Winter Break in Costa Rica with SOL Education Abroad

I spent 3 weeks of my winter break in Costa Rica with SOL Education Abroad. We spent New Year's Eve there, one of the coolest experiences I had on the trip.

We went to la casa de la hija de Mama Tica where we met her daughters, son-in-law, and grandchildren. They only live about 2 minutes away. The house was still decorated for Navidad. Era bellísimo y la familia tambien. Kylie and I felt welcome at Mama Tica’s daughter’s house, the whole family greeted us with a kiss on the cheek which is customary in Costa Rica, but still much appreciated. We ate dinner at about 10:00 at night. I had steak and chicken on tortillas with chimichurri. Interestingly, the chimichurri wasn’t like the sauce I had tried before en los Estados Unidos. It was chopped tomatoes with onions and cilantro, but still delicioso!

We counted down for el año nuevo and Mama Tica literally jumped out of her seat and ran out of the room when we reached zero! We followed her outside to watch fireworks and celebrate in the street. I’ll never forget the view. We stood halfway up a steep hill overlooking downtown Heredia and San José. The lights of two cities were joined by sparks of fireworks on the mountain. The night air was cool and a couple other families in the neighborhood celebrated with drums and firecrackers. We came back inside to have “gelatina” which is jello and rum cake with caramel vanilla ice cream.

Soon we would return home, eager to get some sleep. Before we went to bed, Mama Tica told Kylie and I that we were gems, so close to in such a short amount of time. She is so happy we are able to communicate well with her. She drew the sign of the cross on our foreheads with her thumb, as she does most mornings before we leave the house, and off to bed we went. I hope to stay in touch with Mama Tica for as long as possible! She taught me so much Spanish, sometimes we would talk for hours after dinner (which was always delicious.) This was just one of the many meaningful experiences I had in Costa Rica, I'd be able to fill a whole book with the rest.