Bienvenidos a Costa Rica!

We are currently in Tres Rios, an area about 45 minutes away from the Costa Rican capital, San Jose. We flew in this afternoon with the rest of the 45 new Peace Corps Trainees. We were picked up and driven immediately out to our "retreat" center at Tres Rios, which has turned out to be a really nice spot with lush greenery, tons of noisy birds and ample conference rooms. Kevin and I have our own room, whereas all of the other volunteers (except for the one other couple) has to share rooms bunk-bed style. We're happy to have our private space!

Today at the retreat we had a brief informative session about the events of the next few days, which include quite a bit of basic training, a language proficiency interview, health and safety training, and some cultural introductions. It should be fun. Our trainers seem really friendly and totally competent. By Saturday we will have been placed in our training groups (according to our Spanish abilities) and will be headed to meet our new host families. Kevin and I will hopefully be living together with the same host family, but it's still not for sure. (Cross your fingers for us!) It's been a lot of fun getting to know the other volunteers though and I am definitely looking forward to some more small-group activities in the near future to build some tighter bonds.

It feels a little wild actually being in Costa Rica at last, but I think we're adjusting well. I'm looking forward to seeing the sun tomorrow! Neither one of us has spoken much Spanish yet since we've been around a bunch of Americans and English-speaking trainers, but Kevin and I are both looking forward to chances to practice our skills.

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