Sol Abroad~Costa Rica

This program was incredibly important to my growth both academically and personally. I came in straight out of Spanish 1 and now I feel ready to skip Spanish 2, using the book they gave me. Without the book I probably wouldn’t be ready but with the book I’m fine. I have never done something like this before. I’ve never been out of country or thrown into a new language like this. I feel very different and ready to take on more countries and languages-after I become fluent in Spanish of course! I felt slightly disconnected from the staff but I did not make much of an effort to know them so I do not blame them. The director for both programs (Summer 1 and 2) was very fun and helped us make the best of things. She worked tirelessly to make sure things would work out. For example, she moved around our excursions and instead of not doing anything when the waterfall water was too high to swim in, we went and did a sloth tour where I saw my first ever sloth! I had a lot of fun hanging out with other people in the program. I wish I had gone out and interacted with more Ticos but I’ll know for next time. My housing situation was awesome. I will be staying in touch with my house mom. She was great and loved to tease me. I felt pretty safe during the program. However, when I walked home during the dark I did not feel as safe as possible due to the lack of street lights. My favorite part of the entire trip was falling outside of the raft during white water rafting! It was scary but the people in my raft were very bonded afterwards. The instructor was very calm and handled the situation well. It actually convinced me to join my school’s rowing team! Overall, I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything!