Miranda Mathisen '06
ACM Program, Costa Rica
mmathise@monm.edu
Fort Lupton, Colorado

Mailing Address:
Miranda Mathisen
Associated Colleges of the Midwest
Apartado 2562-2050
San Pedro de Montes de Oca, Costa Rica
Central America

November 27, 2005

Hola Amigas,

How was everyone's Thanksgiving? Did you eat lots of food...and then walk it all off shopping the next day? We had a big feast at the ACM with all the fixings. There was a Costa Rican woman who prepared the turkey and everything to go along. I made pumpkin and pecan pie to set the mode, (pi alamode that is..hahaha) while another girl made apple. Sometimes it is just the small things that make you feel that much closer to home.

So, this past weekend we went to Monteverde. It is place in the mountains of Costa Rica....haha! (That's somewhat of a joke because most of Costa Rica is mountains!) It is very lush and green, very cold and rains a lot. We were very lucky with the weather. It only rained a little bit in the afternoons while we were there, but it was so cold at night. Nothing like what you are all experiencing, but it probably got down into the 60's and I just do not have the clothes here for cold weather. During the weekend we went to a lecheria or a cheese factory. They make every kind of cheese you can imagine and ice cream too. It was so good we had to have it twice. On the tour, we learned how to make cheese and about Americans and Europeans who came here originally to start the factory. Today only citizens of Costa Rica can buy stock, so it is all locally owned. It was so awesome to see it, and the best part was tasting the cheese that they made...I wish they sold it in the US, because it was scrumptious!! So, we did that on Friday and then went shopping a bit. It is a very touristy town and has lots to see and do.

On Saturday we went on a Canopy Tour, which was probably one of the most out of this world adventures I have ever experienced. It had 16 cables and it was like flying through the air. Most of them were very long...the longest cable was 220 meters long. It was on top of the canopy and you could see clear across the rainforest. This particular tour also had a Tarzan swing. If I went again I would opt out of the Tarzan swing, as first it is a free fall until the rope caught us and then you would swing back and forth. I feel like I have whiplash today from the jerk at the bottom...but at least the rope didn't break. The tour guides we went with were also jokers and liked to try and scare us even more. After the first few cables, I could not keep myself turned straight and I turned all around and got really scared. Then I went with a tour guide the rest of the time, which was way way more fun, as he was super-experienced and only breaked at the very end of the cable. That was the way to go for me, but my friends seemed to do fine with it and went alone. I guess I am just a chicken...but I would definitely do it again.

After our canopy adventure, we went to the Monteverde reserve and hiked through the rainforest. It is so beautiful there, as it was not cloudy when we went and we could see all the way to the Gulf of Nicoya. It is called the cloud forest, because the majority of the time there are tons of clouds and it is as though at times you are walking on top of them. It reminded us of that movie "A Walk In the Clouds." Just a little piece of heaven. So, Sunday morning we took a bus back to San Jose at 630am. It was so early, but we all had dreams about the canopy tour and debated about whether or not to go again. hehe

So, that's all for the adventures, although that is a place I would definitely go back to. I am trying not to rank my favorite places, because every place has something extremely unique...And you all need to visit!!

Well, I am working on my big project due Wednesday. Only two more weeks of the program, but after this Wednesday it is all downhill. YEAH! I hope everyone there is doing great after the long Thanksgiving break and you got lots of Christmas shopping done. I cannot wait to see you all. Try to stay warm!

Love,

*Miranda*

November 15, 2005

Hola Amigos y Familia,

¿Comó están?

I have not updated in a while, so I thought I would fill you all in on what's going on here in Costa Rica! First of all, now there are only four weeks in the semester left and my HUGE final project is not going as planned. I am doing it on La Oganizacion para Inmigracion International (OIM), but the people here in San José do not have time to schedule a meeting. They told me that everything I needed was on the Internet, but that's not the whole truth. So right now I am looking for Nicaraguan immigrants to interview and try to get the whole story on OIM about what they are doing or not doing in Costa Rica. Let me just say, it has been extremely interesting.

So, now about the fun stuff. Last weekend, some friends and I went to another Volcano. We went to Poás and the whole day it was cloud covered, except for about 30 seconds, literally!! I have two pictures of the Volcano. The first picture, the clouds are just spreading enough to see the crater and by the time I took the second picture, the clouds are are already covering the crater more than half way. Amazing how fast clouds move! It was a really gorgeous area though, surrounded by rainforest and a lake just off about 1 kilometer. We hiked around the area, since the main highlight of the adventure was a bit shy that day! They do say in the rainy season that it is very hard to see it and one of my professors at the ACM said he has been to Poás 10 times and seen it 3. I felt lucky after that!

