Hablo espanol? uhhhhh nope

Day 5 - Thursday the 7th

Hola! Sorry there is no pics yet but I promise to add some soon! We are still kicking it at the retreat center in Tres Riowwws. Tomorrow they are finally letting us out, to Cartago we go! Can not wait! It will be are first time out on our own and really are first time to be immersed in this wonderful culture. 

So today we ended up not meeting the Ambassador but the Deputy Chief of Mission, or the next guy in charge. It was great listening to his views on the country, and understand Costa Rica's challenges and needs a little better.  For all of you thinking that I will be living in a resort doing what some call the "Posh Corps" that is not the case at all.  What people do not understand is that although Costa Rica is a playground for rich and retired foreigners and full of expats, these are not the conditions of the majority of the country. I will be in the "other" parts. I will touch on this subject later.

Today was also the day we did the initial split of the language groups, this is where they separate the men from the boys.  I have been established, as long as a few of my wonderful counterpart, as one of the worst Spanish speakers here. Many of the people here either come from a Spanish speaking home or have studied Spanish in one or even multiple Spanish speaking countries. And I, well,  have not. Much to my pleasant surprise, I found my self in a group with many others around my spanish level, which I have found is low or "beginner".  While the more advanced groups were busy making up elaborate stories my group was playing hot potato, where the person it ends on has to answer a question. The questions were not suppose to be difficult but for my group it was. There was a lot of laughing, crappy spanish, hopeful answers, and more laughing. 

Meeting with my group really eased my mind. It is really intimidating not knowing the language yet, because after our 10 week Pre Service training we are required to be at an Intermediate-mid level in order to be sworn in. This means it is time to learn Spanish…now! It is very comforting to see the others at my level and know others have been at my level in the past and have made it! Tomorrow we will continue to split up the groups until we are all in groups based on our program, mine being Community Economic Development )CED, and our language level. We will eventually be in groups of 5 or so and based on that we will be placed in our training communities. Luckily I have some fabulous people in my group and I look forward to living in the same community. Well….more to come later.

Pura Via

Michaela