Quick Update

¡Hola! So, I'll start out by saying sorry for the lack of pictures. I've spent most of my time at school, church, or around the house with my mamatica, so I haven't taken many. This weekend was a bit busy. Saturday, I had to go to school for workshops about natural disasters and culture shock. Nothing too exciting, except we played a game called "soplar el viento" which is where you say something you like to do or a characteristic you have, and others with the same thing have to get up and switch seats (very similar to a game in the US, I just can't remember the name). That night, I went to youth group with another girl's family, and it was really fun. It was fun to see how people in another part of the world worship in pretty much the same way. Many of the songs were translations of songs I knew, and youth group consisted of discussions, songs, and games. Everyone was very welcoming and patient with our Spanish. I talked to the other girl's papatico, and he said they think it's very important to reach out to the youth early so they turn to God with their problems rather than violence, drugs, or alcohol. That's why they have youth on Saturday--so these kids have a more positive place to go. He also told me that he thinks that my faith in God and ability to put things I can't control in His hands will make me a better doctor. Our conversation was very special to me.

Side note: This family has a 2-year-old daughter, so I learned the Barney song in Spanish! (exciting, I know. haha)

Sunday morning, I went to a Christian church with my mamatica. It was nice, but VERY different from what I'm used to. It was very contemporary and lasted about three hours. Everyone was very friendly. It was funny to see them all try to pronounce my name because they think it's very strange, but I assured them it's VERY common in the States. Although I could understand more or less everything the pastor said, he had a young boy come up and repeat some things in English just for me, which was really nice. The next day, I saw one of the women I met on the street, and we talked for a while.

Monday, I didn't have classes, so we went shopping. Clothes here are SO expensive! I thought I'd be able to supplement my wardrobe once I got here, but I can't spend that much money.

Today was my first day of classes. My first was Spanish for Medical Professionals. It was really interesting, and the professor is easy to understand. We talked about the social security system here and what makes the health system in Costa Rica so much different from other Latin America and third world countries. All healthcare is free here for Costa Rican citizens, and care is very preventative (my teacher said because the people are more educated--education is free as well). I'm very excited to go visit some clinics and learn more about the system, and I'll be sure to share for all the premed people :) My other class was Advanced Grammar. If I hadn't learned what we went over today, I would have had NO idea what was going on, so we'll see how the rest of the semester goes. It's a four-hour-long class, which is pretty brutal, but necessary I suppose. My mamatica went to English class today, so we were both able to help each other with homework, which was really fun.

¡Hola!

The garden at my school

My room

I've been in Costa Rica a week now, and I can already tell that six weeks is not long enough! There's so much I want to do while I'm here. Luckily, I got my class schedule and my Mondays and Wednesdays are completely free, so me and some other students can do a lot of things that are somewhat close by on those days, or take a long weekend to go somewhere a bit further, like the beach. We want to go ziplining, visit a coffee plantation, take dance classes, go shopping, see a performance at the Teatro Nacional, go hiking, and watch movies in Spanish (we're all feeling Pirates 4!). I also plan on buying a Spanish translation of a book I've read in English to read at nights.

The whole group

We've done a TON since I last posted. I took a placement test that made me feel a lot better about my Spanish because I could do almost all of it. However, being able to pick the correct verb tense out of two choices is much different than putting together whole sentences to talk! haha After that, we walked around San Joaquin so we could see where the bank, post office, etc. is and where other students live. Unfortunately, no one lives near me, so I have to either walk by myself or, if it's dark, take a taxi. But it's fine. We also went into Heredia (the next town over) to a club called FoFos with one of the student's hermanatica (host sister--Costa Ricans are called ticos or ticas, and hermana is the word for sister for you non-Spanish people) It was really fun to interact with locals our own age. It's less intimidating to talk to them, and they are often able to help more because they know a little bit of English.

