Approaching the end of week one!

After being here a few days, I have come to an interesting conclusion: if you plan on coming to San Joaquin de Flores, Costa Rica, don't worry about being mugged/killed for money. Instead, you should fear death by car accident. For real. Here's the deal. This city has no street signs (except for a select few stop signs), no speed limit, and apparently no driving lessons. Drivers don't care if you're in the road, they refuse to stop. You seriously have to sprint across the street to avoid death. When we drive through the city in the school van, I close my eyes. Last night, on the way to the movie, we went down a hill at like 75mph. I thought I was on a rollercoaster. The good news? You get places pretty darn quickly!
For a general update, last night I went to the mall/theatre in Heredia. Again, I learned a few interesting things:

1. Costa Ricans eat American fast-food in the mall food courts. From Pizza Hut to Taco Bell, they have it all.
2. I saw the movie Cars 2 in Spanish, and just because it is animated doesn't mean it's easy to understand. The girl next to me and I kept trying to discuss what was going on. We figured out the point of the movie during the last 20 minutes. It was that bad. I was mentally exhausted by the end of the film.
3. Costa Ricans know how to do popcorn! They have three options: salty, sweet, or mixed. "Sweet" is another way of saying they make it caramel corn. I tried it and it was AWESOME. Next time we go, I'm definitely trying the mixed version (Robs would appreciate this salty-sweet combo).
4. Just because the house is dark, locked, and alarmed when I get home doesn't mean that I should lock the doors and turn back on the alarm. Last night I came home and re-locked the doors and reset the alarm (I know how to use it now). Unfortunately, The girl I live with wasn't home. She had to bang on the door for 10 minutes before I realized it was her and not the neighbors...oops.
5. If you can't sleep at night, try reading a book in Spanish. I was out like a light in 10 minutes even though I had Pepsi with dinner.
Oh and by the way, yes, the coffee flows like water here. If you thought I was addicted back home, just you wait!

Sorry if I accidentally switch to Spanish in this post...

Day two of classes has come and gone! Here are a few things you might be surprised to hear about me in Costa Rica...
1. I eat carbs. LOTS of them. At all meals and in between. Today, I had CAKE for breakfast and loved it. Yup, I'm a changed woman. Oh and did I mention my pants are already getting loose? Go figure...
2. I go to bed at 9. Not because I'm bored or homesick, because I'm legit tired. I don't know if it's the climate or what, but I'm seriously dead by 7:30. I get more sleep here than anywhere.
3. I haven't run since the day I got here and I'm not sure that I will. Instead, I will be playing soccer. No joke. There should be a game here tomorrow night between the staff and students, and my host dad told me that his daughter-in-law has a fun local team that I might be able to play on. He even said we'd go get me shoes :)
4. I'm already starting to think in spanish. It's really weird, and I don't always think correctly, but I translate in my head all the time now.
5. I suck at directions (thanks, dad). I did get lost yesterday for 1/2 hour. The worst part is that there are not street names here, so it's literally impossible to ask for directions unless you know city landmarks.
6. I started my first novel in Spanish yesterday. I'm reading Angels and Demons. I found it in our home library (yeah, I'm starting to realize my family is actually rich. They have another house in the mountains. Can't wait to see that!)
I think that's the news for now. If you want to send me mail, please send it to the school. CPI is the name of the school, and the address is

P.O. Box 151-3007 San Joaquín de Flores, Heredia, Costa Rica

If you put the mail to my attention, I should receive it. I love you all and I'll give you another update soon. By the way, I just ate a soup I helped make in cooking class (don't ask me what was in it because all i know is that there was some beef, potato-type vegetables, and "special sauce"). However, it was super good. Tonight I'm going to the movies to see cars in Spanish. Probably a waste of money since I won't understand but what the hey, good practice, right? I'll head home as soon as these monsoon rains stop. For real, it's CRAZY out there. Today is the first day we've had such hard rain. Kaiti wasn't lying when she said it was the hardest rain she's ever seen. Good thing I have plenty of homework to keep me busy until it stops! Adios!

I'm struggling today...

