Hi, this is Maggie. On Monday I started school. I felt a little nervous to go to school. I did not know anybody in my class. I wanted to be in the same class as Alex and Taylor. But I have one friend in my class now. One kid is on my soccer team. Another kid was on my soccer team, too, but he quit. At school I do a lot of things. Some days I have art. Every day I have Spanish. I am learning a lot of Spanish! It is my first week. I am going to have music tomorrow. Hasta la vista!
~Maggie

Hi there! I'm Alex. Today I went to a new church that spoke Spanish. It's like a whole new world to me. I felt a little shy at first, but then I got used to it. I live in a really big apartment and it makes me feel better about Costa Rica. There are lots of taxis and I heard that there are pirate taxis. Well, gotta go. Daddy wants to shave me bald - no, just kidding - I'm joking, but I am getting a haircut.
~Alex

Hi. This is Alex. I had a great Christmas in Michigan before I came to Costa Rica. I got an H3 Hummer that I brought with me to Costa Rica and a couple other toys. The rest stayed behind in Michigan. I already miss the friends I made in Michigan and the old friends I have in Georgia. And I've been missing my family that's living in Michigan. The flight was cool because it was a movie flight. I got to fly with one of my friends from Missouri, Taylor. When we got to Costa Rica I was a little frightened at first because there were lots of people I didn't know and it was a different country.

I like our apartment because it's so big compared to others. I found two lizards on the patio. They were very hard to catch because they were very fast. My sister, Maggie, noticed one that ran behind a picture. It was before we found the other one. My dad took off the picture frame looking for it and found two instead of one. I reached for them to grab them, but then they both darted to the right. I caught one of them first behind a chair and the other one beside a bookshelf. I have a lime tree and a couple banana trees in my back yard. I let one lizard go by a door that was in the fence that led to the street. I didn't lay it on the door, but I laid it in front of it and didn't see a crack that led to the street and it ran right through. I didn't see that one again. The other one I played with in the back yard. I put it in my shirt and it tickled as it crawled around. It felt like popcorn popping in my shirt. Me and my sister, Maggie, named it Speedy. When it was just about time to go in I laid Speedy on a branch of the lime tree.

I miss all my friends in Michigan and all my friends in Georgia. And to all of you who are reading this I hope you're having a happy holidays and a great winter!

Love,
Alex

p.s. The first picture is me and Maggie with the two lizards. The second picture is my friend, Taylor, me and my sister, Maggie at our new school.

Hi! This is Maggie. It was sad to say goodbye to my family when I was flying to Costa Rica. I went to school January 5th and had fun. I played games and almost all of the games I played against my friend, Taylor, and my brother, Alex. I've seen a lot of homeless people. It makes me sad to see people laying on the streets. I saw a lot. I did not see any around in Michigan. I am having fun at the apartments playing with Kennedy (a missionary kid to Ecuador). That's all for now.
Love,
Maggie
p.s. This picture is me in our back yard.