In all honesty, I don’t know what I was expecting from Costa Rica, but I was surprised nonetheless. A lot of the house styles remind me of Florida, especially the colors of the buildings and the wildlife. I saw a few lizards that looked exactly like the ones I saw on my trip to Disney as a child.

I also was expecting a lot of American chains, so seeing KFC, McDonalds, and PF Changs was not surprising. I was surprised however, by the lack of non food related American chains. We got over an hour to explore the mall, and the only store I recognized was LEGO.

In terms of the weather, I was expecting a lot of rain, but I thought it was going to be less strong but more constant. When it rained yesterday, I was not prepared for the torrential downpour that occurred. It was also weird for the rain to only occur in the late afternoon, as opposed to throughout the day.

I was not expecting so many people to understand english. It’s not everyone, of course, but I am able to get around fairly easily. Even in the situations where they didn’t speak English, and I couldn’t understand their Spanish, I was able to get my message across through charades and pointing.