This past weekend, my friends and I went to the beach. We went to Cahuita, which is on the Caribbean and it was absolutely gorgeous. There was a bit of cloud cover at times, but white sandy beaches and sun....I could not help but think that it was the middle of November and I was on the beach. Friday we went to the National Park in Cahuita, where we did some hiking and some swimming. Then we went to another beach which is called Playa Negra, because the sand is really fine and grayish/black. We stayed at a nice hostel that night that said there was hot water, but we could not seem to get it to work. It was very hot and humid though, so the cool water was refreshing.

Saturday we were in for some exercise. I felt like I was doing a triathlon (thinking of you Lauren). In the morning we took a bus to Puerto Viejo, which is a super touristy town, but very cute and lots of Americans. We had breakfast at an American owned cafe and then went and rented bikes for the day. There is a national park about 8.5 miles away called Manzanillo. We biked all the way there and when we got to the park, we hiked through it. It is right on the beach, however the beach is very rocky and has lots of cliffs.

After our hiking, we went back to the bikes, having a bit of an episode in the middle. (Unfortunately one of the girls who was holding a key to one of the locks to the bicycles lost the key in the park, so we went back hiking for the key and then finally had to find someone to cut it off...huge ordeal). Afterward, we biked back to Punta Uva (Grape Point) about 4 miles from Manzanillo, which is another beautiful beach and we swam there for a couple hours. Then we biked back to Puerto Viejo. Last night we were all dead tired, but I was definitely thinking of Lance Armstrong and his biking in the Tour de France. I was thinking that he probably has a special seat that he has on his bike that does not hurt his behind, because today I can hardly walk. NOT because I am sore, but because of the bike seat rubs funny on your back side and all day on a bike I think requires a special bike seat.

So anyhow, the weekend was great, but now it is back to the grinding stone. I have tons of things to do, like I am sure you all do too! I just wanted to tell you all that I so wish you could have been at the beach and biking with us this weekend. We were six girls in total, and it reminded me of the movie "Now and Then," where the girls are our on the road biking and talking and just having fun. Banana boat bikes do not go very fast, but just the leisurely experience of being next to the beach and looking at the beautiful trees and flowers of the tropics made me miss you all more and wish that you were all there too!! Some day, we are all coming back together!!!

Well, I hope all is well in the States and that you are not working too hard! I love the e-mails that you are sending and I will see some of you in five weeks. WOW how time flies! Some time I will also try to send more pictures. Until then, take care!

Love,
*Miranda*

"Better is one day in Your courts than thousands elsewhere..." (Psalms 84:10)

October 31, 2005

Hey Everyone,

Happy Halloween, even though Costa Rica does not celebrate this festive occasion. I know tonight there will be lots of trick-or-treaters and tons of parties going on, but here there is nothing like that. I have seen some costume stores in Costa Rica, but I have no idea what people will do with the costumes, unless they are foreigners who want to do the Halloween thing anyway.

So, I was going to have a new story to tell you all...about how my friends and I walked uphill, in a hurricane, rain and 200mph winds, barefoot, BOTH WAYS....But we did not go to the Atlantic.

I told everyone I was going to the Atlantic, but due to a tropical storm dilemma and lots of water in the Atlantic, we opted to go to the Pacific where there was nothing but sunshine...or at least half sun half clouds!

We made our way to Manuel Antonio, which is a resort/national park in Costa Rica. It sits between mountains and the beach. There were buses that came every half hour or so, but most of the time my friends and I walked where were going, which was somewhat of a challenge. Going to the beach was great, since it was downhill, but coming back from the beach was not so much fun. We encountered the most Americans I had seen since I have been in Costa Rica, but there were an amazing amount of other foreigners. We stayed in a hostel, which was right outside the town, with an amazing view of the ocean. There we met a girl from Israel, a couple from Holland, another couple from Germany, and some guys from the States. It was such a tourist attraction and there is so much money being put into this place for more tourism. Who knows what will eventually happen to the National Park.

