Pura Vida

Today I began my first full day in San Jose, Costa Rica with a full on allergy attack. Because I am here during the rainy season everything is slightly damp. It kind of feels like being at the river. 
I met my sweet host family. They are Luz and Manuel, mis abuelos! Luz is one of the best cooks I have ever met. For dinner last night we had "comida tipica de Costa Rica". This consisted of rice, black beans, green beans mixed with carrots and meatballs, broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes, and tortillas. Muy Rico! It is so much fun being in the house. It is like several different little houses put together into one with awnings to keep the rain out. Their granddaughter Laura and their son also live here. All the different family members are hard to keep up with, but hopefully I'll learn the names. 
For breakfast we had a plate of fresh fruit, mango, banana and some other orange fruit. Also a heaping plate of black beans with rice, eggs mixed with something, and tortillas. And coffee with milk. Deliciouso!
I'm definitely a fan of the food but it is going to be hard to get used some other aspects of Costa Rica.
Such as, the pace. Everything is slow here, except for the drivers. The walking is slow, even the time. Hopefully this will ween me off of my obnoxiously fast American pace. I also desperately need to learn to exchange colones for dollars in my head. I am terrible with math and throw a foreign language on top of that and it's over.
Today, we took a trip to the mall with Manuel to get some essentials and then in a little bit we are going to our orientation at the university.
I'm so excited about all that I'm going to experience here.
I'll leave you with some phrases that the ticos use.
In the morning you say "como amanecieron?" (which means something along the lines of how did you wake up?) and you respond with " bein por dicha" (meaning good-luckily) 
I'll write more later! 
Pura Vida, 
Emily