El Museo de Oro! (The Gold Museum)

Yesterday, another girl and I went to the Museo de Oro! It was absolutely beautiful. It tells about the history of Costa Rica from the pre-columbian times (before Columbus sailed to the Americas) - and shows lots of artifacts that have been found - made out of lots and lots of gold. There are animal figurines of all shapes and sizes that they made by melting the gold and making molds out of wood or just by hammering it into shapes. They are beautiful and intricate - I don't think a machine could make a better image. Here are a few of the figurines. I have about 50 pictures of them.

Like I said before, my Spanish class seemed really easy, so today I got moved up to Advanced II and I think this is the first Spanish class that I have not known every single thing already. It is going to be a lot harder. I have to write a paper by next Wednesday, but I think I am going to write it about Social Revolutions in Latin America, and she said if I wanted I could focus on the Sandinista Revolution, since I will be studying in Nicaragua in the fall. It is going to be much more interesting than writing about cloning, which is what I was going to have to present on in Advanced 1. Also, I have to do a 15 minute presentation in Spanish, and by two weeks from now I need to have read an entire book in Spanish - that is 90 pages long... it is going to be crazy. I very much more like the class, and it will be challenging. The class is totally about Costa Rican culture with some grammer brought into it. I had to catch up on the two days that I missed though, so my brain is fried from all of the reading that I missed - over 20 pages and many new vocabulary words. Also, there is a girl from Canada in the class - Vanessa - and she is a Christian and we had lunch together today after class before "conversation club".

Everything is getting better. I've learned that I don't like going to clubs, but I like the dancing, so I only go to the class but not the club... I am learning a lot, but at times I feel totally lost because all of the other students have been here for awhile and I don't know the culture yet. It is crazy. Voy a aprender mucho!

Mi Primer Clase! (Translation: My first class)

Today was my first class! I am in Advanced Spanish I. The proffesor talks very fast. After the first hour, my brain was on overload, from trying to figure everything out. After awhile my brain started working faster and I was able to understand almost everything. There are only 3 other girls in my class, so we all get to speak a lot and we will get to discuss things. I have Spanish class from 8-12 and then everyday Monday-Thursday I will have 2 1/2 hours of homework. Next week I have to do a 10-30 minute oral presentation - without any notes! Our book has different readings about Costa Rica and then the grammar study is within that. It is very interesting. It is nice to learn all about Costa Rica while I am here.

Last night was an interesting experience. Apparently, in Costa Rica, children learn to dance before they learn to walk, so dancing is HUGE here. The band was really good - and we danced some salsa and merengue. The school gives dance lessons - for Salsa and Meregue and other Latin dances - on Tuesday nights, so I will be going to that tonight. It should be interesting. It is sad because all of the international students hang out together and speak English, but I am trying to talk more to my mama tica, so practice more. Everything is great here, but I feel like I don't know anyone. Most of the people aren't people I would hang out with normally, so it is going to be an experience. However, I have met a few people that seem really cool, and we are going up in the mountains this weekend to Volcan Arenal and Monteverde. It'll be really nice to see everything all around Costa Rica!

El llegado!

I arrived yesterday in Costa Rica. All I knew - was that someone was picking me up that had my name on a sheet of paper, that my mama ticas name was Ana Cecilia and her address, and that I needed to be at school this morning at 8:30. I arrived... I did not see my name on any sign... I waited... However, there were some very nice people around. One guy with a travel agency called my mama ticas house and made sure that someone was planning to pick me up. Sure enough they were, and someone arrived within 15 minutes to pick me up and take me to my homestay.

My mama tica is 57 years old and single. She has one son whose name is Max but Max works during the week and it only home on Monday, so I met him today. There is another girl, Melanie, who is a student as well and she is staying here as well. I'm excited to get to know her. She has already been here for a month and is going to be here until the end of June.

Today, I had the opportunity to walk around the city a little bit with the other (there are only 2 of us) independent student, Collin, when we had down time between our oral exams and orientation and between orientation and lunch. La Universidad Veritas is actually the most expensive private university in San Jose. There are 1500 students, and all study art, design, or architecture, but we are just in the Spanish program. I'm excited for classes to start. Not very many people (international students like me) are Christians, so I am really excited to get to know them and hopefully be a light. Tonight, we are going to a "bar" because there is live music, so I am excited to be their friend and hopefully help them to know that Christians aren't horrible people. Already today, Collin was asking me about how I was a Christian and everything. He has gone to church, but I am not sure if he is a Christian. This trip is going to be an experience.

This weekend, we may be going on an excursion to Monteverde, which is a mountain up in the rainforest and there is like a zipline up above the canopy and everything! During our orientation (of us 2 students..) we were talking to Luis about the excursions and he said we could go this weekend, and the school would set everything up, since Luis has a travel agency which is part of the school. We are going to try to get a ton of other students to come with us as well! It should be really cool. That's all for today! I will update later.