My first oops

After breakfast today, the other girls went to an orientation put on by their program. I had a brief conversation with my host parents about the differences between coming here independently vs. through a third party program. We agreed that it was cheaper and more streamlined. Probably the most significant difference is that the other companies provide a lot of comfort to worried parents and their main purpose is to hold the students' hands and tell them where to go. I don't really need that and I don't want it either. I'm glad my parents are of the cool kind and let me figure everything out on my own.

Leti agreed to take me to the grocery store. It was especially important that I go today because last night I dropped my toothbrush in the toilet. We took several detours first: We drove by a farmer's market-type open air market that had many vendors selling mostly fruit and vegetables. It's only open on weekends and is in one place on Saturdays and another on Sundays. Then we drove around town looking for a pharmacy that was open, because Leti needed to buy cough drops for her 31-year-old son. We went to the market. I was surprised at the number of American grocery products. They had all kinds of American candies, crackers, cereals, sodas, cookies, even string cheese! So I sort of blindly bought some Costa Rican crackers, two individual boxes of juice, some type of fruit snack bars, and I couldn't resist the string cheese. I didn't buy very much because I don't yet know the value of the dollar here. Later this afternoon I will do some research on what a good exchange rate is. After that we dropped off the meds at her son's work and returned home.

But for my "oops". I didn't say anything offensive. And I really hope I never do, but I'm sure my host family would understand. They've been hosting foreign students for 16 years, so I'm sure they've heard everything before. My oops was that I was at the mercado, buying food, and I didn't buy anything substantial enough to make a good lunch. My program fees only cover breakfast and dinner, so I'm completely on my own for each lunch. I don't think it'll be a very big deal during the week when I'm in class because there are restaurants nearby and I think they have some kind of food court at the school. But today... it's noon and I'm snacking on crackers and cheese but they certainly won't fill me up. I think I'll just have to eat a lot at dinner.

AND another thing I just remembered that I forgot is that I need some sort of alarm clock. I have no way of waking myself up in the morning, although with all the new sounds here I was up at 6:30 and had to roll over and close my eyes for another hour. But once I get used to them I will definitely need something to jar me out of my sleep.