Hola from Costa Rica amigos! After counting down for months, I am finally here!
Let me just begin by saying that the past two days have been absolutely nothing less than amazing. The journey began Friday night with a 2.5 hour drive home after running the celebration 5k with my Girls on the Run team at Grand Valley. Nick and I got home close to 11pm. We carried all of my luggage into the house, then finished all of the packing. I thought I had everything all set ready to go from when I packed up at school, but no of course not. We stayed up for over an hour to finishing putting everything together.
Saturday morning we woke up at 5:30am to head to the airport. My family could not drive me to the airport since Shane made it to the State Champtonship and had to be on the west side of the state bright and early in the morning. He did end up receiving All State in shot put after placing eigth in the championship. Nick, once again, always being there for me drove me to the airport. Driving to the airport did not even seem real. Things did not begin to sink in that I was leaving the country until Nick and I said our goodbyes for two months. Farthest thing from easy, but you know what they say, "distance makes the heart grow fonder."
My first flight left Detroit Metro Airport at 8:20am, arriving in Houston, Texas at 10am. This flight was perfect, because I had the window seat and there was no one sitting right next to me. The prime sleeping opportunity as you can imagine. The second flight left from Houston at 11:20am, so I hurried to find some food in the airport before boarding the plane because I was unsure how long it would be until I ate food again. Who knew so many people really do travel to Costa Rica on a regular basis?! The plane was packed! With tourists, study abroad students and those returning to their home country. Sitting on the plane, preparing to take off brought a ton of unwanted butterflies. The pilot came on the speaker on the plane stating we would be landing in twenty minutes. We came down through the clouds and the lucious mountains that continued for miles and miles, began to become visible. An unbelievable view.
The moment I stepped off the plane, it finally hit me that I am not on vacation in this country for a few weeks, this country is my HOME for the next 8 weeks. Right after exiting off the plane, I walked through immigration and received my stamp. In Costa Rica you are only allowed to stay in the country for 90 days, or else you have to leave the country and return again. After walking through immigration, I waited next to a little belt for my luggage. Did I mention I ended up checking TWO large pieces of luggage because I had so much to pack! Crazy I know!! The looks I received from the ticos/ticas (Costa Ricans) proved that I was absolutely insane.
After receiving my luggage, exchanging money to colones and walking through customs, I finally got my first fresh breathe of air in one of the happiest countries in the world.
A representative from ISA met me right outside of the door and walked me down the long sidewalk to wait with the rest of the students. My roommate got in two hours before me, but was still waiting there for the bus. It made me feel so much more comfortable riding the bus with her and all twenty other students from our program. The traffic from the airport to the university was absolutely insane! I for sure thought our huge tour bus was going to cause an accident at some point. When we arrived at the Universidad Veritas, all of our host families were waiting to pick us up. No better way to be welcomed into the rainy season of Costa Rica then walking home with all of our luggage in the pouring rain! The walk from the University to our house is less than four minutes, so nice! We walked in our house and received a tour right away. This house is amazing!! Shea and I both have our own rooms, she has her own bathroom though. We also have a kitchen in between our rooms which the students are allowed to us to make lunches and snacks. Then you walk out the back doors and our living room/dining room are open air right next to a little enclosed courtyard. Then the outdoor stairs lead up to two more bathrooms and five more bedrooms. These bedrooms are for Costa Rican students who study at our university, but live in other parts of the country. So I have three roommates from the program and seven other tico roommates! They live here during the week and go back home for the weekends. We were starving when we got here so right after the tour, we met the little kids. (Mariana, 7 and Issac, 3) Our dog's name is Bruce and is the soon to be father of two new puppies (the cousins' dog is the mother). We then walked down the street to a little pizzeria. We sat and had one of the best pizzas I've ever tasted along with homed garlic bread! After walking home, we met our host dad, Romeo who spoke to us in English because he is Portuguese. We were not up much longer before we decided to hit the hay because it was an extremely long day of traveling!
