Hola!
Well I made it to Costa Rica! I had a few issues at the airport, but it all worked out! The flight from Chicago was a little late getting to Charlotte and I just made it to the gate in time to board, then they told me I couldn't board because I was staying longer than 90 days and I didn't have a visa. Finally, they let me on the plane but said I could be sent right back if they asked me when I was coming back. Fortunately, no one asked and I made it through immigrations and customs with no problem! Everyone here is really laid back and all we have to do is leave the country for 72 hours and come back in after 90 days, they said students normally go to Nicaragua or Panana anyway and I'm totally up for that so it's no problem!
Everyone is really nice and I'm having a great time. My host family has a maid that pretty much does everything for us so I'm a little weirded out by that, I like doing things myself :) Our host mom and dad are really nice! I don't remember who joked about my gift for them being chocolate and said I'd probably give it to a diabetic, but they were right. She still likes it and they thought it was very good! They've been to the US and have pictures from when they met Jimmy Carter. I guess my host mom's dad was some kind of political something but she has pictures with all these senators and people from the US from way back who I have no idea who they are.
Today we got a tour of San Jose and went to a coffee plantation called Cafe Britt. It was really fun! We also got our CEA orientation, and Maggie (the housing coordinator) let me and Kathleen (my roommate) see the room we'll be staying in starting next month. It was a lot of fun, we have the rest of the day off and our host family isn't home so I think we're going to go shopping later, which is good because I need to get regular sized bottles of shampoo!
My host family doesn't have internet or a computer so I'm at the Residencia right now which we're allowed to come to and use the computers, so updates may be sporatic for this first month. The housing coordinator thought they said they were going to get internet, so maybe i'll have it soon, all the other host families have it I guess.
Tomorrow, we have orientation at the university and I have to do the oral interview for the placement test, here's to hoping I don't screw it up too bad! We'll be having our Spanish classes M-F from 8-12 so I should be getting pretty good by the time I get home!
I'll try to update again soon and get some pictures posted as soon as I can! Our host dad said we have to be careful when traveling with our laptops because his son's was stolen but I will probably bring it hidden in my backpack to the residencia so I can upload some pics!
~Chelsey

Ok so four days left! I'm entering freak-out mode! Anyway, I thought I'd update people on what's going on!
I'm leaving from Chicago at 7:40 AM on Friday and should arrive in Costa Rica around 2:30 PM! I'll be living in a homestay for the first month with another student from Chicago and then we'll both be moving to the CEA dorms for the last three months!
My cell will not work in Costa Rica so please do not try to call/text. If you need to get ahold of me email, facebook, or skype! I should have access to the internet at the university, probably not at the homestay but I will have internet once I move to the dorm and I'll check everything regularly!

Welcome to my blog!

Hello! The countdown has begun...10 days until I leave! I will be updating this periodically throughout my 4 month stay so check back often! Here I'll write what I've been doing and post links to pictures!
To check out the program I'm going on go to... http://www.gowithcea.com/programs/costa_rica.html