Al principio

I've been in Costa Rica for five days now, and it's been a lot different then i imagined all summer. My host mom, Lily, and my sister Graciela, picked me up from the airport at about 7:00 Costa Rica time. It had been a long day. I had gotten up at 3:30 to catch a flight from SFO to Phoenix "Sky Harbor", where i had a five hour layover. Both of the people next to me on my flight were going to costa rica for vacation, one for a week and the other for two weeks. They were shocked when I told them I would be here until December.
After landing I went through customs, and was granted a visa for 90 days, although I'll be here for something more like 110. Apparently, ACM is going to take care of any legal problems. I hope so, because after I showed the customs worker a letter saying that i would be here a little longer than 90 days, she took one look at it and said "No! Va a estar aqui por noventas dias!" And stamped my passport with authority.
My host family is really nice, but I realized almost immediately that I'm not nearly as good at spanish as i thought i was during the summer. But Lily and Graciela were very nice as i stumbled my way through the most basic phrases and words. When they asked if i was hungry, I said yes, and they asked what i wanted to eat. I said "comida tipica" and they laughed. Apparently, in Costa Rica there are restayrants like Applebee's, pizza hut, and wendy's, but the only ones i've so far have been burger king and mcdonalds, and even then only one of each. We settled on a mexican restaurant, ate quickly, went to their house and i went to bed almost immediately.
I spent the next day hanging out with the family. I met my host brother, Andres, who is a really cool guy. He's likes to play poker, el "texasholdem", and I think at some point he's going to take me to play with this friends. We had gallo pinto for breakfast, and arroz con pollo for lunch. I was really excited about the arroz con pollo, because i've read about it in my spanish textbooks for years but never, to my knowledge, tried it. We watched movies for the rest of the day, including happy gillmore and the da vinci code.
The first thing I saw when Lily and I left the house the next day was a dog chasing a car down the street. I laughed, but Lily didn't; I don't think its that unusual here. The first day of ACM was actually pretty nice. Lily rode with me on the bus to school to ensure that I didn't get lost. We got out at the UCR and walked a couple blocks, past "el outlet mall" which is exactly what it sounds like. All of my classmates looked pretty tired and nervous, like me, but its a good group of people and I dont think we're going to have any problems getting along, although its difficult to get to know someone if you have to speak in a language that you know only at a kindergarten or first grade level, if that. Basically our first day we jsut had a lot of information thrown our way, but i think the teachers are great and obviously committed to helping us learn spanish, which is good because every time i try to say something remotely substantive to my host family, I end up sounding like an idiot. Oh well. The spanish will come.