Edition 2

Ok, so I´ve told you all about my classes and family. Hm...what else... I live in a small gated community where two other students have their host families, too. So that´s really nice because we can go everywhere together. Also, although we have very few free weekends, we can all go do something pretty easily this way, too.

There are 51 of us students in all, and at this point it´s really nice because everyone is still socializing with everyone. I´m sure at some point we´ll all start to break off into our own little groups of who gets along better together and all that, but for now, it´s cool to just be with everyone.

The first week of classes is over and already the homework is pretty overwhelming. But we don´t have much else to do during the weeks, so it´s not a big deal yet. Next weekend, the whole group is going to Limon. It´s a part of Costa Rica on the coast where there´s more Caribbean influences. Then, of course, we have to write a paper about it. :)

So, now on to stories...well, the first Friday night, my host-sister/roommate invited me to go with her to a Retro which is like a dance club/bar. So, having nothing better to do and trying to have the mentality that I need to try immerse myself while I´m here, I agree. Soooo awkward. First of all, I´m the only non-latin american in the entire place. Secondly, my sister is the social butterfly and I hardly saw her all night, so I was pretty much left on my own. Luckily, there was this really friend of hers that took pity on me and kept me company all night. He and his mom used to host American soldiers in their house, so he spoke great English. So he spoke English to me and I spoke Spanish to him so we both got to practice. It turned out to be really fun, but the drinking age here is 18 and they had all just turned 18 recently, so they couldn´t figure out why I wouldn´t drink with them! They were really cool about it and none of them got drunk, so it was fine.

Then Saturday, I went with my host-mom to their community meeting which is like a big Bible study over certain topics each week. Last Saturday was sexual purity and I was split into this smaller group of older, married women and one of the other students who live in the community. It was really cool to hear their stories and views. Today, I was doing homework all morning so I didn´t go. But then after that meeting, I went with that same sister and the younger one to a sleep-over at their friend´s house. It was a little awkward because I felt like I was intruding on their girl-talks but it was still really fun. And we watched a Grey´s Anatomy Marathon all night!!! (1st South Fern girls will appreciate that!)

The only other story of note that I can remember right now is about Thursday. Ok. Here we go. So, everyday when we don´t have the classes at LASP, we still have to two languages classes at a building called ILE. From my house I have to take 2 buses to get there, but the first time I had to do it alone. Yeah. Anyone who knows my directional sense should know where this is going. Anyway, to make a very very very long story short, I left on the first bus from my house at 11 and didn´t make it home until 3 and that was after giving up on getting to class altogether. But, in my defense, most of the problem was realy horrible luck when I got directions from people. I was supposed to go to one stop and then ask someone where the next stop for the second bus was and they gave me the wrong place. Then, I had several occassions of people not really knowing where the bus went exactly or what the place was I was trying to find. And all of this sounds like, well, Rachel you should have known where you were going, but no! That´s how they tell us to get places is to ask people and figure it out.

Anyway, that´s all for now. Today, (I´m finishing this post on Sunday now) Ruth (one of the girls who lives near me) and I are going to go shopping for my host parents´anniversary gift and then waste the rest of our day somehow. Have a great day all!

I love you!