Panaderia

Today marks the end of my first week in Costa Rica. I was surprised to realize that this morning because to be completely honest it feels like it has been more like a month. Many of the other volunteers agree with me, as more and more we can't even remember how we spent our last few weeks in our home countries. Costa Rica has certainly become our way of life.

We had our first day of Spanish class today at the New Learning Academy in Guadalupe. This was a good thing, because I found I've been learning more German in the last week than Spanish (kaputt = broken, jawohl! = what you yell when you win at beer pong, and kater = the hangover you have the next morning) and I still can't get through a conversation with the hostel manager without using funny hand gestures. We took a placement test and were divided into classes. I was somehow not surprised to find that I was the only person in mine who doesn't speak fluent German. Our teacher was very nice and didn't assign us any homework so the next two weeks should be plenty of fun.

After class, we went to a local market that had mostly handmade things like leather sandals and wood carvings. I got a shoulder bag so that I don't have to carry my backpack everywhere and can maybe even make it to the bus stop without a local shouting "Gringo!" after me. After, we were completely exhausted so I went to a local panaderia (bakery) with Elke from Austria and Jasmin from Switzerland where we had some very good pastries.

When I returned to the hostel, I had a phone message from someone named Carlos. I called him back, and he turned out to be my host sister's husband; they were on their way with my host mom to San Jose and wanted to know if they could come meet me. I said of course! So in about an hour they will be here. I'm so excited! Everyone else staying in the hostel is very jealous because they still have to wait almost two weeks to meet their host families. But I've told them I'm willing to share for the time being.