First real day

Trip Start Dec 12, 2006
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Trip End Mar 09, 2007


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Flag of Costa Rica  ,
Thursday, December 14, 2006

Silvia works at a The University of Veritas, which is an university that concentrates on art.  They have a language department where they teach foreign students Spanish.  She is one of their Spanish professors.  What a sweet deal, I get to live for free with a spanish professor.

Silvia has to work today, so I sleep in, eat eggs and fresh fruit for breakfast and I realize that life is pretty damn sweet right now.  I unpack my bag and start reviewing some spanish.
Silvia comes home for lunch and brings with her a German girl, Frederike, that is taking classes at Veritas and that she gives a ride to everyday.  Most foreign students at the university live with Tico families in a homestay program and live within walking distance to the school.  We however live about 30 minutes from the university.  Rike (this is what Frederike goes by) lives very close to us, so Silvia has been giving her a ride.  Silvia makes a delicious steak taco lunch and we all get a chance to talk.

Rike is 20 and has just finished Germany's equivlent to high school.  She has some cousins that live here in Costa Rica and have lived here for 26 years.  So she is taking advantage of a free place to stay with her cousins, to travel in Costa Rica and learn spanish.
 
After lunch, I go to Rike's place and we hang out there all afternoon chatting and getting to know each other.  She comes from Hamburg, has been here about 3 months, plans on staying another 3 months, and has no clue what she wants to study when she gets back.
 
Its the end of the semester at Veritas and tonight there is a final bash at the school for the foreign students.  I tag along with Silvia and Rike to meet some of the students and check out the school.  There are 120 foreign students in all, but not all of them are there.  The students are pretty much all Americans doing a study abroad, with only 5 students from Europe and 1 from Brazil.  I get to meet a bunch of them and I ask lots of questions to see how they liked the school.  Most seem to have liked it.  Its a pretty fun night with grilled meat, beer, and some live music.
 
It was a pretty good first day in Costa Rica.  Tomorrow I will go with Silvia and Rike to Veritas to sit on a class to see what its like.
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