The first week

Hey guys!

I'm back for my second post to tell you all about my classes and what my routine is starting to look like. 

I am taking only 2 classes right now. I am taking an excellerated Spanish class. This means that for 4 hours every day, from 8am to Noon, I am in a Spanish class. The class is Advanced Spanish 1, which is the third highest class that I can be in here. We focus on reading, speaking and grammar mostly. My other class is Introduction to Translation. The class is only on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and is from 1pm to 3pm. In this class we simply translate stuff from English to Spanish. It's fairly easy, but has a lot of busy work. It will last for the whole 12 weeks that I am here.

My classes are very intense, it seems to be much more so than in America. This is because my classes are all in Spanish, and my Spanish Language class is only 4 weeks long, so we're already almost a quarter of the way through the class. Next week is Mid-Terms already. After the 4 weeks, I will move up a Spanish class and will be taking Advanced Spanish 2 for 4 weeks. After those 4 weeks I will take Advanced Conversation, which is the highest class they offer.

So far we have mainly been focusing on Costa Rican phrases and trying to learn aspects of the dialect here that doesn't translate to English or other Latin American countries. For example, the people here are called Ticos, not Costa Ricans, and when you ask someone to pass you something at the dinner table you say "Regalame" which literally translates to "Gift me." It is a very Tico phrase. Today we had a quiz over comprehension of a reading assignment. At first understanding the story was very difficult, but once I looked up the vocab it became fairly simple. Overall the class will be challenging, but as long as I put in the work (4 hours in class, 2 outside ever day) I should do fine in it.

With these two classes, I find myself in class for 24 hours a week and doing 12 hours of homework, which is more than I've had to do since high school. So, I mostly find myself doing homework or relaxing from all he work. Because of this, I haven't had too much time to go out and explore San José. Hopefully this weekend I will be able to get out and see the city.

Right now I am sitting in my room, listening to a Thunder Storm roll through outside. It rains here a lot. The other day it rained for almost 6 straight hours, and that was a downpour for all 6 hours. I feel like the weather here is very similar to Portland. It's usually not raining in the morning, then about noon or 1 ish it starts to rain, then it rains for the rest of the day. But here, it's to the extreme. It's hot when it's not raining, and it pours when it rains. But, we will be through the rainy season in about a month to a month and a half. Then, it'll rain...

I am currently attempting to make friends here, it just has been hard to be very social while trying to adjust to a new schedule and routine AND do all the school work I have to do. But, tonight is the "Crash Party" at school. I don't know what that means, but it's basically a Back to School of Welcome to School party. I also met someone who invited me to an evangelical church down here, so I will be going to that on Sunday probably. Also, next weekend I am going to PUERTO VIEJO!! :D :D :D I am soooooooo stoked for this!! We are going to be on a Caribbean beach and go snorkeling and play in the water. Ahh! So excited! The school offers excursions to international students, we just have t pay for them. Some students paid for this through the program that they came with, but I didn't come through a program so I have to pay for any I want to go on. Because of this, I think I will go on maybe 2 or 3 while I am here. Especially when it's PUERTO VIEJO!! Plus, it'll only cost me about $100 for everything (food, transportation, activities, hotel), which is good compared to this weekends trip to Monteverde, which costs $200 (and doesn't even involve snorkeling :P).

Anyways, hopefully I will be able to meet people through these events and really settle in here. I feel like I am not quite settled yet.

But, this is getting long, so I'll wrap it up now. Hopefully pictures of my family next time

Nick Culbertson
Vayan con Dios

First Day

Hey everyone,

thanks for viewing my blog, if you want updates as to what's happening here in Costa Rica this is the place to go as I will not send out emails cuz that is too much to remember.  For those of you who don't know, for the next 3 months I will be studying Spanish at Veritas University in San José, Costa Rica. This will fulfill my Spanish Minor back at Fox.

I arrived yesterday at 1:30 pm here, which is 12:30 back in Oregon. The 1 hour time difference is nice since its not too bad of an adjustment. When I arrived at the airport there was a representative from Veritas University was there waiting for me as well as a group of about 8-10 other students from Veritas who had come in on my flight. Soon a transport van arrived to take us to our host families. My host family is a family of 5, a papí named Alfredo and a mamá who's name is Eugenia. Alfredo is a plant doctor, or a botanist and Eugenia is a veterinarian, her shop is located here at the front of the house. I have a host sister named María who is 16 and 2 host brothers. One brother is also named Alfredo and he is 14 and the youngest is named Luis José and he is 5 and super cute.

There is also 2 other exchange students staying here with me named Matt and David. Matt is a Senior at a school in North Carolina. David probably about 2-3 years older than me and has been to Costa Rica before and has stayed with our family before. He has been coming back as much as possible and this time hopes to find work and be able to stay here. We basically have our own apartment here located above the veterinarian clinic. We each have our own room and share a common room and bathroom. My room is small, but it has everything I need. I have a small desk and a bookshelf that I use in place of a dresser and a bed. It is very cozy and is perfect for what I need. The common room has some chairs, a table, a fridge, microwave and a TV with cable. I was able to watch some Football today, which made me feel like I was home a little bit. Unfortunately no Seahawks game on :(

The family's house is right next to our apartment, about 10 feet away. The house is very nice and comfortable.

Today Alfredo the younger took Matt and I around the neighborhood and showed us around. We are about a 5 minute walk from Veritas and also from a small shopping mall, supermarket, and cheap clothing store which everyone says has very good clothes. For the most part today I have been settling in to my new home and relaxing before the big plunge coming tomorrow. Tomorrow is my orientation at Veritas and the day that I sign up for classes. Hopefully I can get all the classes I want.

As I am forced to use Spanish I am realizing how good my skills are. I am able to understand most of what is said, to the point where I get the gist of what is said. For some reason though, I struggle at understanding what people are saying when they ask me questions directly, which I find strange. Speaking is quite different, I am sure I have bad grammar and vocab, but for the most part I can express what I need to express. Luckily for us, Alfredo the younger attends a bilingual school and has studied English for 6 years and David is fluent in both Spanish and English. Alfredo has been a bit of translator for us. I now know exactly how exchange students from Noe or the Chinese students at Fox feel. It is very hard to have meaningful conversations in a language that you do not speak. Hopefully hearing all this Spanish will help me be able to communicate better with them so that we can hang out more. 

I apologize if this post seemed long, hopefully future posts won't be as long. I am going to post some pictures of my room and apartment with this blog. Hopefully soon I will have pictures of my family too.

If you have any questions, please feel free to comment on this, ask me on facebook, or email me at nculbertson07@georgefox.edu since I get Wifi here at my house.

Thanks for reading guys
Vayan con dios.

My room from the door to the outside

My room from the door to the common room

Our common room, the door to the outside is to the left of the couch, by the fridge 

My room shares a wall with the fridge and sink

Our common room from the other end.

The room that you can see part of is David's

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The view from right outside our apartmen.

The exit to the street is to the left, the house is to the right

The view of our apartment from the bottom of the stairs

 

My family's house and car from the entrance to the house

 

My only decoration

Gotta rep my Blazers!