First Update from Costa Rica

First of all, let me apologize for not updating my adventures here.  As you will find out, it has really been a whirlwind couple of days here.

I love my Tico family.  I live with a wonderful woman named Toni Lopez, her daughter Laura and her 23 year old son Daniel.  They are just so nice and really wonderful people.  I love living with them.  They are the ones that I practice my spanish with, but also learn more about myself.  I love spending my nights around the kitchen table with them.  We even watch Latin American Idol!  I can't believe my love for David Cook has brought me all the way down here for more Idol!

We have spent weekends at Poas Volcano, La Paz Waterfall, Manuel Antonio National Park and The Karahe Hotel and beach.  These trips have been nothing short of amazing.  We were able to see nature at its finest.  It is so cool to see how the people down here really revere nature.  There is just so much to see and so much to behold in nature.  I am finding that I love being outside more and more.  I just want to see and really feel all of my senses at work.  I think that is part of my class working on me, too.

I love my friends here.  I am the only guy, but it works out fine.  The girls are just wonderful people that I can learn with, have great conversations with, but also laugh and play with.

So, here is the big story.  Last week, we were robbed at gunpoint by 3 men in our neighborhood.  They took our cash, backpacks, cameras, ipods, credit cards, etc.  I was lucky and only lost my bag and some cash.  The girls werent so lucky.  We were walking home at dusk in our neighborhood.  It is really scary to have a gun in your face, knowing that if he slips or you make a wrong move, you could be dead.  

For a long time, we thought about leaving.  We still don't feel safe.  We still want Ticos that we trust with us all the time, etc.  However, I think we need to stay.  Maybe it is divine intervention, but I just think that it is the right thing to do.

Classes are great.  My professors are fun, but provocative.  My spanish is fast improving because I have a one on one with my spanish teacher.  His name is Dionisio.  Really a great guy, only 25 years old, too!

The people at my internship are wonderful as well.  I don't know what I'll be doing there because I havent done much yet.  Actually I went once, but all I did was read their annual report in spanish!

More to come some other time...Best