Universidad Veritas

Erin (the other student who lies at my house) and I got up really early (7am) and got ready for school. Miriam made us a big breakfast of fresh bread, fresh orange juice, and an egg over easy for me~ with fruit~ strawberries, bananas, and pineapple. She was explain to us at breakfast that her friend was going to pick us up for school...as I was trying to explain this to Eric her friend called and declined being able to give us a lift. We walked to school, only about 4 blocks and it was beautiful...the sun was coming up and everyone was busy outside either going to work or just on their way to the bakery.

Side note-Costa Rican's have to give up their privilege to drive to work once a week in order to cut down on traffic and pollution. Monday is Marcela's (my host mother's daughter) day to either walk, ride the bus, or take a taxi. She works in San Jose as an abogada (a lawyer). This car law is very different from the U.S....

Upon arriving at Veritas, Erin and I took our oral exams to be placed into our 8am-12pm Spanish classes. I tested in Advanced one and she was so nervous about her speaking ability and thought she would score poorly and she didnt! I was very proud of her as she was extremely excited~Out of 6 placements she placed on the 2nd level~ with the help of Mrs.Haney's third year Spanish notes, but none the less she was excited

We had so many orientations about safety and the culture today~ugh...I had these at ISU, and I'm over them~I also found out all the fun excursions to beaches, the rainforest, and to other parts of Costa Rica I will be traveling during the weekends...sadly Erin won't be here for a whole lot of them but I am in the University's independant group which means we have a group of 20 some odd independant students whom are traveling without an agency. >It is great because we make a lot of plans on our own, instead of living with babysitters ;)

After the orientations and such there was going to be a bus tour of San Jose after dining at a local Mexican restaurant. I politely asked the bus driver if he would wait while Erin and I went to the restroom-he said of course, and I said with quickness I will leave and return~we ran and when we returned no tour guide, and no bus. Erin and I seem like we would be those girls who get put in this situation, but luckily Luis came to the rescue! Luis is the director of the university, he has already called us out as trouble number 1 and trouble number 2 even before we got left behind. He drove us to the restaurant and made sure we got something to eat, a beer for Erin who was in desperate need of some "calming" pills after the crazy drive with Luis in his SUV to the restaurant- and then we were off to the excursion.

We walked around San Jose (downtown) it was very pretty similar to Lima, Peru except not as big. The buildings were beautiful and I can't wait to return (our neighborhood is a 5 minute bus ride away) Everything was beautiful today, I loved it...but I am so tired I can barely stay awake!

Oh and my mama tica (host mother) cleaned my room today! (I keep it extremely clean and make my bed, but we are talking she REALLY , really, really cleaned it) And dinner tonight was fresh fish covered with a special salsa con capers (I think with capers) beans and rice and brocolli salad (lettuce and brocolli together~ with milk (I figured Erin and I would need some leche to calm our (hopefully not too bad) weak stomachs from the spices... buenas noches, pura vida