This morning we decided we wanted to go on a run with our Mama Tica because she is crazy athletic and fit! She woke us up at 5:30am by knocking on our door with a banana and apple. We left the house around 6am and began to walk towards the bus stop. We were a bit confused as to why we were taking a taxi to go on a run. A little run we thought would be around the neighborhood, ended up being a 5k/10k run with 10,000 people in the heart of San Jose. So of course Shea and I have the "Go Big or Go Home" attitude with it being in our first day in the country. So we decided to follow our Mama Tica in the 10k. Both of our first 10k, at 7am in the morning, our first day in Costa Rica through the hilly roads of the city. Crossing that finish line was definitely the most rewarding thing I have ever done and it was so much fun to experience it with Shea! We even finished in one hour and 19 minutes! After the race, we walked back home and ate a quick breakfast (eggs and gallo pinto) and took SUPER fast showers because we had to make it to our orientation at the ISA office by 9:30am. We spent the day with all the people in our program before heading off for a city tour. After the tour, a group of six of us girls went to a local restaurant for lunch. BEST QUESSIDILLA, GUAC, and PICO DE GALLO I have ever had!! All the food is so fresh. After this we decided to walk around to each of others houses to see where we all live. Then we came across a little bar/restaurante. We decided to stop in for a beer and some wifi. Imperial is the local beer down here and is only $2 for a bottle. They also have free red wine! They asked us what music we wanted to listen to and we wrote down a list of songs. They looked up all the songs on youtube so they could watch the lyrics while the song was playing. We were the only ones in the bar so we ended up staying and chatting with the other girls for almost two hours. Dinner tonight was penne pasta, with butter, cilantro and broccoli, muy delicioso! Oh and purple Kool Aid!
Since I was up at 5:30am, ran a 10k, had orientation, a city tour and explored, I am exhausted and ready for bed!
Hasta Luego!
-Leah
PS. Pictures to come soon!
Let me just begin by saying that the past two days have been absolutely nothing less than amazing. The journey began Friday night with a 2.5 hour drive home after running the celebration 5k with my Girls on the Run team at Grand Valley. Nick and I got home close to 11pm. We carried all of my luggage into the house, then finished all of the packing. I thought I had everything all set ready to go from when I packed up at school, but no of course not. We stayed up for over an hour to finishing putting everything together.
Saturday morning we woke up at 5:30am to head to the airport. My family could not drive me to the airport since Shane made it to the State Champtonship and had to be on the west side of the state bright and early in the morning. He did end up receiving All State in shot put after placing eigth in the championship. Nick, once again, always being there for me drove me to the airport. Driving to the airport did not even seem real. Things did not begin to sink in that I was leaving the country until Nick and I said our goodbyes for two months. Farthest thing from easy, but you know what they say, "distance makes the heart grow fonder."
My first flight left Detroit Metro Airport at 8:20am, arriving in Houston, Texas at 10am. This flight was perfect, because I had the window seat and there was no one sitting right next to me. The prime sleeping opportunity as you can imagine. The second flight left from Houston at 11:20am, so I hurried to find some food in the airport before boarding the plane because I was unsure how long it would be until I ate food again. Who knew so many people really do travel to Costa Rica on a regular basis?! The plane was packed! With tourists, study abroad students and those returning to their home country. Sitting on the plane, preparing to take off brought a ton of unwanted butterflies. The pilot came on the speaker on the plane stating we would be landing in twenty minutes. We came down through the clouds and the lucious mountains that continued for miles and miles, began to become visible. An unbelievable view.
The moment I stepped off the plane, it finally hit me that I am not on vacation in this country for a few weeks, this country is my HOME for the next 8 weeks. Right after exiting off the plane, I walked through immigration and received my stamp. In Costa Rica you are only allowed to stay in the country for 90 days, or else you have to leave the country and return again. After walking through immigration, I waited next to a little belt for my luggage. Did I mention I ended up checking TWO large pieces of luggage because I had so much to pack! Crazy I know!! The looks I received from the ticos/ticas (Costa Ricans) proved that I was absolutely insane.
