Days 14-16 - San Juan del Sur

Left Granada in the morning on Sunday and headed to the coast! It was raining which is atypical of this time of year, but the ride was shorter than I had anticipated and took only 1.5 hours. I arrived at the Spanish School (Spanish Ya!) where I would be living for the next week. It was a good situation because the classroom is right outside of my room which is next door to the family's house. Also, turned out that I would not be the only student this week. I was even more excited when I found out it was another girl from the US. She arrived about an hour after I did. Turns out Gretchen was originally from LA but has been living in Jaco (Costa Rica) for the past few years in a condo development corporation. She is a bit older than me, but we are on the same page about learning Spanish and traveling which is nice. She mentioned that she took a trip similar to what I am doing now when she was my age and that it was the best thing she ever did...to this moment, I echo her sentiments. We spent the rest of the day chatting, getting used to our new accommodations and checking out the main town. The town was a typical beach town with little shops, restaurants/bars and hostels/hotels...pretty small. You could definitely tell that they cater to backpackers here. We ran in to my Dutch friends on the street and caught up with them too before heading back to the house for dinner.

Lessons began on Monday and again, my professor was great. She got right into it and said that the best way to learn is through practice so that is what we were going to do. After lunch, I felt really sick (we think it was something we were served) and took a nap before our introduction to the area by our professors. I was able to walk around for a bit, but in the middle of the walk I began to feel very faint and came back to the house. The grandmother (who looks and acts like Grandma Ungar) was very sweet. She made me tea and gave me a hot water bottle for my stomach. I was able to sleep through the night, and feel better today.

Had lessons this morning and another two students arrived, but they are staying elsewhere. In the afternoon, we went to an isolated beach on the edge of town called Playa Remanso. It was beautiful and the sun was just strong enough that with a nice breeze the weather was perfect. We stayed for a few hours and decided that surf lessons will be on the agenda for later this week.