The next day, we explored Heredia more. It's my favorite because it's not as huge and busy as San Jose, but there's more to do than there is in San Joaquin. AND the bus there is only 160 colones (like less than 50 cents). In Heredia, we went to a dance class, and it was SO much fun! Our teacher is going to meet us at a club next Friday so we can practice. We were all dead when we left though. I got home and slept for about 3 hours, woke up to eat dinner, and went back to bed. haha.

Iglesia de Ujarras

La Basilica de Nuestra Senora de
Los Angeles

Yesterday, we visited another city close by--Cartago. It used to be the capital. We went to several churches that were very interesting. The first was Iglesia de San Jose de Orosi. It's very old, and has a museum attached with old tools used for the sacraments. We also went to ruins of the second church that was built in the country: Iglesia de Ujarras. There was a playground there, so we stayed for a while to relax. We also tried a fruit called cas off of some trees there. The next church was La Basilica de Nuestra Senora de Los Angeles. It was huge and so pretty! It was a mix of Arabic, Byzantine, and romantic styles. There was a place downstairs with little charms of body parts. People put them there when they were cured by some miracle. It was kind of weird, but very interesting. Finally, we went to ruins of another church: La iglesia Parroquial de Santiago Apostol. It was destroyed by an earthquake and made completely of volcano rock.

Delicious, right!?

A few culture comments: The food is delicious, but they serve so much! It's considered rude to leave food on your plate, so it's an interesting predicament. My mamatica doesn't serve me too much because she's had many students in the past and understands though. Also, all the food is so fresh. My mamatica and I went to the feria this morning (pretty much a farmer's market spanning like 5 blocks. It was huge, and so cheap. Also, there is so much English music here. It's all they play in the buses and bars. It's an interesting mixture of songs though, ranging from old songs like Total Eclipse of the Heart and Bye Bye Bye to new ones like S&M. There's a neighbor across the street that plays Lil Wayne every single day. Once, I heard a Spanish song that I knew. It was very exciting! Also, I learned that they sing very serious and depressing songs for karoke rather than fun and silly songs like we usually do in the US. I guess that's all for now, I have to head to school!

Adios!

Mis Primeros Días Aquí

Leaving Charlotte!

I've been in Costa Rica for three days now, but it already feels like I've been here a week! We've been extremely busy, but it's been great! The flight here and getting through customs and navigating the airport was very easy. I spent the last first two nights in a hotel in San Jose with the other students. They are from all over and we all get along well. We bonded immediately the first night when we went out to dinner at a place called Tiquicia. It was  on a mountain and had a beautiful view of the city of San Jose. The food was delicious, and after, some ticos (the word for Costa Ricans) danced for us.

Traditional Dance

El Teatro Nacional

The next day, we toured all of San Jose. An interesting thing is that there aren't really any street names. You just have to find landmarks, which makes it very difficult for travelers to navigate. The city is very big and busy. Some of the major things we saw was the Teatro Nacional, where they have music, dance, and theater performances. It's a old building with European influence. We also went to the market, where a lot of fresh food and souvenirs are sold. There were also many churches and parks that we saw. That night, we went to a club, which was a really fun way to interact with ticos and get to know each other better. We were all ready to get out of the city though, because it was very crowded and most people spoke English to us, so we weren't getting the Spanish practice we wanted, but it was nice to kind of ease into it a little bit.

This morning, we went to a botanical garden that had a sample of all the plants in the country. It was so beautiful! Then we drove to San Joaquin de Flores to see the school and meet our host families. My host mom is very friendly and has had a lot of students in the past. One girl even came by today, and we ate lunch and went to Walmart together. (yes, there's a Walmart here. Somewhat sad.) I was very happy to unpack all my things and get settled. It's hard to speak in all Spanish, but my host mom is happy to speak slowly, tell me what the words are for things, and is patient with my limited Spanish.

This has bullet holes from the civil war.
They kept it to remind themselves that
they want peace.

