Life here in Costa Rica has calmed down a bit and we have settled down into the school routine. All that is left of my virus is a cough that gets a little better each day. Updates on the earthquake are still on the local news. It created quite a mess and they are still trying to clean things up. I'm not sure what the death toll is at right now but last I heard it was going on 100.
School has been going well. I have three classes; Grammar (2 periods), Language, and Phonetics. For the first time in my life I am enjoying learning Spanish and feel like I am understanding it. It is nice to not feel like I am just barely hanging on for dear life like I did in high school. Maybe it is because I am slightly more motivated to learn it this time around. Jenna has two classes; Grammar and Language, both are two periods long so we both end up with 4 periods of classes. Classes end by 1:00 so we have a lot of free time in the afternoon which is nice. Of course some of this time is devoted to homework, but there is still a bit of down time. I have to admit, I am feeling a bit boxed in here in a city after living on a farm for a year. I am itching for a chance to get out of the city one of these days.
We spend a bit of time with our fellow students/future missionaries. We have reunited with Joe and Heidi DePuy who we knew from back in high school. There are also a few other SAM missionaries here who we have been getting to know. We also spend a lot of time with our host family. The other week, our host mom Aida had a birthday and what a birthday party it was! We were told it would start around 6pm. We left the house a little before 7pm with the daughter who was hosting the party. We then proceeded to buy food for the party from Price Mart which is the local equivelent of Sam's Club. When we got to the house, we sat around for several hours while people gradually trickled in and the party got set up. As the party geared up, Jenna and I debated with Reinko, a fellow from Holland who was staying here at the house with us, about how long the party would go. Reinko thought the party would wrap up around 10. Jenna and I guessed it would only be getting started around 10pm. It turned out Reinko's gross underestamate was because he did not realize it was a birthday party, much less a party for our host mom. At one point we mentioned the purpose of the party and it took Reinko a minute to wipe "You're kidding!" off his face before the embarasement set it. Needless to say we had a bit of fun with that.
During the party we had live music from a musician playing the Marimba. When he left, Jenna, Reinko, and I decided we were becoming too exhaused to hang around much longer and called a cab. This was around 11pm. Soon after we called the cab, a Mariachi band showed up to serenade Aida for about half and hour. That was fun to watch. Once they were done, the cab driver showed up for which I was quite grateful since I was feeling rather ill at this point. Then to my surprise, the cab diver sat down with a plate of food and proceded to eat dinner. I soon learned that the cab driver was actually a relative of the family who's wife is dying. I guess it is always a good idea to get the whole story before I get too frustrated.
The photos above are of the house we are living in (the green and white one), a sunset view from our house, and the Mariachi band from the birthday party.
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