Day One:
Dreams of dinosaurs aside, so far the first leg of my trip has been uneventful which truly is a blessing. I'll freely admit to being petrified, shakes and nausea the whole package. I'm just very nervous. The best way to describe it is the feeling that you're going off to college all over again. You don't know anyone, have little to no idea what's going except this time it's all in Spanish. I haven't even landed yet as I'm writing this. I will say the excitement is on equal level with the terror. It comes amd goes.
First class travel has done a lot to ease my nerves as silly and spoiled as that sounds. I just keep laughing at the fact that the flight attendants are waiting on me hand and foot (quite literally- I thought the heated rag thing was a joke), but I'm going to a country where you can't flush your toilet paper because the infrastructure can't support it. It's just going to be a stark contrast.
Another note about plane rides, what is it that makes us share details of our lives with complete strangers? I've had some amazing conversations on planes (one of them, at 6:00 am despite my best efforts to sleep). I'm sitting next to man today on his way to San José for business. I know he's from Iowa amd grew up out west. I know he has two college age daughters both of who have studied abroad in Spain; one is currently still there. His wife travels to Sierra-Leone with approximately 30-40 students every year and they now own beachfront property there. They do projects with the wells and schools when they are there. I know he is a visual learner. I know he is intelligent and well spoken. I know he worries about his daughters. I know he is proud of his wife. But for all that, I don't know his name. I know all these extraneous details about strangers lives, but rarely does anyone actually introduce themselves. What is it about planes that makes us share while managing to leave out glaring details?
Anyways that's just an observation thus far (also first class really enjoys their alcohol- at least 50% of them ordered champagne or a mimosa before we even left the Tarmac.. It was 9:30 am).
We've crossed the ocean and are flying over land again. I think there is another hour yet to our flight.The two hour time change really shouldn't mess me up this much, but I'm sure it's going to.
Update: upon landing we were instantly met by a wall of 89 degree humid air and just a wall of people attempting to grab their bags from the carousel. After the initial panic of believing that my bag somehow managed to fly elsewhere and then the hurried money exchange I made my way out of the airport. And then the panic really set in. Imagine people on all sides asking if you need a taxi or yelling the name on their sign. I cannot describe the immense feeling of relief that accompanied my first sighting of Esteban with the API sign.
I won't bore you with the details of the ride to the hotel or the initial few hours that consisted of a shower and napping. We all re-grouped much later in the evening to go to the welcome dinner. We piled back on the bus and headed up into the surrounding mountains for a meal consisting of traditional Tican dishes a view overlooking the entire city of San José. The food was amazing- arroz con carne y salsa, ensalada, a dish de papas, y mi favorito plantainas fritas.
All in all everything so far has been a little overwhelming, but in an enjoyable way.
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