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Hi I'm here and I have contact with you all!
I'll start somewhere near the beginning,as Julie Andrews said tis the best place to start!
I left my job at Smith and Luck (snf) after 11 very happy years on the 20th of June to start this new chapter in my life. I had two fantastic leaving dos and I want to thank everyone again for all your lovely gifts cards and more importantly all the lovely words you gave me before I left. It made it harder for me to leave but somehow I knew it was what I wanted to do.
I also had to leave my house which wasn't easy but hey who knows maybe some time in the future I'll have another house..or maybe that canal boat I talk about?
Anyway on 29th of June I flew out here to Costa Rica. I was met at the airport and brought to my host "mama"
I am living in a small town outside San Jose called Granadillo. The house is lovely even if the area is a little iffy and my mama is really friendly and really caring. Our only problem is the language barrier as she speaks
very little English and I now realise that my Spanish is really poor.
The next morning mama took me to school (bless..but no lunch box?) She was busy telling me how to get back to the house round the corner,up the hill turn down by the church etc..Then we got the bus into the city and she explained, in spanish how much to pay where to get on/off how to get to the school, which I'm assured is in a safe district but has a security guard on the gates? Anyway once at the school, shell shocked, jet lagged and petrified how on earth I was going to get home in one piece she then told me she would be back to pick me up that afternoon. I don't know if it scared her but at that point I hugged her!
All the new students were then ushered into a room to await our Spanish test. I was feeling pretty nervous as everyone was coming back saying it's so hard. I was called out and was shown around the school asked a few questions and then told to sit back in the room. It then became clear to me that
after her asking me a few questions and all she got in return was my blank expresion that she didn't even bother with the test!
Need I say I'm in a beginners class. There are only three of us , Claire from Taiwan and Denise from Germany both really lovely girls of equal grasp of the lingo (sorry girls no offense! )
We are progressing slowly but I am sad to say we have requested a new teacher and as from next Monday we are changing. I think when our teacher fell asleep in class today it was quite clear I was right to request a change?!
Anyway to just skip back to my first day one of the school personnel told me that someone would be taking me to the dance school at 5.30? Apparently I was doing extra dance classes at a different location each day till 7pm?! After a very difficult day tired and mentally drained I went along with the plan.
I was taken to a dance school a little off the beaten track again with it's own security and told to just go into a class which had already started! As warm ups go this
has to be the most bizzare I've done yet. We laid on bits of carpet wiggling our hips and shaking our shoulders and as I arrived after the class had started I had to go right down the front. I then decided that I had a couple of options stay and ride it out or run! I did stay and then proceeded to just giggle my way through the whole class.I laughed so much that I'm sure the locals must have thought I was on something as I got a few strange looks from all these people taking the class very seriously. I actually loved the lesson and was thrilled to be thrown all over the dance floor by over enthusiastic Costa Ricans doing my first salsa. Unfortunately though I didn't return as I didn't feel happy walking back to the bus station and getting the bus home alone in the dark but it certainly gave me a taster for salsa I'd love to pick up again some time and I'll never forget that warm up!
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