Week 1: July 16 - 25: Orientation Week

Welcome to my blog!
In English 'Cuentos de la Pura Vida' means 'Stories of the Pure Life,' (Pura Vida is a common phrase used among Costa Ricans to greet someone or say 'super!' (according to my travel guide) or to say something like, 'no worries!' So, as many of you know, or are just now finding out, I left my beautiful Kauai last Friday, the 16th, to spend 4 1/2 months in Heredia, Costa Rica, studying in a local university and living with a Costa Rican host family. I have been here for a little over a week now, spending most of time with a group of sixteen other American exchange students and the exchange program coordinator, Ivelina, for orientation this week. I've also been getting to know my host family and my surroundings in Heredia a bit! We have done SO much this week, so I will just hit the highlights!

Arriving:
I left Kauai on Friday night and arrived in the San José airport in Costa Rica on Saturday afternoon. After making my way through a crowd of taxi drivers I finally found my Mama Tica (Costa Ricans are called Ticos/Ticas) holding a sign that said "Caitlin Hill." I went and introduced myself and she gave me a bouquet of yerberas (daisies) and then I gave her the orchid lei that I sneaked through customs accidentally, disguised in a takeout box. My new parents (Xinia and David) drove fifteen minutes to Heredia and came to a little yellow and red house, guarded by a gate of iron bars, where I met the rest of the family. I have an eleven-year-old brother named Sebastian (Sebas (say-bahs) for short) who playse futbol and skateboards, a fifteen-year-old sister named Nohelia who is pretty quiet around me so far, and a 26-year-old sister Gidgeth (JEE-jet) who talks very quickly, but is not around as much since she works full time at the airport and is also a social butterfly. There is also a mini gray schnauzer named Bruno who is still warming up to me. On the first day we got to know each other over a cup of coffee, which I soon found out is a twice-a-day Costa Rican tradition. On Sunday, the family, minus Gidgeth, took me on a drive to the mountains where we got lost for a while, but then found a restaurant where we ate chicharrones (fried pork eaten with lime and tortillas). I have been getting along great with my family so far, especially my host parents, who feed me loads of fruit for breakfast and often talk about the many different kinds of fruit in Costa Rica for dinner conversation.

Orientation:
Orientation was long but good! Monday, Xinia walked me to UNA (la Universidad Nacional) where I met sixteen other exchange students from all over the U.S. We had a lot of lectures and went through some official visa procedures, but the best part of the day was a two-hour dance class where we learned salsa, merengue, reggaeton, and swing and sweat buckets! Tuesday we had a Spanish placement exam and took a tour of campus. In the afternoon we all signed up for classes and then a bunch of us, each with our Mama Ticas, trickled into a bank down the road to make a bank deposit for our student visas. While in the bank it started to pour and thunder and lightning until the electricity went out. We waited in the bank, which was small but packed with Ticos and Gringos, for over an hour till the storm started to let up, and then took a taxi home. Seven bridges in town were damaged! On Wednesday we took a quick walking tour of downtown Heredia, then caught a bus to nearby San José and walked around with Ivelina as our guide. We saw tons of fruit vendors in the street, visited an old but gorgeous theater called El Teatro Nacional, and had lunch at the nicest Pizza Hut I've ever been to! (My host mom told me that the fast food here is a lot better than in the U.S.)

¡Excursión a Sarapiquí!
On Thursday we took a two-hour long bus ride from Heredia to the north, I think, to the mountains of Sarapiquí. Our first stop was a tour of a pineapple farm, which was actually really interesting! I learned that their original pineapples came from Hawaii. Oh yeah they did ; ) Afterwards they made us piña coladas! After arriving at our hostel-ish place in the mountains, a friend Corylee and I took a jungle hike and spotted some monkeys in the trees, as well as a huge spider and various other creatures. In the afternoon we had workshops where we discussed adjusting to the culture here, etc. Friday morning we went on a chocolate tour at a Forest Reserve called Tirimbina. We hiked across a long bridge and through the jungle, where we saw snakes and then sat down in a pavilion to learn about the history and process of making chocolate. The samples were amazing! In the afternoon, we explored a river by where we were staying and then had more workshops. On Saturday we drove to El Hotel Tucano (Tucan Hotel) where we found aguas termales, a river with spots where steam makes the water as hot as a jacuzzi or even hotter in some places! It was amazing, as was the food! So far I've eaten lots of rice and beans, or a mixture of rice and beans and spices called gallo pinto, and lots of fruit - mango, fried banana, pineapple, guava, blackberry (as juice) and a few I've never heard of before.

What's coming up!
Tomorrow my friend Corrylee and I are going to walk to school for our first Spanish class at ten in the morning. At class they will give us our final class schedules. She and I and a couple other girls are planning a trip to the Nicoya Peninsula in the northwestern part of Costa Rica to find some nice beaches where I can teach them to surf and hopefully find some fun waves! So look for my next blog in about a week : )

Thanks everyone for reading my blog! Miss all you Kauaians and Whitworthians so much! I would appreciate your prayers for adjusting to school again, safety and health in travels, and mostly that I would bring glory to Jesus Christ at all times. Love you all and hope to hear about your lives soon, via e-mail, facebook, or skype!

Hasta la próxima,
Caitlin