First day in Costa Rica....

I arrived in Costa Rica at the San Jose airport at 2:00. While I was flying in, I could just barely see out the window because I had an aisle seat. But I did see TONS of mountains from the air. They are everywhere, and they are huge. They are nothing like the Appalachians, they begin much more abruptly and are covered in jungle. Other than that, and the jungle that covers everything, it looks very much like the United States from the air. I did see a shanty town, or "slum" about a mile from the airport. The living conditions just looked very cramped and unsanitary.

Once I arrived, I found that my luggage bag was ripped down the side. My clothes were falling half out, so I am guessing that I will have to purchase a new luggage bag somewhere here. We then had to wait an hour for our bus to arrive to take us to Heredia. Once in the bus, I was able to see much more of Costa Rica from the street level point of view. Heredia is a large city but is very cramped. Streets get very narrow and there are a lot of people roaming around. The jungle and the city meet at many points and in an abrupt manner. Sometimes it is little more than a brick wall separating city from miles of jungle. There are taco bells, mcdonalds, burger kings and wendy's on one avenue, and on others there are lots of shoe stores, clothing departments and other businesses. We then got dropped off at the university where our family picked us up and took us to their home. People drive crazy here! They speed around corners and drive like crazy. I was amazed at the rain to start out with. It was raining right out of the airport and ended about an hour afterwards. it's always just a light drizzle, but there is a lot of it. I could taste the air as well as I breathed it in. It is much sweeter and feels healthier. One thing that amazed me is the graffiti. There is graffiti all over the place, and it was really weird to see it in Spanish. None of this is to give you the impression that Heredia is a poor city. It is very middle-class and technology is everywhere. It's just a very cramped and busy place, but for no reason would I call it poor. The house I am staying in is very small, nothing like the paper made me imagine. It is very tight but very, very homey. They have a little dog that is blind, but very kind. Sorry if this blog post is choppy and organized poorly, but I am very busy and have a lot to think about right now. I will give you more information later. Love you guys. Will post pictures later, but for now I am tired and want to get orientated. Love you and talk to you later.