life in orosi

My first week in Costa Rica was spent at an orientation, learning Spanish and more teaching skills. That was the hard part, where I learned that what little Spanish I THOUGHT I knew, was different here. The host family I am staying with speaks no English at all.  The whole first night, I nodded and laughed when they talked to me, untillll I realized that they were asking me questions. Oops.  Needless to say, I have resorted to intense versions of charades.

So there is literally nothing to do in these small towns, but the small bars that are here are really fun. I nod there too. The first day they warned us that even the cleanest houses have cockroaches, so just dont keep food in your room. nbd. Until I woke up at 3 am to a HUGE cockroach (la cucaracha) on my FOREHEAD. I freakedout and sat up with the light on until morning. The spiders here are also crazy big as well as the frogs.  There are also stray dogs everywhere that follow you!

On Thursday, the volcano closest to Orosi (there are 4 in Costa Rica, all active) erupted, kind of! No lava, only smoke, but still sooo cool. Thursday afternoon, we practiced teaching English to the local elementary school. One word-insane. Costa Rican escuelas are crazy loud, kids just get up and run around, spit water at each other, and have coffee breaks! But it went well and at the end a little girl came up to me and tapped my shoulder and whispered "Donde estas los Estados Unidos?" - aka - "are you from the United States of America?" I told her yes and she gave me a big huge, hug- so cute. I can't wait for more adventures with my real host family.  The town I am headed to is so small that  all of the taxi drivers know everyones names, and the mailman won't deliver any mail I might get unless I introduce myself to him.

Also, they were NOT lying when they said rice and beans all day everyday, literally Costa Ricans eat rice and beans in different forms for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I am still not used to it :) I have yet to find chicken fingers, unfortunately.

LAST THING- in Costa Rica, goodbye is NOT adios, it is ciao. hahaha

so... ciao! hasta luego