Day 2: July 1, 2012

The plane ride was not fun.  I repeat, the plane ride was not fun.  I was smushed between two guys who seemed to like to invade my personal space for the entire red-eye.  But once we landed, it was smooth sailing through immigration and customs; probably because it was just past the crack of stupid in the morning.  There was a very nice man at the San Jose airport to pick me up, for which I will be eternally grateful.  The twists and turns to get to my host family’s house would confuse Tom Tom. ( as a side note, things like traffic lights, turn signals, and even traffic lanes seem to be more suggestions than anything else.)  But the view was spectacular; the mountains and the green forest in the distance, with the sun just beginning to peek up its head.

  The house I am staying in is very cute.  It comes complete with two sassy bulldogs, Tara and Fiona, who are attention whores.  My host mom has three children, all of whom, as far as I can tell, live here.  Diego is an architect, Roberto is a psychologist, and Mary Jo is still studying.  Carmen is great and I think that my time here will be very well spent.  However, I have been dumped into the deep end, and I might be floundering.  The soccer game for the European cup was today, and my host family had a gathering of friends.  After less than 2 hours of sleep, I am having a very hard time keeping up with all the conversations.  There are at least 10 people in the house, and I am the only gringa as the rest of the students that Carmen is hosting have yet to arrive.  Wishing for some white girl back up, even if it’s just to take a minute and see what she understood of the conversation rattling on faster than I can interpret in front of us.  Keeping my chin up and pushing through.