Day 1

Last night I arrived in the San Jose airport, with virtually no knowledge of Spanish, to meet a man known to me only as Marco. I was greeted by a sea of similar-looking, brown-haired people, all of them shorter than me. No worries, I'll just yell out Marco. Someone will turn around.

After waiting on the airport curb for 15 minutes, Marco and a rather cute, obviously gay assistant turned up to grab me and the airport's other sore thumb, Marie, a blond German girl here for a month.

In the car, we discovered that we were both here for a month to volunteer, that we both wanted to try surfing, and that she was 4 years younger than me. Damn, I knew I should have done this trip sooner.

At any rate, I'm doing it now. Marco spoke English but his assistant did not, therefore we heard only bits and pieces about Costa Rica as we drove along, most of which I've already forgotten. What struck me right away though, was how much less civilized Costa Rica looks than I expected it to. As we left San Jose and drove out past Heredia to the Barrio Jesus (I know, I live in a Barrio!) we passed long stretches of roads, paved but with no discernable sidewalk, lines and huge, precarious-looking gutters lining them.

The rooves on the houses were by and large tin, occasionally red-tiled...and outside the houses (none over 2 stories except the church) was pretty much...dirt. Really, I have had no image of Costa Rica in my mind til now except jungle. There could have been no toilets and I wouldn't have been surprised.

We arrived at my host family's house after about an hour and I met mother, father and my 3 new brothers, all but one of whom is younger than me (I'm only 25, Goddammit!). The dad is very shy and the mom miles less friendly than everybody else, who seemed to take my arrival in stride. Apparently, I also have host cousins, one I've already met. He's 18 and speaks perfect English because his dad is American.

Oh well I'm headed off to my first Spanish class now (we get a free week of them!) so I'll write more later on....