A Alajuela

Today was a wonderful day :) I woke up early (but still was late for the taxi...oops) and we went to ICLC. There we went to our first day of real class. Most classes have 4 or 5 students in it, mine has two. Blake and I are the only ones in our class. I'm glad he's in there because I have someone I know that I feel comfortable talking in Spanish around. She did not tell us exactly, but I'm pretty sure we're one of the highest levels. The most exciting thing is the placement test we took yesterday that most people said was REALLY hard, my teacher told me I only missed three points! She seemed impressed and I was so excited. It was like a six page test too...Anyways, so for 3 hours Blake and I talked with the teacher about most embarrassing moments and culture differences and ended our class outside on the hammocks sharing jokes and riddles ALL in Spanish :o Pura vida.

John-Mark and I at lunch

 At noon we left in vans for Alajuela. (If you are confused do not worry I was too...apparently Costa Ricans aren't very original with names because the province is Alajuela and there is a city in that province named Alajuela! We live in the city of Tacares in the province of Alajuela...make sense?) Right outside of the city we all went to our first restaurant here and had "casado". It's a Costa Rican original dish with rice, beans, guacamole, chicken/beef, and fried plantains. We had guava juice too, it was DELICIOUS.

Guns from the museum

After we ate, we went into the city (by van) and toured around. Then we got out of the bus in the central park and went to the museum. The bottom floor of the museum was history (4 rooms) and the top floor was art (4 rooms).








Then we crossed the street and went to this beautiful cathedral in central Alajuela.

The outside of the church

Inside the church were so many GORGEOUS paintings

 THEN we got back in the vans and drove to the wood factory outside of Alajuela where they chop down trees (and replant another) then they let it dry for seven years, then they cut it and glaze it(?) and make the holes by hand all in this factory! They make all sorts of wooden things from jewelry to little wooden firetrucks. 

Different types of Costa Rican wood

Anna and I outside the wood factory- que linda!

Other interesting happenings of the day were that while walking home Colby, David and I saw a dead bunny on the side of the road. I practically stepped on it actually...AND I managed to watch an episode of Greys Anatomy totally in Spanish. Haha, it's from a few seasons back but they are slightly behind here...it was great! Tomorrow, we are going to the waterfall after school...I can't wait!