Pura Vida in 2 days!

In 3 days I will be boarding a plane to leave the country for the first time! Am I nervous? YES, but mostly excited, excited to be living la pura vida with supposedly the happiest people on earth! Friends and family keep asking me what I am nervous about. I am about to have an experience of a lifetime, so what is there to be nervous for? While I listen to Spanish music on a daily basis and have been dying to take Salsa lessons, the main source of my nerves comes from this language barrier that I have never had to experience in my life. I don't do well with awkward silences, however it is a challenge I am ready to face! Through this whole preparation process Dr. Powell cannot say enough wonderful things about the families who will be hosting us, so I am eager to meet familia Quesada Artavia y familia Marin Anchia. Familia Quesada Artavia is the first family I will be staying with while we are in San Joaquin for a week. Kathia (my Mama Tica), Gustavo (padre), Beatriz (17 anos), and Karol (10 anos) I can already tell are going to help me feel comfortable. Lets just hope I’ll be able to contribute to dinner conversations! I am so excited to get to know each of them. Maria (Mama Tica), Marcos (padre), Jose Carlos (9 anos), and Luis Alejandro (3 anos) make up familia Marin Anchia, who I will be staying with for 2 weeks in Monte Verde.

I am excited that I am finally getting a taste of the reason I wanted to be an elementary education major in the first place, to teach abroad! I am eager to get in the classroom and meet the kids. Over the course of the 3 ½ weeks I am required to pick a topic to research, and I have decided to research and observe how the schools and teachers incorporate environmental education in their every day lessons. I am going to compare what I find in Costa Rica to what I have experienced in North Carolina. Any one of my friends will tell you that I’m a freak about recycling, so I thought this topic was appropriate :). I feel like I could learn so much about how I can incorporate environmental education into my own classroom so I think this will prove to be a very valuable tool for me. After all, one of President Laura Chinchilla’s main goals for her term is to make the country more “green.”

Wish me luck! :)