HOLA!!!!

Hey Everyone!
Hola mis amigos y mi familia! Unfortunately, the internet is incredibly slow here so my updates will probably be infrequent. It’s a little easier to just use Word and then copy paste it into this blog.. so here is something I wrote in my bedroom on my first night in Puntarenas:

My friend Candice told me about how much you learn abroad—and I know exactly what she means now. It’s only the first night and I already feel enlightened. Arriving in Puntarenas, I was a little dismayed by its level of poverty, and the house is in worse condition than I imagined. My dismay ended the moment I started to get to know my host mom, though. Her name is Lidea, and she is a widow with 2 children. One of the kids is married and away from home, and her 25 year old daughter lives here. She doesn’t speak any English—but I am very happy and even wrote on my housing request that I’d prefer this just because I know it’s the only way I’ll really get to know Spanish. We ate a delicious meal of fried fish, plantains, rice, beans and salad. I am definitely well fed here. She spoke to me a lot in Spanish, it was confusing, but I for the most part got the jist of what she was saying. She helped me go to a computer lab next store to her house so that I could e-mail my family and tell them that I arrived safely, since my calling “tarjeta” (card) wasn’t working. She knocked on my door and beckoned me to her room… and patted the bed like I should sit. She then handed me the phone—and it was her son’s wife Alejandro. “Hola Alejandro!” I said—thinking I was just greeting her since Lidea had showed me pictures and spoken of her earlier. But then Alejandro immediately started speaking to me in English… saying that Lidea wanted her to translate because she was worried that I was not comfortable or did not know how to ask for something I needed. I told her to assure Lidea that I was fine, comfortable, and very thankful for her kindness. Lidea reminds me exactly of my mom—so caring and patient with her exchange students as well as in general. I noticed on the way into Puntarenas that a lot of people sit outside their homes or outside of tiendas (shops) on the street. There is really a sense of community here, more than I have seen anywhere else. As Lidea and I were driving just a few blocks from where she picked me up, at least 5 people shouted a friendly greeting to her. There is a huge thunderstorm going on right now—I can hear the lightening. This is supposed to happen almost every night I am here—but it is still incredibly warm out. I can’t wait to be outside when it happens so I can really experience it! On the bus from the airport to Puntarenas I was amazed about how beautiful Costa Rica is. There are so many lush trees, we were basically driving directly through a tropical rainforest. When we got to Puntarenas, the scenery changed drastically to a sea-level area, with less trees but a beautiful ocean only blocks away from my home. I can’t wait to explore Puntarenas (and the beach) more tomorrow, as well as the beautiful surrounding areas in Costa Rica. I couldn’t be more happy—and its only the first night!

Sin ce that night, I have had a great time! My mom, Lidea, has a huge family and I went with her to her families house in the country, which was beautiful, as well as her mother's house. I'm catching on to Spanish quickly, I started classes today and my teacher said I could move up a level if i wanted to. I'm not going to though, because the classes will only trasnfer in the track that I am in.
Everyone on my program is nice too. A lot of people have spanish majors and social science (the sutdy of cultures) like me. Mostly they are form the US but there are a few people from Europe as well.
Its funny because my moms daughter in law studied with my program 5 years ago, and she is now married to my moms son!!! Ha ha, she stayed in Lidea's house like me and that is how they met. Isn't that funny?
And apparently Lidea's daughter is a famous soccer player for Costa Rica,not anymore but he was. He plaeyd when he was 17 and his name is Raul Chaves.
This weekend were going to a biology reserve, so I am really excited. I have met a lot of locals as well. Everyone is muy tranquilo aqui... very calm here--they all sit outside at night and are very willing to help you and talk to you in Spanish, even if you are horrible at it haha.
Of the ticos I met (ticos=locals) I met two yesterday who were really nice.. they spoke some english also, and we laughed and taught each other slang words of costa rica and the united states. I got there e-nails and phone numbers so im probably going to hang out with them this week, they are very studious (education is very big here) its a small country but they have like 5 public universities and liike 20 private
Puntarenas has been an amazing experience, I can't even imagine the things I will be seeing on the weekend when I go to otras lugares (other places)
Its funny because Tara would always use spanglish on her e-mails, now I see why--my brain gets confused from siwtching from one lagnauge to the next at any given moment
I haven't been able to take a lot of pictures, unfortunately, because it is kind of easy to get robbed here if you are a gringa (green person/from somewhere else) so i havent really been bringing out anything except for some colones (the local currency here)
I think today i am going to go downtown and buy a notebook for my classes, my new friend Jackie who I have gotten the closest to here is going with me
I met her before we got on the plane and we hit it off, i was even biking qnd exploring by myself the other day and I randomly ran into her, so we have both met each others families
All right, I am about to head out but I'll try to update once a week!!!

Hope you are all doing well, love Kelly