What a day!! We woke up to another huge meal by Cecilia, then headed to school. Once there, we spent hours getting registered. I am glad that I came with the knowledge of how things can sometimes be slow, because I think it made me enter the situation differently. It definitely took a long time and could have been executed better, but like they said in orientation we come from a mono-cronic society in which speed is the best way. Changing my expectations definitely helped and I tried to meet and talk to as many people as possible. There are definitely more students than I had expected and way more girls than boys??
After registration and taking a picture, we took an oral exam. It went pretty well and she gave me the choice to enter Intermedio (Intermediate) 2 or Avanzada 1 (Advanced). I think I will be in Avanzada but not sure as of today. All of the students went to an orientation together, then we had a separate one for independent students, those who did not come through an agency. There is a travel agency in the actual school, which is BEAUTIFUL, that plans excursions. I signed up for one today for this weekend. We will be going to Tamarindo Beach on the North Pacific Coast, which will be about a 7 hour bus ride. this is the best place to learn to surf because it has the easiest waves. This is the touristy side, so things are a bit more expensive too. I am super excited to drive through so much of Costa Rica and see the coast. They have trips planned for every weekend in January, and I am tempted to do them all. Next weekend is Puerto Viejo on the Caribbean coast, the week after that is Poas volcano and La Paz waterfall which would be a day trip, and the last one is Arenal Volcano and the Cloud forest.
After this, the man who picked us up from the airport asked is we would like to walk to the bank so that people could exchange money. After walking about 10 blocks with about 10 girls, he reminds the people who did need to exchange that they needed their passport, which none of them did! We said we still wanted to walk around with him though so he could show us around. He brought us to the mall, then me and my 3 friends Melissa, Hope, and Rachel, walked with him to the Universidad de Costa Rica, which has around 40,000 students. I am glad that he showed us around because I understand the city better now. We then took another bus to down town, and he showed us good places to go and good shops. We then took another bus back to the school, and that is where the fun began. My roommate Melissa and I had to walk back together from school, along with her suitcase that was lost in flight yesterday. We passed our other roommates, who knew the area a bit better than us. Somehow we still got wrong directions, and turned left where we should have turned right, although I thought we should have turned right. After walking a bit we knew this was wrong and turned back. A young Tico then came out and asked us if we were lost. He proceeded to help us, and let us use his phone to call home. We were on the right track the whole time, but it was nice to have some assurance. We will definitely know where to go tomorrow.
Our house is one of the furthest from school, about a 20 minute walk. The university provides a bus pick-up in the morning and all throughout the afternoon so that you do not have to walk home if you do not want to, which is nice. First day of classes are tomorrow and I am excited to meet my teachers and other students. Although it was just orientation today, I am sooooooo tired and my feet need some rest. I look forward to another amazing dinner and a good night of sleep!
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