Finally:)

Hola! Como estas! Yes, that is about the gist of my Spanish here in Costa Rica, so one could imagine my optimistic distress once setting foot in the San Jose airport. Not only was I confused about what exactly I had to put for the visa's address space, but literally could not find anyone who could explain it to me. Thankfully, watery eyed and forty-five minutes later, I decided to listen to the conversations in the airport and then finally spotted what I was looking for....AMERICANS!!! Ha, poor familia must of thought I was loco. I think I let a few tears go just because I was so relieved. But, they were very nice and even ran into me later and went out of their way to make sure I was better. I guess, all I had to do was write the city and country in which I was staying. Ahhh....Chingow!! (A naughty spanish term my uncle from the states uses that he never really explained what it meant, but uses in situations such as this, so I'll follow his footsteps and leave it to your imagination) Then after that ice breaker, my inner German Shepherd came out (using my ears, not my nose), and I began to successfully listen, locate, and bother those who spoke English. I finally made it through customs (about an hour and a half later) and found that I took so long that they took my luggage off of the conveyer and placed it in a special room. Ha. They all laughed. (Don't worry, I find laughter, even if it is directed towards me, endearing.) After grabbing my luggage, I frantically had to fight off the "Taxi? taxi? Miss, TAXI?" in the search for my house mother, Emilia. And then I saw it. JESSICA GILBOY. It was Emilia! I did not care if she spoke English or not, I was just happy it was her and she was looking for ME!!! To make a long story short, she speaks very little English, but at the time, I did not care.

The hour long taxi drive was very interesting. I, out of sorts, smiled and nodded as I listened and looked like "a deer in headlights" as Emilia spoke. I still did not care, just was happy I was with her. I also believe that my "deer in headlights" look did not phase her either, as she very normally still spoke to me in Spanish like I was any other person and it was any other day. Ha.

We stopped and picked up another woman, who is from Germany, names Metina (at least that's how it sounds) who very excitedly found out that I speak English. She too, speaks very little Spanish. She owns a business in Germany dealing with music, specifically opera. She is here to teach music for four weeks I believe. She is very nice.

I then arrived and met another young lady staying here names Fabiena (who's name is really Fabienne, but they call her Fabiena her and she likes it better than her real name). She is from Switzerland and also is very nice. She speaks German, but is rather good at both English and Spanish and loves/ rather speak in English. Phew! That was nice! Even cusses a bit in English, which also is endearing:) Haha!

Finally, there is an American girl here, Carmen, from Minnesota who is student teaching, so it was nice getting prepped and talking to her about what I have to expect. There are more American students who I will meet from what I hear.

Emilia's children are all very nice. She has four. All upper-twenties/lower-thirties. The youngest is a boy and the rest are girls. Eric, her son, runs marathons and has been to the states a lot, and loves Chicago the most! Whoop Whoop Midwest:) So I have signed up with him to run a half-marathon in September. What? Can't be a bump on the log! :)

Right now! I am studying my butt off trying to get an idea of the language here. I hate not being knowledgeable of things, so I guess it is a great motivator. Like a quote from Les Brown "When you face your fear, most of the time you will discover that it was not really such a big threat after all. We all need some form of deeply rooted, powerful motivation / it empowers us to overcome obstacles so we can live our dreams." So on that note, I hope this informs you all well enough of how I am doing. Don't worry about me, because I will be fine! It is only the first couple days and I already feel a little better today. Next time I post, I will share more into detail about the town and the people...things of that nature.


All of you take care and hope to hear from some of you!! Adios!!