Adjustment Period

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So I have been in Quepos for about a week now and am really liking it so far. The first night here was somewhat of a problem for me, but ever since then it has been awesome.

The first night was tough because my homestay was not exactly the safe middle class home that was promised by the program. The house was down a dark muddy alley behind the bus station and next to the junk yard. Not exactly the pretty Costa Rican scenery that they show in the guide books. Not that I expected to be living it up on the beach, but this was a little rediculous. When the bus dropped Meredith (my roommate) and I off we had to trudge through the mud with all of our bags while mangy stray dogs barked at us and chased us down the street. Seriously no bueno.
When we got to the house my first thought was that it was their garage, but as soon as I saw the car in the yard I figured that it probably wasn´t the garage. It was a tiny four room house with a tin roof, cement floors and no doors. I had my own room, close to the bathroom, so that was okay. However, when I looked in the other room of the house I realized that I was in the lap of luxury compared to where the rest of the family lived. They all slept in one room out back on hard little beds with towels on the floor in place of rugs. I was a little shocked at first, but I just reminded myself that I knew that it was going to be different and I´d have to get used to it.
The family was really nice, so that made it better anyway.

Things were actually going rather well with them until I went to bed that first night. As soon as I turned my lights off cockroaches began to climb out of the walls. It seriously freaked me out. After that I decided to keep the lights on, so as not to encourage them to come out. It really didn´t help though. I couldn´t even shut my eyes without picturing bugs crawling all over me. Needless to say, not much sleep was had that night.
The next day I asked to change my homestay and by that night I was in a much better place on the good side of town. A serious step up from the last place, and they have hot water!

School is really tough here. I go to TEFL International, a school for foreign language teachers. It lasts from 9-5 everyday, which is a very long time when you are used to only having one or two classes per day. The school is pretty cool though. It´s up on a lush green hillside built into a cliff. It resembles a treehouse, much like the one in the Berenstein Bears books, which I thought was completely awesome. The hill is murder in the morning though. I am always drenched in sweat when I get there. Luckily they have AC.

Today I went to the beach for the first time since I have been here. It was amazing. Capital A amazing. The waves are so big and the water is like a warm bath. We played in the waves all afternoon and rented boogie boards for two dollars. I could spend all day in that water, if it wasn´t for the damn sun.

I guess I am a little bitter right now. My shoulders are pretty burnt from the day at the beach. I have definitely been getting some weird looks when I walk though town. I know in thier heads they are saying "stupid gringa", but it´s okay. I hope that it will eventually fade into a tan and I won´t look so white. Though I know that I will always be the whitest person in the room, no matter how much I burn myself.

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