Day 1 Recap

Let me begin by saying that I ought to have been 10 minutes late to Charlas (our orientation classes), but instead I was 45 minutes early because my watch was set utterly incorrectly, as was my iPod which I use as an alarm. Thus said, I now have time to write this blog post. So much has happened, I already don't know where to begin. I suppose I will start with this:

Things I Have Learned Since Leaving Oklahoma

1. Miami International airport is very, poorly designed. Additionally, no one that works there actually knows where anything is. Probably because of it's poor design. If you leave you're terminal, YOU WILL HAVE TO GO BACK THROUGH SECURITY. But no one will tell you that.
2. Costa Rica does not use a 24-hour clock. Which is why I am here right now. I put my watch on a 24-hour cycle when I arrived. Realizing that they didn't use this system, I attempted to change it back without actually looking at a clock. Hence.
3. Cafecitos (coffee breaks) come just at the right time. Usually about an hour after your huge lunch has started making you drowsy, as it inevitably will.
4. Ticos believe that everything will make you sick. Not wearing shoes in the house, leaving the house less than 2 hours or washing your hands with cold water after you do the ironing, taking a shower at night (this might be a problem), going outside after you work out, etc. Usually if you ask why you can't do something, that will be the answer.
5. It's going to take quite a bit of practice for me to be comfortable speaking Spanish. The ratio between the things I can say and the things I can't is pretty frightening, but that between what I want to say and what I can say is even more dire. Sitting in the living room with my host family last night consisted of a lot of silences.
6. Choosing conversation topics is a very tricky task. I have to make sure that the question I ask (because right now all conversations consists of asking and answering questions) will lead to a conversation that I can uphold with my limited vocabulary. I must pre-conjugate all of my verbs and store up words I might need to use to keep the conversation moving at a steady pace. When all is said and done, this is probably the hardest.

And that was only one day. We'll see what today has to teach me.