Second Day In Costa Rica (Vivian) !!

Today was our first full day being in Costa Rica and it was amazing, I started my day by eating breakfast in my home-stay, she cooked Gallo Pinto for me which is just rice and beans along with some eggs and toast. It was something I would not imagine eating for breakfast back at home, but it was the most delicious thing I have had so far on my first day in. After breakfast we then drove it to school with our Mama Tica who showed us the route to walk for school as well as walked us into the school. Once inside school, we met with the whole group, shared what our home-stays were like and even got to share the dishes we had eaten so far, many of us were able to see how unique yet also distinct every household is when it comes to cuisine.

Once Angie had gone through her presentation about safety and important things to know about Costa Rica, we toured the ULatina, this was something very interesting to see since it was way smaller scale than Purdue, yet we were also able to see how unique its architecture is and how the school system in Costa Rica is in comparison to the universities in the United States. Upon the completion of the tour, we walked across to the Plaza de las Flores which was across the street from our school, some of us decided to convert money while others walked inside the mall and roamed around. Walking around the mall felt like the most similar thing we have back at home, I was most surprised by seeing a McDonald's stand inside the mall selling ice cream, so I will have to go back since it looked delicious.

We then headed to our destination for the day with was el centro de Heredia, where we emerged in a tour of Heredia while walking through mercado where some of us purchased fruit or pipa (coconut water), walking around the mercado was incredibly overwhelming but in a good way since I didn’t even know where to look at first there was so much to smell, hear and see.

At lunch time we ate at the Tortilleria where I tried Crema for the first time which is a vanilla flavored drink which was super good and sweet, I had never heard of it before coming here, but I am very glad I decided to try it out. We finished our day by walking around town and heading back to our homestays where we indulged in yet again another amazing meal and arroz con leche as dessert made by our Mama Tica Zeneida.