Off to Costa Rica

Hello friends and family!
This is my first post in quite a while and I'm writing because I'm going to Guanacaste, Costa Rica to teach English for the next three months. Today I took off to San José, the capital city.

I hurriedly finished packing and left my room a wreck (sorry again mom!). My grandfather took me to the airport and walked me through with his USO badge. He helped me balance out my 2 suitcases and backpack since one suitcase weighed 73 lb and the other one 30 something. Even after some shuffling, the larger bag weighed 54 pounds and ran the risk of costing me an extra $75. I took out my Spanish Bible and put it in my purse and moved my wooden wedge sandals to smaller suitcase, rounding one out to 51 and the other 49. My backpack is chock full of clothes and presents, not to mention my computer and iPad, but at least the checked suitcases are on their way with all the ESL books and packages for friends' families.

I was the last person to the board the flight and apparently the only standby passenger to make it on. The wait while during boarding was stressful because there were 0 seats listed as available, but every once in a whole that number changed to 2 or 11 and then suddenly changed back to 0. I kept getting my hopes up that I would get on the flight and after the last paying passenger boarded they called my name!


"Yes!" I exclaimed, wanting to be sure they knew I was there. The gate agent told me there was one seat but she had to be sure. So she called the flight attendants, but got no response. Then she walked back herself, came back and printed my boarding pass! I received seat 6B in the very last row of first class, on the aisle and seated next to a middle aged Hispanic gentlemen. I said hello and proceeded to send joyous texts to my family sharing the good news that I was on the flight.


Right before take off I took this shot of the Atlanta sunset. Thanks be to God for making the impossible happen and putting me on a flight with 0 seats!

My friend Keilin's parents will pick me up in San Jose tonight and we will leave on Sunday to drive to their house in Santa Cruz and then on to Palmira. On Friday I look forward to seeing a fellow Berry grad, Pablo, a tico who lives in San José and will start begin attending school there this spring.

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We arrived in San José 30 min ahead of schedule and the passenger next to me let me use his phone! He's tico and showed me pictures of his family ziplining while we talked on the flight. I got in touch with Keilin's dad, Jose, and he said to wait in the waiting area, but I didn't know where that was. Arnoldo my seat buddy stuck with me, helping me get my colossal bags off the belt and showing me where to stand to avoid the pestering taxi drivers. I waited about 10 minutes before spotting Keilin's oldest brother Josue driving towards me. I was overjoyed to see a familiar face. Marlen the mom also rode with us and we took a small tour of San José, seeing the national theater, stadium and historic churches.

After that we met up with Jose (the dad) and Ezequiel (middle brother) and ate "bocas" (tapas/appetizers) at a pollo cervecero (something like a brewpub but with chicken, I think!). We chatted and ate and drank and I'm finally now in bed at 1:30 am. I'm tired and feeling so relieved to have actually arrived!

Ubicación:Moravia,Costa Rica