Week One

And so we started off running.

Every morning I wake up before 6:30 am and get ready for the day, eating my amazing breakfast of course and then starting my thirty-minute walk to work. The drivers out here are crazy; pedestrians have nothing close to the right of way and stops signs are more of a suggestion, so it is always an adventure trying to cross the streets. I am working for the CEO of Berlitz, a language company, so everyday I get to work in the office downtown. I get off at noon when I grab a quick lunch and head to my Spanish class. Another quick walk that has plenty of opportunities to die if you are not paying attention when you cross the street, not going to lie I have had more than a few close encounters. My Spanish class is great, it’s from 1:30-4:30 and we just talk and play games for most of it. I had my first test on Friday and the oral exam was a game of charades! (And of course I got an A J) After class I tend to be exhausted so after we walk back to the hotel, Hillary and I generally cook something amazing and then bedtime. So far we cooked this amazing chicken and onions in a raspberry balsamic vinaigrette sauce that was absolutely to die for! We also made so grade A French Onion Soup, it was delicious and cheap, just the way I like it. If you can’t tell we like onions a lot (be jealous Mikaela).

Yummy Raspberry Chicken

French Onion Soup

Day One

As I began my trip to Costa Rica I was feeling a bit anxious at the fact that I would not be able to easily communicate with my family and friends, and leaving the country by myself for the first time was a little daunting as well. But once I got through customs, feeling like a stupid American when the guy asked me where I was going in San José and I had no clue, I felt a huge comfort and relief. For some reason seeing everything in Spanish seemed to make me feel a lot better; I love seeing the alto (stop) signs and reading all the billboards in Spanish.

After a crazy ride to Hotel Tairona, which included much swerving and speeding around accidents and up and down San Francisco reminiscent hills, around 9:30pm I had finally arrived.

The next morning I happily awoke to free breakfast (food makes me happy) of cereal and milk, not my first choice in breakfast but I’ll eat pretty much anything if it’s free. We then began to tour the surrounding area, found the language school that we will be learning in for the next two weeks and walked briskly through the mall that is right behind our hotel.  We also stopped by the bank where I withdrew 50,000 colones, I have never pressed that many zeros when withdrawing money, the conversion to American dollars is X*10^-3*2, so I withdrew 100 dollars (not half as scary).

Our next mission for the day was to find our sponsor; luckily our sponsor’s location is in the middle of downtown San José, so my group got to look around downtown. After a bit of a confusing taxi ride we figured out we were five blocks up from where we needed to be (a difficult task when there are no street signs) and headed towards our destination. Once Berlitz's (our sponser) location was found we had to look for lunch. We decided on a food court in a small plaza, since most other places were closed because it was Sunday our options were limited. Within this plaza there were a few places to choose from so I chose almost randomly and because I didn’t quite understand the menu I again randomly chose combo uno. It was a plate of arroz con maíz (rice with corn), frijoles (beans), pasta salad, some type of pork, a slice of aguacate (avocado) y pan (bread). It was absolutely delicious and I consumed every bite!

After this we walked the mile back to the hotel. I headed to the mall and bought my cell phone (15,000 colones) and later that night headed to Hooter’s for dinner. The mix of Spanish and English in Hooter’s menus and around the restaurant was kind of amusing, all of the waitresses spoke Spanish and very very little English but half of the menu and all of the decorations were in English. It was interesting.

So far this morning I have consumed a wonderful breakfast of ham and cheese, papaya, pineapple, watermelon and peach yogurt. Yumm!

That concludes my first blog and I will keep you updated on all my adventures and my food endeavors!