Settling in

I can't believe 6 days have passed!

We are starting to get into a rhythm here as we understand more about the culture and how things work. For instance, you never leave a room where people are talking without excusing yourself, you have huge lunches and small dinners, and you take your umbrella with you every time you leave the house. Plus, each day we are able to speak Spanish with our family for at least a couple of hours, and we've had the chance to label almost everything in our room with its Spanish name. As eager as we are to start classes on Wednesday, it is probably good to have this time to adjust and prepare.

This weekend was great! On Saturday a group of students from the school got together to learn the bus system and go into downtown San Jose. We were planning on going to the National Museum to learn some Costa Rican history, but Saturday was Labor Day for them and so it was closed. We did get to see some performers and the major park in the area. I bought a small map of Costa Rica to put in our room to learn a bit about the geography of the country. It was a great time!

On Sunday, we got to attend church with our Tico Family and it was such an awesome experience. The church was very contemporary and had a praise band - the worship music was a great way to practice our Spanish! I can definitely see us going to this church regularly.

Today during orientation we had a program about security that was very eye-opening. The leader had been a SWAT team member in the states and has been in Costa Rica for 4 years training the police force here and evangelizing. He explained that since 1) we are obviously foreigners 2) most of us don't know the language and 3) we aren't familiar with the city, we are big targets for crimes. He said that just by doing a few things (i.e. don't go out after dark, travel with other people, lock your windows and doors, etc.) you can significantly reduce the likelihood of a crime being committed against you. We feel very safe in our home and we feel that the more we can get to know the neighborhood (during the day!) the better off we'll be.

Our pictures will be posted on our facebook page since I am unable to post them here - I'll keep trying.

Love and God Bless!