Costa Rica!

So Sarah got Mrs. Farrell to pull some strings (that woman can talk herself into anything and anywhere) and got past DIA security to say good bye! She actually ended up sitting in front of me for the flight to Miami and we had lots of fun calling people and leaving messages (Mrs. Farrell also got them to let us use a cell phone in flight, isn´t she great!?)




Flights were long but I managed. I wandered around the Miami airport for a while before I ran into some college aged looking kids. We ended up sitting in a corner of the airport waiting for the LASP intern. p.s. I heard more spanish spoken in miami airport than english





In the airport and arriving in Costa Rica. There were a Lot of us!



We stayed in Christian compound. I was in a room by myself. or was I?



The girls had come to keep me company on my first night in Costa Rica! They all slept in one bed.

Last Night in Colorado

I was a little surprised when I got this note the night before I left. Apparently Hannah and others had come to visit me on my last day in Colorado. I was a little unsure what she meant by ¨Check Outs.



However it became apparent very soon that Hannah wanted to have a lot of fun before we left!



Lauren got a little carried away and did some wild things. We ended up finding her hiding in my Christmas tree. As you can see she was pretty wound up.



Sarah was not going to have any of these Shinanigans and decided to go to bed, but had trouble sleeping with all the noise.



It was a pretty crazy way to spend my last night in Colorado and we had a lot of fun, but I think some of us (like Lauren) will need to be more careful so there isn´t a repeat of the next morning.

Time flies when you have no idea what is going on.

As things go here I haven’t had a lot of time to sit down by myself and type up anything. The little time I have to myself on a computer I have been using to write a three page paper in Spanish about my family. The prompt asked us not to simply ask questions and then state facts but to then synthesize the interview of our host family. I can’t even say facts in Spanish yet so synthesize was a little bit difficult. Spanish class is good, if not basic. We just finished ser, estar, tener, haber, hacer so we have a lot to go, but you know, that’s what a 3 ½ HOUR LONG SPANISH CLASS EVERYDAY ACROSS TOWN is for. Had my first test and got an A. (I am not entirely sure if I should have because we grade our own tests and we had varying answers for open ended questions and all she gave us one answer so… whatever I marked the ones wrong I knew were wrong.) My base seminar for LASP (if you ever get a chance, ask a native speaker to say LASP, it is entertaining, and more entertaining when you entire family is sitting around talking about your program and trying to pronounce it) is engaging to say the least. Perspectives on Latin American History and Contemporary Issues (or “that class in the morning” as we affectionately call it) is challenging how I view biblical history (we had a great speaker missionary who has a doctorate in linguistics and awesome knowledge of everything bible) and (North, Central, South) American history. Apparently Columbus did a lot of really bad stuff and was not a very nice guy at all, but you just don’t get that kind of information from the sciences.
On to non-academic and more important things; I have forgotten if I mentioned the Messiah guys who stayed with me yet. Well if I haven’t, then they are great, and if I have, then they left on Monday so I am officially the only English speaking person in this house. Last Saturday, I went to the farmers market with my parents and it was an amazing mix of color, tastyness, and some kind of juice I should have never tried. I don’t have pictures of it but maybe someday I will take a few. It has been unusually cold in Costa Rica. The upper 60s or so on average, but don’t worry, it has started to warm up. I think I mentioned that I live next to a cemetery, it is pretty, again, I will take pictures of it soon.
Dan Mac, if you are reading this, then I have managed to find computer and email your dad. Chelsea and I tried to flatter him with nice words about how much he knows about Costa Rica and so we are hoping to get a hold of him. (Side note: Phil if you are reading this then you should know that the brother that I never talk to listens to your kind of music all the time and sings along. For instance, right now he is doing it and I am kind of getting a headache). This weekend was a blast but I will try to write another post for it. Tomorrow Janelle and I (and whoever we run into or call) are exploring more of San Jose by visiting the Butterfly Garden. I appreciate everyone who has sent emails, I flash drive them all to my computer and read them again when I am missing Gordon and home.

