Practicing

I was so inspired by my Lonely Planet guidebook cover that I decided to dedicate the last few days to doing exactly what my little friend is doing. I figure if a monkey can do it...

Gearin' Up cont...

So, the below pictures are essentials of this upcoming trip and are thus worthy of having their own spaces on the blog.  First, the backpack.  This is a fairly new addition to my travel collection, having only traveled to Prague on two occasions.  It made it both times, on-time, and I feel like it has good energy.  This bag replaces the behemoth of a backpack that had from my Junior year at Chico, all the way up to Medellin.  I remember when I first bought it, my friend Diana and I stuffed all of my mom's couch cushions into it (which was A LOT)...I think it was like 6,500 cu.  This one is I think around 4-5,000, and I'm going to try to put pretty much everything I take into it.  My valuables and travel essentials will stay with me on the airplane in a regular, school backpack.  Yes, I will look like a typical idiot American backpacker getting off the plane in Munich, but this look will only have to last until I get to the house...

The next item you see is my new windbreaker/raincoat from REI.  I shopped around for all of about 15 minutes on the internet before finding it right around the corner.  As I will be in CR during the "rainy season," this is a MUST.  I will likely be wearing it pretty much every day, but it's so light that it doesn't really matter.  You can see that one of its biggest selling points is the fact that it fits into a really small bag that comes with it.  Nice.

The last pic is of my new river sandals.  I went to Sports Authority yesterday and almost bought some North Face sandals that had velcro, but I told myself that since I had already blown about $150 at REI, I should hold off.  When I went back today, I found another pair of Alpine sandals that are super comfortable and made of tons of "green" material.  I'm proud of myself for being such an environmentalist...which I always knew at-heart I was.  Was it obvious to all of you all along?...

Anyway, these are just some of the highlights.  Of course, I have some more items, but none of them seem blog-worthy at this point.  The next big item is a pair of waterproof hiking boots that I'm waiting to get on sale in a couple of weeks.  In the meantime, advice or suggestions will be definitely considered and appreciated!

Gearin' Up

Host Family Information

Got this email today from Anabel, the housing coordinator.  I rolled the dice on the living situation and scored myself a masseuse!

Made arrangements for you to stay with the Valerin family.  Dora, your hostess, is a homemaker. Living with her are husband Sergio, a computer technician, son Jason (born:1982) who works as a salesman and daughter-in-law Arelys (born:1981), a masseuse, plus their two children: Cristel (born:1999) and Dorothy (born:2003).  They live in Sabanilla, a short bus ride to the academy.  Their phone number is 2-283 2816. 

You will have your own private room, with this nice family, in a non smoking environment.  The girls look forward to meeting you and speaking Spanish.

23 days!

Yes, I know it's a little early to start a blog, but I have nothing better to do right now. I'm at 23 days before I embark on this trip, and it's been exactly one week since school got out. I've been trying to figure out ways to keep myself occupied (read: not obsess about this trip) with limited success. This is my latest attempt...

So, just to give an overview, I'll be leaving on a red-eye Saturday, July 4th. Once I land, I go immediately to my new host family's house. In fact, I recently found out some info about them and wrote back to the housing coordinator asking for a different living situation. I had been placed with a woman, her son and daughter-in-law, their three-year-old daughter, a son who occasionally visits, and also her ex-husband who sometimes drops in. This situation sounded a little weird to me. I told her that a kid or two would be cool as it'd be helpful for me to have conversations with kids AND adults, but this situation isn't exactly what I was looking for. I'll hear back from her in the next few days...

Back to the program...anyway, classes will start on Monday. I'm still kind of up in the air with regard to whether I want to do four five-day-a-week classes at four hours each, or four four-day-a-week five hour classes (which would make for longer weekends). I think right now I'm leaning toward the latter so that I can have more travel time. Even though I have my entire last week for travel alone, I'd like to be able to hit as many spots as I can for as long as possible. Either way, I feel like I'll be picking up the language wherever I am so long as I don't get lazy and seek out conversations with English speakers.

Another cool aspect of this program is that after class, there are Latin cooking and dance classes, as well as conversation classes that are all included in the program. At the end of the day, I go home to my "family" and enjoy a typical Costa Rican dinner and time with my hosts.

For the past couple of weeks, I've been studying up on Costa Rican slang, travel sites, and researching popular destinations online. I have my "Lonely Planet" guidebook that I've read most of...now I just need to get on that plane!

I could go on and on about the program, but instead, here is the website:

www.learn-spanish.com

CRLA is just one of several Spanish schools in Costa Rica, but for many reasons, it's the one I decided to go with. Check it out for yourself and I think you'll understand why!