Sol Abroad High School Program in Costa Rica

This trip has strengthened my spanish as well as catered to my desire for new experiences. The trip provided me with an extensive amount of spanish usage, as well as a new appreciation for Costa Rican culture. It has given me a good balance between learning and genuine fun. I have also gotten to get close with my host family, who took great care of me and allowed me to form a genuine bond with them.

The directors of the trip, Maria and Judith, were awesome, as they struck a perfect balance between learning Spanish and having fun. Also, they prioritized our safety at all times. Furthermore, I loved my host family and want to visit them in the future. They treated my housemate and I as family and really cared for us. Lastly, I really enjoyed all three of the excursions as they were a great opportunity to bond with the other kids on the trip. Overall, it was a great experience!

Once upon a time... there was a man named Andrew. He decided to tell one of his students that he was God. The student believed him and proceeded to pray under his stewardship. One class he handed out papers to his disciples each 14-15 year old reaching out to grasp the thin piece of scripture. All but one student recived one. That student was Theodore Tolan. The one student who prayed for him, the student who cherished his lord, the student who carried his teachings throughout the valleys of Austin TX. The student pleaded and pleaded to consider the knowledge of his lord. Eventually he was passed ink, a quill, and the words of god. What he understood was that if he signed his name on the script he would be able to travel to the happiest nation in the world for 2 weeks with his lord. With a large and profound stroke of the quill along the paper, the disciple checked yes in the square inscription on the document. A few months later he is having the time of his life becoming more and more compfortable with speaking Spanish. He is eating large quantities of delicious food, zip lining through a rainforest and thanking his holy father, Andrew Lantz, for blessing him with this opportunity.

This program was a very good experience! Our host family was very nice and easy to talk to, the directors were more than capable and very nice, and the country was a very nice place. I really felt like I was immersed in the culture, and I learned a lot. . .

My host family was one of my favourite parts of the trip because they were simply such welcoming, understanding, and heart-warming people. Living with a host family is not only beneficial for language development, but it is also significant because it adds to the personal connection and takeaway of the program. The location, Atenas, and the reliable host family program is what drew me to Sol Abroad as the sense of community that is built makes the trip much more interesting and unique. My most vivid memory of this program are the incredible people of Costa Rica, including the directors. I am an international student with complicated travel requirements; however, the directors were very helpful and knowledgeable before and during the trip.

One time, my roommate, Olive, and I were walking home from downtown Atenas. We were planning on having a night in; finishing some home, do some painting, etc. It didn't exactly turn out that way. On the way back, we passed by the indoor soccer rink, where our five year old "nephew" was having a game. Afterward, our adult "sister" invited us over to her house for a few minutes. We stayed there for three hours. We talked, played with our "nieces and nephews," making enpanadas. That's a perfect example of Costa Rican life. You can make plans, but chaces are, they're not going to stick. That's the beauty of it.

For the longest time I didn't want to go on this trip, I thought it was going to be super lame, that the school part would suck and I wouldn't be able to make any friends. However I actually had a great time, and this was easily a life changing experience. I gained a great new perspective, and still keep pretty close contact with some of the people I went with. The school/lessons portion of the trip was amazing and I didn't honestly realize how much i learned until I got home. Since I live in San Antonio I am surrounded by Spanish speakers, & coming back to being able to understand native speakers more easily, and just having a better understanding of even the billboards was awesome. All in all, great trip.

At the end of my 3 weeks, I felt sadder about leaving than I thought I would. My host family was amazing and the people and friends I met along the way were truly remarkable. While Atenas is a small town (and about 45mins from SJ), it is a great place to live and study. Our houses were farther from town but that just meant you had to plan time at home, or in the town. One of my favorite things was that not very many people spoke English. As someone who has been to Mexico and Spain, it was such a refreshing experience to walk around and actually really need to use my Spanish.

While everyone is different, I think in an ideal world I would have stayed 4 or 5 weeks. By the end of the 2nd week I felt so at home and had gained enough confidence to speak, which made the 3rd week incredible. I just wish I had another week to enjoy the feeling of being a part of the town and to use my Spanish. I have always planned on studying abroad in college but this experience with Sol totally solidified that desire.
This is a summer I am going to remember for the rest of my life.