Finalmente, yo estoy en Tamarindo.

I got here two days ago, on Sunday. The whole trip was surprisingly short, I left at 6:30 from Fort Walton Beach airport, and arrived in Liberia airport around 12:30, Costa Rica time. When I got off the plane, I took an hour and a half bus ride to Villareal, which is the little town I will be staying in for the next 4 weeks with my host family. When I got to Villareal, my mama tica, Judith, took me up to her daughter, Enid's new ice cream store, where we spent the next few hours. When we got back to Judith's house, the two guys who are living with me at Judith's house got back from the beach. They are both in the Air Force Academy. After dinner, they went out to a bar up the road, near Enid's ice cream shop. I went to bed.

So yesterday, I didn't really do much of anything. I took the entrance exam and then spent 4 hours in class, like I will be doing every weekday for the next seven weeks. After class, I went to dinner with a group of kids who seem to hang out a lot. 9 of them are from the Air Force Academy and one of them knows of Elvira, which is pretty cool. After lunch, we split up and one of the girls who is also here for 7 weeks, Jessie, went to an internet cafe and I showed her where it was and then walked around town. I went back to the school and then went out for a welcome drink at a place called Portofino's. Jessie and I walked around for nearly an hour trying to find this place, and instead found every other Portofino's in Tamarindo, but we found it eventually. After the welcome drink, we got on the bus and went back to Villareal. We ate dinner (Judith makes AMAZING food.) and then the guys went out to a bar again. Apparently, they go out just about every night. They're crazy, but nice enough I suppose.

Today was the best day, by far. I went to class, but today, we had three new students. I don't know where they were yesterday, but whatever. Maybe they were in a different class. Anyway... these new people are kinda annoying, and yet... kinda funny. They talk in english a lot, which really annoys Tatiana, our teacher. After class, I went to lunch with some of the same people as yesterday. The Academy kids' sponsor was eating lunch with them. He seems pretty cool. He's a teacher at The Academy, and I wonder if he knows Elvira... After lunch, I went surfing. Me, surfing!! We were out there for at least two hours, and I stood up on the board, my very first day learning it! It was so cool. I fell quite a bit and swallowed A LOT of salt water, but it was so worth it to stand up on the surf board for those two or three seconds. Later tonight, I will be coming back to Tamarindo to go to a bar with the same kids I've been hanging out with. Apparently, there's going to be a live band playing, so it sounds pretty chill.

I will post pictures up eventually, I swear. :)

<3 Ashley