San Jose school days

What an exciting but tiring week this has been! I've just finished up a week of intensive Spanish immersion at a small school in San Jose, Costa Rica. Two hours each of grammar, medical Spanish and conversation. My skills have improved from mediocre to not quite as mediocre. It's been a gift to have a week to focus on nothing else but my brain is tired.

Here is a picture of my classroom. In my first class of the day I was one of two students. The other was a German college student, one of a group of about 8 from Germany, all of whom are doing a month at the school followed by a month at the beach working to preserve sea turtle habitat. The remainder of the students were two interesting American brothers, one of whom plays computer poker for a living. His brother will enter the peace corps in a few months and has aspirations of becoming a diplomat. Our profesoras were kind, energetic and interesting teachers with a lot of patience.

Catalina was my host for my weeklong homestay. She is very friendly, a great cook of typical Tico food and an accomplished painter. She hosts students of all ages from all over the world and loves a lot of conversation. Because her English is very limited, my education continued outside of the classroom.

Pictured also are mamon chino, a sweet white fruit with a pit inside. I finally figured out that the reason they looked so familiar was that as kids we enjoyed them in Singapore, where they are known as rambutans. A nice surprise. When I tried to buy just four from the street vendor lady here, she would not let me pay and instead insisted that I take them as a gift. Typical example of generosity and friendliness seen here.

Of course San Jose is not utopia. Because petty crime is an issue here, most houses have bars on them. I found this a bit jarring at first, in addition to the fact that I was in a part of the world new to me, and alone. To add to the adventure is the fact that roads here don't have names nor houses numbers. Typical for Central America. I managed not to get lost and did feel settled in. Though it's been a city of contrasts so far, my overwhelming impression is positive, especially due to the friendly folks and the culture of kindness. Looking forward to picking up Erica and the kids and starting the vacation phase of our trip!