March 7

It was loud this morning; I woke up a few different times before getting up at about 9 I think. Maria made breakfast for me and we talked a lot about Michigan and my family, again I had a couple of urges to cry over my eggs, banana and coffee. After breakfast we ran some errands around town, which let me get to know it a little better. There is a pharmacy, a general store, a market, a couple of shoe and boutique stores, a couple of restaurants and sodas (snack shops), one main bar, a big Catholic church, and a sports field (which more often than not has a soccer game going on).

When we came home we had lunch – basically spaghetti with homemade sauce (no meat) and some vegetables. My host parents kept telling me that I needed to eat more; lunch is the big meal in Costa Rica. While the rest of the family took their siestas, I finally unpacked. Getting things organized helps me feel a little more at ease…but is also a little scary because I began to realize that I’m not just here for a week or two. There is a reason my luggage was so heavy, and it’s because I am here for the next 10 weeks.

I had to call Adam. Hearing his voice really helped me calm down a bit. I cried a little bit again, got it out of my system, finished unpacking…and now here I am. That pretty much covers everything that has happened so far.

There are moments when I am really excited to be here – especially when I think about working at the school, I think it is going to be so much fun; but there are also times when I get really discouraged and I don’t know if I can do it. I’ve never been one to quit anything, and I know I won’t quit this, but there have been moments already where I really want to just say screw it and go home.

I’m hoping that once I get into the groove of my schedule here time will go by fast. The last two months in Grand Rapids went by really fast…so I guess I’m hoping that happens again, only with a lot less stress from my job. I think I can definitely count on the second part.

Maria and I ended up going to a “concierto gratis” at about 7. There were two groups performing, a group of students from the public school and a group of women from Guatemala. Don’t worry, I took pictures and a couple of videos  The Guatemalan group was a marimba band, they can play so fast! But my favorite part was probably the flute – not a flute you would see in a marching band back home, but more of an indigenous flute.

Going to the concert lifted my spirits a bit – it reminded me of all of the cool things I have the opportunity to do while I am here. Being able to hang out with Maria has also helped because she does know a little English, so she has been able to help me a bit with some of the words that have been giving me trouble. She also told me not to worry about my Spanish because they have had students come to live with them before who didn’t speak it at all when they first came; so I also have some more hope of actually improving my Spanish while I’m here.