Welcome to Costa Rica

Sigh. I have arrived. I am thrilled to say that the campus, program, housing, town, and beach exceeded my expectations. I am overwhelmed with love from the new people in my life. It's truly amazing that we are all here at the same time, for the same reason, with no distractions.  It's a great feeling to know that we are all meant to be here together.  You can imagine how close a group would feel to one another in a remote setting, on a private campus, in a small and extremely unique setting.. and then add massage therapy to the equation.. basically it's been 4 days, and it's unanimous that it feels like we've known each other for months. The internet has been down/extremely weak for about 3 days now, so I'll have to backtrack a little.  

Getting to Costa Rica was a lot more efficient than I expected.  I left home, stayed over in Boston, left at 5:30am.. left Miami at 10:25am.. arrived in Liberia, CR at 12:20pm.. the entire travel experience was smooth. I was also surprised and glad that I wasn't emotional when leaving home or flying.. I think my emotions have been somewhat stable simply because I was ready.  Immigration and customs was a breeze, as soon as I stepped out of the plane my face was hit with warm wind and I was funneled through a very small airport. Immigration, customs, baggage claim, and then I found the man holding the sign for CRSMT.  He helped me with my bags, offered me cold agua, and lead me to sit in an air conditioned shuttle van. There I waited for over an hour as 6 more students climbed into the shuttle one by one.  Once we were all accounted for, we drove 2 hours to Samara and arrived at our campus for the first time. Our first night in Costa Rica we all went out to dinner at a restaurant on the beach, we sat at a long, strong and beautiful wooden table. I had a blackened fish sandwich and salmon sashimi with an imperial beer.. everything was delicious and reasonable. In addition, my stomach hasn't felt sick or off since I've been here, which is saying a lot for me.. hoping that means the food is fresh and clean. 

I'm just starting to get used to the money exchange, most places will take american dollars, or visa credit card, but it's just easier to pay with colones.  For every $1 it's 500 colones.. so I've been thinking 'how many 500's fit into my total?' but it's much easier to double your price and take away some 0's.. example: 10,000 colones.. double that is 20,000.. take away some 0's and it's $20 dollars. You can imagine my confusion when my grocery bill was 16,000!? ($32.. get it?) I think every thousand is also called a MIL, so my grocery bill was 16 MIL. It always sounds like I'm spending a lot of money? But that's not the case, it's comparable or less expensive.  My second day here I just went to the ATM and got colones that way.  The campus is nestled right in the town, so everything is close.  The bank is just outside the gate, the grocery is right across the street, and the beach is directly in front (about a 1 minute walk). Perfect. 

My second day in Costa Rica was orientation for the program. Our central classroom is unreal. It's a beautiful outdoor circular classroom, with strong wooden floors, no walls, no shoes allowed, a tall cone ceiling similar to a yurt, surrounded by lush greenery, dogs, and monkeys. Orientation began with a dreamy yummy breakfast of watermelon, papaya, pineapple, quiche, muffins, and fresh orange juice.  I found my name, and a big CRSMT binder and a gift bag was placed at my seat.  Inside was a nail clipper, nail file, tongue scraper, breath drops, hand sanitizer, emergenC's, Yogi teas.. and bunch of other massage therapist goodies.