So on December 1st Irene Wilson and I went to Costa Rica. We both wanted an adventure over Christmas break so we began planning this fall. Since Irene already had a plane ticket to San Jose I decided to join her. We spent 2 weeks in Samara, Costa Rica learning Spanish. We first arrived in San Jose and after we got our backpacks from baggage claim we were bombarded with taxi drivers. We found signs with our names on them with our host mothers for the night. We were separated and hoped we would see each other the next day. It was instant spanish immersion considering no one spoke English. The next day we went to Samara in a 9 passenger van and then arrived at our new host families. I stayed with Marilyn and her 5 year old son Selvestion in their quaint house. It was 90 degrees everyday we were there. We would wake up in the morning and just start sweating. We had language classes for 4 hours a day and then other activities. Irene and I surfed, laid on the beach, took salsa dancing lessons, cooked typical Costa Rican food in cooking class, had yoga on the beach, and went for nightly sunset walks. It was a gorgeous place to study spanish. In the states we take foreign language classes, but you never really have to apply your conversational skills so this was a way to be forced to speak. Every morning I had fresh fruit for breakfast and at night a typical Costa Rican meal with my mamatica (host mom). We had lots of conversations even though she couldn't speak any English. My favorite part of meal time was when we would pray; she would first say a prayer in Spanish and then I would say a prayer in English. Pretty powerful. Most nights we would walk around the little town. Samara was really poor but it was also a tourist destination so most of the bars and restaurants were crowded at night. The drinking age in Costa Rica is 18, but they don't adhere to it much so you'd see young people with drinks. Every bar was outdoors and people would come in with no shoes and their dogs. Little bit different then in the states. ha It was fun to meet a bunch of new people and have conversations with people from around the world. My favorite part of being in Samara was meeting everyone and hearing their stories. There were 19 year olds from Germany taking a gap year before university, 3 American college boys from New York on vacation, grandparents from Canada taking a break and escaping the cold, Australians taking a sabbatical for a year traveling the world and people from all walks of life from around the world. The best way to learn about culture is to talk to people from other regions and I'm thankful I had the opportunity. We traveled around Costa Rica and went bungee jumping from the highest jump in Latin America (150meters), went down water slides at the largest hot springs, climbed inside a 50 foot tree, ziplined and pretended to be Tarzan, hiked a volcano, took a ferry across Lake Arenal, stayed in Hostels, hiked through mud and pouring rain to a crystal blue waterfall, hitchiked and climbed a mountain to watch the sunset, jumped off a rope swing into a river, and danced with the Native Costa Ricans. Talk about a whirlwind adventure. We cooked in an outdoor kitchen and showered with cold water when there were scorpions in shower. We survived driving a manual car up the worst dirt roads I've ever seen and through busy streets with no street signs or directions. We got to bar tend and then make sure crazy drunks didn't pour margaritas on their bleeding faces. For the first time in my life I saw people sleeping on the streets in cardboard boxes. Coming back to America, especially around Christmas time, I realized how much we have. Living in a first world country we can take hot showers, drive huge cars around, have multiple story houses, watch cable television and use dishwashers. Once again I was reminded how fortunate I am. I'm grateful to have had the adventure in Costa Rica. Irene was a great travel partner. I made a dozen new friends around the world that I'm excited to stay in contact with. Pura Vida!
