We made it to Costa Rica!

We made it to Costa Rica! It felt like a small miracle by the time we each were dropped off to our host families. Everything went fine; don't get me wrong. It was definitely a long day though preceded by most of us not sleeping the night before. Some of us are still a little sick from the stress of winter quarter. I suspect everyone's going to feel much better today; we're going to the pacific coast.

I went to bed early last night. I was beat and the food that my gracious host Sonia prepared (along with a cake decorated with my name!) was mucho delicioso and practically put me into a food coma. I heard she was a good cook and she definitely did not disappoint. (Let's see if I can get all this correct - yeah for google translate.) She served: crepes de pollo una salsa blanca y ensalada y platano asado. I was so excited when she asked me if I wanted cafe con leche because besides de bano and uno, dos, tres..... - that's about all the spanish I know. Ferdinand, our bus driver knows Sonia very well. He joined us for dinner. He doesn't really speak English either. From what I could understand, they wanted me to hear as much Spanish as possible. By the time Sonia explained how to operate the shower, I thought I could understand her words, even though I knew I didn't. She mimed to me that I turn the water on this way, let it wash over me quickly, turn the water off, soap up, turn the water on and rinse off - water is too precious to stand under it the whole time.

Before turning my light off, I went over our itineraries again to consolidate them. I have my own research itinerary, the itinerary from Norah Zuniga Shaw (our professor who made this trip possible) and the itinerary we received yesterday from ICADS (the Costa Rican study abroad organization). Some of the events have changed a little, which is bound to happen. There was a little uneasiness at first about the changes, but I am confident that everyone will adapt gracefully and I'm so anxious to hear about their first night with their homestay families. We're going to have a lot to share this morning!

Currently, it's a little after 5am. I've been up since before 4. (I really went to bed early!) Sonia said she'll knock on my door at 6am and breakfast will be at 7. More cafe con leche! Until then I will work on recording my thoughts about our first activity and the reading I did before going to bed. That will follow soon!

¡hasta luego