I'm here!

Sorry I haven't updated since I got to Costa Rica on Saturday. My password has an ' in it, and apparently the Spanish keyboards do not. Anyway, I got in on Saturday afternoon and met my host family. The husband speaks English, so I can talk to him and ask him questions. They have two little kids: Marie and Federico. I am at about the same level as Federico since he is just learning how to talk, although I think he still understands more than I do. Another student in my program was also there to greet me. Kathy speaks English, but is actually from Taiwan. Saturday we went to downtown Santa Ana for...get this...an Onion Festival!!! For anyone who doesn't know, I have a bit of an obsession with onions, so I took this as a good sign. I am slowly learning enough Spanish to at least understand my host mother, which I guess is the result of 5 1/2 hours of class a day. It goes by fast since every two hours we have a meal. They eat all the time here, so now if I got longer than 3 hours without eating I feel like I'm starving. Ugh. Last night, Mark, one of the other students (there are only 3 of us right now, it's awesome) invited us to an Obama Fundraiser hosted by Democrats Abroad. Kathy and I got there an hour before Mark showed up, so it was totally awkward since you had to be on a list to get in. The group consisted of a bunch of middle aged and retired Americans, mostly from the East coast, that had moved to Costa Rica in the last few years. I heard someone say that the gathering cost $3000, and there were no more than 20 of us there. Needless to say, I'm sure my donation was the smallest of all. We got to drink lots of good wine and eat amazing food, watch the PA primary results roll in, and chat (in English!) with Americans.