Anyway, we ate at some great places...all very expensive. One day we found a little Tico beach that had three other people on it. It was so cute and very exclusive. On Saturday we hiked into the park, which sits right on the beach as well. Like I said, mountains and beach right together. In the park we saw tons of monkeys. They were almost domesticated, because as people would be sitting eating their lunch at the picnic tables, the monkeys would come over and steal food. It was pretty entertaining, but somewhat unusual for the park. We also saw a sloth that they call "perezoso" in Spanish which means lazy. It sure fits the animal, because it moves so so so slow. I am surprised it does not starve. Lets see, we saw a few turtles close to the beach and millions of hermit crabs all over the beach. I wanted to take one with me, but I am afraid I would not make it through customs! ha ha

So, I have tons of pictures, but I have yet to put them on the computer. It is very hard for me to do this place justice in words because it was just so lovely. To have the best of both worlds right in front of us was amazing. At the hostel, they had hammocks which we just relaxed in and watched the waves coming in from on top of the mountain. Lindisimo...Incredibly beautiful!

Anyway, I am starting to work on my GIGANTIC final project. I am doing it on immigration in Costa Rica and organizations that help immigrants here. Every where in Costa Rica there are more and more immigrants from Nicaragua coming here to live. Most of the Costa Ricans believe this is a huge problem and there is so much racism in everyday life.

Jokes are cracked regularly and even walking down the streets with Ticos, they point them out and say stuff like look how much darker skinned they are or how poor they are. It is so fascinating to see this in another country, who claims to be so much more "civilized" than the rest of Latin America. This however, is a major topic of conversation everyday and even on the news the Nicaraguans get so much attention. It's very interesting. Thus, that is why one of my classes focuses solely on this topic.

Things are really going great here! There is so much more that I want to go and do, but it seems as though the weekends are starting to get limited. My mom told me only 47 more days...I have a lot to do in those days!! Thank you all for your prayers and e-mails. I miss you all so much and hope to hear from you soon.

Love,

*Miranda*

October 16, 2005

Hola Amigos,

Two weeks have passed since I have seen the internet, but I am finally back in San Jose and getting ready to start the second half of the semester. I have so many stories to tell you all about my rural stay adventure...I am hopefully going to give you the basic details and save the LONG stories for when I see you all.

During the two weeks, I think I learned more about myself and how to over come living in a comfort zone than I ever have in my life. It forced me to try new things and I learn what I can really tolerate.

Over Come Comfort Zone #1--The host family I stayed with in Miramar had NO hot water in the house. I thought that the showers in San Jose were bad, but they are HOT compared to the showers I took in Miramar. I never knew I could take a two minute shower...but I did for two weeks straight.

Over Come Comfort Zone #2--Rice and Bean three meals a day. Here in Costa Rica there is a traditional dish called gallo pinto which is rice and beans mixed. Well, during my rural stay we ate it three meals a day as the principle dish. In San Jose my host mother only fixes it on Sunday, because there is much more time. Well, today (Sunday) I opted not to eat breakfast, because I have had enough rice and beans for life.

Over Come Comfort Zone #3--This is the most amazing of them all....In Costa Rica because of the rain, there are bugs every where. In San Jose in the house, they are very minimul and I just stayed away from them and they stayed away from me. Well, in Miramar, it rained every day, which attracted more bugs...Mostly Ants. They were everywhere. In the food, on the furniture, on the floor, in the shower...etc. Okay short story....the second night I was there it was my birthday and the traditional birthday plate is arroz con pollo (rice and chicken). They mother spent all day preparing it and when we sat down to eat, there was a spider in my dish. For fear of offending her, I politely picked it out, put it to the side of my plate and continued to eat. At that point I thought I was going to die, but as the week progressed, I found out that bugs were in everything. All my drinks, because they were in the sugar. In the bread because they invaded the flour. We did not eat much meat. A little chicken in the rice was about all, but we had plenty of protine from the bugs. It did not seem to phase the family at all...they told me that it was because of the season and the bugs are just natural. Okay...so in the food was one thing...but the phrase (Don't let the bed bugs bite) is completely applicable to my stay in Miramar. There were ants in my bed every night. I never applied repellent during the day, but after I started getting lots of bug bites in the night, I put repellent on at night. I know it seems backwards...however, this is not an exaggeration.

BUT...I am here to tell you that I am still alive. Nothing killed me and I now appreciate the rural lifestyle, I just do not think that I want to live it the rest of my life. hahaha

So...as for some adventures. My host family has a house in the mountains and we went for the weekend. It was a lot like camping, but there I learned to milk a cow and make leche dulce (Sweet milk). It is milk, sugar, and coconut baked in the oven and it is scrumptious. There it rained all day long and when we went to milk the cows...I fell twice in the mud. Once just to muddy my pants and the second...practically face first, although I managed to save my face from the mud. We wore rubber boots, but the mud was just short of passing them. It was crazy wet!!!

