Day 35.

Observations:

- I saw more people smoking in Chicago than I've seen in San José.
-This morning my bus driver took a different route and I looked out my window to see Tin Jo! Tin Jo was the amazing Chinese restaurant my family and I went to for Thanksgiving. A lot of memories suddenly came flooding back.
- My host family tells me that if anyone tries and rob me, that whatever I do, I'm not supposed to scream. That's reassuring.
- There is no hot water here. The showers have electric heaters on the shower heads that make the water warm at just the right water pressure; they are called "widowmakers". And yes, all dishes are washed with cold water.
- A few of the tanktops I purchased before coming down here were a little big, but I told myself, "No matter, they'll shrink in the dryer." They don't have dryers here. Smart one, Hannah.
- My tico dad works in a laundry service. Many Sunday afternoons I wake up from a nap to the sound of him rifling through clothes hangers. More often than not I mistake it for my brothers plunging through buckets of legos.
- Many of the girls I work with can't continue on throughout high school because they don't have enough money to pay for the exams at the end of every year. They cost about $6 each.
- I started a new computer class today. It's hard to teach a girl how to type a, s, d, or f when their left arm is full of breast-feeding baby.
- While chatting with my friend Clara Hill on facebook (a sophomore at USC who is currently changing the world), I really realized what a great stepping stone this year is for me: I'm in a foreign country in a city that doesn't speak English, but I still have some one who cooks me meals and does my laundry. Some parts of the day I have to be extremely independent, but I still have a family. It's nice.
- I just had a great conversation with my tica mom, who told me that her mom didn't start wearing shoes until she was 16 years old.

-Hannah