Tough week so far, but its looking up

So the week started out with 4 exams in 2 days with very little study time: Monday and Tuesday both we had 2 hour long Spanish classes which felt very pointless when we really needed time to study. We had spent the weekend with host families and so were a bit burned out on Spanish anyway. And the weekend was another reason why we didn’t have time to study, we were with our families, practicing Spanish and learning about Costa Rican culture. So the time we didn’t have something scheduled in, we basically studied like crazy people. And now they are over, but I think the last couple of days have been my worst here in Costa Rica. Yesterday all I wanted to do was go home. Today I’m a lot better, but I think I had some culture crash/shock this weekend that carried on into the week: I didn’t want to speak Spanish anymore, I didn’t want to eat rice and beans anymore, etc. I ended up talking with our student coordinator and she had studied in the US and had culture shock as well, and so made me feel a bit better. But this plus the stress of exams just made life extremely difficult for a bit. I did my best on the exams I feel like I could have in the amount of time allowed. But now, it is all over and I have a glorious field trip ahead of me!!! We are headed to Monteverde and Volcan Arenal and have evenings off to go explore the towns we are staying in. AND there might even be the possibility of a hot shower at the hotel we are staying at! : ) And today was really good as well, after the exams I watched Gladiator by myself and just let all the stress exit my body.

Oh! I really miss autumn, they don’t have season changes here in the same way as we do. So, if you could email me some pictures of the beautiful leaves this time of year, that would be great ☺

Sorry I haven’t blogged about my homestay weekend yet, I promise I will get around to that!