Traveling with Ticos

Travels went well! We all made it to San Jose around 9pm local time Monday night. 

Here's a portion of the group that flew from Buffalo to Newark.

The flight was pretty uneventful except for a brief interaction I had with the elderly tico (Costa Rican) couple sitting next to me.  I looked over at one point to see the man watching a movie on the TV screen on the back of the seat in front of him, but he was just watching - he had no head phones in.  So I asked him, "Senor, quiere oirlo?" and offered him the free head phones I had found on my seat when I boarded.  He tried to say something back to me in English, but I couldn't understand his accent, so he asked if I understood espanol, and told me that he had seen them on his seat but thought they were "dulces" (candy).

We left the airport and met our host families at the school.  I'm living with Don Jose and Dona Susanna who have three kids: Carolina (and her daughter Jimena), Andres, and Gloriana.  When Susanna and Andres picked me up, I got in the car and Bruno Mars was playing...American culture is just inescapable.

Mi cuarto.

I am really enjoying being back in a hispanic country! And its been really fun noting the differences between Costa Rica and Espana.  For example, this morning I actually had a meal for breakfast instead of toast.  I had a very typical dish called gallo pinto, which is rice, beans, and chiles (or something delicious) and some scrambled eggs.  It was muy rico!