Week the Uno in America the Central

Thus far in Costa Rica I have: (to make this shorter I will roughly categorize the events into the weeks in which they occurred) Week 1, August 18-24, 2008.

• Very smooth trip here, no hassle in Miami airport (that's a first!); caught my first glimpse of Costa Rica outside the window, green sprawling fields, trees, rivers--I couldn't wait to explore!
• My host family consists of my parents, madre nueva, (M.N) and padre nuevo (P.N.), and 3 host brothers, a host sister and 2 host nephews, none of whom live with us (and most of whom I have met). We also have a blind dog named Sweetie; I like to stand in the kitchen really quietly and watch her bump into my leg before finding out that I'm there. One day she fell down the stairs (but she's ok, no worries)
• I live in Vargas Araya, a small "neighborhood" in the San Pedro suburb of San José, the capitol of Costa Rica. My address is (the addresses here are so funny) "25 meters north of the spare parts store". Some people actually live "150 meters east of where the church used to be". Yet, the taxi drivers know where to find it! My classes are at ULatina, which I thought was a 10 minute walk from my house, but it turns out to be somewhere between 5 and 7. I lucked out :)
• My first full day here I toured downtown San José with M.N. She took me to the sprawling supermarket, pointed out major landmarks like the National Theater, and we visited the hotel where P.N. works--the electricity was out when we arrived, which is apparently not uncommon here!
• I've discovered that people honk  their car horns all the time here. When they pass you on the left, if a cab driver sees a fellow cab driver, if they know you or want to get your attention, if you're standing on the corner and they want to "ask" if you need a ride, if they think you're sexy, if it's 5:11 on a Tuesday, etc. (That last one might be an exaggeration...)
• Although San José is a fairly dirty or grimy place, I love it here and think it is absolutely beautiful--to use Merijoy's words, "in its own forgotten way." There are parks full of green plants and amphitheaters, gutters overflowing with trash, it rains every afternoon and the broken or nonexistent sidewalks are slippery with water and motor oil, there are rats that I don't want to think about, and always some strange smell--but something on my walk home smells absolutely amazing, like someone on the second floor is constantly  baking. And I want to find out who they are and whether I can have some cake.
• The national beer, Imperial, is pretty good and fairly strong--my host parents took me out for a celebratory cerveza my first night here, and although I will not say I was actually tipsy, I was definitely happy but couldn't remember any Spanish.
• There are 20ish students in the group I am with (CIDH, International Center for Sustainable Human Development), and they are all pretty cool so far. We had our orientation at La Catalina, a mountain resort convention center with a beautiful view of San José, especially at night. Then we hiked around La Paz Waterfall Gardens and saw their monkey, bird, hummingbird, snake, frog, orchid and butterfly (my favorite one) exhibits. It was nice to be guaranteed to see some wildlife at least once while I'm here! Pictures of La Catalina and La Paz Waterfall Gardens aquí.
• I went to a nearby bar with Joe and Phil from the group one night, and it's a good thing we went to the one M.N. had suggested because our other choice--right across the street, Acapulco Bar--burned down while we were inside Ciros. 
• Sunday the  24th I woke up at 5:30 and met some friends in town to take a whitewater rafting trip down the Pacuare River near Cartago (S/SE of San José). The trip was amazing, classes 1-4 rapids, great guides, cold water, exhilarating with some relaxing parts, a lunch stop, swim stops, all the while in a jungle valley where you can see iguanas and three toed sloths (no ocelots this time), and tiny poisonous frogs. We went with Aventuras Naturales, a carbon neutral excursion group that was fairly expensive ($100+) but included transportation, rafting, breakfast, lunch, guides, equipment and transportation back to San José. I would definitely recommend this company! Picture aquí and some videos: that time I thought I was dead, playing in the water, and how rapids look up-close (said in an Australian accent).