Touring San Jose

Today we toured San Jose. We spent the entire morning walking to all of the major landmarks in the city, the national theater, two cathedrals, the national museum, parque Espana , al Mercado central, y la Mercado Coca Cola. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to go into the museums, but I definitely want to go back and see the national museum and el museo de oro. Francy (our director) gave us a dry run by leaving us on our own to find lunch. We headed down the avaneda central, a pedestrian road to find a lunch counter or a ‘Soda’. Unfortunately, globalization has hit San Jose hard and the first restaurants we saw were Wendy’s, McDonalds, and Quiznos. (If you want a KFC you’d have to walk 2 blocks, it’s right across from our hotel)..  We ended up at a lunch counter in a store that had a promising menu from the outside, however the ordering process was intimidating and so we decided to look for an easier mark. A block down the street we saw a panderia, or a bakery. We checked it out and they had a type of stuffed bread, like a baked-in sandwich. With the sky threatening some early afternoon rain, we decided that this would be our first Costa Rican street meal. After a successful negotiation in Spanish we headed back toward the plaza to eat. It was actually really good! I also got some pan dulce, or sweet sugar bread as well. That of course was my favorite! Directly after we finished eating the skies opened up and the rain began. I wipped out my trusty northface rain jacket and was ready to go. All the Costa Ricans simply popped up an umbrella and kept on going. I got several curious stares, which I took to mean that rain jackets were not the weather proofing of choice.  

When we got back to the hotel we sat in the open air restaurant and people watched until we met with Francy at two.  Seeing all of the umbrellas seemed to make some kind of fun statement made me glad to have brought my shimmery blue one.  In this I would fit in! After the rain stopped we met up with Francy in the lobby and she gave us tips on living with our host family. After that it was off to Veritas to meet them! We took a 10 min taxi ride and arrived at the campus (its small and urban, not like the open traditional campus I was picturing). Several other international students were also getting picked up and dropped off.  Ruth came to pick me up with her friend and co-host parent, who was getting Travis, a boy in our group. Ruth lives about a 10 min walk from campus. When we got to her house her oldest daughter Angel was there to meet us. She was very welcoming and nice. They took me to my room (my own room!) and showed me where the other host student would be staying. Her name is Ronnie and she is from Haiti but she has live in both the US and Haiti and goes to school in DC at George Washington.  I decided to get settled in and then go and talk to the family. I gave them their presents which they seemed to like and met Ronnie. I liked them all immediately. Everyone was fun and very easygoing. For dinner Ruth made arroz con pollo, my favorite!  We spent two hours talking, great practice for me and Ronnie, but it was also really fun. I found out several good things, that the neighbors have schnauzers (little sawyers to play with) and that Angel loves harry potter too! We are going to see it when it comes out on the 15^th! Yes that’s right, we when by a historic movie theater today and they had a poster up for it, even better it’s in English with Spanish subtitles! After dinner I was talked into watching the movie Disturbia, mostly suspense but kinda scary at the end! All in all it was a great day. I’m really happy with my host family and co-resident. It should be a lot of fun living with them!