After receiving my luggage, exchanging money to colones and walking through customs, I finally got my first fresh breathe of air in one of the happiest countries in the world.
A representative from ISA met me right outside of the door and walked me down the long sidewalk to wait with the rest of the students. My roommate got in two hours before me, but was still waiting there for the bus. It made me feel so much more comfortable riding the bus with her and all twenty other students from our program. The traffic from the airport to the university was absolutely insane! I for sure thought our huge tour bus was going to cause an accident at some point. When we arrived at the Universidad Veritas, all of our host families were waiting to pick us up. No better way to be welcomed into the rainy season of Costa Rica then walking home with all of our luggage in the pouring rain! The walk from the University to our house is less than four minutes, so nice! We walked in our house and received a tour right away. This house is amazing!! Shea and I both have our own rooms, she has her own bathroom though. We also have a kitchen in between our rooms which the students are allowed to us to make lunches and snacks. Then you walk out the back doors and our living room/dining room are open air right next to a little enclosed courtyard. Then the outdoor stairs lead up to two more bathrooms and five more bedrooms. These bedrooms are for Costa Rican students who study at our university, but live in other parts of the country. So I have three roommates from the program and seven other tico roommates! They live here during the week and go back home for the weekends. We were starving when we got here so right after the tour, we met the little kids. (Mariana, 7 and Issac, 3) Our dog's name is Bruce and is the soon to be father of two new puppies (the cousins' dog is the mother). We then walked down the street to a little pizzeria. We sat and had one of the best pizzas I've ever tasted along with homed garlic bread! After walking home, we met our host dad, Romeo who spoke to us in English because he is Portuguese. We were not up much longer before we decided to hit the hay because it was an extremely long day of traveling!
This morning we decided we wanted to go on a run with our Mama Tica because she is crazy athletic and fit! She woke us up at 5:30am by knocking on our door with a banana and apple. We left the house around 6am and began to walk towards the bus stop. We were a bit confused as to why we were taking a taxi to go on a run. A little run we thought would be around the neighborhood, ended up being a 5k/10k run with 10,000 people in the heart of San Jose. So of course Shea and I have the "Go Big or Go Home" attitude with it being in our first day in the country. So we decided to follow our Mama Tica in the 10k. Both of our first 10k, at 7am in the morning, our first day in Costa Rica through the hilly roads of the city. Crossing that finish line was definitely the most rewarding thing I have ever done and it was so much fun to experience it with Shea! We even finished in one hour and 19 minutes! After the race, we walked back home and ate a quick breakfast (eggs and gallo pinto) and took SUPER fast showers because we had to make it to our orientation at the ISA office by 9:30am. We spent the day with all the people in our program before heading off for a city tour. After the tour, a group of six of us girls went to a local restaurant for lunch. BEST QUESSIDILLA, GUAC, and PICO DE GALLO I have ever had!! All the food is so fresh. After this we decided to walk around to each of others houses to see where we all live. Then we came across a little bar/restaurante. We decided to stop in for a beer and some wifi. Imperial is the local beer down here and is only $2 for a bottle. They also have free red wine! They asked us what music we wanted to listen to and we wrote down a list of songs. They looked up all the songs on youtube so they could watch the lyrics while the song was playing. We were the only ones in the bar so we ended up staying and chatting with the other girls for almost two hours. Dinner tonight was penne pasta, with butter, cilantro and broccoli, muy delicioso! Oh and purple Kool Aid!
Since I was up at 5:30am, ran a 10k, had orientation, a city tour and explored, I am exhausted and ready for bed!
Hasta Luego!
-Leah
PS. Pictures to come soon!