the beginning

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I have arrived in Costa Rica. I am staying in a home with one other girl named Jen who is a 24 year old grad students getting her masters in teaching. We have been getting along super well....people on the tour have started calling her mama jen because she is such a sweet heart and always looking out for everyone. There is so much to say and I do not even know what to highlight. The climate here is awesome! It is warm and sunny in the morning and then there are tropical storms in the afternoon. The rain is warm though so usually we go on walks because we have the afternoons free. There are so many cool people in the program ranging from 19 to 25 and from all parts of the US. My host mother told me that Puerto Jimenez where my project is is really hot and the bug are really bad so I am searching for a mosquito net. We went to one of the active volcanoes yesterday, but it really wasnt anything too special. It was a crater that smelled bad. My favorite thing so far is listening to the costa rican people, they call themselves ticos, laugh. They have the heartiest laughter I have ever heard! The school I am attending this week is a really cool place with other groups of students. I am following my grandmas rules and I have not been doing anything alone, so hopefully that will grant some peace of mind. I agree that coming to a country like this is the best way to learn spanish, I already feel like so much has come back to me purely from interacting with the locals. The avocados here are bigger than a babies head! and I love my avocados. We have rice and beans for lunch and dinner EVERYDAY. There are some people here who are out of the country for the first time, so I feel very lucky. Also we were up at a little over 2,000 meters at the volcano yesterday and that altitude was high for some people because they never been to the mountains before. I have my first class today and I was placed in the intermediate group. WE are going to head into San Hose the capital one of these afternoons so that will be a great adventure. Everything is very fun and I am excited to get to my volunteer project to be near the ocean. ADIOS! leave me comments so i can hear from you :)

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