Pre-travel Thoughts

5/17/2013

I feel extremely blessed and privileged to be able to participate in this short-term study away program through Missouri State University and University of North Carolina-Wilmington.  This trip abroad still seems very surreal to me although I am fully packed and waiting between flights at O’Hare airport in Chicago right now.

When this study away program was initially presented to me back in November, it seemed like a far off dream that was not going to be very realistic for me.  I am so excited that I am able to participate in a once in a lifetime opportunity immersing myself into another culture and language.  I’ve never traveled out of the United States and most of the traveling I have done has been tourism-oriented anyways.  I have desired to study abroad during my college years and this trip is an ideal fit for my course work, graduation date, and financial means. 

As of now, the biggest concerns I have is the language barrier once I arrive.  I am concerned with how I will communicate with my host family about meal times, operating their showers, and letting them know where I will be and at what time.  Other than those concerns I am only slightly worried about what I packed and hoping it’s enough/ not too much. 

I hope to gain cultural insight into Latin American countries while I am in Costa Rica. I am looking forward to picking my Spanish back up and being able to communicate with not only my host family and Spanish professor but with members of surrounding community as well. I hope to become more sensitive and aware of the struggles and obstacles that English Language Learners face and strategies to empathize with them and reach them academically.  Overall, it is my hope that this immersion trip will better prepare me for my career as an elementary educator and facilitator of meaningful learning.

Let's Look at Costa Rica

• ·         Costa Rica is located in Central America.  Costa Rica is south of Nicaragua and north of Panama.  The Caribbean ocean borders the east side of the country and the North Pacific Ocean borders the west of the country.
  
• ·         Costa Rica is slightly smaller in size than the state of West Virginia with around 31,478 square miles
• ·         This means that the USA is almost 181 times bigger than Costa Rica!
• ·         Costa Rica is divided into seven provinces; San Jose, Alajuela, Heredia, Cartago, Guanacaste, Puntarenas, and Limon.
• ·         It’s climate is tropical and subtropical with a  dry season from December to April and a rainy season from May to November
• ·         There are more than 121 volcanic formations in Costa Rica, and seven of them are active.  
  
• ·         The population of Costa Rica is approximately 4.13 million.
• ·         The currency in Costa Rican is called the colon.
• ·         The Capital of Costa Rica is San Jose. There are about 2.1 million people living in San Jose making it the largest city in the nation.
• ·          Costa Rica’s income is mostly from agriculture including coffee and bananas.  However the largest source of income is tourism.     
  
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• ·         The staples of the Costa Rican diet are rice and black beans, along with bread, chicken or meat, vegetables, salads, and fruits.  
• ·         The life expectancy in this country is almost 77 years, one of the highest in the world.
• ·         The Costa Rican government is democratic, with presidential elections every 4 years, and no standing army.
• ·          The Costa Rican president Laura Chinchilla is the first woman president of Costa Rica.