Feliz Cumpleanos

Today is my 27th birthday and I am in Costa Rica. It's a great place to celebrate your birthday. Although, estoy mal (I am not well). I still have a cold that I was trying to recover from before leaving the States. Thanks to all of you for your e-mails and posts -- Muchos gracias!!

Well, yesterday Alysia and I flew into Liberia. It's a beautiful country. It's very humid and Tamarindo, the beach where I am staying is very rural. The roads are sandy so when it rains (which it does every afternoon) it becomes a huge mud pit. It took us 45 minutes to get to the school and as soon as we arrived we were tested on our Spanish. I was placed in the class for beginners. Alysia is in a class just a few lessons ahead. Today was our first day of classes and we took 6 hours a day. The first four hours was in a small class. The last two hours were one-on-one with a private tutor. That was very overwhelming!! The teachers don't speak very good English so there were a few blank stares exchanged during the hour, but it seems to be working out well. I am truly understanding what it must feel like to be an esl student or an immigrant in another country. Tengo mucho simpatico (I have much sympathy...I think that is how you say it). 

Our living quarters are very basic. We were given a bed with a top sheet and a fitted sheet. It is so humid here you don't need much more than that...unless you're Alysia. She gets very cold and slept with two shirts last night.  You can't flush any toilet paper down the toilet. We have to put it in the trash can next to the toilet (yeah, that's a little gross), but fortunately we have a maid to take out the trash everyday. 

We met all of the other new students tonight at a new student cocktail party. There are a lot of teachers and a lot of surfers. Apparently, we picked the party location. We are feeling kind of old because we go to bed a little earlier than the hippy partying crowd. They are all very interesting. Stay tuned for more updates as we continue on our Costa Rican adventure. 

PS: I am going to upload my photos to picasa soon and will place a link in future posts for you to see photos from our trip. The blog only allows me to upload one photo at a time or else I'd place more here.