Arriving in Costa Rica!

So after a series of unfortunate events causing me to nearly miss my flight (I had to RUN across JFK airport and only take carry on luggage as the baggage check had already closed) I arrived in Costa Rica. I was met at the airport by my host mother who took me to her house in Heredia for the night. The next day I took a 5 and a half hour bus ride to Samara, where I am going to spend the next 2 months. On the bus I met a couple from the Netherlands, Stephen and Linda. They were so incredibly sweet and it turns out they were enrolled in the language school in Samara as well, so we were able to navigate the journey together. When we arrived in Samara it was already getting dark (the sun sets at around 6 pm here), and I went to meet my Tico (Costa Rican) family. My Tico mother is Alice, tico sister is Stephanie, and Stephanie has a one month old son, Matias. The family is very nice, and as my Spanish is improving I am getting to know them better as we can actually communicate. It doesn't hurt that Stephanie speaks english as well. 

School is going well. It is RIGHT on the beach which is amazing- you walk out of the school and are ON the beach. Considering I've only been in class for 4 days my Spanish is improving a lot, and there are tones of activities to do when your not in school (yoga, soccer, dance class, cooking class, etc.). I'm also excited to learn to surf and take some trips to other parts of the country. The school offers trips you can sign up for, or you can plan your own (to national parks, coffee plantations, etc.) 

Each Friday there is an exam to see if you can move up to the next level of classes. I was tested my first day and was put in the principal 2 class (skipped principal 1), which was nice, but I'm missing some of the basic vocab words (like colors and numbers and things), which is making the learning process a little more interesting. But there's a test tomorrow so we'll see if I pass it! 

There's people here from all over the world, many from the states (california, utah, new jersey, tennessee, and florida), as well as people from the netherlands, switzerland, france, germany, and other places in europe. What makes it even better is that the staff here are all super nice as well, so that's really nice. 

hmm.. i guess that gets everyone caught up until now. pictures to follow...