Entry 2: June 6 and 7

Monday we had a scavenger hunt around San Joaquin. It's kind of a busy city and the people drive so crazy around here!  Well, I guess it just seems crazy to me. They have so many cute little fruit stores and panaderias (which are like bakeries) and they smell so good!!!  Oh, some of us girls had to go to the ATM to withdraw colones (their currency) for our trip to Heredia. The bus ride was probably about 15-20 minutes. Then, we were divided into two groups and did a scavenger hunt around the city. My group kind of gave up on the hunt and decided to site-see instead.

One of the main reasons I love Costa Rica...no matter where you are, it is likely that you can turn around and you will see mountains. They seem to surround everything!  It's so beautiful.

Oh, today in Heredia, we also had a dance class. It was very interesting to say the least. Well, after the scavenger hunt, we met at the university where we ran into Kaelyn, a student from Meredith that has been here for the whole semester (since January). Then we went to a cute little restaurant that I can't remember the name of, but we ate so much food!  Rice, beans, chicken, salad, pasta salad with tuna, roll, and some kind of pastry. Delicioso!  But, at the dance class, we learned to do so many dances, I don't remember them. Different ways to salsa, chacha, etc. Then we learned to salsa with a partner. The class was a lot of fun and we have the option to go back every week for more classes! 

Entry 1:
A few things about Costa Rica:

1. It rains here almost every afternoon. And the rain is cold. Very cold. And sometimes it rains again in the evening around 8 or so. But when it does, it sounds so nice, perfect sleeping weather. But, we are here during the wet season. Apparently CR only has two seasons, a wet season and a dry season. And someone today said this is like their "winter."  If that´s the case, I would not want to be here during their summer. It isn´t extremely hot, but in the morning when I walk to school at 7:30, by the time I get to school at 7:50, I´m sweating. 

2. The people always greet each other. Sometimes they say "hola" or "buenos dias/tarde". But most of the time they say "A Dios."  Of course this sounds like "adios" which means bye, but it isn´t. Some of us were confused when we first got here and everyone would wave at us and say "adios" because we wondered why they were telling us bye. Callie, our professor from Meredith, told us they are really saying "A Dios."  Dios means God. So what they are really saying is "Go with God."  I thought this was really neat.

3. I have to talk about the sidewalks. The sidewalks are so high off the ground!  It´s almost like there is a ditch in between the road and the sidewalk. But obviously it´s because of all the rain. When it rains, it looks like a little stream beside the sidewalk because the water fills it up. It´s pretty crazy.

4. Finally, the fruit!  My host mom always has this big platter (not plate, platter) of fruit in her kitchen. Mangos, pineapples, bananas, papayas, etc. Then at school there is always fresh fruit to eat. My school actually has mango trees and so there are mangos on the ground everywhere. One day we were walking and a mango fell and almost hit a girl in the head. Que comico!