Left for the airport around 6am in the morning. I got everything checked in alright. This is kind of boring so I will skip ahead. I arrived in Miami and was suppose to meet an contact person at the check in desk for American Airlines. Unfortunately, American Airlines has 3 MASSIVE check in desks covering a good 1/3 of a football field. I wandered around being overwhelmed by Spanish. Probably about 70% of all conversations in the Miami airport are in Spanish. Eventually I saw a bunch of students sitting a circle and they looked slightly older than college students so I walked up hoping someone would say something. Luckily at that moment Janelle walked up and she let me know that we were suppose to have orange tags on our luggage so anyone with an orange tag is LASP (Latin American Studies Program). I missed/probably forgot this packet in Boston memo. Sat around in a corner of the airport for a couple of hours before we got our tickets for the plane. Biggest plane I have ever been on. One of those with two seats on the left and the right and four in the middle. Flight went alright blah blah blah. The airport was really busy especially with 48 Norte Americano students running around. Took a bus to a Christian compound where we slept. The next morning we had orientation and my Spanish immersion began because I sat at a table with one of the program directors who evaluates our Spanish and is a native speaker. Thankfully there was a girl at my table who was fairly fluent so I could listen most of the time and say something basic when I wanted to. More Orientation. The time came to meet our families and what they did was walk around with a guys pile of sheets and we just picked out a piece of paper with our host families name and information on it. Then 10 minutes later we met them and left for our house. Some family info:

My mom: Albertina (Tina) 53 Housewife
She doesn’t speak any English at all and the first question she asked me after I told her what my name was “What is your Spanish name.” Because of the double vowel in the beginning it is really hard to pronounce my name in Spanish. I didn’t know what to say so I explained my middle name was Paul and she has now decided to call me Pablo. Janelle and Chelsea have also decided to call me Pablo
My dad: Mario 56 Retired
I think he used to be a professor and I know you use to fix a lot of electronics. He has decided to lead the way in teaching me Spanish and often he will spend an entire hour explaining one word but he really wants me to learn and is extremely patient (and a pretty good jokester too.)
My brothers:
Mario 28 I don’t really know what he does but he is awesome and likes a lot of the same television and movies. In fact we are watching the BSG special tomorrow in English and then again on Sunday in Spanish. I told him we could watch Heroes and BSG in Spanish but I might need to watch it again in English to really understand. I first met him when he was playing WWF wrestling on his PS2. He is the youth pastor of the church.
Alexis 24: I have never been properly introduced. The rest of the family said he doesn’t really like to talk. My bus goes past his work and I think he is a car salesmen. He likes hard metal music and I often hear him singing some weird stuff in the shower.
Carmen 22: She looks like she could be 17 or 18 and is really nice. She came to pick me up from the compound with her mother and then I had a 2 ½ hour conversation about not very many topics.
Rex: The dog that stands on its hind legs and looks through the kitchen window at everyone. Supposedly it doesn’t bite and seems friendly enough but I have no desire to find out.
Doggie: this is one mean dog about the size of my dog Beau that is kept in the garage on a rope and apparently will bite me so I am not suppose to go near it.

I have my own room. There are two other students here from Messiah college (Tim and Phil) till Monday then they leave. Their Spanish is probably worse than mine but who’s keeping score? It is nice to have 2 other guys to help me decode statements.

I spent Thursday walking around downtown San Jose with two girls as part of a scavenger hunt orientation. Their Spanish was fantastic which was great because I was pretty tired.

Everyone gets everywhere by bus and it is really extensive but not expensive despite the fact prices for most things are the same as the states if not more on many occasions.

Oh, Mario is getting married February 14th so I bought some “nice” shoes and I am really curious what this will be like. The most difficult word to figure out was the one for engaged and I still don’t really know it other than it begins with a “P” and I think it sounds like “promise” sometimes.

I visited my grandma and aunt the other day. The grandmother tried to explain to me how she lost her left but all I understood was that I think it happened in the bathroom. She then showed me her prosthetic leg. My aunt gave me some plaintains and then we went home. Fun Fact: I live right next to a very beautiful…cemetery.

I had my interview for placement into a Spanish class and it went just about as well as it could so I am happy about that. The institute is beautiful and with a tropical backyard.

Fun things I have done since coming:
Played Rummy and Rum (Ron) with my family.
Played a form of big booty with my family.
Had really long conversations about stuff with my dad while drinking a lot of coffee. He likes coming home and “practicar practicar practicar”
Explored downtown San Jose and the mall.
Enjoyed how it is summer here everyday and “Hace Frio” is nothing more than a little breeze.
Watched the Dark Knight with my family because Phil accidentally packed it.