I've learned a ton about the culture already. It is a very peaceful country--in fact, it was the first country in the world not to have an army. They got rid of it after a civil war in 1948. Since it is so peaceful, they have a lot of immigrants from all over. It's similar to the US in that immigrants from places like Nicaragua often take jobs that ticos won't do, but unlike the US, ticos are very welcoming to all of the immigrants. Costa Rica is also right in the middle of the American continents, so it has a unique mixture of cultures, language, and plants--some from North America and some from South America. This also makes Costa Rican Spanish less regional and more standard, so it's a good place to learn. Ticos are very conscious about the environment--even the children. There is a forest called El bosque eterno de los niños that is supported by money that children donate to maintain it. Additionally, Costa Ricans have free healthcare and education, even though it is a poor country because they place a lot of value in these things. They also value culture, so ticos that study things like music or literature are never asked what practical thing they will do with it (a little different from the US). There's a lot more, but I'll try to spread it out because this is very long already.

Dos Días Más

It’s been a crazy couple of weeks since I started this, but I finally feel like I have a bit of down time to relax before I leave. I finished up my sophomore year just two weeks ago and moved all my stuff home. (Molly Spears and I could probably set a record for how much stuff can fit into a dorm room—I could barely move on the way home, much less see anything out of my windows. Really safe, I know.) Since then, my days have been full of unpacking, a little bit of work at the research campus, some end-of-the-year business for some clubs at App, and intense Spanish grammar review—with a relaxing weekend trip to the lake and some visits with old friends thrown in there.  But as of today, I’m completely packed for Costa Rica thanks to tremendous amounts of help from the wonderful Margo Pray, who visited for a lovely lunch at Old Stone Vino, some shopping and packing, and goodbyes. I think I’ve managed to pack minimal amounts of clothes to leave room for souvenirs and clothes I buy there. Pretty impressive for this extreme overpacker.

The school I'll be attending:
Instituto San Joaquin de Flores

I leave in two days, and I cannot wait! I found out I’ll be living with a 63-year-old widow, so I’m excited that she’ll have lots of time to talk so I can get better at speaking Spanish. Her house is only a ten minute walk from the school, which is great. I’m really looking forward to learning about the culture, and I’m going to try to spend as much time with locals as possible instead of sticking to my comfort zone with the other American students. Since this is my first international trip, I have a lot to learn. I’ve read a lot about the culture, listened to countless hours of Spanish music, and I’ve studied the language since I was a freshman in high school—now I just need to go out and experience it! To steal from my friend Hayley: “Lo qué en los libros no está, la vida te enseñará” This means what is not in books, life will teach you, and I think it’s a wonderful motto for this trip. I’ve spent a lot of time reading books and listening to lectures as a student; I’m ready to go out and see things firsthand, explore, learn from my mistakes, build cross-cultural relationships, and bring life and meaning to what I’ve thus far only learned through pages in a book.

Two weeks!

Many of you know about my upcoming trip this summer, but for those of you that I don't get to see or talk to often, I'll be studying abroad in Costa Rica for 6 weeks! A lot of people have requested me to have a blog, so I'm giving it a shot. I think it'll be a good way to keep everyone up-to-date on what I'm doing and share my experiences.

The local church

I decided to go on this trip because I realized after not taking Spanish classes in college that I really miss the language and didn't want to lose what I had learned already. What better way to learn than to go abroad, right? I looked through several programs and decided on a six week program in San Joaquin de Flores, Costa Rica, because it is specifically for pre-med students--so perfect for me. :) I'll be taking a Spanish grammar class and a Medical Spanish class, which focus on completing medical interviews and paperwork in Spanish, as well as cultural viewpoints on health. I'm most excited about visiting the local clinics. Also, we're going on a few excursions to some major attractions, like the Arenal Volcano and the Rincon de la Vieja National Park. The town is 10 miles from the capital, San Jose, and is small 18th century colonial town and I'll be staying with a local family.

Arenal

I can't believe I leave in only TWO weeks! I'm not even done with finals yet, so I'll have a lot of packing and last-minute Spanish studying to do before I leave (My roommate and I determined I know nothing of practical value haha). I'm sure it'll be quite the cultural experience and one that will be life-changing, and I look forward to sharing it with you!