Quiere jugar?

Today marks the first official day of work and español classes. After yet another morning of cold showers, breakfast, and bugs all over the room, my roommates, Kendria and Shawanda, and I decided to walk to Maximo Nivel. I was too passionate during salsa lessons last night causing my sandals to break and my tennis shoes are still a bit wet from Drake Bay (NOTHING DRIES HERE), I wore my new flats. We started out on the 40 minute walk, chatting about our lives and things we are excited about for the future. My feet were hurting a bit and I figured I was developing blisters. A few blocks before Maximo, I decided to check my feet at a crosswalk. The back of my feet were dripping blood. I didn't want to say anything, I figured I would just deal with it at Maximo. Just then, I felt a tap on my shoulder. A Costa Rican woman led me over to a step and sat me down. I explained I didn't speak spanish but she insisted. She pulled tape, paper towels, and hand sanitizer out of her bag and started addressing the wounds. She covered the back of my feet with bandages after cleaning them. She surprised me when she started speaking english. "You need to go buy new shoes right away and clean the wounds." "Mucho gracias." It was nice to have a random person notice my situation, drop what they were doing, and help me. You wouldn't see that very often in the States.

I met Arielle at Maximo and right outside on the corner, there was a terrible car accident. Dad met us there and we all watched as firemen came to help free a passenger who was stuck in the car that had been hit. People were crowded around the scene of the accident, something that would never be allowed back in the states. They got the man out okay and he had large cuts all over his arms. It was a bit frightening.

At 9:00, I had my first spanish class. My teacher, Hilda, is a very sweet woman from Costa Rica. She speaks really great english and the first thing we worked on together were phrases I could use to speak to the kids at my site and at home. It was extremely helpful. By sheer chance, I'm the only one in the class so it's nice to get the one-on-one attention, especially because of how much I struggle with languages.

After class, Arielle and I took the hour bus ride to our site, Rayito de Luz. There were two other Maximo girls at Rayito de Luz, Charlotte and Claudia, who are from Manchester, England. We had fun talking to them and hearing about their experiences so far. The kids were crazy as ever; screaming, yelling, hitting, running. We did a lot of playing together. Dancing, coloring, and horsey were common games. We also played "pato pato ganso", or "duck duck goose", which was a lot of fun. The kids also loved my cell phone and played games on it. All the kids here are so sweet. I love this little girl, Angie. She's so sweet and loves to take my hand and lead me through the building. I pick her up and swing her around and we color together. She talks to me (although I don't understand much) and we have a nice time together. All the kids though are so wonderful. It's hard for me to think about the fact that most of them have no money or much love in their lives. I've only been here a day and I know it will be hard to leave.

The time at Rayito went quickly and we took the bus back to Maximo. Arielle and I waited for my roommate Paige so we could all go shopping. We were also able to meet up with Arielle's roommate, Kasandra. It ended up not working out so we all went out to Ichiban, which is a sushi restaurant. While it was a little expensive, it was nice to be out with friends at a nice place. After that, we went to a bar, Mundo Loco, and got piña coladas and daiquiris. It was a lot of fun hanging out with a group of girls and having a good time. After that, we all headed back to our homes and I hung out with my roommates and am headed to bed.