I haven´t been able to post in the last few days because it is a bit difficult to get on the internet here. There are a ton of internet cafes (which, by the way, don´t serve coffee), but it is hard to find time to get to one. I´´, always busy during the day, working at the hospital, but I usually have nothing to do in the evenings. Because it gets dark here so early, it isn´t safe for me to walk to an internet cafe by myself at night. But, I´m here now, so here´s the update!

My host family is very nice, but they don´t speak a word of English. In the house there is the mother and the father, but they have friends come over a lot. The mother, Jarina, has her whole family living nearby. On Tuesday, I mer her brother and his family, who live down the street, her mom, sister, and step-people, who live next door, and her daughter, granddaughter, and son-in-law, who come over almost every night. Camila, her granddaughter, is so cute! She was helping me with my spanish the other day!

The house can get boring, but occasionally I get to watch Friends or Two and a Half Men (in english!). I´ve been able to read a lot. During the day, I get to explore San Jose and Guadelupe (the subdivision of San Jose I´m living in). Yesterday, Sarah, Rachel and I walked around the area around the hospital. We went into the National Theater (we´re hoping to see a show there sometime) and the Museum of Pre-Columbian Art. That was very interesting. Walking around, you will see a lot of people selling stuff (lotto tickets, colored bra straps...) on the streets.

The food here is somewhat disappointing. It is rice and beans at every meal. But, last night I got pasta, thank God! The weather is a lot like Florida here- hot, humid, and rainy! Last night there was a 6.2 magnitude earthquake at Quepos, a city on the Pacific coast. There were tremors in Guadelupe, but I didn´t even realize it.

Like I´ve said before, traffic is crazy here. The cars WILL NOT stop for pedestrians! So, you have to be very careful when crossing the road.

The hospital I´m working in is interesting. It isn´t like the hostpials at home at all. There are no private rooms, and everything seems a bit dirty. You have to go outside to get to another wing of the hospital. It is very sad to see all of the sick children. On Wednesday, my first day in the hospital, I had to take care of 2 crying babies for 4 hours- not a good day! Yesterday, I took care of a cute little baby that wanted nothing more than to play with an empty soda bottle, and a crazy little girl with down syndrome. The little girl, Tatiana would not sit still and would grab anything she could reach (my hair, shirt, her oxygen tube...). Still, she was so cute! The doctors made us leave her room after they found out that a patient in the room had epidemic influenza, or something like that! So, hopefully I don´t come down with the flu!

I´ve taken a lot of pictures, but I´m not able to upload them at the internet cafes or on my laptop. I´ll be staying in a hostel next weekend, probably, so I can hopefully post some pics once I get there.

Today we are going to walk around the National Park and maybe go out to dinner so I can get my first legal drink! Tomorrow we are going on a cruise to Isla Tortuga,


and on Sunday we are going to Vocàn Poàs- a volcano not too far from San Jose.



That´s all for now! Hasta luego!