Safely in Costa Rica

Hola! I have arrived safely in Costa Rica! It is beautiful and warm here! Both of my flights left and arrived on time. I didn’t get to the airport in Toronto until 12:30 am and had to be in the lobby by 5:55 am to catch my shuttle to the airport. I didn’t get much sleep, but the bed was the so comfortable. It made it even better knowing that the bill was being paid for the hotel by AirCanada! When I arrived in Costa Rica I expected to the airport would be similar to the airport in Belize. Small with little technology and an old school luggage claim area. But to my surprise the airport was bigger than the one in Saskatoon and stuffed to the brim with tourist. I was told that I would met at the airport by YWAM staff with a sign with my name. Just as easy as that. In truth not easy at all! There was at least a 150 people outside holding signs with tourist names, and to add to that I had four bags and the carts couldn’t be taken outside the airport doors. So I stood in one place and hoped for them to find me and of course they did. I was greeted by two YWAM staff members both from the US. They informed me that other than our teacher Spencer, I was the only Canadian in my DTS class! There are five Americans (four of them from California), three people from right here in Costa Rica, a girl from El Salvador, a girl from Guatemala and a guy from New Zealand (although he lived most of his life in England). There is always a guy from India who is still awaiting his visa so he can come, so please pray for him (his name is Livingston Joseph). When I first arrived I was greeted by my whole class who has all arrived the day before (because of my grad I chose to be a day late). Their showed me to my room, which is a tight squeeze. There are all seven of us girls in one room! We all have half the space under the bed, one shelf and a lot of closet room( but there are only five hangers, so that doesn’t really count). It means we are going to have to be clean! Something which I am not always good at. After a little unpacking the group headed over to the other house (which is about 3 or 4 blocks away) where our class room teaching will be done. We spent the afternoon playing ice breaker games. It really help me to get to know my class mates. For supper the staff put together a fabulous welcoming meal. Surprisingly it wasn’t rice and beans! It was actually lasagne and salad! It was delicious, but not as good as my mom’s! After supper we all went out to the park to play “football” or in Canadian “soccer”. I joined in even thoughI was still tired from traveling and am not very good at the sport. John , our English/ New Zealand boy was amazing. Everyone ran away from him once he got the ball. Also everyone talked in Spanish while playing. Almost everyone speaks both English and Spanish, except Melissa and myself who only speak English and Andy who only speaks Spanish. Most of the social talk is all in Spanish, but in class it has been mostly in English and translated to Spanish. For my first full day we are free to do what we want. There has been talk about going to a locate swimming pool, touring the locate area looking for post offices and other stuff and going to church with Paola ( a girl in my class who is from San Jose). There are no locate English churchs but Paola said her church is lead by an American pastor so it will be easier for English speakers to understand. Hopefully soon I will be good enough at spanish that it won't matter. Talk to you all later.