During the week, I also helped in the school. I went to classes of kindergarten two days and helped the English teacher for four days. The kindergarten class was a riot. Every class I went to was somewhat out of control and everyday when I got up in front of the class, the teacher left the class and returned at the end. My first day in the kindergarten class, this happened. The teacher left and asked if I could watch the kids. I said sure and we were playing, when an older student walked by and said something to a little girl in the class. She started crying immediately and went a told her friends what the older student had told her and they start crying. And this point I am not sure what's going on. They come over and tell me (there is a (Payaso) in the bathroom.) This is exactly how I understood it, because I did not know that word. More students are crying and tell me to lock the door. I try to run over to get my dictionary so that I can look up the word. I open the door to see where the teacher is and more start crying, telling me to lock the door. I finally find the word payaso...CLOWN in English, and I start laughing. There really was no clown in the bathroom....just a lie made up by older students...but how crazy that the teacher was not there. She did finally return and told them that it was a lie...but I was going nuts!

Other things we did during the nights was play cards, put giant grasshoppers in each others beds, and search for little lizards that are all over the house. I thought that it was going to be calm in the rural area, because before we left they told us to expect lots of down time. Well, in the house I stayed, there was little or no down time. There are four children in the house and one grandchild. It takes a bit of explanation...but here goes. Karla (25) is married to Javier who works in the US and they have a child, Valeria who is 2 years old. Lucia (22) married to Andy (26) who lives with the parents until their house is ready. Luis Jose (20) who studies in Cartago, but only goes to class three days a week and returns every weekend to his parents house. Carolina (14) who attends high school in her second year. Carolina lives with Karla while Javier is in the US. Valeria, however, spends most nights at the grandparents house. Luis Jose returned from Cartago and was there practically all the time. Thus, the house was always full. Not to mention, the entire family of relatives live on the same block and the next block over, so there were cousins over all the time. The house I stayed at was the most popular house in town...and again...that is not an exaggeration. Cousins, neighbors, brothers and sisters, friends...etc...were always over at the house, so needless to say there was little to no down-time.

Thus, it was a very lively two weeks...like none I have ever experienced. But like I said before, I am alive and well and the family has invited me back, but I think this time I am taking my own food!! hahaha

So...now that you have read my gigantic novel...How is everything going in the US. I hope well, but I would love to hear from you all. Before I was trying to keep up with personal e-mailing, but now I am so far behind I could never out due you all now. I just want you to know that I am thinking about you all and really enjoy your e-mails.

Love,

*Miranda*

September 30, 2005 - Map of Costa Rica

Hola Todos,

¿Como están? I am so sorry that I have not written in the longest time. Lots of things have happened since then and I want to tell you about them all. The reason I have not been using the computer is that I have been super sick with Bronchitis and the early signs to chronic pneumonia....yeah oops! I desperately needed you here Lois to tell me to go to the doctor. Anyhow, I went to the hospital and after two shots and five prescriptions later, my host mother and I left. Fortunately I am doing so much better, just in time for my rural stay.

I am sending you a Map of Costa Rica that I found and then put little stars on them to show you where I will be. Hopefully this will help you put it a little more in perspective. I am going to Miramar. It is in between the mountains and the ocean, probably about 20 to 30 minutes from the beach. There I am going to help in school teach English and go and visit the gold and silver mines in the mountains. I am also going to be checking out the sugar cane, rice, plantain and bean fields. I am super excited about the agricultural experience involved. I am living with a new family and the town is only about 1000 people, so I am told.

I am sending you pictures from the Volcan Irazú and the beach at Jaco on the Pacific Ocean. After that we took an ACM group field trip to Guayabo National Monument, which is a tourist place now, but it was a place where a group of indigenous people lived. I am sending you a picture of the map at the monument, although I don't know if you will be able to understand it.

Anyhow, I am leaving tomorrow to go on the rural stay and we return on the 16th of October. I am hoping that there is an internet cafe in the town where I am going, but if there is not I will have no way to check my e-mail. I hope that you keep sending me e-mails though and I will update you all on the rural stay when I get back.

I miss you all so much and I hope that you're all doing well.

Love you all,

*Miranda*

P.S. Thank you all for the snail mail that you send me. It really makes people feel special when they get mail and my friends and family have been the greatest! Thanks a million!!

September 19, 2005

Hola Amigas,

¿Qué tal?<----What's happening?

I just wanted to give you all a brief update on what's going on in Costa Rica.

