Pura Vida

I spent a year living in rural Costa Rica, teaching English, learning Spanish and enjoying what I could of the famously relaxed and friendly culture. Day to day I would teach English in the morning, plan classes and relax in the afternoon and have a hearty dinner with my host family before turning in at 8 PM - yes you read that right! Did I mention we woke up almost every day at 5 AM? Yes, it was early to bed and early to rise, but I was never better rested than when I lived in Costa Rica - that's still 9 hours of sleep an evening.

Highlights of my year were tasting Costa Rican food, journeying into San Jose for breaks from the slow country life, visiting other teachers at their sites for mini-breaks, learning Spanish, having fun with my students and pushing them to make breakthroughs with their English.

I absolutely loved the laid-back atmosphere of Costa Rica. It was a great change of pace to have so much free time and to be able to revel in that by relaxing and watching the grass grow. There wasn't so much pressure to fill my every waking moment with activity and it was a great change of pace. I also really loved the food! Now some people may tell you that Costa Rican cuisine isn't that distinctive, but I really loved the millions of ways I ate rice and beans, fresh fruits and veggies and farm fresh eggs. It was delicious. And, my students were amazing. They were fun, funny, warm and genuine. Maybe we weren't setting the world on fire with our English classes but we had fun and I feel like it was a great growth experience for everyone involved.

I will say it was really challenging to live with some of my students. To be honest I should have been more cognizant of the fact that I am an introvert and need some alone time everyday to unwind and recharge, but I didn't factor that in when I was in the process of placement. It was hard for me to spend all day in class with the kids and then have to go home with them when all I wanted was some alone time to digest what had happened that day. There was also the added pressure of living with parents of my students. Costa Rican parents may have a reputation of being very laissez faire, but my host mom was super involved and I felt a lot of pressure to live up to previous teachers and a lot of self-doubt that I wasn't quite meeting her expectations. I think it's really important to think about these matters when you are getting placed. In hindsight, I realized that part of what I loved about my work before and after Costa Rica was being able to leave work at work and keep good boundaries about not bringing it home - that was something I should have considered and perhaps requested living with a family without such close ties to the school.

All in all though I would highly recommend WorldTeach Costa Rica to any and all - it's a great experience that will change you forever!