Once you land in San José, everyone disembarks and goes directly to immigration where your passport will be checked (just follow everyone else). From there you will continue on to pick up your baggage and go through customs inspection. After being passed through customs, gather up your luggage and head up a flight of stairs to the main exit. There you will be met by IPEE's airport pickup service that will be holding a sign reading "IPEE Students". Simple! From there you'll be taken directly to your host Costa Rican family. Your host family will be expecting you since you've provided us with your flight information already. Just in case your flight is unexpectedly delayed you will have received a copy of your home stay information (in Spanish and English) from IPEE. You can present this to one of the "Taxi Unidos" drivers (official airport taxi service, orange cars) and he will take you to the address of your home stay family. The trip is about 30 minutes and costs $15. 

At your home stay, you will be greeted by your hosts. They are very friendly and most gracious people. They will show you your room and generally try to make you feel comfortable. Your host family will tell you how to get to school, or take you there themselves the first day.

Monday, the first day of class, try to arrive at 8:00 am. You will be given an orientation and also you will given a short interview by one of the professors (a cleverly devised language evaluation test) and placed in the appropriate level class for your language skills. You will be given the workbook and textbooks for your classes and assigned a schedule.

There is a morning break about 10:00 am. for coffee and cookies or just a stretch. Things are very casual, so make yourself comfortable, get a cup of coffee and take a look around, it's your school now! You may even encounter our mascot "Gordo" our tortoise that patrols our garden area. We also have some bird feeders and hummingbird nectar containers in the garden area. At times, if the students wish, the professor agrees and the weather permits you can ask to have your class outside in the garden.

Lunch break starts at 12:00 pm and afternoon classes start at 1:15 pm if you have afternoon classes. Again there is a break at 3:00 pm.

I think I'm in a contest with Penny Armstrong to see who can go to IPEE the most times before dying!  I've now been six times, and as usual, everything was wonderful.  I can hardly wait until I can return again.

IPEE has to be one of the best run programs anywhere.  The teaching staff is excellent, without exception.  All of the people in my group were highly impressed with the quality of instruction.

Mark Sills - FaithAction International House