As most of you know this is not my first time studying abroad, so it has been very interesting talking to Janice about everything. Everynight before we go to bed I will look at her and go,"So how you doing so far?" Though I have to admit that warm, beachy, rural Costa Rica is NOTHING like cityside Spain. So it´s been different but a good different. I have never experienced the city, except for the occasional trip to richmond...which is usually to Maymont park. ha. The things I like most about studying abroad is:
1. You get thrown into the most vulnerable position you will ever be put in. You have not familiarities, which in my position makes me cling to the one familiarity I have GOD. I not until you are in the most vulnerbal states, do you truely find the presence of God.
2. The Smells, weird I know....I LOVE THE NEW SMELLS! .........interruption, Dani just bought us an orange, PRAISE JESUS! .... Here the streets are lined with Orange trees, so there is a citrus smell you get every now and then. In Costa Rica...there were to many! On my walk to school I would smell the banana trees coming out of my house, then I would turn the corner and smell the fresh bread being put out at the panaderia, then I would walk down the street and pass the little old man sitting on his "street corner" stool smoking his cigar, my school that was full of every flower you can possibly think of, and I think one of my favorites was coming back home to the smell of lunch my mama tica was preparing.
3. AMIGOS...I was blessed to have already known Janice before I got here, so I came with an AMAZING and FUN companion. Though my favorite thing is meeting the natives...that sounds like I am christopher Columbus exploring the new world...hehe. But its so true, last semester God introduced me to a precious, and would end up being my best friend, girl from BEND, ORegon, Rachel Lambert. I made a most embarrasing first impression on the plane, after I rudely told I her I wanted the window seat....and then followed it by cussing at her in my sleep our first night in the hotel room...haha. I got to meet a lot of the locals in Costa Rica by going with my brother to a futbol game. There I met my main reason for learning Spanish, an adorable boy named Carlos. We would go on walks and he would point to things and I would have to say them in Spanish..I LEARNED SO MUCH. It´s a little harder here to meet new friends but luckily we are finding them in the school. Janice and I got to teach English one night to the spanish students.....TALK ABOUT FUN! First off, can I just say how funny and witty (agruda) Janice is! She had the whole class laughing! After class we exchanged numbers with a girl named Anna, who is a nursing major (shout out to Sarah and Amber!). She was adorable.
4. Getting lost...or what I like to call it "exploring". Janice and I went for a walk around the city trying to find this cheap store we heard about, ended up running into a rather large old man without teeth who asked us if we were lost...embarrassing..ha. He proceeded to tell us how much he liked Abraham Lincoln....random I know. That is one of my favorite things about getting lost, is having to talk to the locals and using the language..YAY spanish!
Im sure I could bore you for hours talking about all the things I love about studying abroad, but these will do. LOVE AND MISS EVERYONE!
Pura Vida,
Kate
