Well, here I am. I am writing this on Saturday night, having just arrived and gotten settled into the house.

                I guess I’ll do things logically, and talk about my trip first. 

                My trip from Kansas City to Newark was uneventful, except for stress-induced nausea.  But, after a while at the Newark airport, I started feeling better.  My trip to Costa Rica from Newark was pretty good. I decided to shell out the six bucks to watch tv on the plane ride. I’m glad I did. I ended up watching Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, followed by most of The Dark Knight.

                Now, lest you think I was just starting at a tv screen the whole time, I saw what was quite possibly the most beautiful sunset I’ve ever seen while we were up in the air. It went from pink to orange to yellow-ish, to an almost green color, to sky blue, to KU blue (Rock chalk!), to navy blue to nearly black, all at once, moving from bottom to top. It was absolutely amazing.

                Once we got close to San Jose, I could see the lights of the city. They were beautiful.

                After getting off the airplane and getting through customs and everything else smoothly, I grabbed my bags and met mi mama y hermana. They both pointed out places of interests as we drove home, including museums, hospitals (including the national children’s hospital and the oldest hospital in the country), and a number of gorgeous churches.

                Before today, I don’t feel that I ever truly understood the feeling of your eyes trying to soak up as much as possible. I wanted to look at everything; every billboard, street sign and person on the sidewalk. 

                It was very odd. When we were closer to the airport, if I ignored the street signs, I could almost see myself as being in a Hispanic district of Kansas City. Most of the signs were in both Spanish and English, a few in English only.  Then, seemingly out of nowhere, we would pass by a palm-type tree, something you would never see in KC.  As we got farther from the airport, I saw more Spanish and less English.  Then, just when it got slightly overwhelming and I felt like I may never see something that seemed familiar, there was a Quizno’s.  I saw a KFC sign in Spanish, which may have been (to my adjusting mind) the weirdest thing I saw on our trip home.  We passed by a skating rink and a few Taco Bells.  I noticed both a Japanese and an “Oriental” restaurant.  There are ads for “La cerveza de Costa Rica”, Imperial, EVERYWHERE. 

                Like I said, it was a bit of a culture shock, but I also saw some familiar things. I saw a number of young people on the sidewalks, hanging out or going to clubs, as you would in any big city on a Saturday night. The cheesy neon Chinese or Japanese symbols that you would see above most Asian restaurants in the US were present here as well.

                Well, as much as I’d love to keep talking, I think I’ve reached the point of tiredness will no longer function. (As illustrated in the previous sentence, in which I meant to write “where my brain” between tiredness and will.  No, I did not do that intentionally.)  So, on that note, I’m going to head to bed.   I’m sure I’ll post more later!