Last Thursday was Independence Day. We had been listening to the school children all around town practice their instruments for the last three weeks and finally the day came where every town in Costa Rica had a parade: Volcan Irazú. It has been dormant for about 42 years. It is amazing! You can stand right up at the crater and look down in it. It was however, the coldest experience I think I will have in Costa Rica...EVER!! I took a sweatshirt and rain coat and there was actual sleet coming down. FREEZING!! The view is indescribable though, so I will be sending more pictures this week.

Then on Sunday, I experienced the other extreme in temperatures. We decided to go to Jaco, which is a touristy town on the Pacific Ocean. It was really amazing, but super HOT! So hot in fact that no one needed to use the bathroom all day...I am telling you extreme hotness!! The waves were monstrous too. There were a lot of surfers and at no point in the day were there soft waves coming in...large rip waves the entire day. We left on a bus at 7:00 in the morning and then arrived back in San José at 10:00 in the evening. It was an exciting day though, and really nice once again to get out of the city. I did however manage to get a bit too much sun and am definitely paying the price today...what can you do??

This week is when we have individual meetings to tell us where we are going on our Rural Stay. I find out on Wednesday. I will let you all know and try to send you a map so that it doesn't seem so foreign as to what I am talking about.

Please know that I am praying for you all and I thank you very much for your prayers in return. I love you all and miss you tons!

*Miranda*

September 14, 2005

Hola Todos,

This week we are starting to learn new Costa Rican terms and Pura Vida is one that everyone uses. When someone asks you how you're doing, mostly people respond with Pura Vida...meaning pure life, everything is great!

I am starting to get a little more adapted to the life in Costa Rica. I am finding though that I am maybe not as adaptable as I lead myself to believe, but it is coming along. My host parents have introduced me to some new and interesting foods. Mostly fresh tropical fruits that I am not accustom to, nor can I say the name in English. That's life though...Pura Vida!

This past weekend we went to Volcan Arenal, which is in the province of Alajuela. It was about a four hour bus trip and on the way there, the bus that we were on overheated and we had to wait for another bus to come. Having something like that happen with students is much easier however as we all just enjoyed the countryside. Outside of San Jose is beautiful. I wish that we were able to spend more time away from the city, because as the old saying goes, EVERYTHING IS BIGGER IN THE TROPICS. We drove by plantation farms, coffee farms, and every where you go there are trees with fresh fruit...simply amazing.

On our way to the volcano we stopped at a town there had beautiful gardens. I am sending you a picture of one of the gardens with Terry and I (the other student from Monmouth College). The bushes were all trimmed and in some places there were faces and animals cut into them.

Thus, when we finally made it to La Fortuna, the city just below the volcano, we quickly noticed how much tourism plays a role in Costa Rica. We stayed at a hotel and observatory where at night the lava on the volcano rumbled down the mountain. It was simply an amazing sight. I thought that it was going to be a great explosion, but just the whole time a little bit of lava would come flowing out and create this back-splash of red. Saturday one group hiked up about 1km from the volcano, with a valley in between I might add, and observed it closer. The other group of students went on a tour of the rainforest searching for animals. Then we switched groups, and the rainforest was so gorgeous. We spotted several birds, including Fruit Loop's Tucan. We also saw a snake (poisonous) and an adorable monkey. At one point in the rain forest tour we walked up about 300 meters of stairs to get to the top of the canopy. I might add that those were Tico meters, because it was way more than 300 meters. We were all so hot and sticky from the humidity and rain afterward.

After the volcano activity we went to a natural hot spring. It is a natural spring that is heated by the volcano and they have made a pool out of it. It had a natural hot waterfall and no sulfur. It was so hot though that we did not want to stay very long. How typical huh?

Anyway, now I am back in San Jose and going to classes. In two weeks we are all going on a rural stay somewhere in Costa Rica. We all get to choose the area and activities. I will let you know once I know where I am going. That is all the excitement for now, but please e-mail me and tell how you all are. Until next time...Pura Vida!!

*Miranda*
 

September 4, 2005

Hola Todos,

I finally found some time to go to an internet cafe. After the first week I am starting to get used to the way things work. Everything is just so different and the language barrier is definitely starting to catch up with me. I have been asked questions by some of you, so I am going to answer them all in one e-mail.

