One down......?

I have been in Costa Rica for officially UNO SEMANA (that's one week to all you "gringos"), and so far, I have:

-spent that week living with people who do not speak my language

-eaten beans in probably every color possible

-ridden on my first public bus, AND in my first taxi

-watched President Obama speak with Spanish dubbing on CNN espanol

-had my first wave of homesickness while watching a pit bull rescue show on the National Geographic channel

-watched a Hallmark movie (they really do just watch a lot of TV...it's not just me, I promise!) with my host sister, and we covered our eyes at the same time :)

-really enjoyed bonding with her (Brenda) more each day by: having a girls' (plus her husband Michael, but he's cool too) night with pizza and a chick flick in her room, teaching me some secrets of the kitchen, embarrassing me in front of everyone while I can't make decisions in the grocery store...or any other time, for that matter, and teasing me through all of it- in the way of a sister that I get to experience for the first time in my life! I'm so thankful I have her! :)

-become BEST friends with two girls (one blonde, and one brunette) who are just about a foot and a half tall! (they're my dogs!) I also would not have survived without Kathy and Molly...a dog knows no language other than love (and how to get me to scratch them in the right places), and it's so refreshing!

-gotten used to throwing my toilet paper in the trash can

-gotten used to getting the right combination of heat and pressure in my shower...you can't very easily have both (but I'm so thankful for the heat period...several of my peers have cold showers!)

-been kissed by more strangers here than by people I have actually known anywhere else in my life! :)

-eaten ice cream sandwiches with Mama, Brenda, and Michael while we ripped the staples out of over 300, 2010 calenders.....I'm still not really sure why, but I had fun!

-gotten in my first (possibly of more to come) debates about private, supposedly close-minded, sheltered, and basically brain-washed Christian colleges vs. state universities in the "real" world that give you "real"- life experiences and education, because they don't force beliefs down your throat...I almost wrote a whole other post on this one subject just to vent, but I've identified with my previous, yet forgotten expectation of this type of encounter. In summary, I consider it an opportunity, both simple as well as complex...but that's all I need to say now :)

-spent three hours in my first typical church service here (which is also worthy of its own post...probably to come later)

-had my first melt-down, right on schedule...during our first assembly as an actual college class at the program office- due to many things, but mostly self-pity

-had a couple more since then, but am slowly recovering one day at a time

-been dating T.J. Rycraft for 13 months, today!

-totally benefited from all the encouragement I've gotten- both from the states, as well as the people here (I've come to terms with the fact that I'm not going to be best friends for life with the other students here, and honestly, some just simply get on my nerves! But I am continuously proven wrong in my assumption that I can't connect with at least some of them at all while we're in the same situation, going through similar struggles, but also with different gifts, skills, and abilities that we can use to help the rest of us...I kinda hate the term "community," but that's the word the program uses, and I am kinda seeing it in action- as cheesy as it seems to me)

-literally hurt my brain listening to our first two-hour+ lecture in class today on Latin American history, Costa Rican economic and political structure, and neoliberalism....completely in Spanish! (with summary translation, but still!) And I know that's one, with six more to come, withOUT translation!

-seen 1 Yankees hat in this country- worn by my, probably, 85 year old abuelito! :) He made me laugh!

-seen, heard, thought, SMELLED, eaten, and touched even more than what I can document like this, and it's only been a week! But, this is a pretty good summary for now :) Tomorrow, I will not only be seeing Avatar for the first time, I will be seeing it here, in an IMAX theater- and seeing Avatar in an IMAX theater here means I will be watching a movie on the only IMAX screen in the country...for now at least!

I felt guilty when I saw pictures from Egypt that Danielle (my friend who is also doing a BestSemester program like I am right now) put up on facebook, because I have not been able to put worth to my 1000 words thus far. So, I snapped some shots today and got them all ready to put up on this page.....however, this blog site did not seem to want to cooperate with me and my pictures......however, facebook did- so my pictures can be seen there. I realize that not all of you are in the loop with facebook......however, facebook has also graciously provided access to my pictures for outsiders with the following link:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2034154&id=1004910161&l=d9d0fd8cdb

Click on that directly (maybe), or copy and paste it into the html browser (Mom, you know how, but Craig can help too!) :) From there, navigating through the pictures is easy...and be sure to look for my narration at the bottom left corner of some of the pictures! Ok, that's a lot for today...and as always, I appreciate you reading my thoughts that may not be all that important- but it makes me feel good to know that you all love me enough to at least pretend! :)

El fin de la semana!

I simply MUST document a commercial I saw today: The opening shot was a split screen of a girl and a guy talking on the phone. As I watched the girl suddenly express frustration of some kind, and throw the phone off of the screen in a rage, my initial thought was that it was an ad for a show of some kind. The scene then cut to an office building, where a woman walks past a man sitting at his desk. While walking, she dumps an entire file of papers onto his head. The final shot shows the woman taking pills, which I came to realize were the subject of the advertisement, and immediately feeling relief in a visually specific and indicated region. I have lots I could say about my reaction to this commercial, but my surprised laugh was good enough to get my thoughts across to Papi at the time :)......so you can take that how you wish too! More later, but this was too good to forget, and I have a feeling I'm going to need plenty of sleep for my first visit to a Costa Rican church in the morning (and maybe afternoon?) :)

Culture Shock

I realize that everyone's first post of a blog in a new country is probably called Culture Shock, but that's ok, because I totally underestimated how high that level of culture shock would really be! I have known my host mom for about...2 hours now, and I honestly think her encouraging me to get on the Internet was mostly hospitality, but also perked by getting rid of me for awhile. She speaks absolutely NO English, and my Spanish is...well, broken at best....so our first meeting has been entertaining :) I love her already though, she's terribly sweet...and we can both just laugh at our awkward lack of communication. The house is AMAZING...I have my own room...and it has been made clear to me that it is "mi casa" now too, which is great! :) So with a new mom, dad, sister, brother-in-law, two dogs, a ham and cheese melt sandwich in my stomach with my first cup of Costa Rican coffee, a full day of travel yesterday, and a full morning of orientation today, with a full day of being set loose in downtown San Jose (completly safely I should add......Mom) tomorrow, and lots more awkward language barriers along the way, I proceed with confidence...in the fact that I'm going to be embarrassed more times than I care to think about, but also that my shaken pride will prove valuable eventually...and the general fear that naturally comes before that shaken pride, but also excitement for what God's going to do! Because my short time in this experience thus far has already taught me that God must be enjoying watching me make a fool of myself....that's how I've gotta learn, I guess...and He's probably right! I know I AM learning already (it helps that my mom is a teacher, too! :), and I know that I'm DEFINITELY making a fool of myself at the same time! :)