Monday, Feb. 3

We tried again.  Luckily it was only 40 degrees and foggy in Houston this morning, allowing us to get off the ground with no problems whatsoever.  I even got to start the morning off right with some Dunkin Donuts from the free meal vouchers that United gave us for our troubles.  The flight went swimmingly with only partly cloudy skies once we got to Central America, allowing for fantastic views of the ocean, coast, and landforms.  I was able to see several volcanos from the window.  After going through immigration fairly easily (except for McCall, who got grilled), we found our luggage and finished the journey through customs.  Afterwards, we caught a bus to the rental car place where we spent two hours as Di went through the bureaucratic red tape process of renting a car in Costa Rica.  Luckily, Katie is a hoot and kept us entertained with stories galore.  Next, we stopped at a bank and exchanged money.  This was my first real Costa Rican experience because I had to try to figure out what they wanted me to do in order to exchange money.  Poor McCall messed up with the decimal/comma system in the Spanish language with their numbers and only got $12 US worth of Colones.  We found this out as we visited the local grocery store.  I made my first purchase of fried plantain chips and water.  The chips were mighty tasty!  Finally, we were off to meet our host families and take them to dinner.  I am with Lilliana with a roommate Zoey who lives next door.  Katie and McCall live with Maricruz.  In addition, we had two student teachers from last year come eat dinner with us, Kelsey and Sarah.  We all walked to a restaurant called “Ceviche del Rey” nearby that the host moms recommended.  I had a dinner that consisted of bisque, rice, onions, and dried potatoes (which were delicious, and probably my favorite part of the meal).  Finally, McCall, Katie, Zoey, and I played a quick game of cards as we got to know Zoey, before all crashing.