Day Two!

It seems like everyone slept well, our hotel is cozy and comfortable which seems to have eased some fears.

We are getting used to little differences.... I was excited, for example, to have "Coke Light" last night --- Costa Rica's version of Diet Coke, which some have said I have a borderline addiction to. I actually think it tastes better than American Diet Coke... but I could be imagining that, it might be the same thing. Some of us had never tried to make international calls before.... so that was interesting, and I think a few lucky Ticos ended up with some confused Americans on the other end of the phone in the process. Like Suz said, the hotel is mostly open-air, we have doors on our rooms but otherwise everything is subject to the whims of Costa Rican weather. There is a small little alcove with two computers that we are sharing with a large group of high school students from across the country, also here to do service work. Many of us have been checking email, etc. but the keyboards are different and all the prompts on the computer are in Spanish! We are going to try to figure out how to post some pictures, but we're not sure how much internet access we will have once we leave this hotel.

We had a great (but long!) meal last night, and we all agreed that we are probably spoiled now -- we will be eating lunch and dinner at the church we are working at for the rest of the week. Breakfast this morning was provided by the hotel, and it was an odd mixture of things -- but very yummy. Beans and rice, eggs, some obviously homemade marmalade of a mixture of fruits and cinnamon and spices --- so good!! And please let me tell you... I'm pretty sure none of us will ever want pineapple from Kroger again. There was also some orange juice that puts even the Florida fresh squeezed stuff I have had to shame, and some mango juice and of course, Costa Rican coffee. In a few minutes we are heading to the church to see what they have in store for us. Everyone is excited to jump in and get started and to meet some locals. It was nice to have yesterday afternoon off, though, and several of us decided that later in the trip we might be longing for a similar day off!! Dr. Hargrove and Dr. Domin discussed plans with us yesterday for a class schedule, and it looks as if we will be eating dinner at the church this week then returning to the hotel for an hour or so of class each evening.

Hope all is well where ya'll are... (they definitely don't say ya'll here...)

- Claire