first day of classes

Today was the first day of classes. My host mother took the bus with me to show me the ropes of the public transit system. I only had Spanish this morning and the professor seems great. All the people I have met connected to the USAC program are very nice and helpful. My host mother then came when I got out to show me where the bus stop was that I needed to go to to return home. There are no street names here. Everything is related to by km and landmarks. For example for their address they may say: 50km N of Pops (ice-cream place), etc. This is why all our mail is sent to a PO Box for USAC and then one of the directors brings it to their office where we have our own mailboxes. My address is:

Esther Shively
P.O. Box 541-3000
Heredia, Costa Rica

Anyway, got a little off subject. The bus I took today costs 320 colones (about 60 cents) and it is the expensive bus. I get on 1 block from my house and off right in front of the university. To go back home I have to walk 4 blocks over and 4 blocks down (I don't know which direction that is yet).

I have a long enough break from classes to come home for lunch. I went back this afternoon to check out another class which was at the Public Library. When I left there I knew how to get back to the bus station but wasn't for sure if I got on the right bus. I just kept praying that it was and that it would stop at the right place where I needed to get off. I was pretty worried because they don't stop at every station unless there is someone there or someone signals to get off. There was no cord to pull on this bus like the previous one and I didn't see a button to push. As we went right past the stop at my street I told the girl sitting next to me that I needed to get off (in espanol). Apparently someone else signalled the bus to stop and I got off one block down the street and all was okay.

My schedule:
Monday: Spanish 8-10:30am
Tuesday: Spanish 8-10:30am, Tropical Ecology 1-3:45pm, Latin American Cuisine 4-6pm
Wednesday: Latin American Cultures 1-4pm
Thursday: Spanish 8-10:30
Friday: Spanish 8-10:30

The reason I have a lot of Spanish classes is that it is actually three 3 credit classes in 3 months: Spanish Comp 1, Spanish Comp 2 and Advanced Spanish. Each class is about 1 month long.

We have our first field trip this Saturday to the INBIO Parque and Irazu volcano.