Blog Excerpts
Back in 2015, I had just graduated high school and created a blog to share some of my life experiences and inner thoughts with the world. Posts became sparse as college became hectic, but it was the perfect place to share my study abroad with family and friends back home and for safe-keeping to look back on later in life. I've pulled some excerpts straight from my blog posts here to share give a sense of what the experience was like.
January 15th, 2017
I started my first day at Conversa, a Spanish language school located in Santa Ana- a small, urban city about half an hour outside of San José. The school was founded in the 1970s and has been hosting students ever since. I take a bus up to campus during the week from downtown Santa Ana, where my host family lives. I spend the day learning grammar, playing language games, and of course, speaking lots of Spanish!
February 2017; Santa Ana, Costa Rica
February 12th, 2017
After eating breakfast on the coffee farm, we headed up to Parque Nacional de Volcán Poas. The view is gorgeous and I got lucky with a clear day. Although you can't see from the picture, off to the left we were able to see Volcán Arenal in the distant. It's very windy and cold up there- it's amazing how fast the weather changes as you travel across Costa Rica. In addition, you can only stay near the pit for a recommended 20 minutes due to acid rain and fog that the gases of the volcano produce.
March 15th, 2017
After breakfast, I make the 20-minute hike down the mountain – which, of course, hosts beautiful views – to the San Luis Community Center, the home of the ADISL (“Association of Comprehensive Development of San Luis” in English). The ADISL is a community group that works to help the growth of the community through their many projects. They were essential to the construction of a new playground, the health center, a new cafeteria, and much more.
April 7th, 2017
One weekend when the rest of the volunteers headed out on a trip, we stayed back at the farm. Ersi and Oldemar, our host parents, invited us into the house to listen and dance to some Spanish music, while they got snacks ready for the big tour group coming the next day. When we offered to help, we had lots of fun trying to form the dough into perfect circles and getting covered in flour.
April 23rd, 2017
Yesterday, I gave a presentation to the TRC (rural community tourism) group in the community center about the research we’ve done. We’ve being researching certain projects that will help the group choose the most beneficial marketing strategy for their tourism and I presented those projects to the TRC group.
