My Tica family is amazing. I can already tell. The mom, Leti, talks a lot, but she doesn't talk too fast. That's awesome because I've been able to understand 95% of what she's saying. The dad, Juan, is kind of gruff-on-the-outside-but-marshmallow-inside kind of guy. He's got a really low voice that is nice to listen to. He works as a landscaper for many gardens around the San Jose are. Leti is a part-time children's dentist who has been taking more time off recently because she's about to have knee replacement surgery. Their house has a part of it that's like any other house, with living, dining, and kitchen, as well as, from what I can tell, 4 bedrooms in the house and 4 mini suites like mine that all have their separate entrances. One is home to Leti's mother, who is just under me (I think). Her daughter and son-in-law live across from me. There's a student from Venezeula who's studying design at the university and she lives in another separate unit.
I was the first of the American students to arrive and I didn't see the other rooms until after two of the other three girls showed up. Two of them who arrived together have fairly small bedrooms at the back of the house. They share a hall bathroom. The last one to arrive, just before dinner, got a room at the front of the house that is a smaller version of mine without the kitchenette. I was trying to figure out how I got so lucky with the nice second floor suite and then I found out that the other three girls all attend the same school in Wisconsin (wiss-caahn-sin, they say, so cute!) and went through the same program. So it makes sense for them to stick together in the house with more or less equal rooms and I get the big one. I'm certainly not complaining!
Leti took us girls on a mini tour of the attractions that are within walking distance. Today we drove because it was raining pretty hard. There are so many things so close by! There are two malls, at least one of which has a movie theater, the National Theatre, the National Museum, a downtown area that's pedestrians only, many restaurants, bars, and clubs, an artisans marketplace, a bunch of government offices, a beautiful park and two cathedrals, among other things. I definitely have a lot of exploring to do.
I think once I get use to the road noise--cars make different sounds here, and the house is on a somewhat busy street--I'll be perfect. The rain is very lulling. It was very humid when I got off the airplane but right now it feels exactly like Washington on a spring night. The rains starts and stops just as suddenly as in Washington. I'm getting tired and it's barely 9 pm local time. I'm a little confused about the time difference between here and home because all the time zone maps I find say that Costa Rica is two hours ahead but my internet-connected computer reads only and hour ahead of PST. Also, when I landed in Houston I set my watch to local time. However, when we landed in Costa Rica my watch was an hour ahead. Strange. I'll get it figured out here soon.
And just a few minutes ago I found out the hard way that Hulu and Pandora don't have the rights to publish content outside of the United States. I'll probably be too busy to veg anyway.
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