Estoy en Costa Rica!

Wow! So my plane landed here in Costa Rica on friday at about 1240 and we were able to go through customs, baggages claim and immigration very quickly. All of a sudden I found myself at the very front of the group walking outside the airport. There were tons of people outside and most of them had signs with peoples names on them, so I walked out there and said my name How intimidating! ... but it was pretty confusing for everyone until my sister saw me and we started talking. From there everything has gone really well! I have been able to communicate pretty well with everyone that I speak with. There is a definate costa rican accent which sounds a little like puerto rico, so that makes it difficult to understand some people especially guys for some reason. But overall I haven{t had trouble at all and most everyone tells me i speak a lot of spanish which is encouraging!! I still have a long way to go in my mind though because although I am perfectly fine at speaking in a one on one conversation I can{t contribute when everyone is eating or just hanging out.


Okay well I obviously have so much more to write, but no time. Just know that I love my family here and it is goregous! I played in a watefall and a river today in el bosque. Que Divertido!! and classes start tomorrow.. we{ll see how that goes!

Less than a week

I will be in Costa Rica with my host family in 4 days! I leave on Friday the 29, at 6 am from Chicago. The closer the date comes, the more excited I get everyday. It's a strange feeling to be so excited and ready for something, but at the same time I can't really picture it yet at all. I have no idea what my house, family, school, anything will actually look like or what the relationships will be like that I make down there. This doesn't really intimidate me or anything, it probably just makes it more exciting if anything.

We got our host family information the other day and I will be living in a house with 6 other people. I have a mom and dad who are in their 50's and they have three children. The first two are girls (24 and 20 years old). Then there is a boy who is 16 and they have a granddaughter who is 5! I can't wait to meet them and I am so excited to have a child in the house too, that should be a lot of fun! I'm also pretty sure that at first it will be pretty awkward living in someone else's house. Not only will there be a language barrier, but also I will not know any of the house rules and I'm generally awkward with older people. haha. I'm sure this will all be fine after just a little bit though.

My family lives in a small town called Carrillos Alto which is just outside of Alajuela, the second biggest city in Costa Rica. This is in the center of the country about 30 miles from San Jose (the capital). Anyways, as of now I am just trying to finish all of my packing, doctor and hair appointments, and seeing everyone one last time plus any other little things that come up. Shannon will be coming here on Wednesday and then my mom, shannon and I will head up to Chicago Thursday night since my flight leaves so early. We have to be at the airport at 4:20 AM!

Also! I love comments and to hear from you when I'm in costa rica, my email is either my north central one, or crouch.grace@gmail.com Let me know what is going on in your life!

Messin around on here

Well I'm trying out some new things and it seems pretty simple to upload pictures, which will be really nice to have an image up next to a post.


This is my 3rd grade class from the summer!


And apparently you can upload video too, so this is Jill and I doing our batman dance... I don't know who this will work!

Well I am packing and getting ready for Costa Rica... trying this blog thing so if anyone wants to look at what I'm up to, here it is!

Anyways... I leave on the 29- so not too many more days left!