Las trabalenguas

Tongue-twisters
First day of classes! Here's a few pictures of Veritas University. ¡Es bonita! It's pretty!

These are little open-aired areas to sit and eat that I'm obsessed with!

Anyway, I thought today would never end. However, my teachers are Tico through and through. We're on "Tico Time," which means that classes have several breaks and start late. My kind of schedule! Tropical Medicine seems to be an interesting course. My teacher is actually a practicing physician in Costa Rica. In Costa Rica, doctors go straight to medical school after high school. It only took him 6 years!! Not to mention that one semester at his public university cost about 70,000 colones...that's about $150!! Crazy. Anyway, we learned about the "sistema de salud" (health care system) as well as the indigenous peoples. I think the class is going to be very interesting! After that class, we have an hour break for lunch. I walked across the street with some friends and had an amazing lunch of Casado..

¡Este es delicioso! Casado is the typical dish of Costa Rica. It entails rice, beans, salad, meat, plantain, etc.  After lunch comes the killer...5 hours of Medical Spanish with a professor that only speaks Spanish. In addition, there's only 4 girls in my class, including me. It's going to be challenging, that's for certain, but the professor is funny and tries to make it interesting with different activities. Today, we focused on pronunciation. I never realized how important it is to know the letters and emphasis on each one! My homework for tonight is to ask a Tico to teach me a Spanish "trabalenguas," or tongue-twister. My tongue feels like it might roll into a knot! After the long day of classes, my friend Sam and I decided to try out a Yoga class that Veritas offers. It was actually pretty challenging! The teacher required us to use each other for balance...yet another representation of the Costa Rican concept of personal space. I had to hold the hairy leg of the girl next to me...ew. I then came home, grabbed a quick dinner, and Sam, Darrian, and I went to a dance class also put on by Veritas! It was a blast! We learned the salsa, merengue, and a Colombian dance. Watch out Ticos!