About my "typiacl" day: I wake up at 5:00 and get ready for class. My host mother has my breakfast on the table at 5:45, and by 6:10 I have to be waiting for the bus to the University. It stops right in front of my house, but sometimes it is really early. I am trying hard not to miss it, because if I do, I have to catch another bus that goes in to the city of San Jose, then catch another bus to the University. It doesn't sound hard, but downtown there are so many people on the streets and it makes me a little uncomfortable to go by myself. It doesn't happen all the time, but when I am walking alone in the street, the Tico men (the name for the people of Costa Rica) make comments about "gringos." I am sure that I will get used to it eventually, but for right now I am trying to not miss the bus. I arrive at the ACM building at about 7:00 and classes start at 7:30. First thing we have a grammar class, that is all intensive grammar. Then we meet with another professor from 8:30-11:30 for conversation and practice of the grammar. By the end of that class my brain is very tired. We stop for lunch from 11:30-1:30, then we have a class in the afternoon from 1:30-3:30. Each day it is a different class.

My house and stuff: I live in Tibas, which is a town to the east of San Jose and to the north east of San Pedro, which is where the university is located. All the houses in my neighborhood have bars, and practically every building in Costa Rica has them as well. Last night we had a very interesting encounter of some kids in the street throwing large stones on people houses and my families house just happened to be one of them. They threw it on the roof and most houses have metal roofs, so it practically scared me to death! At night the streets are filled with chaos, so I have tried to avoid them thus far. In the house there is no hot water. Everything gets washed in cold water including me and the dishes. That was a new concept, but my host mother said they use a special kind of soap that kills germs. That was a relief. My host mother also does my laundry everyday and hangs it out to dry. It smells very nice. She also cooks EVERY single night.

The food: So far we have had rice and beans for every meal, but we have also had some very interesting kinds of food. Gallupinto is a specialty of Costa Rica, which I like to say is just rice and beans mixed together, but to them they are very different. We have pasta a lot, but we eat that with rice and beans. We also eat platanos fritos (fried bananas) and they are delicious. My host mother uses a special kind of banana when she fries them. We always have salad and she cooks a lot with cilantro. The sweet stuff is also amazing, but I am trying to stay away from it as much as possible!

The weather: It rains here EVERYDAY...thus, you do not go anywhere without an umbrella! And not just a little bit of rain! The gutters are in some places two feet deep to hold all the water. This is of course the rainy season, but I am so thankful for the perm, as nothing about this place is dry. My clothes don't ever really dry (and I thought IL was bad).

This last week we went on a tour of the University of Costa Rica which is 30,000 students. We also went on a tour of San Jose. We saw all the mercados and all the famous buildings. We walked by the presidents house and surprisingly enough, there was not any guards around his house. The buildings in the city are very beautiful, but being destroyed by the smog...how sad! It is so fascinating how westernized the city really is, but there are many aspects that remind me of a third world county. There are of course problems like any big city, but the main one that I see is the trash. The local governments are supposed to come and pick up the trash, but they don't do it on a regular basis. There are just heaping piles of garbage everywhere, and there are a lot of people who pay others to just take their trash and put it in an open field. This makes a very dirty city, when with all the natural beauty of the rainforest and tropical plants, it should be beautiful.

Yesterday we also went to a farmers market, where all the local farmers come and sell their goods. It is very cheap here and there are so many types of fruits that I don't know the name for in English, yet alone Spanish. I have many photos to show you of them, but I forgot my hook up for my digital camera at my house. I will send them sometime this week, when I am able to get to another internet cafe. NEXT weekend we are going to the Volcan Arenal...so until then, tell me what all of you are up to. I miss you all and love hearing from you, so write me soon.

Love,  Miranda
 

August 29, 2005

Hola Amigos!!

I made it to Costa Rica safely and everything seems to be going well so far. My host family is super nice. They are a couple in their early fifties and they have a daughter who lives with us. She has already finished at the University and works in a bank. Everything here is so different. Today was the first day of classes and there are 21 students in the program.

A few things about Costa Rica...Every meal so far I have eaten rice and beans. I guess that will just be standard. Public transportation is readily available and very cheap. It is about 50 cents for a bus ride to the city. At first I didn't feel like San Jose was a very safe city. There are bars everywhere and on every person's house. There is also garbage every where, especially on the streets. I was told that is very common in Costa Rica.

Other things that I have come accustom to in the two days I have been here are cold showers because there is no hot water spout for the water and getting up very early. Classes start at 7:30 and my bus is promptly in front of my house at 6:20. Muy Temprano!! I am using one of the three computers at the ACM building, but there are millions of Internet cafes everywhere. I am going to say goodbye for now, but I will write again soon. In the mean time, keep me up to date with all of you.

Miranda