Today was my first day of school here. The university (Universidad Veritas) is a five minute walk from my house. It's pretty much a strait shot, except I turn at the second park (parque) I pass. I will get a picture of the University tomorrow. It's not that pretty from the outside, but is pretty nice inside. The university is an indoor/outdoor sort of university. There is a lot of covering from rain, but most of the temperature control is through breezways (you can feel the Costa Rican breeze through most of the hallways) or a fan and the window. Besides the humidity, the weather is cool enough that this is possible. We began with a tour of Veritas, which is a school that specializes in foreign language classes for any non-native speaker of Spanish, and in product design/graphic design etc. for Ticos (Costa Rican people).
We then had an orientation on what we are doing at Veritas. We are placed by skill level into classes (I'm honestly not sure which class I'm in, but I do know that since NAU places more emphasis on writing than on speaking, I'm still going to get the credits I need no matter what class I end up taking here.) On weekends we are going on Excursions. Coming up is a trip to Puerto Viaje and Monteverdi and Voclano Aracan. (I hope I spelled those right!)
Then we went for two hours of class. Normally we will have class from 8 am to 12pm, with options of extra curriculars in the afternoon. There are only six people in my class, which is really nice because we get a lot more practice and there is less stress in the class. My teacher's four rules were 1) No English (Only Spanish), 2) Homework everyday except Saturday and Sunday (This is an intensive, six week class), 3)Pay attention and 4)No stress. I'm pretty excited. The class seems to be at my level of Spanish and although the class is conducted entirely in Spanish, I can understand pretty much everything that my professor says (I can't say the same for my host family, unfortunately).
After that I went with a couple of other girls from NAU (there are about 30 of us total) to downtown to get lunch, although in the future it would probably be cheaper to eat at the school's cafeteria.
What I ate today:
Desayuno: Cereal. I know, not that exciting. In Spanish the word is still cereal and the cereal box still says Corn Flakes, so that's what they're called.
Almuerzo: Pizza. Which was still called pizza peperoni. It was delicious, but not exciting as far as Tico food goes. I had a milk shake with it, which they just called a milkshake (in Spanish it could also be called un batido con yogur, I believe). It was made with strawberries (fresas) and guanabana, which I just googled and it turns out that is soursop fruit. Anyways, it was delicious (delicioso!).
Another interesting thing - they have you taste a sample of the milkshake before they serve it to you to make sure you like it. Then they come back with the milkshake in a cup with a plastic cover on top.
Cena: Haven't had it yet, I'll let you know tomorrow. But I did have a nice cup of coffee (cafe) with milk (leche) and sugar (azucar). Oh, and there are three coffee bean plants growing in the student lounge at Veritas. I'll try to get a picture of those as well.
Lunch was my first opportunity to use Costa Rican currency, or colones. (Colon if singular) 500 colones are roughly equal to one US dollar, so 10000 colones is equal to 20 dollars, 1000 colones is equal to 2 dollars, etc. If you want to go the other way, multiply US dollars by 500; for example a penny (.01) is equal to 5 colones.
Here's a picture of the colones I have at this moment:
I'll leave you with another random thing - Google has already figured out that I am in Costa Rica. Google creeps me out sometimes
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| Google Costa Rica |
Your trip sounds so exciting!!! :D I'm so completely jealous of you right now!!!
ReplyDelete(I think it's Puerto Viejo, by the way--old, not trip.)
The milkshake totally reminded me of Hong Kong. They do the same thing with their drinks (if you buy them on the street, not at a restaurant). Did you have to jab the straw through the top too? I love those (and miss them). They were so convenient to travel with.
I love the money, too! I love foreign money--it's always so much more colorful than ours. :3 Does the size of the money get bigger as the value goes up, too?
(As for Google, yes, I'm sort of with you--I'm trying to decide if I think it's creepy or ultra-convenient.)
The money is only slightly larger as it gains value - more with coins than with paper money. Interesting thing - they just re-designed their money and they are in the process of trying to take the old stuff out of circulation. My friend keeps ending up with old bills that she can't use. (She has to go to a bank and change them for the new ones)
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