Today marks the halfway point of my study away trip here in
Costa Rica. At this point, I feel very
immersed into the Costa Rican/ tican lifestyle and culture. I met my second host family on Sunday evening
and couldn’t be happier with homestay.
The family is kind and makes every effort to make me feel like a member
of the family. My mama tica is a nurse
at a clinic several minutes up the road and the father works at a butterfly
garden in town and as a bartender. They have four children,
two that live at home. Jose is 11 and
attends the Cloud Forest school where he has become very proficient in English. Natalia (Nati) is 16 and attends the public high
school and is training to become a chef.
Meet Jose!
At this point, I am feeling a variety of emotions. I am feeling thankful for a wonderful host
family in the beautiful town of Santa Elenta.
The views are breathtaking and I am getting plenty of exercise from
walking up and down hills all day! I am
enjoying the company of my classmates from MSU and have really liked getting to
know the UNC-W students. I feel blessed
to have the opportunity to work so closely with students in Costa Rican schools
and find it very interesting to learn more about the public school system
here. During the available free time we
have, I enjoy wandering about Santa Elena and seeing as much of the area that I
can.
My host family loves Michael Jackson Wii dancing games and their yellow lab, China!
On the other end of the spectrum I am starting to feel a bit
worn down. Early mornings and long
afternoons of Spanish classes are beginning to feel draining and have appeared
to take an effect on the positivity of us students as a whole. I wasn’t anticipating that four hours of
Spanish classes would be as difficult to get through daily. The lack of down time our group has coupled
with the lack of internet access has left me frustrated and wanting to sort of
“shut down” a few times. Having
basically unlimited Internet/Wifi access in the States has made me forget how convenient
and easy it is to access information at any time. Getting homework done and completing research
is very difficult when none of us can connect to the Internet at our homestays
or CPI.
I am curious to know how the reminder of the trip will
be. I am wondering how much further my
Spanish will progress and how much further “immersed” I will feel into the
Costa Rican culture.
Typical Costa Rican meal- arroz con pollo (rice and chicken). Yum!
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