!Pura Vida!

!Hola! This is Christine blogging from San Pedro which is a suburb of San Jose, Costa Rica. Everything here is in Spanish, including the spell check, so lo siento ahead of time.

I arrived last night, I'm staying at a host family, the host mom is very nice and has cooked me vegetarian meals so far. My roommate is from Missassipi so I may come back with a Southern accent instead of a Costa Rican accent. The shower is interesting, you get to choose between pressure and hot water, I'm just happy there is an option.

The organization I'm working for here is Maximo Nivel and it is just a few blocks from where I'm staying. It has internet, so I will be here a lot. I check out the orphanage I'm volunterring at at 2 today, very excited. I will volunteer in the morning and then take spanish classes in the afternoon. I took a spanish placement test and I am more than a little miffed I got into basics 1 spanish class. But according to my new friend who is a spanish teacher, it takes several years to get beyond the basics, so I should be patient and considering my experience trying to operate this blog in spanish, maybe I need some more basicis lessons.

I have mostly been able to communicate, only my pronucniation and general blondeness gets in the way. At custums I asked the guy in spanish if he spoke spanish instead of asking him if he spoke english. He and the security guards were sent into a fit of hysterics and insisited I ask in spanish because apparently my spanish is okay. I wanted to find the baggage claim, but only knew the word for purse, so I kept asking them where the purses were. Eventually they took pity on me and revealed they all spoke perfect english. In my defence, I was very tired, and I really wanted my bags.

I hope to have many adventures over the next 6 weeks and can't wait to tell you all!

Hope everyone is doing well!
-Christine