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July 18th 2007

Published: August 5th 2007

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Spartan

La universidad de Costa Rica

Our time in San Jose has been amazing so far for many reasons. Here are 3 things that we have enjoyed the food, our family and school.

The food has been great here. Before coming here we had heard that Costa Rican food is a little bland but we have not found that to be the case at all. Here is a rundown of what a typical day of eating may look like. In the morning our mom always has breakfast ready for us at 7:00 am. We always have an egg, fruit, cafe, toast, and many times we will have gallopinto. Starting the day with costa rican fruit is something that we will miss because the fruit here is so fresh. For example, the bananas here are sweet and full of flavor. We have come to find out that bananas in the US are geneticalty enginered to be the size that they are. Bananas in Costa Rica are much smaller but apparently how they are naturally supposed to grow. Gallopinto is an interesting thing to have for breakfast. At first we did not know how a rice and bean dish would be in the morning every day but

Buen Provecho

Here is SJ enjoying some fine Costa Rican cusine!

it is actually a great breakfast and we have even ordered it pretty much every time that we have been on vacation it is that good.

Lunch we usually have at one of many small cafe´s close to the university. We kind of rotate between eating at a typical Costa Rican place or pizza. Today, for example, we stopped at a pizza place and had a calzone.

Supper is also provided by our host family and is a full meal. No matter what we always seem to have a lettuce salad and a veggie salad. I think the vegetable salad is a great touch because it will contain fresh cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots and green beans. Rice and beans will be served with the meal and some type of meat . . . chicken is what we have had recently. To drink we usually have fruit juice that comes from fresh fruit like a mango or guyabana or cas . . . all very tasty and no sugar needed. I am a huge fan of the plantain dessert that they have here. Plantains look like bananas but you can cook them and they have a very fruity taste.

Estudiar

Hard at the studies

School has been nice because we are learning and it is challenging, but at the same time it is not a huge workload that we need to worry about staying in at night to study or not being able to travel on weekends. Steph has a grammar and a conversation class. I have a composition and a conversation class. The classes have about ten American students in them and the professors are from Costa Rica. This week is a little more busy with a presentation for both of us and 2 papers for me and a test for Steph. It is great to be back at the other end of a Spanish classroom and we are learning a lot every day.

As we have noted in previous entries, the family is great. It is going to be rough leaving them but we have enjoyed getting to know them as well as we have. Alberto, the father, is a great person and continues to tell us more about the history and political situation in Costa Rica. Ema, the mom, is fun to talk to, funny and makes us feel right at home. We spend some time each day with Daniel