Settling In

“All at once the world can overwhelm you, there’s nothing you could tell me that could ease my mind. Which way will you run when it’s always all around you the feeling lost and found you again the feeling that we have no control…Keep asking ourselves is we are really strong enough, there so many things that we got too proud of...I want to take the preconceived out from underneath your feet...There’s a world we haven’t seen, a world to see between.” 

Jack Johnson 'All at Once'

Jack Johnson inspired me with these words. I decided the other night to listen to him while I was falling asleep and it was a good choice! I am so overwhelmed, so lost and seriously questioning what I was thinking when I decided to go to Costa Rica BY MYSELF.  I hate the feeling of having no control, but I have to know that what is supposed to happen will happen. Already I am learning so much about myself. So this blog is a combination of days adventures because I realize that I really want to update every day! I have so much I want to share and remember!!

16-01-2011 Sunday

My mother told me that I would be able to sleep in because I told her I didn’t sleep well (only two hours) and boy did I! At 8 in the morning the neighbors started playing really loud music. I was not okay with waking up at 8, so I put in my iPod and went back to sleep, waking up at 10. I woke up and took my time getting ready and around 11 my mom asked me if I had any plans because they wanted to take me to San José.  Let me tell you that at orientation they made it sound like San José was not safe at all and this made me think that I had no desire to visit. So I was a little nervous, but was not going to say no to and opportunity to go somewhere with my family. So we went and took the bus, a good experience. We got there walked around, went to “El Teatro Nacional” but it was closed and my father was telling me a story about a painting inside when a man approached us and showed us some older money that had the picture on it. He sold it to us and my father gave it to me. It is SO beautiful! Then we went to “El Museo de Oro” and saw muchas gold artifacts! My father told me that the building was, and because English is failing me right now, like the building NORAD (look it up) where it’s safe from an atomic bomb, but now it’s just a museum. After we ate lunch, at Pizza Hut, and went to the most beautiful church for mass. After dinner (Sopa Azteca, ¡que rico!) I watched the Golden Globes, in Spanish because my mother is a hairdresser and she likes to see the styles. It was the best. So tomorrow is the first day of classes and at this moment I am not nervous about it (we’ll see how I am doing when I try to fall sleep).  In all honesty, I think going to San José was a good experience. I don’t think I am so afraid to walk to the university in Heredia, I feel like it is much safer having been to the big city. So I should go since I have to wake up early. I just wanted to get that all written down.

17-01-2011 Monday

So today was the first day of classes. I woke up much earlier than I like and ate breakfast. My mother asked me if I wanted her to walk with me to school, but I wanted to do it on my own (and I didn’t get lost!). It took maybe five minutes to get there. I walk down this big hill (which is awful to walk up in the afternoon heat), and walk a few blocks to the school. Classes are really long, like three hours each. For my first class my teacher was sick, so we just went over the syllabus with a lady that works in the office and then we were done. I went back home to have lunch because my family likes to have me home for lunch, which I am totally cool with, and returned to school for a class at 1. It is a class of Latin American cultures and the teacher is pretty awesome. I think I am going to enjoy it very much.

The food here is awesome! Gallo pinto for breakfast, which I love already. Today I had arroz con mariscos (rice with seafood) and it was so yummy! I have fruit with breakfast all the time too. My mother keeps telling me that I eat too little and I don’t know how to tell her that is just how I am.

I wish that I had more to say, and I wish that I had more pictures, but I am so afraid to take my camera out in public. Eventually, I hope, I will feel better about it. I already feel like I am forgetting things in English, which I guess is alright while I am here. In English I am thinking of how I would say something in Spanish, so if my posts are worded a little strangely that is why. I guess that is all for tonight.

¡Hasta Luego!