Universidad Veritas

As wonderful as the beaches of Tamarindo are, I did forget to mention one important detail about life in Costa Rica...school! I am studying at Universidad Veritas which is a art, design, and architecture school.  There are actually quite a few international students here, mostly from the U.S., among the students from Costa Rica and surrounding countries.  

I have Spanish class from 8-12 every day...and yes, that is four hours!  My profesora is wonderful! She is Italian and very animated so it makes for a fun class. Class sizes are very small, only about ten people.  I am in an advanced Spanish class which is a bit hard for me, I could choose between that and the intermediate class, which may have been better suited for me, but a little late now! We get a decent amount of homework, and I had my first quiz today already.  There is a lot to keep up with, mostly because the Spanish classes run for one month at a time.  And with only four weeks to a class...this week is midterms already!  The most daunting task so far is a presentation in Spanish thursday for fifteen minutes-no English, no notecards, and correct grammar.  

But I'm learning a lot, and it's nice to be able to use what I am learning outside of class.  The only barrier to that is that there are so many American students in our program that we end speaking a lot of English outside of class.  But it's nice to have a break and be able to not have to think so much about what I'm saying :)