i have arrived...

hey everyone.
as most (hopefully all) of you know, i am in costa rica right now and have been here for a week and 3 or 4 days already. i live in the town of heredia which is in central costa rica about 45 minutes on a bus away from the capital, san jose. heredia seems typical of most central american towns with a central park and blocks and blocks of city that looks the same. it is a big city. maybe about the size of holland for those of you who are familiar, and much much much bigger than sioux center for those of you familiar with that. but its hard to compare because its laid out so different and hardly anyone has yards. i heard there are 40,000 people in the town and i would believe it. i attend a university in heredia and it has a very large modern campus. i think roughly 12,000 students go here, but it has been quiet thus far because they are all on break until the beginning of february. i am in class for 3 hours a day and there are only 5 people in my class. i am in what´s called track one. the program for people who dont know any spanish coming here. and there are 4 other people in a similar situation.
i walk to school everyday which is a 20 minute walk down one hill and up another. so, it literally is uphill both ways. on my walk i smell much exhaust fumes and the roads are busy and it can be a trick to get across. here, pedestrians yield for cars, not vice versa like home. it can be somewhat stressful, but i am adjusting. i live in a clean, quaint little house with 58 year old margarita and her 26 year old nephew. sometimes, maybe every other week, (im not really sure) randall`s (the 26 year old) son lives there also. i guess the other times he is with his mother. i dont know much about my family or really much about anything because i dont speak hardly any spanish and they dont speak any english. it makes living a lot more difficult and awkward than you can imagine. luckily, jenna has been able to come over multiple times and figure things out for me. jenna and i live a 40 minute walk apart with the university halfway between us. i have not really dared to use the buses by myself yet, so everywhere i go i walk. except at night, i use a taxi to get home because it is unsafe. which is also stressful. for 2 reasons. number one, i dont speak spanish. and number 2, because of the addresses here. they do not have street names or normal addresses here. it is all done by landmarks. things such as the mall, or neighborhoods, or businesses. in my case its the little grocery store on the corner, and im 250 meters down and my house number is 75. there are many jokes about the addresses and it is one thing the city is changing.
things are getting a little easier now that i am starting to understand a little spanish but now that i know a little margarita starts talking more, and i dont understand. in the beginning, before i even knew how to say i didnt understand, i would just kind of nod and smile. sometimes i would say no, but i felt bad saying no all the time, so if it sounded okay, i would agree. so i really have no idea what i agreed to or disagreed to at the beginning. at least now when i dont understand i can say no entiendo and lo siento ( i dont understand, im sorry). and those are probably my 2 favorite phrases. along with muchas gracias. i have learned it is much easier to listen to other people speak and understand than it is to speak myself.
it is starting to now sink in how long i am going to be here. they call this culture shock. and it usually occurs after roughly 2 weeks of being in another country. by this time the excitement and newness wears off and its not a vacation anymore. this is starting to occur for me. they also say that people experience culture shock going back home as well, because by the time i leave i will be so used to things here. that will be weird.
the simplest things are difficult when there is a language barrier. ordering a hamburguesa at mcdonalds (yes, they have those here. along with burger king, pizza hut, subway, kfc, taco bell... in many ways this is more americanized than sioux center...ha) is a difficult experience. going on the computer is different because every single word is in spanish. all signs are in spanish. everyone talks in spanish. very very few people know english well. a lot of people know a couple phrases, just like most people know a couple things in spanish back home.
its strange to see western culture influencing these people here. i feel like this place is trying to be western and american, but i just want to tell them to stop, because i dont think its necessarily better. standing out in front of my house i can see an office depot sign and the large yellow walls of a mall. a big mall. 2 stories full of stores both american and not. then there are the fast food restaurants. its very interesting. it seems kind of like a society in transition. transitioning from a more traditional society to a modern western one. it will be interesting to see what things will continue to change in the years to come.
i think this is enough information for now. i am getting tired of typing and i am very warm and i dont want to bore you all. the weather is amazing and this past weekend we went to a coffee farm and to a huge volcano and got to look down from way up into the crater. it was very cool. i am surrounded by mountains and its been sunny every day and hasnt rained at all. all in all i have nothig to complain about. its just hard to adjust because everything (everything) is different. im not sure how often i will email, but please feel free to email me and i will in turn email you back. i hope everything back in los estados unidos is going great. if anyone has anything particularly interesting worth sharing, please do, and i will do the same.