Beginnings

After many difficult and sometimes tearful goodbyes, I left Chicago for Costa Rica and arrived in San Jose sometime around 3pm Tuesday afternoon. My Spanish, while rusty, was good enough to get me to my hostel in San Pedro without any problems. By the time I got myself settled in, the sun was already going down so I missed out on doing anything outside the hostel. Sadly, everything I've read encourages travelers, particularly women, not to go out at night alone... ever. So, being responsible, I sat myself down on the couch and searched for jobs and apartments. Though, to be honest, I was so exhausted from everything (traveling, goodbyes, packing up everything I own, etc.) I was glad to have an excuse to do nothing and go to bed early.

The hostel is nice. Well, as nice as hostels typically are. The people that work here are friendly and helpful whenever they can be (many of them are from the US and therefore are unable to answer certain questions). They serve pancakes and pineapple every morning for breakfast - the pineapple here is to die for. So amazing. The showers are pretty hilarious, and I am convinced I am going to get electrocuted at some point on this trip. Apparently they don't believe in hot water heaters here in CR, as they are wasteful, and instead use electric heaters that function much "like a tea kettle" - they heat the water as it passes through. Therefore, the hotter you want the water, the less you can use. Brilliant. I can tell you right now that this is going to be a struggle with the amount of hair I have on my head. Good thing it's hot here...

I got lucky, and one of the other girls staying at the hostel is going to be here for a few months as she is going to be working a biology internship at the University of Costa Rica here in San Pedro. She and I spent today walking around the UCR campus and then around San Jose, the capital. The campus is interesting. There's amazing plantlife everywhere, and many of the buildings have unbelievable mosaics on the side. Look up a photo if you can, they are quite the sight.
After we had had enough, Antonia (my new German friend) and I decided to go check out downtown San Jose and see what there is to see. Which, honestly, is not all that much. San Jose is just another city, and it doesn't hold a candle to Chicago. There are a few museums that look like they may be worth checking out eventually, but we decided to take a pass today. Antonia and I walked all over the place for hours and decided we were pretty much done for the day. So we stopped for some coffee and an empanada and headed back to San Pedro.

San Pedro is a pretty neat town... definitely a college town, nothing particularly amazing to see, but a generally good atmosphere. I could certainly see it being my base for the next however long.

Nothing yet on the job front, but it's only day 2. Okay... I'm going to make friends. Love love love!