I’ve now been in Costa Rica for almost four months and have become much more comfortable with living here than I could have ever imagined. This month’s entry will be about what my day-to-day life has been like while I’ve been living here in San Jose.

Housing: I live with an amazing host family. Most of the time, the people I interact with most often are the mother and father, but also living in the home is a daughter in her early 20s (who just got engaged on Valentine’s Day!) and her grandma. Also, there have been many other American students living in the same home as me. Right now there are three other girls in nearby rooms. As I speak, one of them is on the beach at Manuel Antonio and another is in Peru. The family is very used to having many American students and is always polite, friendly, and accommodating.

Meals: Every morning, I eat breakfast with the other American students. Typically what we eat is fruit, gallo pinto(a mix of rice and beans), eggs, and bread. Sometimes we eat pancakes or cereal. For lunch, there are several restaurants nearby the house where you get can a casada (containing some sort of meat, rice, beans, and salad) for about $5. I go there sometimes, but other times I just eat fruit or bread in my room. For dinner, we usually eat with my host mom and host dad. Some of the typical foods are rice, beans, chicken, often salads, fried bananas or plantains, fish, and soups with vegetables and rice. The food is always delicious and most of it is very healthy.

Schedule: Throughout my stay here, I have taken classes throughout the week (Monday-Friday morning) in San Jose and then often left Friday afternoon to explore another part of the country. Busses out of San Jose are very cheap (getting to the beach might cost as little as $10 round trip).

Academics: I took three classes of electives for three months and two one-month intensive Spanish classes while I’ve been here. I have really enjoyed classes with all of my professors, and I especially loved my Spanish teachers. Marlene was warm and cheerful everyday and Juan Jose had a great sense sense of humor.  

Social Life: On weeknights, many of the students would head to the bars on Tuesdays and Thursdays and movies (about $2) on Wednesdays. Other things to do around San Jose include the Jazz Café, nice restaurants, shopping, or roller skating. On the weekends, the social life depends on where you happened to end up that weekend. Some tourist destinations had an active nightlife with many bars and clubs, sometimes right on the beach. Others were more quiet, with restaurants and just one bar in town.

Regardless of what I was doing or exactly where I was, I really enjoyed getting to know all kinds of new people here. I made friends with people from all of the US who were studying with me at Veritas and also met some interesting characters from around the world.

I’ve really enjoyed my time in Costa Rica immensely, and definitely have mixed feelings about going home (in less than one week!)