Entry 1: June 13

Hey everybody!  I figured I'd tell you a little bit about my Costa Rica experience.

When I arrived in San Joaquin, Costa Rica I had no idea what to expect. The month I spent there turned out to be one of the best months of my life!  I absolutely love living abroad ... although I have lived and studied abroad before, I'm still amazed at how much a culture becomes a part of me in so little time.

My family was the best ever!  They made me feel like I belonged there as soon as I arrived. Honestly, I was quite nervous about that when I first started planning to go to Costa Rica for the language program. The majority of the girls felt the same as I did. We loved our families and didn't want to leave them (even though we did want to see our friends and family back home).

While in Costa Rica, we were able to learn a lot about conservation efforts in Costa Rica and even learn more about what types of things are being done towards conservation in the United States. We even had the opportunity to explore different types of rainforests and plant a few trees.

We also were able to choose between two classes based on our level of Spanish. I placed into the higher level class which was a Latin American Film class. Although some of the things we saw were shocking and very different, it was very eye-opening. That class taught me to see movies (film) in a different way.

During the week we were in class, but on the weekends we would travel.

Our first weekend we took a group trip to Tortuguero, a beach on the Caribbean. We were supposed to be able to see turtles and their eggs on the beach, but it wasn't time yet for them to be nesting. So, we just toured the rainforest in the area and hiked up a mountain to see an absolutely amazing view. We were able to see howler monkeys, crocodiles, caimans, a lot of different kinds of birds, lizards, iguanas, and poison dart frogs. It was definitely an experience.

Our second weekend, all of us wanted to go to Quepos/Manuel Antonio, a beach on the Pacific. We took a private bus down there taking about 4 hours. After we were all dropped off at our respective hotels we did our own thing, whatever we wanted. My group stayed in Quepos, the town closest to the Manuel Antonio beach. It was much less touristy than Manuel Antonio and was a lot of fun at night when everyone was out on the streets. We also went ziplining and horseback riding while in Quepos. Manuel Antonio beach was absolutely gorgeous!  And the water was warm! Something I didn't expect. We loved going to bar/restaurants with an open area and just being able to watch the people walk by.

Our third and last weekend, a few of us went to another beach on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica called Cahuita. This was one of my favorite places, mostly because we were really able to mingle with the locals and they accepted us right away. We were even to make some friends there and actually hang out with the locals. It was so much fun to be able to do that. It also really gave you an insight to the culture and forced all of us to speak Spanish, which of course helped our language skills. The beach there was also amazing!  Some of the girls went snorkling here and learned about the sea-creatures that lived there and we were able to see some monkeys incredibly close. (If I reached out I probably could've touched him. haha)

So, pretty much what I'm saying is that if you're thinking about studying abroad for the summer, Costa Rica is an absolutely amazing program!  You not only get to have a lot of fun while studying Spanish, but you get to learn a lot about yourself and Latin American culture!  I feel so lucky to have been able to go to Costa Rica this summer and definitely plan on returning to see my familia someday! 

PURA VIDA!