Primera Semana

A week has already gone by here in San José and so much has happened! After our amazing first weekend in Costa Rica at the Laz Paz waterfalls and Volcano Poás, we started our first week of classes at the Universidad de Costa Rica. I am currently enrolled in a composition and as well as conversation course, both of which have been wonderful and the teachers are very knowledgeable in their specific areas. It has been fun getting to know other teachers and my classmates in both classes.

Classes are from 8:00a.m.-1:00p.m. daily, with a 10 minute break in between each class. The time flies as we are very busy in each class writing or speaking the entire time. In my conversation course, for example, we learned colloquial words and expressions such as; "Mae" (dude) and  !Qué dicho! (Great, How wonderful). After class I typically eat lunch with my roommate, Teresa, another teacher who received the NSE scholarship, or other classmates and we continue practicing our Spanish speaking skills with one another throughout the day!


The afternoons are spent studying, reading, exploring the neighborhood of Sabanilla in which I live, watching Spanish television, drinking coffee at cafés, or running in the University park. San José is a busy city with lots of traffic, so while exploring, I have to make sure  to look in all directions before crossing any street! This week it has been fairly cloudy and rainy here so I am always prepared with an umbrella and rain coat in my back pack!

In the evenings, my "Mamá Tica," Hannia, cooks a delicious meal mainly comprised of rice, beans, meat and fried plantains. Hannia and her family have been so generous and welcoming. Her son, Carlos Daniel (18 years) and daughter, Valeria (15 years) have been fun to chat with too! Since the moment I arrived, I have felt extremely comfortable in their home and can´t thank them enough for their generosity and for sharing their home with me. Hannia has a lot to tell about her life as a Costa Rican native. It's amazing to learn so much from someone in such a short amount of time.

This week, we traveled by bus to a town called Cartago, in which we visited the Basílica de la Virgen de los Angeles. There we learned the story of how the Virgin appeared to a young girl in town, and as a result, the Basicila was created.

Today we traveled to Heredia where Café Britt, a Costa Rican coffee plantation and company are located. We learned about the process of growing and cultivating coffee beans, extracting the shell, roasting them and finally, tasting the product to ensure the best quality. I found it fascinating to know that dark roast coffee contains less caffeine since the beans are roasted longer and therefore the caffeine is extracted naturally from the bean as time passes. It was also explained that the beans in the plantations are picked by hand since the plantations in Costa Rica are too small for machines to navigate through.

Tomorrow we will take another excursion and continue our adventures here in Costa Rica!