Of catcalls, Costa Rica, cabbages and kings...

Well, here I am. Finally in Costa Rica and what’s more, endowed with internet access. And it only took me three days.
I think I shall spare you all the minute details. At least until the minute details become fabulously interesting or otherwise crucially important. I arrived in Heredia without incident. My family (mother, Odilie, and father, Elías) picked me up at the airport and brought me home. My room is very nice, if on the spatially challenged side. Smaller than the rooms in Akili, for those of you who know what that means, but I have my own equally minute bathroom which is excellent. I really like it and it’s set a little bit off from the rest of the house so if I need some time away, I can get it.

Spent Sunday at a country club with my family. And here I mean the Costa Rican/Latino definition of family; ergo: mother, father, their two daughters, a son-in-law and three grandchildren. It was fun and I did absolutely nothing besides lounge in the sun, eat food and interact with my family. Today was the first day of orientation, a grueling eight hours of information that, for the most part, I already know. But it was a good chance to meet the 14 or so other people in the program.

I feel really good about this trip, right now. Granted, I haven’t started classes and I’m sure that will be a wonderful new source of panic and angst, but right now things are going really well. I’m surprisingly not homesick or culture shocked; though I’ll give it some time before I call the jury out on that one. The language barrier is proving to be far more a net than a wall; I’ve had frequent complements on how well I speak. And Heredia is lovely, warm, clean and largely comfortable. Oh, and for the most part, it smells good, or at least, not bad. Definitely a plus and much harder to find than one might think. My family and I also seem to complement each other well. It feels a lot like my own family in the way people interact. (Tidbit for all those people whom I people watch with: it’s very interesting to be in a situation where it’s very easy to see a family interact and tune out all the verbal cues. I think you notice things a lot faster. Sometimes we really would understand each other better if we didn’t listen so hard to what we said, or rather, what we think we said.)

All in all, life is good. The next two weeks will be crazy busy and have some very stressful moments, but, asi es la vida. I’m really excited to be here and can’t wait to see how things continue to go.

And really, nearly three days and not a catcall one… how can a girl complain about that?