First Day in San Jose!

Hello everyone! Here is a little information about my first day in Costa Rica. I got home late the first night and met my home stay family. They are all super friendly and helpful. There is madre who is the sweetest mom you would ever meet and she can cook! She knows a good amount of english which is really good because wow I totally forget all my spanish (not good)! However, they are all really patient and nice about it. Madre told me that her husband passed away two years ago but she seems to be doing ok. She has four children, three boys (27, 20, and 4) and one girl who is 9. They also have two other costa ricans who live in the house. There are also 5 students who live with us, Mark from South Carolina, Eric from Maine, Dan from Florida, Rob and me. Luckily with all those people we all pretty much have our own room! The house is actually like 2 houses with a courtyard in between and they also have a dog named Lilly. I slept OK last night but it was really easy to wake up with the bright sunshine filling my room and the birds chirping, I don't think I have ever heard birds chirp that loud. Then madre made us ham sandwiches for breakfast at 730 in the morning. Then we went to the university where we got our ids followed by an all day tour of San Jose. We rode a charter bus most of the day and walked a little bit. Most of the buildings where under 2 stories and bars on the windows. The most exciting part was that we got to drive past the president of Costa Rica's house. Then we walked through the park. You know how Cincinnati has pigs all over downtown, well Costa Rica has cows. They were really cool and usually funny. Then we went back to the university and we were done for the day so me and rob decided to walk to the market to get some bottled water and snacks. However, we didn't know it was going to pour the rain! I've never seen it rain so hard. When we finally got home Madre hung our clothes up to dry and we just chilled at the house till dinner. For dinner we had chicken burritos. They were delicious! For the rest of the night we just spent time with our host family talking and having a great time! I know realize what culture shock truly means. I've never been stared at or looking at differently walking down the street until today, but I wouldn't change anything. I appreciate this experience and will remember this day for the rest of my life.