first week

here are some highlights from costa rica so far:

adam met me at the airport, even though my plane was delayed and he had to wait for three hours. we took a cab to our place, but it was after midnight so the gate was closed and locked. after several minutes, much honking, and some preliminary exploring of the grounds, we called our teacher who lives about 50 yards up the road and slept at here place friday night. when we woke up at 7:15 saturday morning, bright sunshine was beaming through huge windows that overlook rolling garden-covered hills and the gentle mountains in the distance. before going to the centro where we will stay for these months, we picked two bags full of mandarin oranges from the tree in front of our professor's house.

i went to an atm to withdraw money in alajuela and decided to take out a fair bit at once in order to minimize bank fees, etc. the money here is called colones and there are about 500 colones to the dollar. i took out about $300--which translates to roughly 150,000 colones. carrying around that much of anything is pretty intimidating.

the bugs here are big. and there are lots of them.

i am in the dumb kids class for spanish. actually, i am okay with that. i am learning a lot, and in the past three days i feel much more confident and competent than i expected. and very appropriately, my teacher is actually a preschool teacher. yeah, that's about right.

so, things are going really well so far. this group of people is pretty rad and i feel lucky to be here with them. we work really well together and we get a lot done, but we also just really enjoy each other and have a lot of fun. i expect conflict to creep up on us--it is inevitable when so many people are in such close proximity for any length of time. but i think we will work through it like champs and be all the better for it.
for now i just ask that you guys would pray for my knee--it's worse than it has been in a long time and if it doesn't get better soon i will miss our group's first group trip--whitewater rafting. right now i can't even really walk too well because it's so swollen. i am feeling pretty frustrated and discouraged by this, mostly because i hate weakness and difference and i just wish i could figure out how to fix this problem and make it stop happening.
anyway, our internet connection really only works when you're outside and close to a nearby building. my butt is tired of these concrete steps and the bugs are really starting to get to me, deet and all.
thanks for being my friends and for supporting me and for reading all this b.s. to begin with... whether or not you believe me, i really do miss you, even in the midst of all the fun. hope you're all well, and i'll write more soon.