around $60) that I had just exchanged. Then, my day took a turn for the worst. Upon further reflection and a hefty cleaning of my homestay, my money was gone for good. I believe that I accidentally took it with me to Castro's the night before and was pick-pocketed from my purse. I did find my purse unzipped a couple of times; I had assumed it was from the movement while dancing, but now I'm not so sure. I am so careful and was so eager to not let this happen to me, but it did. I guess it just goes to show that no matter how eager or how cautious you are, you can be a victim of a crime. It just happens.

On the brighter side of things, stay tuned for my later post about my excursion to Tamarindo.

Cerrado.

Today is Sunday. On Sundays, basically everything is closed in San Jose. It's treated as a rest day and a day for church. Costa Rica is a Catholic nation, so this makes sense. I never really realized how much I depended on things being open in the United States. 

Though today is typically a rest day, we started our day with breakfast with our host mother, who made us scrambled eggs with what appeared to be ham chucks, a side of pan con queso creama (a sweet bread that has cream in it), papaya drizzled with yogurt and granola, orange juice, and coffee with sugar, powdered milk, and soy milk. I didn't get a chance to take a picture of the meal, but it was delicious. I normally don't like coffee, but decided to give it a try anyways. I put a ton of sugar and soy milk, and it was not bad. That is really something considering I will not drink coffee at all back home. Coffee is a huge part of Costa Rican history and is some of the richest coffee you will find in the world, which is why I gave it a shot. Still don't like coffee, but I will say that I don't mind drinking it in the morning here as long as I have other things to go with it.

After breakfast and handing our regalos (small gifts) to our host mother (I got the family a Colorado mug, Denver Broncos salt & pepper shakers, and halloween Reese's cups), we headed to the college campus for the Bridging Cultures program orientation, which was basically an overview of Costa Rica and our study abroad program and how we can get involved here. We ate some chocolate wafers and drank some really delicious fruit juice as a snack, and then boarded a private bus to take a bus tour of downtown San Jose. Everything in Costa Rica is so close and it really is a small country. I will say that we have better drivers in the United States though, even through we claim them to be bad, not only from watching their driving skills here, but also since I learned from my host mom that car accidents are one of the leading causes of death of Ticos (Costa Rican natives). I would have taken pictures, but I did not have a good view being on the inside seat. I'll have plenty of time to explore these next couple of months, so pictures will come at some point.

When we returned, we were done for the day around noon, so my two roommates and I, along with a couple other ISA students, set out to find a bank to exchange U.S. dollars for colones (the currency here) and lunch. We walked for about an hour and a half or so looking for one that was open, but every single one we came across was closed. I probably should have expected that anyways, since banks are not open on Sundays back home. Luckily we found a ATM, and some of the girls pulled out money for lunch. I only had my credit card and U.S. dollars, so I decided not to risk high fees from Wells Fargo and wait. 

We ended up back in our neighborhood and stopped for lunch at a quaint place called Las Leñitas. I immediately recognized many of the things on the menus: tacos, fajitas, chalupas, arroz con pollo (rice with chicken), burritos... Though I was sure the Costa Rican versions would be different, I was kind of bummed that I was not getting the full Costa Rican experience. This restaurant likely caters to foreign students as it is located near to a university that has a large international student population. I ordered chalupas con pollo. They were actually pretty filling, topped with lettuce, pico de gallo, and just a tad of sour cream. They were delicious even though I typically hate tomatoes and sour cream. For my beverage, I wanted to try something I've never tried before, so I tried jugo de naranjilla. A naranjilla, also known as a lulo, is similar to a small orange, but has a more tart and acidic flavor. It is popular in Latin America, usually turned into juices. This was delicious and I wish I could have drank more.

We headed back to our homestays to hang out until dinner since it appeared about to rain. The rain started as soon as I got home and remained very heavy for a couple of hours. We dried off and took some time to learn more about each other. For dinner, we had a lentil and vegetable soup-type substance with rice and a salad consisting of avocados, tomatoes, and chickpeas. We also had the tea we had the previous night. I never thought I would enjoy avocados or vegetables, but they were good.

After dinner, we played with the younger son and then got ready to explore with other ISA students. We ended up piling into the van of one of the homestay parents and going to a bar called Terra U. Most of you are probably used to the drinking age as 21, but in Costa Rica, the drinking age is 18. Bars are a popular attraction for students and young Ticos, so in order to get the full experience, I had to at least try to have a good time. I tried a brand of beer called Imperial, which is a Costa Rican brand. It's very dull in flavor, which is good in the way that it doesn't have a strong alcohol taste, but bad because it really didn't have any flavor at all. When I return to the US, I will be 21, so Colorado breweries, watch out -- I'm coming for ya! Drinks are very, very cheap here. I mingled with other students and some Ticos, and decided to try a rum & coke, because it was only 1000 colones, or about $2. Not bad. I liked it. We all ended up just chatting, sharing stories, and dancing the night away. I'm not one to really go out much, especially to places like bars and nightclubs, but because we don't start classes until Monday, I felt that it was a good way to experience Tico nightlife without compromising my academics here.