City Life

After a long nap on the bus, I arrived in San Jose for our 2 weeks of homestay-ing and language learning. The Costa Rican Language Academy has gorgeous facilities with plenty of classroom space, a kitchen, soccer field, computer room, and cafe. They offer conservation, dance classes, and cooking classes in the afternoon; that should be a lot of fun. The professors and staff there all seem very amable and kind. I will really enjoy having this resource as I learn to get around the city.

The language academy and all the host families are in San Pedro, outside of the city center where the University of Costa Rica is located. So its a college town with lots of twenty-somethings, restaurants, and bars. It should be a fun area to get to know.

My host family is in Cedros, a middle-class residential neighborhood within San Pedro. It is just a short bus ride from the school. Vianney and Victor have made me feel very welcome here. Their home contains three or four extra rooms, so they are always hosting some foreigners. Vianney, the mother, seems to run the show here; she takes care of all the extranjeros and keeps an impeccably clean house. Tomorrow she will ride the bus with me to show me how to get to and from the school.

I am calling it an early night here--the early mornings and late nights of the past few days are setting in. Tomorrow night, I hope to be playing soccer at the language school and then frisbee with a San Jose group that Ben discovered. At some point during the next two weeks, I plan to check these items off my to-do list: fried platanos, Museo de Oro Precolumbiano, Museo Nacional de Costa Rica, Museo de Arte, Imperial beer, live music, Mercado Central, cafe, Museo de Arte Costaricense, parques, sodas, farmers market.