February 21, 1998

Dear MacDuff,

I hope life has been looking up for you, after your car & everything. So far I've been in Costa Rica for a week, & I love it! I got here last Friday with the other AFS students from the USA, & our host families picked us up on Saturday. I'm living in San Isidro (about 150km southwest of San Jose, the capitol) with my host family. My mom is a teacher at the university & my dad has a business downtown (a cloth store) & I have a 13 year old host brother who's obsessed with soccer & basketball :-) I got here on Saturday, & I started school on Tuesday! Veronica, who lives just across the street, goes with me to & from school, & we have the same classes. She's really nice, & between my Spanish & her English we get along pretty well. All the teachers are nice & all the students are too. That's one major difference from the USA, people like you here cos you're different, not dislike you or be afraid of you like happens in the US, at least in my school.

School is different here than in the US; basically you stay in one room & the teachers move around, & the school day is 7:00 a.m. to 5:20 p.m., but you don't go all day every day. I don't go at all on Saturdays & only 3 hours on Thursday, & only 5 hours on Tuesday, but MW&F are 7:00 to 5:20, which means I leave at 6:30 & don't get home until 6:00 in the evening, & that's a 11-1/2 hour day! We wear uniforms at school (dark & light blue) & I don't mind that at all, cos 1) I don't have to decide what to wear when I get up at 5:30 a.m. & 2) Everyone dresses alike. I'm taking lots of classes, & I've had some of them before, but since their all in Spanish, I'm learning lots! I have Physics & Chemistry & Biology & Spanish & English (whee!) & Costa Rican History & Math (about Algebra II level) & Computers & gym & art...I'm s'pose to have Philosophy too, but as far as I understand, there isn't a teacher so it's just a free hour now.

It's hot here, approx. 85-90 every day, & air conditioning is non-existent. Coming from Northern Michigan, I never thought I would enjoy having to take cold showers, but I do! I do like this heat better than the subzero temps that I left in Michigan.

It's weird to me to watch TV in Spanish...at home I usually don't watch it at all, but here I'm not online...so I need something to fill time sometimes! Half the shows are from the U.S...."Rosanne" was just on, it's so weird to hear Spanish & see her lips moving, it doesn't fit! There is a lot of influence from the US in music & TV here; like the #1 song last week was "My Heart Will Go On" from Titanic...and Titanic isn't even out here yet! I love all the differences though; they're what makes it so interesting to be here!

Communicating in Spanish is hard, but I'm getting better. My English teacher at school is helping me a lot, cos I can ask him questions in English & he can explain to me in English stuff that I don't understand. I wouldn't survive without my dictionary though, but it doesn't have all the Bio & Chem terms in it. (I've already taken Bio & Chem, though, so it isn't too bad).

Sometimes I wonder why I'm here, but most of the time I'm really happy & I know that even though I can't understand the commercials on TV, that it will be ok. At school, a lot of the kids know some English, so we communicate pretty well, but at home they don't know much English, so everything depends on my Spanish.

On Tuesday I'm getting together with the other six AFS students in San Isidro; I don't know any of them yet, but two of them are from Canada, so they'll speak English & I might even be close to them in the US, cos I live right next to Canada. That, of course, depends on where they live in Canada! Oh, on thing I'm not getting used to, they eat a lot! Like four times a day & a lot every time. It's hard to explain that I do like the food, I just can't eat as much as they're used to! I'll survive, but I bet that I gain weight :-P Guess that just means I should exercise more...there's a solution to every problem, I just might not like doing it! :-) That's me, lazy!

February 26, 1998

Are you watching the solar eclipse?! I hope so, it's really neat! It's not total here, but more than 3/4 covered.

On Tuesday, I met the other AFS students in San Isidro. Three of them go to my school & I didn't even know it! There are 2 from Quebec, Canada and 1 from Japan, Thailand, New Zealand & Norway, & me. They're all girls & we're all going to be taking Spanish lessons together on Tuesdays & Thursdays from 4:00-6:00, for three months! (The eclipse is at it's maximum; I just went and looked at it again!) I have the first lesson today, I'll let you know how it goes later today!

Watching the eclipse makes me think of what people must have thought before they knew that it was the moon covering the sun. To me, it's just a gorgeous phenomenon, but it must have been terrifying when they didn't know what it was! Here, it's darker out and colder, I'm not objecting to either of those! Usually it's in the high 80s to upper 90s here & really really bright out, so this is nice!

Change of topic now...ya know what's really really funny? Watching "Rosanne" & "Home Improvement" (& lots of others) in Spanish! Hearing Spanish & seeing Rosanne's lips move really really doesn't fit!!! :-) I saw Four Weddings & a Funeral in Spanish, too. There's a lot of influence here from the USA on TV & in music.

Have you ever read a book titled Voyage From Yesteryear? (By James P. Hogan) It's really very good! I only brought a few books with me, some Shakespeare, Voyage from Yesteryear, and a Jack Higgins novel I bought in the Miami Airport, Drink with the Devil. If you ever have a chance, read it. It's got some really thought-provoking topics in it, if you don't just skim through it purely for pleasure. It's science fiction, but it's pretty philosophical. Anyway, I recommend it to you!

I don't have school today, 'cos of parent-teacher meeting things. So, I'm going out with my host mom & Veronica (a pal from school who lives across the street) before my AFS Spanish class.

March 2,1998

I gotta end this & send it, or I never will! Write back & you'll hear from me again for sure! I saw a volcano last weekend, it was great :-) Please say hi to people on-line (Locke, ana, mn, moulton, puck kalany, katulu & everyone else!) And feel free to give anyone my address if they ask for it. I miss you!

Love,

Heather