Time of my life

Every morning I wake up and have breakfast at 7. It is usually fresh fruit, some type of pancake or empanada, and hot chocolate. Then I walk 10 minutes to class, and on the way I am joined by many of my SOLmates. Most of our program lives in the same neighborhood. We have Spanish class from 8 to 11, and are separated by level. I can honestly say I enjoy these classes. After class we go home for lunch at about noon. My afternoon activities vary by day. They include: zumba, volunteering with kindergarteners at a nearby school, conversation club with locals, and volunteering at a nursing home, and hip hop class. On Tuesdays I have theater class with locals. We get to choose a class with locals to take and they really help us improve our Spanish. On Wednesdays Sol provides us with cultural activities. They have included: a rescue ranch, cooking class, traditional dance class, coffee tour, and more. Dinner is at 6. My host mom is an excellent chef. I have tried so many new foods and loved them! I am always excited for mealtimes. We have many weekend excursions with SOL that are included. On our free weekends, we like to plan our own excursions. With SOL, we have been to Punta Mona (a beautiful sustainable living farm on the beach), La Fortuna (waterfall, hot springs, volcano, zipline), and soon we are going to Nicaragua. For excursions that we planned ourselves, we went to Manuel Antonio, Barva volcano, and a small group even climbed Chirripo. When we stay in Heredia for the weekend, we go out dancing, have relaxing nights in, or spend the day in Heredia Centro or San Jose. One of my favorite parts of this program is that our directors encourage us to speak Spanish. There is a lot of time that we can easily speak English- weekends, between classes, etc- but Janiva and Jessenia urge us to keep speaking Spanish. It has definitely gotten easier with time. I love the homestay because we get to feel like part of the family while we're here. The meals are incredible and I love having conversations with my host mom. She helps with grammar and words that I don't know. It is a warm and homey environment that I will miss tremendously when I leave. Studying abroad is the second best decision I've ever made. Choosing SOL is the first.