"Don´t talk to the antisocials": Lessons from día uno in Costa Rica

¡Hola a todos! Today was our first full day in Costa Rica. I arrived here last night after a flight delay caused by "an accident" (which really did wonders for my flight anxiety) and was finally met by my host mom around 11. She is named Flora and she has a son named Juan Gabriel. She also has a husband named Tito and 2 other children, but they are working out of the country and married & living somewhere else, respectively (or was it the other way around?), so it is just the three of us in the house. (I´m having Peru flashbacks of my single mother/same aged son living situation...but I´m fairly certain this will be different since this mother seems to be overprotective instead of encouraging me to binge drink until 6 in the morning).

The Institute is nice. It seems to be HUGE and full of cats that pretend to be your friend until something in their head switches and says "¡Quiero probar su sangre!"and bites your thumb. And by "your"I mean "Ben´s."

I think I´ll like it here if I can get my mind around the fact that I have to speak Spanish instead of horrible Spanglish. (Por ejemplo, I can´t say "Vamos and hablar with otros people.")

That is really all I have to say for now. I´d love to write more, but it has taken me twenty minutes to write this, since this keyboard is NOT labeled with the actual characters that are created when you press the keys. I have been relying heavily on Microsoft Character Map. Also, the kids running the internet place are blasting Dragon Force, and while I do occasionally enjoy a little bit of soprano death metal, I have a little dolor in my cabeza, and I sort of want to go home to play with my host mom´s pregnant miniature pinscher.

¡Pura Vida!