My daughter, Christina, is in Costa Rica for a semester and she wrote about her first 24 hours there. Her post evoked feelings of joy, pride and a touch of envy, especially from a snowbound Minnesotan.
1) So much coffee. Everywhere. Including in the cell phone store (for free!). I think I’m in love.
2) Me gusta español, mais c’est très difficile to not switch over to French when speaking. I think it’s because, cognitively, I have both categorized as foreign/second languages, and so when I’m hearing Spanish, all I’m thinking is, “I need to speak words that are not English” and thus I end up speaking French. It both (ambos) does and does not help that the two languages are so similar.
3) Mountains. Mountains. Mountains. Having driven through the flat flat land between Minnesota and Texas just two weeks ago, this is quite the change. (Btw, I love mountains. I think it’s in my Norwegian blood to love lakes y montañas.)
4) All of the fruits and vegetables here are organic. Even the lettuce has more flavor than I’ve ever experienced before.
5) The…
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Pastor John Keller 
Really? Your daughter Christiana is in Costa Rica? You know, I’ve watched over the last couple of years the HGTV channel (home improvement/travel), and I longed to go to Central America and see the beautiful beaches and experience a slower lifestyle–perhaps in retirement. The only trouble is–I don’t know Spanish. So, for the last several years I’ve been trying to read the Bible in Spanish, because in reading the Bible in another language I do know what is being said in English. It’s a great way to *try* to learn another language. Unfortunately, I’m not close to mastering Spanish. You just have to speak it–hear it, and think in that language. 😉
randy
Randy, willingness to “try” is an important part of learning anything new, so I want to encourage you to keep trying. I am betting that the best way to learn a language is total immersion, where you are surround by Spanish 24/7 for a time, which is what my daughter is doing. Maybe we in our retirement we can make a trip together to Costa Rica. But no heavy backpacks this time. John