Ephesians 3:20-21

Well, I have survived my first week of classes in Costa Rica. The way they do classes here is a little different than in the US. For one thing, instead of having class for an hour three times a week, they have class once a week for 2-3 hours. And I have trouble sitting through an hour and a half class at North Park... My schedule is really spread out, too. I only have one class each day, expect for Wednesday when I have two classes; my Spanish class meets Mondays and Wednesdays for an hour and a half.

So Tuesday morning I had my first "real" class, Anthropology and History. I was super nervous, but the profesora was really nice and told me I could meet with her after class if I didn't understand something. Wednesday afternoon I had World Literature of the 20th century, which I think I'm going to like. Granted, it's going to be a lot of reading that will take me forever, but the professor seems good and I like literature. Thursday morning was Appreciation of Theater. My professor was interesting. He told us he's an actor, not a professor, and he's really funny, when I can understand him. He kept asking me questions, but I could never understand what he was saying when he talked to me. At one point he was talking about practicing diction, and he went into this thing where he talked really loud and fast and ended by pointing at me and asking me to repeat what he said. I just smiled and shook my head, knowing there was absolutely no way. Finally, today I had Oral and Written Expression. My teacher is pretty easy to understand; I think she used to teach Spanish as a Second Language. It seems like an interesting class: we're going to learn about Spanish grammar and punctuation, how to write essays well and speak in public. Hopefully it will help my Spanish a lot.

I have also been to two movies this week. Wednesday afternoon I went with four other girls and we saw "The Karate Kid" (in English with Spanish subtitles), and this afternoon I went with another girl to see "Despicable Me" (dubbed in Spanish and renamed, "Mi Villano Favorito," or My Favorite Villain). Movies are really cheap here, which is great. My movie today cost 2,500, which is about $5, and it's a Friday night and a 3D movie! Wednesdays are 2-for-1 or half price, so it was only 1,300, or less than $3.

Last night I attended a Bible study here at my house. I didn't understand everything that was said, but I got enough to know what they were talking about, which was holiness and how we are called to be holy. We sang at the beginning, and one of the songs I knew in English, which was really cool. It felt really good to be part of a Christian group and read Scripture and worship together. Before I left home, I asked God for at least one Christian friend here, and He has blessed me with a Christian family, plus a few Christian friends among the ISEP group.

Immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine... to Him be the glory.