For my mom:
Don’t worry I’m being very safe and carry nothing of importance on me. My passport is safely locked away in a safe at the LASP office and my computer doesn’t leave my room.

Aqui!

I made it to Costa Rica alright but I do not have time to talk about it because I need to watch the Dark Knight with my host brother and the later I stay on the internet the later I get to bed and I have to wake up at 515 tomorrow. I would love to hear from anyone! Good night!

Dog Park

Beau Jo really wanted to visit the dog park so I took him.

Ryn has recently discovered her love of the outdoors and now I can't keep her indoors so she decided to come out to Colorado for a quick visit.

I found this note on the picnic table from Hannah. I assumed she was around and I thought it was really nice of her to visit but I could not understand where she had gone for "check outs."
I found her a little later "checking out" parts of the dog park.
Jamie and Sarah also came to visit me. But I think they were hoping to do something a little nicer so they did not seem happy about going to the dog park and were ready to leave.

Austin (Stuck) in Boston

I know a lot of people are really worried about this climate change but I have to admit that after having this snow get me stuck in Boston I am all pro global warming. Just kidding, (but seriously). Anyways I stayed at Kevin's house and he was very generous. Alicia (God Bless Her!) helped clean my apartment and in return she got a a few groceries. Anyways if you have never visited apartment (something) on the Third floor of Tavilla then you are missing out on some great ladies. In fact, they are so nice that some of them decided to come by and keep me company while I was waiting to go home.



Sarah and Jamie showed up. I think they might have been on their way to a ball or something because they were definitely dressed up. As you can see they were unhappy about the snow as much as I was. It was really nice.
Jamie was actually really prepared had her goose ready to fly her and Sarah home after they had kept me coming for a while.

Lauren could not make it because she was on another one of her fancy schmancy, rich, shnazzy cruises around the Mediterranean. She was pretty excited to be there away from the snow.

Thankfully, Lauren's brother was kind enough to show up and make some tea for all of us.

Hannah left me this note on my pillow after everyone else had worn me out. I don't think she realized that I was stuck in Boston. And I am not entirely sure what she meant by "Check outs"
Although later we found her outside the house. I didn't really mind as long as she wasn't eating any yellow snow.
While she may not live in the awesome apartment it is always a pleasure to have Ryn drop by Kevin's house. As you can see, the whole house was snowed in and we put bright colors on the outside to make sure that people could see the house form a far.

Thanks to everyone who made my stay in Boston during the storm a lot more fun.

You've Got Mail

Austin Mueller
Latin American Studies Program
Apdo. 54-2070
Sabanilla, Montes de Oca
San Jose, COSTA RICA

The program discourages sending packages because they say it will take a lot longer or might get lost. Try not to send anything too late in the program because it can take a little while to reach me. As always email is the best way to reach me. Gordon being the one I will check (and have to empty all the student news stuff from). Email me anything you like just try not to make it so large that it fills up my inbox.

p.s. I might make exceptions to large attachments of Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks.

Travel Companions

This is the Kelty 6650. It is utterly amazing and is going to be used a lot in the future. Costa Rica will be our first journey together and everything I need (minus a few stuff I am putting in my other backpack like my laptop) will be in here. I will not go into all of its features...but we may be in love.
All good things come in pairs. This may or may not be my other love...the Kodak Z1012. It has amazing zoom and image stabilization for those of us not blessed with perfect motor control. If you care to follow this blog...I imagine you will see a lot of pictures courtesy of this beauty.


This Janelle. She is from California. Our story begins way back in freshmen year with a little thing called Team Awesome. She is really good with these foreign things so I'm very glad to have her along.

Costa Rica while safe compared to most countries can have dangers of its own. So I decided to bring a danger of my own. This is Chelsea. She is gangsta through and through and speaks the espanol like nobody else. Tough as nails and raised like a spartan man, no one should be too concerned for my safety as long as she is around. Unless of course you make her mad.

Please be praying for all of us and those students and Ticos I have yet to meet.

Costa Rica

I leave for Costa Rica in less than 24hrs supposedly. The current weather in Denver is "Let's freak out Austin by having a sudden snow storm." Not to worry, I looked at the forecast and it looks like stuff ought to clear up soon. I woke up at 7:30am Mountain Time and couldn't get back to sleep and since I still have a lot to get done today I figured, meh...I might as well be mildly productive and work on this blog business.