Wednesday, March 19, 2014

10 more days

I can't believe that this experience is already coming to an end. I have so many mixed emotions about it; it's a very strange feeling. Don't get me wrong, Michigan is the best of the United States in my opinion, and there are so many things that I miss and can't wait to return to…but I don't feel ready to leave Costa Rica yet. It's really sad to think about the fact that I may never see the people that I see basically every day again. Especially speaking of the international students; there has to be at least about 100 of us going to the same small, two building school that are going back to so many different places. It's almost been three months that I've been here, and it's sad to think about having to say goodbye. I would love to say that I will return, but that's not likely to happen in the near future. It's a conflicted feeling when you feel like you belong in more than one place. I feel like I haven't had enough time to do everything. I'm scared to come back to the states because things are just different here. For example, you can travel for crazy cheap! Once I land in the USA, graduate, and start paying off debt, who knows when I'll get the chance to travel like this again? To people thinking of studying abroad in the future: three months is not enough! To Spanish students looking to fulfill the study abroad experience requirement prior to graduation: choose Costa Rica! I have been learning in depth about the different dialects throughout the Spanish speaking countries (in-class and by meeting people). Costa Ricans use a pretty easy-to-pick-up dialect of Spanish. And the accent isn't obnoxious or anything weird like that! Also, ticos are super nice, which makes it easy for practicing outside of class and getting yourself out there and making new friends. On another note, I think that having been here three months I can now explain pure vida. EVERYONE SAYS PURA VIDA! I'm kind of jealous that we don't have a phrase that EVERYONE says like it at home. It means pure life, but it has a bigger meaning aside from the exact translation. It's another way of saying my favorite phrase: "embrace the chaos!" It can also mean: "well, I didn't plan on this, but what the heck?" Some may like to relate pure vida to YOLO. People say pure vida all the time, arriving late, leaving early, saying hello, goodbye, what's up, etc. How cool that it's culturally a "thing" to say pure vida to basically anyone at any time. It's just like, spreading happiness to other people and being nice to others just for the heck of it. ¡PURA VIDA! P.S. I'm sorry I don't have pictures to post, my camera broke :(

Monday, March 10, 2014

Veritas

For future students looking into this program, something needs to be said about the school. It´s very different from Central. Veritas is a small private school with an artsy crowd. There are the international students, most of us taking some combination of electives and spanish classes; then there are the arquitecture, graphic design, fashion design, film, photography, and animation students. The school only consists of two buildings for 2,000 students so there is a sense of community at school because you see the same people every day. My classes are really small, the most people being 7. It´s cool that the teachers here make an effort to tweek the curriculum to be as beneficial and applicable outside of the classroom as posible for the students. They relate everything to culture, reality, our specific fields of study or future careers, politics, etc. On the plus side, we go on field trips (of sorts). I´ve gone to La Basilica and some markets, and I have friends who study biology and climb mountains and go to the rainforest with their teachers. For Spanish students looking to get their study abroad experience credit: COME TO VERITAS! The intensive Spanish classes offered are great! My fluency has improved so much in the last two months: I have actually had a few ticos tell me that my Spanish makes me seem like a tica! HAHA! That is an awesome feeling for people studying another language. Plus Costa Rica has one of the best dialects of Spanish, it´s easy to understand and pick up easily. But here´s the thing: to have the best experience abroad you really need to immerse yourself into the culture so you can get something really valuable out of it. You have to embrace the chaos and get out of your element to learn and adapt. You learn so much doing this. Moving in with a tico family gave me a whole new perspective on Costa Rican culture. Even though I´ve learned from living in San Jose that city life might not be for me, that´s ok! It´s all a learning experience. And being down here offers the super cool opportunity to travel to beautiful places for crazy cheap. I´ve found that the majority of Americans that I´ve met here were visiting the country then decided to never leave. And then I´ve met other people that finally left the States and adjusted to the idea that the world is big and needs to be explored. It´s awesome seeing people flourish like that. You just start to think bigger. :) There is a sense of an oasis here, things aren´t really ´´time is money´´ oriented and it´s totally normal to catch eye contact with someone and exchange ´´pura vida´´, which says it all. I´m actually getting pretty nervous to come back to the States because the wavelength that Costa Rican culture is on has its perks in easy and happy living.

Saturday, March 1, 2014

MONTEVERDE

I have been blessed with the opportunity to spend time with my parents in Costa Rica! They had never left the United States before so it is so cool for them to be here experiencing a new culture! We drove into the mountains to get to Monteverde so we could fly threw the mountains on a zip lining canopy tour. The longest line was over 3000 feet! It was a blast!!! It was hilarious watching my parents go first, my dad just about had a heart attack before he went but after awhile we were basically pros! The last zip line was the 3000 footer and everyone had to go in pairs. I went with one of the staff workers so my parents could go together. The view was more than beautiful, I could see over all of the trees and mountains it was so liberating. Then watching my parents was great because this is probably, in my opinion, the coolest and craziest thing we've ever done together. It was so adrenaline rushing and cool feeling like you're flying.