Okay, so today I got up and had a funny experience.  I got up at 5:15am, first of all (holy cow!) and then took a shower but I didn’t really know how it worked, so I ended up taking a cold shower and didn’t have the heart to say that I was freezing.  We had bread with cream cheese and marmalade for breakfast as well as café con leche. Café con leche is basically whole milk with instant coffee mixed in. It’s okay – but if you drink too much (like I did this morning), it kinda makes you sick to your stomach. I’ve noticed, though, that her daughter doesn’t always finish her food, so I’m starting to not feel too horrible. It’s still very hard, though. It’s almost like I’m always walking on eggshells in order to not offend them. They’re so kind, but it is definitely exhausting! Everything is so different, and I’m sure they notice that, but yeah. It’s just interesting. I have a lot of compassion for foreigners who come into the States now – it’s VERY hard and confusing being a foreigner. And I’m living with extremely nice people and have guides – I can’t imagine being alone and trying to hack my way through things! Holy goodness.

One thing I really appreciate about this family is that they’re very concerned that I finish my homework and do well in school – school is the most important thing. So, I don’t have to do anything except study during the week…  I feel like a princess. It’s really nice.

Anyways, we walked all around the city today which was good – all around San Jose and San Pedro and we kinda understand the city better now which is wonderful. The people in my group were Tiffany, Manuel, Brianna and Joel (whom we call Joaquin).  It’s funny cause even though I only have like first impressions of people, I can already tell which personalities I mesh better with. I’m hoping to create all different kinds of friends, but I definitely noticed how much intolerance or arrogance bothers me. There’s a few people that have come off as very arrogant and I want nothing more than to be away from them. Grrr..  But there are some really neat people so far in the program, which I am very excited about.

Anyways, I had my spanish interview today and I did fine – I’m curious to see which class I’ll be in! It’ll be fun to have the group more condensed, because 50 people is awfully overwhelming to get to know! Then we had a “cafecito” with our professor. I tasted an empanada and an ensalada de fruta. Note to self: ensalada de fruta should really be called jello, ice cream & canned fruit mixture. It’s so weird that in a country with such incredible fruit, canned fruit is a delicacy. Oh well… 

I’ve noticed about a million things that are different here than from the U.S. and I keep talking about them, but I think I might try to stop (except in my journal) because I don’t want to offend my familia. At about 2pm, it started to drizzle/rain which was interesting. I bought an umbrella for like $4 which is just perfect. I couldn’t have bought it cheaper in the States and that’s what I intended… I’m just buying things as I go along.

Then my mama picked me up and took me home and we talked a lot which was really neat. After a day of mostly Spanish, I can already feel the improvement! We talked about all different kinds of things like the racism against Nicaraguans and how she worked really hard for her children to go to school and a whole bunch of stuff. It was really neat. 

Then dinner (gallo pinto – rice & beans and eggs) and more conversation. Then a little TV time and now journal and bed. Ahh… this is a great experience. As a lot of people say here, “gracias a Dios!”