A Grecia

Okay so I was having some technical difficulties...turns out that you DON'T need a converter for Costa Rica however you do need that nifty thing to make three prongs into two?  Well I have two of those (one from Dad and one from my tico family) but neither of them fit into the plugs in my room! Earlier I was sitting in the hallway and it worked perfectly! I think my family is going to buy me something that will help but most people in our group don't even have internet access so I consider myself very lucky either way.

Courtney, Anna and I at ICLC

Okay so today, Monday, was our first day at ICLC (or the Institute for Cultural and Language of Costa Rica) which is basically our school for the next two weeks. We took a tour around the beautiful facilities and then took a placement test to see our abilities. Part was oral, part was written. That was a little nerve wracking but the worst is over now! Everyone seemed really nice and there is another group from UVA there too. Most of them are not Spanish majors or anything but just studying abroad for Spanish credit. 

 After that, we all (UVA and CU) got on buses and went to Grecia, a "city" a little outside of Alajuela. It is supposedly the cleanest city around here and where most people go to shop. I've attached some pictures from our walking tour (we split up into 4 groups). First we started out in the market, where I bought fresh guava (a completely unique fruit, not the same as what we call guava) and Courtney has a picture of that on her camera. We went in several other bakeries and such but our last stop was the beautiful cathedral.

The fruit stand in Grecia

We took a picture of our whole group outside the church which was made of metal! The original caught on fire awhile back so they rebuilt it using metal so it would not be engulfed again. If we look a little sweaty it has been pretty darn hot haha. Thank goodness for fans and wind!

The TF Cohort Class of 2013

My view from the front of the house :)