The wait is over. I have finally arrived in my host community. But it wasn't all that easy getting here.
On the afternoon on the 5th I started to pack. That was last wednesday. I had that evening and the next morning to pack for an entire year. It was one of the most stressful things I have ever done. Word of advice to and foreign exchange hopefuls: Don't wait until the night before you leave to pack. Don't do it. I stayed up until about 12 packing my clothes, yes only my clothes, and then I had my ceremonial last night in my bed for a year which was very sad. The next morning I rushed out to find presents for my host family and barley finished packing in time to get in the car to ABQ. We spent the night in a hotel in ABQ and then at 4:00am the next morning it was off to the airport.
I flew to Miami, which was where our AFSUSACR2014 orientation was. I arrived at 4pm and somehow managed to figure out which shuttle went to my hotel. I arrived and met the 9 other girls going to CR. Yes we are all girls. We had a little orientation on thursday night and we went to bed at about 10. We got to sleep in the next morning! We woke up at 9 and went to breakfast where we discussed logistics with our leaders. We rode a bus to the airport and then by 3 we were in the air on the way to our new home for a year.
Once we arrived in San Jose CR, we went through customs (which, by the way, customs papers going to CR are really hard to understand.) ,found our Costa Rican leaders and took a private bus to the orientation site. We almost died in the process because it was rush hour and drivers here are crazy, but we made it. The orientation was at a high school in San Jose which had dorms and it was very large and beautiful. I am not exaggerating, it was green, green, green, verde, verde, verde everywhere I looked.
Our orientation the first night consisted of musicians playing music from Latin America but we all fell asleep, so they let us go to bed. There were 140 students at this orientation from Germany, Italy, The USA, Netherlands, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Iceland, Austria, Canada, India, and many more. It was crazy to say the least. By this time the USA group had made very good friends with each other and we spend most of the time with the Germans. The second day of orientation was loooooooong. They woke us up and 6 and told us YOU MUST SHOWER (because it is so hot here) and come to breakfast. Some how all 85 of us girls managed to shower and get there on time. The food was (you guessed it) mostly rice, beans, fish chicken, and vegetables. But it was very good. We had a long and tiring day of orientation but we all made friends and had a really good time.
The next dat, sunday, we got up at the same time and got on our specific busses. There were 9 depending on which route (ruta) you were, where you were going in the country. It was a 2 hour and 30 minute ride to Turrialba but we made it and finally go to meet our host families.
The spanish is very hard. It takes me a long time to form a thought. My host family is very patient, but I am getting very frustrated. I understand about 15% of what is being said, so it is hard. I got my school uniform today and everyone in the house it at school or work so I am all alone. It's nice to finally get some quiet. I am very tired, very happy, and very nervous for school tomorrow.
Thank you for reading and I will keep you updated on what happens next. Wish me suerte!
-Emma, the wander-lustful