You just heard Spanish "in the wild!"

...Brian said to me as we made our way off the plane. One of the flight attendants had waved us off with a pleasant "buenos noches" and a smile, and as we walked off the tarmac and toward the airport, I realized -- we'd made it! We were actually here in Costa Rica. And so begins our year-long adventure in San Jose, learning Spanish "in the wild." Not because the country itself is wild, but because we are finally outside the classroom, away from our books-on-tape, and actually living and breathing Spanish for the next year. ¡Que bueno!

After arriving last night - with all six suitcases arriving at the same time as we did! - we couldn't find the cab driver we had booked to pick us up so we got a cab at the airport and headed into downtown San Jose to check into our room. For the next month, we'll be staying here, at the Clarion Hotel, in a neighborhood known as Barrio Amón. In the few weeks, we'll meet with a realtor and start looking for an apartment to move into in November.

It was pretty late by the time we arrived, so we checked in, and checked out for the night. After a great night's sleep, we woke up this morning and grabbed some breakfast in our hotel; it's free!



You can see the basics of our day here: reading La Nacion (with a dictionary in hand!), a San Jose map for our 3-hour walk around the city today, and an awesome buffet with arroz con frijoles (rice with beans), juevos (eggs), cafe con leche (coffee with milk), salchichas (sausages), and sandía (watermelon). So good and just what we needed to kick-off our day of exploring this new city of ours.

We walked all the way from our hotel to El Parque Metropolitano La Sabana - more than 8 kilometers (about 5 miles!) - was definitely a great way to see a good part of the city and stretch our legs after a long trip.

Later today, we'll head out to try to find a local mercado (market) and get some food for our hotel room.

¡Hasta luego!