Day 1 (3 de Enero)

So I'll quickly begin last night. The airport was quick, not crowded, walls had that particular look of being dirty I guess, much as everything is down here. Getting our passports stamped was nothing as well as customs. Currency exchange was also very easy. On the airplane, Tyler (mi amigo) and I both talked to some local Costa Rican buisness owners who helped us fill out our customs forms, which was nice. They told us to put down their addresses because we didn't know where we lived. Still don't quite understand how addresses work down here. No one has mail delivered to their house, it all goes to the post office and then I guess you pick it up once a week, we may want to try that in Los Unidos, because its pretty much obsolete now. Driving through town I saw more poverty than I expected, if Costa Rica is the most well to do country in Latin America, I fear for the rest of Latin America, although it is safe, at least is my perception. Arriving at the house was terrifying. I rang the door bell and was answered by a very nice man who spoke no English, and I speak very little Spanish. He conveyed some very basic information until I soon got to my room and was greated by a fellow American from Mizzou. It seems he and I are splitting this small apartment with another guy from Montana, esta bien.

So today, Alfredo Junior (hermanito) took us around with his limited English and obvious mastery of Spanish to las tiendas (stores) and other resturants and things of that nature. I brought 5000 colones with me (10 dollars) and was able to purchase a six pack of beer, chicken for a week, and a bottle of water. After dropping off our things we found Tyler creeping around the front of the house and said Hi invited him in all of those little formalities we all know and love. After much deliberation (actually none) we decided to go and try to join a pick up game of futbol in the park. This was actually really fun, despite my inability to really play well, I held my ground. First misconception that was destroyed, all Ticos (Costa Ricans) can play soccer well, ok this wasn't entirely destroyed, but I scored like 2 of our 10 goals, and the American team did win, which was impressive to say the least, only by a goal or two, no importa.

Then it got a little weird, my brain fried from already attempting to speak and understand Spanish for an entire day, I sat there as the locals we played with and mi hermanito talked in extreme Spanish, as well as Will (my roomate). So basically they were apparently talking about alot of things, I understood basically zero. They invited us to the bars, and we kinda ditched them only because we have no idea what their intentions were, not that Will and I couldn't hold our own against them, we just honestly had no idea what was going down, so we let that one slide until we could group up with our gringo brothers and really hit up the
town.

So dinner destroyed me in terms of conversation, just as breakfast did, but I can feel my mind slowly switching over to Spanish little by little, so soon enough, within a week or so I should be doing alot better.