First off, I'd like to inform you all that it took me 15 minutes to figure out how to get the @ sign on a spanish keyboard (alt 64 by the way) in order to log onto the blog, but I'm finally ready to tell you all about my days happenings. I will start with yesterday afternoon. After I finished lunch, one of the school's interns said she would give me a tour of the school. Now, I don't want to sound rude, but this poor girl seemed scared out of her mind.She told me that she has studied Spanish here since she was 11 (I'm guessing she's about 20 now), but she was so uncertain and shy that I ended up finishing her sentences for her. It was an incredibly painful tour (for both of us). Afterwards, I went with a group of nine others to Heredia to take a look around. Our guide was a bilingual teen, and he did a nice job. We saw a park, a musuem, and the central market. I have a few pics of the fruits we tried (some were craaaaaazy), and I will try to get them up here soon. The tour ended at 5:30, and to be honest, I was dying. If you know me well, you know that I don't do well when tired/hungry. Naturally, this was the state I was in when I finally met my host family. Here is what I know about them so far: 1) They are upper middle class for sure. I live in a really nice house with my own room and (soon to be) own bathroom. 2) They are currently hosting another student from the program API who leaves on Saturday. She seems very nice and answered a lot of my questions. 3) They have an alarm system and I'm pretty sure I set it off this morning when I tried to go downstairs to the bathroom. Of course, as soon as it went off I sprinted back to my room and pretended to be sleeping...yeah, not too proud about that one... 4) So far, the family consists of a mother and father (the papers failed to mention the husband, but he's very nice). I have yet to meet the grandkids, but I hear they live nearby. 5) Jet lag exists in Costa Rica. I fell asleep at 9:00 (so 10:00 back home) and promtly woke up 1.5 hours later as if I had taken a nice nap. Fortuantely, I read and fell back asleep pretty quickly. 6) God is definitely in Costa Rica, too. We've talked a lot lately, and He's keeping me pretty calm about this crazy situation.

I think that's all for now. I don't have any afternoon activities today, but the other student at my house said she would show me around town.The only problem is that I have absolutely no idea how to get home. My host mom walked me here this morning in 20 minutes, but I guarentee it will take me an hour to get home. Good thing I wore my tennis shoes!

Estoy aqui

Good news: I made it! I didn't have any problems catching my flight this morning (although I did have to hike across the entire airport to find a Starbucks...literally from gate 41 to gate 11), I cruised through customs (the guy even told me my Spanish was good), and my driver was right on time to pick me up and take me to school. Naturally, I've made a fool of myself more than once already as I prove my ignorance in Spanish to all the native speakers, but all is well. I've been tested on paper and orally, and I'm currently enjoying arroz con pollo y ensalada (rice with chicken and salad) for lunch. Pretty sure I'll have that for dinner, too...and probably for lunch and dinner tomorrow...and the next day...good thing I like it! Plus, they give "Jenna-sized" portions here, aka, the entire plate is full for $3. I embark on my first real adventure in an hour as I take a walking tour through Heredia and exchange my money. Pray I don't get ripped off! Then it's home to meet la familia. I'm still a bit overwhelmed and feeling slightly lost, but I refuse to be anything but excited. Hasta luego!

And the adventure begins...

Isn't life funny sometimes? For instance, I thought that I would currenly be on my way to my San Jose, but I'm actually sitting in a "business lounge" at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Miami writing this blog to waste time. "Why, shouldn't you be catching your flight?" you ask. The answer is, I tried. Ooooooooooh did I try. Yet, despite my Olympic-qualifying sprint to the terminal (I totally blew by the Costa Rican men in front of me), I missed my plane to San Jose. We left O'Hare 20 minutes late and then took at 20 minute detour to avoid storms and consequentially, my connecting flight left while we were still on the runway. Did I lose my cool? Of course not! Did I choke back tears as I called the school to tell the lady who barely speaks English that I wouldn't be there for pick-up tonight? Absolutely NOT! Am I about to hit up the hotel bar before crying myself to sleep? Wouldn't dream of it! Okay, so admittedly I was a bit upset that I will be missing orientation and my first day of classes due to the missed flight, but I think it's fair to say that I'm handling the situation pretty well. I look at it this way: if I had made that flight, my first official post would have been oh-so-boring. Wish me luck as I try again tomorrow! Hasta luego...

Anticipation

Welcome to my new blog! My plan is to keep all of my friends and family members updated through this site. Currently, I'm still in Wisconsin, and my only news is that the nerves have officially arrived. I fly out in three days, and there's a good chance I will throw up a little before I leave (just kidding). As you can already tell, this blog is going to be extremely insightful and intriguing and should promptly be added to your "must read" list. I apologize in advance for writing posts that only I find funny, but at the very least, you will know what's going on with me over the summer.