en San Pedro

Well I'm here! After an uneventful flight, but eventful stop over in Denver, I'm in my quaint little apartment in San Pedro. I stopped by the language school I'll be taking classes at next week (right up the street from my place), did some grocery shopping and luckily caught the tail end of the downpour that happens every afternoon (apparently starts around 1 or 2pm and continue through the night). Of course with three bags of groceries and an umbrella, trying to maneuver opening two front gates using both hands resulted in my canvas shoes getting soaked, but luckily the eggs didn't break.

Driving in, the horizon reminded me of So Cal, so the south-east of where I am are some hills that remind me of the San Gabriel mountains. Everything is green here, as expected, and pleasantly humid. The thunder and sound of the rain is pretty awesome, we'll see how I can schedule walking home from campus to avoid getting drenched.

There's a dance studio, tons of restaurants and shops, and gyms, within walking distance!

So what happened in Denver? I flew from SNA to DEN, had a 1 hr stopover and then went non stop to San Jose. In Denver, I realized I forgot to print proof of my return ticket (Costa Rican immigration only allows 90 day tourist visa, so your return ticket needs to be within that time frame, mine isn't of course). So I get that printed out, then the agent says, "Oh you need to fly back within 90 days, we can't let you through", this was while my flight was boarding! She suggested buying a one way fully refundable ticket online that moment (claiming I would have proof of 90 day return and can cancel the ticket later. Once in Costa Rica, the common thing to do is go to a nearby country (Panama, Nicaragua) for 3 days to renew your 90 day tourist Visa.) Just as I was about to put in my CC# to purchase the ticket, the agent speaks to her boss who asks if I'm a student and I say no, I'm a professor. Then he says, well if you have proof of your job then its OK. Whew. Made my flight just in time. I had a feeling this would happen (Frontier Airlines mentioned this) but the Fulbright folks said it wouldn't be a big deal. I guess I should have been prepared and automatically said my reason for going or asked to speak to the manager right away.

well anyways, I made it in once piece! And so did my luggage. I was able to check in 3 pieces w/o paying.

Not sure what I'm doing this weekend, maybe check out the malls and get a hold of a tv.