Impresiones Primeras

Hola!

So, I am not very good at the whole blogging thing or keeping up with posting (tried twice in the past and both sites have one post on them, whoops), but I hope I can keep up with this one because I would like to do it for the following reasons:

1) My memory is terrible and this will be a place where I can look back and remember all that I did while here in Costa Rica!

2) It is one way for me to get credit for the study abroad program at my Honors College (other options include sharing my experience at Baruch, completing a photo essay, or participating in a Study Abroad event).

3) I want to share my experience with everyone! Yes, I will be posting daily things on Facebook and Instagram, however, on here I will be using it as more of a diary with longer posts about my days :)

All that being said, let's get started!

Dia Uno (Enero 13)

My day began at 3:15am.

(As you can already tell, it was a looooong day, but well worth the early morning wake up call!)

Showered, made sure I had everything I needed, grabbed a banana quick and headed out the door for the airport. My lovely parents both woke up to drop me off at the airport (even though my mom just got back from her job at 2:15am and had to go into her second job at 9:00am that day, and my dad had to go to his job at 8:00am, they are troopers to say the least!). I arrived quite early to my gate. No one else was crazy enough to take flights before 7:00am, so checking my bag and going through security was a delightful breeze! Since I had scads of time, I helped myself to a proper breakfast at one of the airport restaurants and waited to board the plane.

Oh, I can't forget to tell you all that I had to make a pit stop on the way to the gate to buy some much needed tissues - of course I was/am sick.

If you know me, this comes as no surprise. Whenever there is a major event coming up in my life, my body decides to get a cold, or the flu, or something worse. For instance, sister's wedding = bronchitis and three week diving vacation = strep/mono/they weren't quite sure what kind of infection I had. Yay me! In any case, today I visited the local pharmacy and got some antibiotics for a sinus infection...back to day 1!

Plane promptly departed at 6:40am, I had a window seat and it was a little over an hour flight, way before my normal wake up time, so I intended on sleeping until we reached Charlotte. But - that did not happen.

I was quite distracted by watching the sunrise over a sea of clouds, and then I realized the Snapple I had bought for breakfast was leaking all over the inside of my backpack. Another yay Jenna moment! So I spent the rest of the plane ride trying to clean that up while everyone else was fast asleep. Luckily my laptop case soaked up most of the liquid and it did not leak into my actual laptop.

Arrived in Charlotte, smelling like Snapple apple juice, at 8:14am. Found my gate easily and awaited the next flight to my final destination, San Jose! I knew that two other students participating in the program were going to be on the same plane as me, Chris and Danielle. Turns out I did recognize Chris sitting at the gate, I had seen small pictures of them but I held off from introducing myself in case it turned out the guy wasn't actually Chris or in case he thought I was weird for knowing who he was from a tiny picture I looked at once. In hindsight, I was over thinking things. It sort of was a good thing I didn't introduce myself though because the girl that I thought was Danielle turned out not be her!

So anyways, we began boarding the plane at 8:45am and set out for San Jose at 9:30am! By this time it still had not hit me yet that I was going a trip for three months. But by the time I was on the plane and had three+ hours to mull it over, I started to get a little nervous (over thinking happening again). My forehead/sinuses were beginning to hurt from the various changes in altitude and pressure, so that didn't help my situation. I attempted sleeping, planes in general are not very conducive to me sleeping (I booked a red eye for my return from California this past summer thinking I was being really smart and would sleep the whole way, wrong), since I was in the middle seat whenever I tried falling asleep I found myself almost falling over onto my neighbor's shoulders and jerking myself back up quickly (embarrassing bobble head maneuvers).

Dios Mio, I wrote so much and I am only at 12:50pm...lo siento. I think this blog is going to be more like me ranting on and on about my day, but read as much as you like!

Skipping to arrival in COSTA RICA at 12:50pm. Made a pit stop at the bathroom on the way to customs to freshen up, although nothing really helps my looks after plane rides (I envy those who can travel and still look gorgeous at the end of it all, which is basically everyone in the world except me). Went through customs smoothly. Made my way to baggage claim, my checked bag made the trip (happy Jenna, no lost luggage) and I set off to find Emma, one of the program directors at ICDS! Looking all sweaty and frizzy (despite my efforts to freshen up in the bathroom) and really regretting wearing my new hiking shoes with black jeans and a black shirt (it was cold in PA folks, but do not wear what I wore when you are coming to warmer climates!) I made my way out of the airport and found the ICDS group with smiling faces! Other students were arriving on later flights so we waited around for a bit until they too made their way out of the airport. Once we were all accounted for and introductions were made (Chris, Danielle, Hannah, Katie, Sam, and Meira) we found our driver, loaded up all our luggage (I brought the most stuff, I knew I packed too much, oy vey) and set off for our homestays!

One by one, sometimes two by two, we watched each student get dropped off and introduced to their new family for the next three months. Hannah and I were the last ones (neighbors, woohoo!).

