first full day

well I made it here yesterday on time with no troubles at the airport or anything. We were picked up at the airport by Guijermo, 'Mark's uncle and next door neighbor. I was shown around the house which is amazing. it is very nice! Lavone introduced me to the whole family and I got a ton of spanish practice just meeting everyone and trying to tell them who I am and why I am here. We had a great lunch yesterday that Guijermo made. I ate 2 bowls of soup thinking it was the whole meal. After I was finished, they brought out some potatoes, a huge plate of meat, and some salad and I ate some more. It was all very good. Then we had ice cream! The whole family is extremely nice and close. MArk's family's house is conected to his uncles house and on the other side to his uncle's parent's house. Guijermo took me over to his parents house last night and I met them. His father showed me around his house and showed off his recuerdos from his trips to europe. he was very proud, he took me to his study and showed me his stereo and play some celine Deon! all this was yesterday, my first day.

Today I woke up and then went to buy flowers with Lavonne and Paige, danny's girlfriend. Danny is MArk's brother. we went to this little flower shop where lavone knows the lady who owns it. Lavone brought 2 pairs of "tummy tuck" jeans to this lady just as a gift because she is really nice. Lavonne has brought gifts to 3 families so far that I know of, she is very generous. At the flower shop, I had a conversation with the owner's husband in spanish and he told me abotu the nearby volcanoes. apparently there are a lot of them and also a lot of earthquakes too. He was very nice and it was pretty neat to communicate with him in spanish.

Later today we went and picked up Austin and Lynna, Mark's adopted brother and sister, from their school. their school was pretty neat with tons of little kids running around playing soccer. After we picked them up, we went and got som chicken at this little place and brought it over to MArk's grnadmas house for lunch. after lunch we came home and played uno for a while. We then left and went to a friend of thier familys house, Eduardo. Eduardo is, no surprise, very nice also. He took us out to the mall which was surprisingly nice and Eduardo bought our movie tickets. We then went and ate at this italian resturant. then we bought presents for Austin who turns 9 tomorrow. After we watched x men, eduardo took us home. WE have plans to go get sushi with him tomorrow.

Big news, Lavone told me today that I am going to be able to work! Her family's company, pathway services, has an office down here. it is a company that makes vancs with equipmetn to record video and radar of the roads to see where there needs to be repair work done. She said Vidia, Guijermo's wife who works at the office, siad she could use me there for about a month doing something. I talked to Natalya, Vidia's daughter who also works there and she said I will be working on the computers and tha it is very easy. I am sooo happy to get this opportunity to work while i am here. Lavonne even siad I would get paid, very little, but I am exstatic to even be able to get to work at all with them. I would be happy to work for free. The missionaires I was planning on working with is still in the works but Lavone siad they usually only go out on the weekends. I think tomorrow Lavone is taking me to an orphanage so that will be good too.

Also, Eduardo took us to his coffe shop tonight. it is super modern and nice. Nicer than the coffee shops I go to in Fayetteville to study. There were like 3 guards we passed in the shoppin center parking lot that it is in. While at the mall I was talking with Eduardo and told him that I would definately be willing to work at his coffe shop, doing anything at all, for free if he ever needed any help. I told him I could wait until my spanish get better so I could communicate with the customers better. He liked this idea and said " yes, yes, you can work with me anytime like on fridays, and saturdays... you can work the register.... i would pay you" SO this is very cool too. I am not getting my hopes up for all these paying jobs becuase it is just my second day here and I just met eduardo, but he seems extremely nice and is a great friend of the Blanco family. I am just happy that there are some great opportunities opening up already and am excited to see what end up happening in the future. I will for sure go the office of Pathwya servcices on wednesday to learn what I will be doing.

Thursday, Lavone has our vacation planned. it is a family vacation with 13 people going. There is a bus chartered just for us that will take us all the places were going. We are going to a volcano, Arenal, then to a beach called Mal Pais which is on the PAcific side of Costa Rica. Once we get back from that, we are planning on going to the Atlantic side to Limon. WOO HOO, what a trip. I am blessed. after all this vacationing, Mark, Paide, and Danny will leave and it will be time for me to start what the rest of my trip will be like.