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I’ve been in Costa Rica for an entire week now, and I really really like it here. The country’s beautiful, the people are great, the climate is very endurable =P and the language sounds so nice. (And eventually I’ll hopefully be able to really talk it too…)

Rahel & I arrived in San José on Sunday the 25th of January. It was around ten pm at night when we got out of the airport, so apart from saying a quick ‘hola’ to our hostparents, we didn’t do much but falling into our beds and sleep.

The following week, we started our four-week Spanish course at a local language school. The lessons are from 08.30 – 12.30h every morning, with a half an hour break in the middle. Our class has only got three students: Rahel, Sam (an eighteen-year-old Dutch guy) and me, and of course our teacher. This class size is pretty ideal because then we can always ask if we’ve got a question etc. The three of us are having a good time.
Learning Spanish is fun, but hard as well. It has got quite a few similarities with French, so understanding the words is not too hard. But of course, it sounds different and the grammar’s not the same and so on. But I think we’re doing very well, considering that Rahel & I have never learnt Spanish before. We can understand the people, not necessarily every word but the context. And speaking Spanish is going okay as well, but it’s still tricky. But that just takes some time.

In the afternoons, we usually relax either in the park in the town centre, or at our hostfamily’s house, or we explore our new hometown for the next two and a half months.
Escazu is kind of an outer-suburb of San José. It contains of three main parts:

• San Rafael de Escazu, where lots of Americans live and where there are heaps of fastfood places.
• San Antonio de Escazu, where mostly only Ticos live and which is the least wealthy are of town.
• And Escazu centre, where we live. The population’s mainly Ticos but there are quite a few Americans as well. The town centre is the church with a park next to it, and there’s a really nice laid-back atmosphere in town.

Where we’re living at the moment, the temperatures are usually very warm, but sometimes quite hot as well. It’s not humid and it doesn’t rain often either, because it’s currently the dry(er) season. Escazu’s not on a beach though, it’s up in the Highlands on about 1500m above sea level. On the first two days, we noticed quite a difference when walking upwards, because our bodies got quite exhausted after ‘climbing’ only a small distance. But now we have gotten used to it already, which is good.

The hostfamily Rahel & I are staying at is very nice. We’re living with our hostparents and their four kids, who are 19 (male), 17 (male), 16 (female) and 6 (male) years old. We also have a little dog, but he’s living outside and we don’t see him very often. The family’s very friendly and they are always trying to talk a bit slower so we can understand what they are saying. We’re trying to chat with them as much as possible, but the language barrier still very visible. But hopefully, it’ll disappear more and more now.
Our house is rather small but very cosy too. There are always lots of people coming in and going out, so there’s always something going on. Very Tico-like, I think. =)

And of course, we’re currently adjusting to the special ‘Ticotime’ at the moment. This means that everything’s going a bit slower and if you’re talking to someone you can just take all the time you want for your conversation. And if you have an appointment with someone, it doesn’t matter if you’re half an hour (or even more) late. Also when crossing a street, people just wait until there’s no car anymore and only then they cross. Sometimes cars also just stop randomly to let people go across. Nobody is in a hurry. And that is veeery nice. =D

So far, Rahel & I have already caught up with quite a few people from back home too. Last Friday, David came from Switzerland to Costa Rica. We organised a hostel for him to stay and spent quite a bit of time together too. =) It’s great to see him again! Then on Sunday, we met up with Meli, a friend from school in Switzerland, and she showed us Downtown San José, with its many parks and the main shopping area. And tonight there are even two more friends from Switzerland arriving here. So, we’re definitely not missing out on practising our Swissgerman. =P

These are some impressions of my first week in Costa Rica. I can’t wait now to be able to talk Spanish properly, to see more of this beautiful country and to live a Costa Rican life.

Hasta luego!
Karin

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