Hot Hot Esparza

SO!

A lot has happened, don't really know where to start but it's been good days!


Just got back from our orientation camp in Esparza with about 60 or so people in total! The place was steaming hot. Probably 7-8 degrees celcius warmer that San Jose because of the microclimate they have here.
It was nice to meet all the new volunteers and talk to the ones that's been here for 6months already. They are all very nice, some a bit weird, but mostly very nice people. We did a lot of activities to be prepared for what's to come or might come..culture shock, host family problems and other fun stuff:) And oh yea, there was dance classes. I'm SO gonna take lessons once I get to San Ramon, it was a lot of fun! It was also very nice to get out of the city and see some more of the country. And Doña Martha made us awesome food. I had my first galle pinto and it's no lie. They do eat rice beans and eggs for breakfast here. Not everyday, but often. But it is actually much better than it sounds!

I met some nice Costa Ricans as well! I have a tico friend now:) They are great. I also met this guy that is living about 20min away from me, a german guy which is not a big surprice as almost all the volunteers are german. Make me all language confused and a times it does feel like I'm in Germany, not Costa Rica..Anyways, nice to know someone around where I'll be living.

I found out a bit more about my project as well. The Costa Rican municipality does not have a recycling system!! Which means no recycling in Costa Rica at all. And my project is a small recycling project which will work with both recycling and increasing people's awareness about why it's important etc. I'm excited.

The plan for the next two weeks is spanish lessons, more salsa lessons, and a bunch of information meetings. I'll be living in San Jose with my little hostel-family until the 13th of feb. which is the day I leave for San Ramon and will be living with my host family after that. Work starts on the 15th.

So yea, things are still muy bien! My spanish is still crap, but lessons start tomorrow and then we'll hopefully start practising a bit with each other.


Hope all is well with all of you!

~Synøve~

Arrival and first days

Hola a todos!

I decided to start up a blogg so that you all can keep track of my adventures in Costa Rica!

I've spent my first full day here and there are a lot of new things\people\noises\language to take inn, but so far I'm loving it!

My journey started on Monday 25.01 from Oslo to London. I spent the night there in what's called a Yotel which in my opinion is a brilliant thing and should be available in every airports! Small, but nice rooms with a comfortable bed, shower, free tv and intenet. So a good way to start the journey eventhough it was a bit pricy..The rest of the journey went surprisingly well. Nothing was lost and no flights were missed! Traveled with another volunteer from London which helped make the journey better.

We arrived in San Jose on Tuesday night local time and was met by ICYE people and some other volunteers. I went to a hostel in the middle of San Jose with 5 other volunteers and went straight to bed..sooo tired at that point!! The hostel was nice, but seriously the street right outside here is sooooo noisy. That's the first impression of San Jose. Noisy with a lot of busses and taxi's. Haven't been able to see that much yet, but the scenery surrounding San Jose is beutiful and I can't wait to go explore more of the country.

We will stay in the hostel until 12th of feb. and the we will go to our host families, mine is in San Ramón. Before that we'll get some language classes and stuff which is much needed! Today it took us about 1h to get hold of a map of the city because of our rusty spanish..! And we made the longes queue in subway, but we're trying at least;)

But yea, so far todo bien although I still can't believe I'm in Central America!

Take care everyone:) xxx

The picture is taken on a random stroll around the city with a part of my very international hostal-family. We found this great park, really big and with amazing trees.