Nerves and excitement were setting in! We arrived at the entrance to one of the homes and Emma told us it was Hannah's, so I thought okay I have a few more minutes to figure out how to say what I want to say in Spanish, and then it turned out to be my new home! From there on the introductions were all sort of a blur, and before I knew it Emma and Hannah were leaving to go to her home and I was left with my new padres!

I quickly realized I had very little skills in speaking Spanish. The three years of high school Spanish I took helps with my understanding of what they are saying, however, I am struggling to communicate back. Luckily my papa, Carlos, speaks a bit of English so whenever I do not know how to say something in Spanish or do not understand something they are saying I can communicate with him! Other times I am rushing to google translate (yes, it is sad, I know) or the English to Spanish/Spanish to English dictionary I brought along with me.

So, I arrived, they showed me my room, complete with my own bathroom!

Sat down at the table and had some fresh juice made from a fruit I didn't now existed. Talked as much as my abilities allowed. My papa showed me his watercolor paintings and offered me to use his supplies anytime I'd like! I unpacked my things, met some of the family friends, including an adorable little baby. My mama made us a delicious dinner (soup for my sickness, salad, rice and an egg casserole). After dinner we watched the news and I gave them a gift, Apple Butter and Fudge from Brown's, a local orchard/store in my hometown. They enjoyed that and it made me happy! I decided to head to bed early (like I said, it was a long day!).

To my surprise, Netflix is available here. I thought I was going to have to hit the pause button on my Grey's Anatomy marathon, but no problema! So I watched some episodes of Grey's Anatomy, then finally fell asleep around 11:00pm.

Dia Dos (Enero 14)

Today was just a relaxing day to spend with our host families. So, I woke up to my alarm and the train passing by my casa at 8:00am. A yummy breakfast awaited me, gallo pinto (a popular dish in Costa Rica, black beans and rice), scrambled eggs, and toast. Another family friend joined us and I found out my host papa loooves bread, which is a nice similarity to my dadda.

After desayuno, I decided it was time to take a shower. My host mother had explained the shower the day before, but I did not catch most of what she was saying and then when I told her I like to shower in the mornings her face looked somewhat concerned, so I figured that meant that their water is heated by the sun during the day and showering in the morning would mean no hot water...I was right. So, after my chilly, but refreshing!, shower, I went on a walking tour of the local area with mi papa. Carlos showed me where the Universidad was, the grocery stores, the mall, places to eat, etc.
We made a special stop at the pharmacy to get me some medicine for what I think is a sinus infection. The doctor was very nice, spoke english so I could tell her what my symptoms were and she prescribed me Cefadroxil. When I asked her how much she said 5,000 something (Unprepared, I did not know the exchange rate of colones to dolares so my face was something along the lines of "Oh shit"). I knew that the exchange rate was not 1 to 1, but I was still thinking that the antibiotics were going to cost me way more than I thought, then my host papa told me how much it was in dolares, ~$10, and the world was okay again.
We returned from our walking tour, passed by some ticos smoking marijuana. After another delicious meal, piscado y arroz con patatas (fish and rice with potatoes), I washed the dishes then headed for my bedroom to relax. Relaxation turned into a three hour siesta, jaja.
When I woke up, I was given the low-down on how to lock the gates/doors to the house and given my own set of keys (officially part of la familia!) and mi papa and I went to a local copying store to photocopy my passport. On our way back, I noticed the sun starting to set as the sky lit up with golds and pinks over the mountains. I had not ventured out for sunset the night before so it was my first Costa Rican sunset, and it was beautiful.
Upon our return to the house, mi madre was watching some television, resting from her extensive cleaning of the house (extensive meaning all the furniture was moved around and no nook or cranny was left untouched! My kind of lady). 
Mi padre decided to practice guitar, and wanted to learn a birthday song to sing/play for me this upcoming Sunday, so sweet! I showed him my ukulele that Ilana got for me for my birthday, then I went back to my room and learned how to play Riptide by Vance Joy. My version is quite rough, but I am so excited to be able to play that song (one of my favorites at the moment). After practicing, I noticed the pain in my forehead/sinuses starting to spread to my upper jaw. So, I decided to take the first round of my medication, which caused my nose to leak like a sieve, which was good and bad. Good because that meant it was working, but bad because now I had to exit my room with bunches of tissue shoved up my nose to stop the dripping. We had dinner (chicken quesadillas) - I looked quite silly.

Cleaned the dishes and headed to my room for the night! When mis padres came to say buenos noches, I showed them some pictures I brought of my family, they enjoyed that, as did I :)
After looking through some Costa Rica guide books other students left here, I decided I wanted to start blogging! SO, here we are. It is 10:43pm and I have to wake up at 6:45am for breakfast at 7:00am, then meeting all the students at the ICDS office at 7:30am for the start of orientation!! So excited to meet everyone.

Will update the next chance I get - which will probably be Friday night or Saturday morning because we are sleeping over at the orientation site and spending the day exploring Friday!

Buenos Noches A Todos!