Today was our first day of classes! So far I have gone to my Latin American short stories class, which will be challenging but I really like the professor. It's in Spanish but he speaks clearly and at a easily understandable pace, which is a rare treasure here. I still have to go to my first day of advanced Spanish tomorrow. Tonight was the fun class--Latin American Dance! Those of you who know my dance skills are probably cringing at this thought, but it was actually really fun--and tiring! It is definitely a workout! I like the professor for this class as well, especially since he wants to take us out dancing and to various concerts/dance shows. Should be fun, especially since this is the one class that all the USAC students are in together.

One of my USAC classmates lives right next door to me, so today we had to take the bus home by ourselves for the first time. It was an adventure! First of all, we weren't sure where to get on the bus or which one to take. When we finally boarded the bus, we realized how bad the traffic was. Since it was taking longer to get home, we got a little confused and starting thinking that it was time to get off since we had been on it for so long. However, we soon realized that we had gotten off WAY too early and had to walk down the muddy, dark street for about half an hour. It was unfortunate but we decided that it was a learning experience. ¡Pura Vida!

Yesterday my host mom took me any my classmate to a mall called El Paseo de Las Flores with her friend and her two sons. We didn't spend much time there but it actually looked exactly the same as the malls in the US. If it weren't for the Spanish signs, you could never tell that we were in Costa Rica. Then, we drove up a mountain (I actually think it is a volcano--el Volcán Poás). It was beautiful! Everything was so green and lush. We saw many coffee plantations and passed through a lot of small villages. The roads were extremely narrow--I cringed sometimes when we would pass other cars. We drive with much more caution in the States!

Tomorrow is a pretty easy day because we all have either one or no classes, so we decided to go as a group to San Jose. To do so we have to find the right buses and get off at the right stops, but hopefully we can put all 13 heads together in order to avoid getting lost! It should be fun though because there are a lot of tiendas for us to shop at.

Communicating with the people here is definitely challenging. Sometimes I feel  like some kind of helpless baby that can't say or understand anything, which is more than frustrating. But when I can have a functional conversation with someone in Spanish, it is the best feeling. There is such a sense of accomplishment when you can hold a conversation with someone in a different language, and even more so when you can tell or understand a joke in that language! I really hope that I can improve a lot in Spanish throughout this trip.

That's all for now! Hasta Luego :)