Upon Arrival

NOTE: CLICK ON THE PICTURES TO VIEW THEM IN A LARGER SCREEN

Wow. We have arrived in Costa Rica and what a amazing, crazy, and overwhelming fist couple of days it has been.

Upon arriving in at the airport we were welcomed by a Greg, the Director, Chris, the the high school Principal, and Maria Fernanda, a wonderfully helpful admissions coordinator. We loaded our bags into a one of the school’s buses. Which is nothing like the buses back in the states; it is much more like a large tourist van. Anyway, we then waited for a couple for more teachers to arrive, about an hour or so later we were off to our new home.

Sitting in the bus looking our the window at the tin roofs and blur of lights rush past I couldn’t help but try to picture what Vanessa and I’s house would be like. I imagined a tiny apartment building with a tin roof, small street dogs roaming past and large bugs in ever corner. I soon snapped out of my small dream when we pulled up to another teachers apartment complex and was taken aback by its size and overwhelming “niceness”. It had a gate with guards, trees, lights everywhere and a pool! My hopes started to climb. I thought: “If Vanessa and I get a place anything close to this…” As we sped off from the fist apartment complex, my mind kicked into high gear. We pulled onto a small side street with a houses lining both sides. We stopped at a gate and Maria Fernanda turned to us and indicated that this was to be our home for the next two years. I glanced out the bus window while grabbing a bag to see a wonderful courtyard/yard and a very large “house”. As it turns out, it is really a duplex and Andrea and Brandon, another couple from Denver, live on the other side!

At 11pm, Illias, the bus driver, backed the bus in an impossibly small gate and everyone hopped out and started to unload our bags. We were greeted by a charming carport with tiled floor with our front door looming.

As we approached our landlord, Jorge, unlocked our door for us and my eyes immediatly began to scan. The floor a great tan tile, a living room and dining room set, nice size kitchen with a charming patio out back…and a washer and dryer!

I then turned to see the amazing staircase leading to the second floor. Vanessa and I took these together.

They ushered us to a HUGE bathroom complete with a biday. Outside of that there is a great little sitting room/loft and off of that the guest bedroom and master bedroom, each of wich have huge closets. We were home.

After unpacking just a bit and making the pillowless bed and unsuccessfully trying to use our phone we crashed for the night knowing that we had to be ready to great the unfamiliar world of Escazu at 8am.

-M