The end of month one

Hola! 

My teacher and I, Tatiana! 

I guess I'll start be recapping this last week. Thursday was our last day of classes and we also received our final grades too. I made a 95 overall in the class! I was pretty darn proud of myself. These tests we took were pretty challenging and I honestly studied more for these tests than I do back home which brought me to a conclusion; I really do want to learn Spanish. At first, I was honestly down here just to get the credits and to get the travel experience. Now that I'm starting to get the hang of the basics, I have realized I truly do want to learn it. I don't want to learn it just for the credits, I want to learn it and to be able to use it for something. I met a woman the other day who was fluent who didn't start learning Spanish until she was 50...so heck, if she can do it, so can I.

On Thursday, we all went out and spent one last night together and to celebrate being done with classes. The next day, a few of my friends and I decided to make a day trip out to the Multiplaza Mall which is on the outer part of San Jose, about a 20 minute taxi ride. I'm not quite sure what part of San Jose it's really in and but the area seemed pretty swanky. It kind of seemed live the Beverly Hills of San Jose. The mall itself was one of the nicer ones I've ever been to, even compared to the states. It had a Forever 21 so I was a happy gal :) I got a little shopping fix in.

The mall was huuuuuge. We spent a good while walking around and I don't even think we saw everything. We decided to go see the new Will Smith movie "After Earth" in the theater inside the mall. Not the best Will Smith movie, but it was pretty cool since parts of it were filmed in Costa Rica. By the time we walked around, ate lunch and saw the movie, it was already close to 5:00 and we needed to get back to our host families for dinner.

Multiplaza Mall 

Yet AGAIN, as we were getting in the taxi to go home, the taxi driver drove off while I was only half way in. Seriously, we'll be lucky if I make it out of San Jose without any serious injuries. Thankfully I wasn't hurt this time but it was a close call. I made it back for dinner and spent the rest of the night packing and getting ready for my trip with my parents. 

My class (minus one) with our "diplomas" 

Saturday, we all met on campus for our little "graduation"and to say our goodbyes. The school provided a lunch for us that was realllly good. Maybe even one of the best meals I've had here. Most of my friends flights were leaving the next day but I had to meet my parents at the airport so I had to say all of my goodbyes there. It's strange knowing there is going to be a whole new group to get to know but I'm excited for it! I was very lucky to have made the friends I did this past month. I can only hope I'll have the same experience this time. I've also got a few friends who will be staying for the 2nd month too which I'm really excited about. Despite saying goodbyes, I was so excited to see my parents and couldn't wait to get to the airport!

My roommate Jasmia and I 

New friends :) 

I left campus and got a taxi to the airport which was about a 35-40 minute ride. My dad had arrived the day before so we were going to meet there in order to pick up my mom who was arriving that afternoon. My dad was paying for my taxi so I left all my things in the taxi and went and looked for him. You know those moments in the movie when the kid see's his/her parent and they just run towards them screaming? Yeah, thats definitely what I did. I just let out a big, "Daddy!!!" and ran as fast as I could to him. Even though it hasn't been that long, it was so good to have a little piece of home. We got my things and then went to the arrivals to wait for my mom to get off her flight. Seeing my mom was a similar situation and once we were all together it was just a really good feeling :)

I'll be posting the blog post of our trip in Manuel Antonio here in the next few days! I took a lot of pictures so I've got to go through them all and do my edits.