It took 5 days for me to find some time to make my first blog post while abroad. For those of you that have yet to hear from me, this post serves as proof that I am alive, well, and if nothing else, five pounds heavier from Costa Rican food.
I'm sure you are all dying to know in what manner I arrived here, in Bagaces. Opposed to what you may have undoubtedly assumed, I was not transported from the airport to my host family in a limousine, but rather a bus, and the bus did not even offer complementary champagne. Also, as you may have expected, there are not several personal Spanish interpreters persistently at my side. In fact, the absurd expectation is that I learn to speak Spanish. Do not fear for me however, as I have learned a few handy expressions, one specifically being: "I must have fresh flowers by my bed when I wake up."
My host mom, Eva, and host dad, Javier, are wonderful people. Sadly I do not yet have a picture with either of them yet but I will make sure to do so soon. Below is a picture of my 12 year old little brother, Howard (pronounced Ow-ard). A couple nights ago I helped him with his English homework which was a funny situation. It made me realize how much I appreciate their own patience with my bumbling attempts at Spanish. In reality though I am already beginning to get used to the Costa Rican accent. I've only been here for 5 days or so and I forget sometimes that I'll be here for 8 weeks.
Last weekend my family and I went to Palo Verde National Park. We took a school bus driven by my "abuelo" who used to be a tour driver and owned several buses. Now he is retired and lives with abuela just a block or so away. Anyway, when I say "took a school bus", I mean to say that we packed a school bus with more people than you can possibly imagine would fit into a school bus. I just realized that I have yet to describe the weather here. Basically there are types: 1 hot and humid 2 rain. On this particular day it decided to be the former. So it is suffice to say that the 45 minute or so bus ride was an interesting experience. I noticed that the bus did not have a "maximum persons" sign. Things of that manner, which would certainly make many Americans uncomfortable, are like that here. However I'll leave that topic for another blog post. I do want to make it sound thatI, personally, didn't enjoy the experience. To the contrary I thoroughly enjoyed it and imagine it will be my first lasting memory of Costa Rica. I forgot to mention that the bus broke down. Thankfully this was before it was at "full" capacity. Below is a picture.
Anyways, the park was gorgeous. I saw some monkeys, a deer (the Ticos were very excited about the deer, while us Wisconsinites wondered what was the big deal), and a lemur. We also saw tons of iguanas or they might have been chameleons; either way they are as common as squirrels are back home. The day we went was National National Park Day so there was no fee to go plus everyone was served a free lunch. This struck me as pretty amazing since there had to be at least 200 people there, maybe more. In fact there might have been 200 people just on our bus.
That is all for now. I'll make sure to write again soon. However below are some more pictures for your enjoyment.
Mom's gift to my host mom. Eva loves it and uses it atop the counter.
