Orientation: Day 1

Today was our first day of language school orientation, and I have to say that it went well. I walked to school this morning to register at 7:45, and remembered how much I enjoyed walking everywhere when I was in Argentina. I anticipate enjoying that here as well. The morning was spent orienting us to the school, the staff and each other. I am joined this trimester by 65 other students ranging in age from 21 to 65. There are quite a few young women among them, and I am glad to anticipate new friendships. After a session on living with a Tico (term for Costa Rican) family, I walked back home where Josefa (host mom) had a large steaming plate of Spaghetti all ready for me for lunch! In the afternoon I had meetings with the school's director, counseler, and took my oral language assessment. I was surprised by how relaxed and natural I felt during my assessment, which wasn't more than a pleasant conversation with one of the school's professors. She asked me all sorts of questions about why I wanted to learn Spanish, and how my parent's felt about me being here, and what nebraska is like. I was pleased that the Spanish flowed easily and somewhat smoothly from my lips, and Laura (the professor) seemed to be pleased as well. Although I do need to work on ser/estar - which if any of you have tried to master the concept, you might be able to feel my pain in this area :)
When I was done, I made my first trip to el banco costa rica, to change dollors into colones. Right now the exchange rate is about 560 colones to the dollor, and most things are fairly cheap except food. Already the social circles are buzzing as previous students return from their Christmas Break, and I was invited to hang out with a group of the single women students. I arrived and they were playing a strange game called Forkel? Not sure, it had to do with dice and numbers and I sat there confused for most of the game.
Tomorrow and the rest of the week will be more of the same, as orientation lasts through Friday. The great thing is that there is still so much to do in the mean time, like explore, go for a run, and figure out where to buy a can of hairspray!