Courtney, 17

Here I am again sitting at the desk with so much to say but words can't express...
I've come to the realization that I am actually living an emotional, thrilling, and life changing experience that I will look back on for the rest of my life. This trip may have even opened me up to the idea of studying, and possibly living abroad. I hope this becomes a reality in the near future.

Today, we hosted a party for our tico/tica pals and had so much fun. I did my best to hype up the crowd and break the ice with hopes of making everyone more comfortable. Sure enough, everyone joined in and we shared different childhood games and taught each other new dances. My pen pal Paula also brought me a gift, which in my eyes symbolizes friendship, and I couldn't feel more reassured that we are in fact friends forever. I hope that all our pals get the chance to come to America so they can feel exactly what I'm feeling at this very moment!

In a way, this all feels like a dream. which is possible, because all great dreams come to an end and I know that my stay here in Costa Rica is up within the next 7 days. I really hope that I get to come back and really experience all there is to experience soon!!!

Yo amo Costa Rica muchisimo!!!!

I DON´T WANT TO LEAVE JOSE (and I don´t just mean ¨San¨)

Samantha, 18

I will make this short and sweet since it´s late and I haven´t posted in a while..

We visited Poas and that was cool, but it was not so much the best part about today. Our group rode in two seperate busses getting there and the teachers split us up so that half the bus was full of City High kids (Gringos) and the other half were our pen pals (Ticos). I´m not that shy towards the Ticos since they fascinate me and I know I won´t see them again so I didn´t mind not sitting with friends however I felt sick so I didn´t want to really sit with anyone.

I ended up sitting in front of Courtney on the bus and next to her sat a boy named Jose. He was not either of our pen pals so we didn´t have much to talk about. At first he seemed stuck up because when Mr.Oliver was picking a radio station he kept saying no to every station, but this was clearly wrong. I noticed he had an iPod and was listening to it so Court and I asked what music he liked and he gave us each an ear bud and picked songs for us to listen to. I was surprised when he began playing Katy Perry and other well known USA songs! Once we started singing he even joined in and I was so amazed/couldn´t stop laughing.

We made a pit stop and I was feeling better so I moved to the center of the bus to be in the middle of all the action! We all tried to sing songs that everyone knew, including but not limited to: Feliz Navidad, Hot n´Cold by Katy Perry, and the theme song from Titanic (Which Jose admitted to crying when he watched it). It was so fun and then later in the night we had a party at our hotel and most of our pen pals came including Jose! We all tried dancing, but everyone was too awkward so we ended up playing intense hand games which we got so into that it was crazy. I don´t want to write a novel here, but I feel like today was my favorite. Both Courtney and I almost started to cry when we were hugging our pen pals goodbye because we knew we would probably never see them again.

Don´t get too upset though, because there were plenty of napkin facebook addresses exchanged so all is well with the world! Thank goodness for social networking!!

Universal Language

Courtney, 17

My expectations of today were way higher than what I recieved. The volcano was beautiful, but there were way too many bugs for me and I was covered in them!!!! They were like little Costa Rican gnats that must have loved the body spray that I was wearing because they were covering my jacket!!!!

On a much happier note, I met a new amigo named Josue and we shared alot of music and I found that everyone has a way to communicate no matter where your from or what language you speak. Though my Spanish was broken, and his English was almost as terrible...we shared a lot of similarities and I love techno music much more than before.

This whole experience has taught me one very important thing, and that's that there is a huge world outside of America and if we don't experience what it has to offer we won't ever know exactly what the importance of life is. I can't believe I've been here and seen all that I have, yet no one in my family has ever done the same, beyond an average vacation.

In the morning we leave for Yorkin, and I must say I'm nervous; mainly because of the bugs, but I will have my arms wide open for everything else.

Volcanoes & Nature

Kiera, 16

Today we went with our Tico friends to visit Volcano Paos National Park. I didn´t think it would be such a long ride to get to the park, but it was great! On the way, I viewed many other spectacles of nature. In general, I´m not a nature person, but this trip has actually given me the knowledge of how beautiful nature can be.

This first image that I saw was just a farm on our way to the volcanoes, but it looked really cool to me. Because if you really think about it, this farm shows that it required a lot of time to get to the place that it is at right now. To me, this shows that people actually care about other things, rather than simple-everyday stuff, which inspires me to start looking for and thinking of other things, outside of the ordinary. This trip is also an out-of-the-ordinary experience.

This image of the house, shows to me that other people are doing what I am going to strive to do. Instead of giving up, and living on the street, the people of La Carpio, thought outside of the ordinary and built their own houses out of whatever they could find. I loved being in La Carpio, because the people there were so close. And I love when neighbors are close. They watch out for each other and they keep going, no matter what. La Carpio also inspires me to go out of the unordinary, and to keep going no matter what.

