Poas and the Coffee Plantation

Today we took a time of sight seeing and relaxation (although there wasn't much of that with all of the walking) to experience some of Costa Rica's natural beauty. We visited Poas volcano crater and also a coffee plantation. We had a great time!

The picture I posted on the blog of the crater was taken with us standing at 8500 ft altitude! You can see that the clouds are VERY close to us. It was really pretty but we are all exhausted.
When I finally made it to the top....for some reason I felt compelled to do the "Rocky" victory dance! Those of you who are Rocky fans will appreciate that....all others, well, rent the movie!
HAHA.

VERBS??? YUK!!!

Well, we started verbs this week. Just in case you are ever on jeopardy......there are 14 verb tenses in Spanish. We are having a good time in class each day taking turns actually putting a sentence together. Who would have ever thought that a group of adults would applaud one another's "They cook food in the restaurant" sentence? Oh well, I better go study my verbs!

A Day at Bosque

Bosque is a park about 4 blocks from our house. It is nicely shaded and has soccer goals, swings, and lots of fun stuff to play on. We walked down there today and let the girls burn off some energy! They very quickly made a few friends and Mark and I were able to visit with the parents. It was good spanish practice which we need a lot of right now!

As a cultural note, there are NO street signs anywhere in our neighborhood. You give directions by landmarks such as Bosque Park.

School Starts!!

Well, we started school last week. The girls are enjoying their classes very much. Mark and I are working hard to keep up daily! The classes are fun but challenging because 98% of each class is taught in SPANISH...go figure. The only problem is Mark and I don't understand about 99% of each class HA! We are working on it though and practicing with our neighbors and Tico friends. Mark had a good spanish lesson from the barber he went to this weekend....and a good haircut to boot!

Pray that we have ears to hear.

TEST???? YIKES!!!

Today we had placement test to determine our level of spanish in order to place in the appropriate class. I have never taken a test so fast!!! We had both oral/conversation and written. Let's just say after 2 minutes.....my work there was done!!! Mark and I walked out and got a big laugh. Needless to say we will be in entry level spanish TOGETHER! They asked me to do stuff in spanish that I can't even do in english......it's going to be a challenging year.

Hola from San Jose, Costa Rica!!

Ok, here we are! We are trying to get settled here in Costa Rica. It is really hard to get used to sunny 72 degrees in a valley surrounded by huge beautiful mountains....but we will try! HAHA
We had a great Christmas with family and friends and enjoyed seeing all of you that we were able to. Thanks for the emails and please continue to write us, we love to hear from home.