Arriving in Costa Rica

After packing, repacking and weighing my suitcase about 20 times to make sure it fit the weight limit, I have arrived in Costa Rica. I wore two layers of clothes through the airport so that my suit case would be exactly 40 pounds. Carrying my sweatshirt, cameras, purse and wearing my backpack full of goodies... I was ready to just arrive. We landed in San Jose and got our first Costa Rican meal at a cool local resturant that was about 20 miles away from the airport. I was lost on what to order so I just kind of pointed and hoped that I was going to like it. The food was very different then what we were use to but it was really fun to try all the new foods. After lunch we all piled in a van to head to our first destination. My first stop is the UGA Costa Rica Campus in Monteverde. This is the view from campus looking over the valley and it is just breathtaking!

In order to get up to the Monteverde de San Jose Valley we had to wind up very narrow, bumpy roads for 3 hours. The view was amazing the whole way up but I laughed thinking about if my mom and little brother were in the van with me. My mom would be nervous about the driver getting too close to the edge and Kyle would have been motion sick within the first 10 minutes. It was quite the drive but well worth it. We had orientation here once we arrived and I was shocked to hear that it is likely to wake up in the morning to monkey's on the back deck of our bungalows. We thought they were joking until some of the people from the other groups here told us that they thought that too until they saw the monkey's themselves. With that being said... I could wake up to a monkey on my deck in the morning.

We got our room assignments as soon as we got here and there are four of us to each room. Luckily, I was blessed to have an incredible group so it will be fun rooming with each of them at our different stops. Our group has already started to really bond and get to know each other which has been eye opening to see how so many diverse people can get along so well. Costa Rica is breathtaking and I will add more posts and pictures later! To my family, I miss and love you!!