day 3: my first day of class

i wake up at 5:45 and feel like im 5 years old and its my first day of kindergarten. i feel so many different emotions, excitement, nervouse, eagerness etc. i wasn't sure when breakfast was so i went into the house around 6 and ate some granola and pineapples, i was very grateful that i didn't have to eat rice and beans. left the house a little before 7 and ricardo showed us the way to school, it's about a 15-20 minute walk which isn't too bad. i got to school at 7:15 to take an oral and written exam so they could tell me i don't knwo any spanish. i was put in the class for the beginners and i have 2 other students with me. richard is a 65 year old retired man whos favorite activity is to ride his motorcycle down to mexico with his friends. diana is a 40-something first grade teacher who has an esposa (lesbian?). on wednesdays her first graders have "wild west wednesdays" where they dress up like cowboys and sing songs. these 2 people make for a very interesting class. i know slightly more spanish than them but not much. we go over the alphabet and verb conjugation and some high school spanish comes back slowly. finish class at noon and have an hour break, grab a pizza at the most expensive place in town (which is only like $10) and i'm late for afternoon private lessons. i have a new teacher for my conversation class which is fairly self-explanatory: she talks, i talk, she corrects me and i learn. i'm signed up for 2 weeks of private lessons which should be really beneficial but 5 1/2 hours of school is too much like high school. brad and i wander around town, get lost, jump in a taxi with some texans who pay our way. we go to santa elena (the nearest "town", using that tearm loosely) to buy groceries, get on the internet etc. i get home around 5:30 and sit around some more with my family feeling like an idiot because i can't communicate with them. i say maybe 6 sentences and we eat dinner. ricardo asks me to play dominoes with him so we play a few rounds. he teaches me that the double 6 has a stained "ojo" in the back so he always picks that dominoe so he can start of the game. on game 4 i decided to show him up and take that domino first. i walk to the pay phone to call taylor and start to feel semi homesick, which is really weird because i never felt this way at school. i guess its because costa rica is so much different than what i'm use to and i have basically no way of communicating. i have no doubt it will get better with each day but it's just incredibly frustrating to not be able to talk to anyone. i talk to taylor and that makes me feel a lot better, i go home shower and i'm asleep by 10.