Back in civilization

An abrupt change, from the hot, windswept marsh and bare forest of Palo Verde to the perfect temperatures and bewildering traffic of San Jose and San Pedro. I've been here for two days, a relatively relaxing time compared to the bustle of the last few days at Palo Verde, rushing to edit my paper for it's final submission. But my head tends to hurt after a few hours of class, struggling to get all my thoughts out in Spanish about education and the family in Costa Rica, compared to what we have in the US. The Costa Rica Language Academy is a pretty great place, so far. It's campus is cool, with a couple open places with grass and some plants, surrounded by hallways leading to all the classrooms. Down the street there's two small turf soccer fields enclosed by nets, which the academy has reserved on Thursday afternoons, so I played yesterday with a whole variety of people, from the Tico teaches to students from Japan, Germany, and England. We have class from 9-12 and 1-3, and my intermediate/advanced course spends mornings mostly on grammar, while the afternoon is just conversations on the culture of Costa Rica and Latin America. It's going to be hard, I think, but that's a good thing. And I could definitely use the grammar review

My host family is, of course, very nice, but maybe not quite what I expected. I haven't been in the house much at all, but so far, the family watches a lot of television. My host mom's daughter and stepson live nearby and are here right now watching television. Luckily, any TV here is pretty interesting, since it's all in Spanish! The family has been hosting students for almost ten years, so they've had hundreds, and it feels more like being in a very inviting boardinghouse than anything. I'm okay with that, though, and I won't actually be here much at all, I don't think. Plus, I have my own room and bathroom, which will be the only time that happens my entire stay here in Costa Rica, so it's some nice time to have to myself.

I've also played some frisbee last night with folks I found online, at a field about 30 minutes from my house after getting picked up by a friendly fellow ultimate player. It was fantastic to play ultimate again, and I left just wanting to play more. My throws weren't quite as terrible as I expected, either. The mix of players was really cool, some expats, but mostly local Ticos, some of whom were actually quite good. They always play on Mondays and Thursdays, and I can't wait for Monday.

Another really cool fact about the CRLA program: we get two free tours to be used on our weekends! We get to pick from around ten options, mostly day-long trips. I'm already signed up to go white-water rafting on Saturday, with a bunch of my friends from my course. Other options: Volcano Arenal and hot springs, Volcano Poas, canopy tours (zipline or tram), Pacific coast whirlwhind trip, walking tour of San Jose (not worth much, though), etc. However, I'm not sure I'll use the second tour, since next weekend it might be more worth my time to organize my own trip with some friends to some place cooler, for the entire weekend. Hostels and buses, hooray! We'll figure that out soon, but I'm thinking maybe somewhere on the Carribbean coast, since we don't go there with the program. The tours also are probably going to be really touristy, and I'm just not a fan of riding around for hours on private buses, for a couple of hours at whatever park or volcano or beach, then to be herded to the souvenir stand, then herded back to the bus. Hopefully, the river we're on actually has class III and IV rapids as advertised, too. Either way, though, the river should be beautiful. And hey, I'm in Costa Rica! Pura vida, mae! (Mae is sorta like "dude")