Hola amigos! So me and Manisha flew into Costa Rica on Saturday and this place is sweet. Everything is so cheap! Absolutely delicious lunch: $2. Hour of internet at an internet cafe: 60 cents. Seeing people walk around with blunts in their hands: priceless. So we spent our first afternoon walking around San Jose. Cars here have the right of way and have no problem hitting pedestrians, and the gutters on the side of the road are 2 ft wide and a foot deep. Needless to say Manisha had a few near death experiences that first afternoon.
We met some other people in the same program at our guest house later that day. Alex is a med student at drexel, Eleanor is doing a post bac at columbia, and Sarah who's from Cali and is only 17 and a senior in high school but really wants to learn spanish. That night we went out to El Pueblo, the local hotspot. It was a square block that was pedestrian only with 4 or 5 bars and 4 or 5 clubs. We jut went to one of the bars and watched the shinnanigans through the window... to give you an idea, two girls walked out of a club wearing black bras and underwear with pink garders and fuzzy boots.
We felt bad about corrupting the 17 y/o but she said she'd been drinking since she ws 15 so we decided not to worry about it. Then when we got our first tequila shots and started pouring salt on our hands she looked at us like we were crazy. Needless to say we taught her how to really take tequila shots and at the end of the night she was struggling, as in Manisha slept on the top bunk b/c Sarah couldn't make it all the way up there.
Alex, Eleanor, and Sarah are all at different sites in Costa Rica, so we left our new friends the next day to go to Turrialba where we're going to be for the rest of the time here. Its a small town about 4 hours from San Jose. The best part is that, unlike the rest of Costa Rica/central america, the water is clean here so we could drink it without worrying. Its really awesome not having to brush your teeth with bottled water, which I had been really worried about doing.
I absolutely love my host mother. I was really worried at first since she's 60 and its just the two of us so it might be awkward, but she's super nice and I can actually talk to her now that I've learned some Spanish. And she doesn't have any cats (which was a surprise). Just in case any of you are thinking about coming to central america and think your other random romance language will get you by... it won't. I was completely lost relying on my Italian that first day. I was also really worried I'd eat too much and bankrupt my host mother, but apprarently her son (who just left for college a few days before I got here) eats twice as much as I do so its all good.
Spanish school is a lifesaver here. I'm of course in the super dumb kids beginner class by myself... even Manisha is a class above me since she actually bought a Spanish book and learned a few words before coming here. The other medical kids here in Turrialba are really nice, but there's a few kids in the teen program that clearly don't want to be here. Apparently they got sent here as 'punishment' by there parents, one guy for drinnking and partying too much (he's 15) and the other a girl for stealing a car. Too bad punishment wasn't this sweet when I was in high school...
The first night was 'Welcome Drink' at this bar called Ole Ole and the school pays for the first round. That was where I was first introduced to guarro, a Costa Rican liquor. Think vodka but it tastes 100 times better, the stuff goes down like water, which ends up being really bad for you if you're not careful. I'll bring a big bottle back so we can play the game with it and you'll see what I'm talking about.
Last night we had mystical fruit (direct translation). Its looks like a pommegranet seed but bigger with a slimy seed in the middle. It tastes a little tangy but the best part is after you eat it everything tastes really sweet for the 2 hours. So last night we sat around eating limes and drinking even more delicious than normal guarro. That's about it for now, though Manisha's host mother keeps shall we say suggesting that she hang our with her son more... awkward (for her) yet hilarious (for the rest of us).
Anyway, that's all for now (as I'm looking over this its actually super long). We're going to Puerto Viejo, a touristy beach on the carribean side, this weekend. The only thing we've heard about it from the other med kids is that its awesome and everyone there is high so we should have some interesting stories when we get back. Hasta luego!
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