The Journey

Dear Dr. Thacker,

Yesterday was spent traveling: a 2-hour drive to Lexington, a 1-hour flight to Atlanta, and a 3-hour-and-fifteen-minute flight to San José.  Hannah and I had a joyous reunion in Atlanta and spent the 2-hour layover riding the tram between concourses like it was a thrill ride, racing up and down escalators and moving sidewalks, and generally basking in the glory of being together again.

We were supposed to sit next to each other on our flight to San José, but we gave up our seats to a father who wanted his little girl to sit next to him.  Hannah and I ended up sitting across the aisle from each other, which was still close enough to draw pictures for each other, laugh about the ridiculous things in Sky Mall, and share a blanket across the aisle.

Since I’d only gotten 3 hours of sleep the night before (teach me to put off packing until the last minute…), I tried to sleep on the plane a little.  I didn’t have much success, so I was pretty exhausted by the time we landed in San José.  It was already dark, as we had realized before we landed…

Me: “How is it dark already? It’s only 7:30!!”

Hannah: “Maybe we’re above the sun.  No, we’re probably in the eye of the sun.  That would make more sense.”

…so we didn’t get to see much of Costa Rica from the air.  After landing, we went through customs (aduanas), which was not as scary as I thought it would be, then went to the baggage claim (reclamo de equipaje) to get Hannah’s checked bag.  I, my dear grandmother, am proud to say that I packed for 6 weeks in a small carry-on suitcase and my trusty orange backpack.  However, I have stopped making fun of Hannah for bringing so much stuff since realizing that she brought a lot of useful and entertaining things that I neglected to think of...

After finally getting Hannah’s bag, we made our way out to the pick-up place outside the airport where we were met by a guy waving an “MLSA” sign, who pointed us to a lady waving another “MLSA” sign.  (ß space after that period provided by Hannah N. Smith)  We checked in with MLSA (Modern Language Studies Abroad – the program we’re studying with), then waited….and waited…and waited….for the other American students to arrive.  We talked to a few of the other students while we were waiting, but we were mostly too tired to do much more than stand there staring around blankly.

My first glimpses of Costa Rica outside the airport consisted of a patch of dark sky, a palm tree, and rain.  I was expecting the rain, since I discovered last week that July is smack in the middle of the rainy season…

After all the MLSA students finally arrived, we all piled into a bus and drove to some random place (we still can’t figure out what it had to do with anything) where we were supposed to meet our host families.  It was pretty chaotic, as all the families were calling out the names of the students that were assigned to them.  After several minutes, I heard a lady calling my name and went to her.  She asked if I knew who Hannah Smith was, and I reluctantly answered in the affirmative (just kidding).  Apparently there was also supposed to be another person named Jordan staying with us, but we never found him/her/it, so we eventually left with our host mom Noemi and her daughter Cindy.

We followed Noemi and Cindy to their car, crammed all of our luggage into the trunk and backseat, and squeezed into the small car for the ride to their house.  When we arrived, Noemi showed us around her beautiful, spacious, and awesomely clean house, told us the rules, and showed us to our separate rooms.  Once she left us to ourselves, however, Hannah and I decided we’d rather share a room, since one of them has two beds.  We’ve been apart for far too long; we need to be roomies again.

After we got settled in and unpacked a little, we collapsed.  And thus concludes Day 1.