The volcano was the last straw for me. I am actually a person that LOVES nature because of this volcano. It just amazes me, the creation of such a thing, that makes me appreciate what is being made, and inspires me to take advantage and enjoy any type of nature possible. Overall, nature inspires me to be out of the ordinary, and enjoy what is there for me to view.

Poas volcano through the clouds...

Christina Arenth, Social Studies Teacher

Today we woke up early and picked up our pen pals from Liceo Vargas Calvo.  Together we ventured to the  Poas volcano outside of San Jose. Rodolfo Vanderlaat, a vulcanologist from the Costa Rican Volcano Observatory at the National Univeristy, spoke to all the students about the volcanic activity in Costa Rica. 

When we reached the crater, at first we couldn't see much... 

but slowly the clouds began to part... 

and the crater was unveiled!

Amazing!

Time to Catch Up on the Fun!

Alyssa, 17

I haven't blogged since Day 2, and today is Day 5! We've been so busy, hustling from place to place, and trying to get caught up on sleep. Here's a recap of Days 3, 4, and 5.

Day 3 - We started off the day by going to the Legislative Assembly for an interview, and also got a tour of the building. After lunch, we went back to La Carpio for the last time. It was one of the best experiences I've had. We (both our group and people from La Carpio) worked together to create a road. The hardest part was mixing cement by hand! Well, with shovels. But it's a lot harder than using a cemement mixer! Once our work was done, we had a small gathering to present our group's donation to the La Carpio community. Nate, Patrick, Shalyce, and I presented a community leader with the donation and each reflected on our experiences working in La Carpio. Then, we had cake and Coke! I don't drink pop, but the cake was really good. It had caramel and fruit in it. A few of us also bought purses made by a few of the women in La Carpio.

After we (FINALLY!) got back to the hotel after a long ride in traffic, we had dinner, which really surprised me. First off, there were no rice and beans! Instead, there was mashed potatoes. And the meat was fish! Which usually, I HATE fish, but I tried it, and it was really good. I even had seconds! I was happy I ended up trying it, despite the fact I thought it would be really gross. Traveling to another country has really surprised me in the sense that I am being a lot more open minded about things like food, which I would have never tried before.

Day 4 - Today started with probably the best breakfast we're going to have. We had cantaloupe, pinapple, and a ham and cheese croissant. I love cantaloupe and pineapple, so I was psyched. The first thing on our itinerary was a trip to Dos Pinos, a local dairy cooperative. We got to see how things like milk and ice cream are made, and get a lot of information about CAFTA and how the tariffs on trade between the US and Costa Rica and going to change over the next 10 years. The end of the tour was spectacular, complete with ice cream and stuffed animal cows!

We had our second interview after lunch, at the U.S. Embassy. I was really looking forward to going there because I heard so much about it and I wanted to see what it was that they did for Americans. We learned a lot about what people do there, how they help Americans, and the process of becoming an officer in international embassies. One of the officers also gave us a few travel tips! This was really helpful to me because I plan to travel more in the future.

Last night, we went to a Jazz Cafe. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it wasn't too different than just a restaurant with a live band. I had never really listened to Latin Jazz before, but it was better than I expected it to be. I really liked how the piano was played, it sounded so cool and different. The only downside was that we didn't get back to the hotel until 11:30! Which would have been fine if we didn't have to get up so early for Poas today!

Day 5 - Got to wake up around 6 to leave by 7:30! First we went to the high school to pick up the students. We had about half of us and half of them in each of the two buses. I really liked that we got to talk to them on the (long) ride to the Poas volcano. I talked to Paula the entire ride there. She is very good at English and we found so much to talk about. It wasn't constricted to just, how old are you, and what type of music do you like. It was about everything from our school classes, who are friends are, where we like to go to hang out, and just everything we could think to talk about. The volcano was really clear of fog, so we got lots of great pictures. On the way back, I talked to Larry and Pepe a lot, they were so funny. It is really interesting trying to break a language barrier, even if we know a bit of Spanish and they know a bit of English.

The high school students came to our hotel for a small get together. It was so fun. We listened to music, attempted to dance, and ended up playing hand games. Who knew that other countries played Slide and their own version of Stella Ella Olla! I miss them already and they only left a few minutes ago. I can't wait to get back home and e-mail my new Tico friends.

We are leaving for Yorkin in the morning and we won't be able to blog again for about a week! I'm worried about the food we will have to eat, but I'm doing much better with eating rice and beans and today I even had squash soup. Weird, right?

I miss everyone back home and I can't wait to see you guys when I get home.