Day 3: Today´s Adventure

I will never love Costa Rica as much as Argentina. At this rate, I may not love Costa Rica at all.

Today, after breakfast, the four of us left for the university. We took the bus, which was good. Now I know where to get off for the university.
We got off and walked a ways until we got to the building for our second day of orientation. I met the other Winthrop students and we went in and sat down.
After orientation we took a tour of the school. It´s big, but fairly nice. After the tour was lunch, which was good. During lunch, we got to see some awesome Costa Rican dances, complete with Dr. Adams dancing the Merenge.
After lunch we took our placement tests. Mine was ok, but I won´t be suprised if they place me in a lower level class than the one I originally planned to take.
After our tests, our day was free. This was at 3:30. I was suppose to meet up with one of my housemates so they could show me the busroute home. Unfortunatly, we didn´t set a time and place for meeting. So I wander around campus for 45 minutes, don´t see anyone and decide to figure out the bus system on my own. I knew which bus to get on, got on it and went for a ride. All the way to the end of the line. At one point, I considered getting off because I thought I might be at the stop. But I didn´t . So I was kicked off at the end of the line, which was fine because it wasn´t that much farther from the stop I thought might be the right one. I got to a fork in the road and went left, which I still maintain was correct, but soon I had no idea where I was.
I walked, and I walked, and I walked some more. I have blisters on my feet. I also prayed. God, help me please! But honestly, I had no idea how God could help me. I´m in the middle of nowhere, in a country where I´m still learning the language, and I can´t ask for directions. Not because I´m a guy and am morally against it (I´m not), but because they don´t have street names or addresses. I had in my pocket a slip of paper with a general area and description of the house. Good for taxi drivers, not so much for random people I meet. I don´t have a cellphone and no one really knows where I am.

And, in the midst of all of this, I notice a girl wearing a blue shirt...Rachel (one of the Winthrop students) was wearing a shirt that color. I started to follow her because I wanted to see her face. At one point, she turned her head to the side just enough to give me the courage to call out her name.
Woot! It´s her!
I caught up to her and we started talking. Turns out she was on her way to meet up with a couple of other girls to go to an internet cafe.
Good! I haven´t emailed my parents yet and hopefully I can find a phone to call the family I´m staying with to let them know I´m ok.

By this time, it´s after 5 o´clock. So we walk together until we get tired of walking and call a taxi. We tell him where we want to go, which turns out to be two blocks away. Oh the irony of it all! So we get to the Outlet Mall and look for a phone. Plenty of phones, can´t get them to work. I was so frustrated at this point. But we met the other girls and went to the internet cafe. I explained my situation to them and they said I could use the phone at their house, which was close by.
So after sending a couple of emails and buying a much needed umbrella, we ended up at the girls house at 6:30 p.m. I called my host family and Rachel and I caught a taxi back to our houses.

The positive: I know my way around the campus now, and I did see God´s hand in all of this. I don´t know where I´d be (literally) without Him.