Week 2.5

Just a few days have passed since the last post, but I have only a few days left here in Costa Rica so I want to make sure that I don’t forget to write anything.

Manuel Antonio Refuge - $10 entrance fee

Saturday we left at 6 for the beach.  We had a couple setbacks but luckily nothing too major.  We made it onto the sand by 12.  There wasn’t great sun, however the view was spectacular.  I don’t really think that pictures can do it justice; it was so pretty.  We were on the pacific side for everyone that just asked my blog, the beach is called Manuel Antonio – its also a protected park.  It was a very nice day, and we all had a nice dinner at a local restaurant after.

The food stealing monkeys!

Sunday the weather was much hotter, it was extremely humid both days though. After yesterdays lack of tannable weather I decided to make sure something good came out of today so myself and a couple friends decided to rent some surfboards, so I spent the rest of the day surfing.  And no, I can’t actually surf but I sure will float around on my board and try when I find a good wave.  We also enjoyed watching the monkeys try to steal everyone's food!  I also enjoyed the hotel pool right before we had to leave.  Going back home to Curridabat was a shame, but I guess we had to for class Monday.

With the Pacific Ocean

Monday actually was a fun day of class because we had our festival of fruits.  They brought in all of the tropical fruits that were in season for us to try.  It was interesting, but I must admit that I didn’t find anything new that I really liked.  Tasted some really different fruits though.  After class we had a lecture about the education system, that I found very interesting.

 

Hotel Pool (my room is on the right)

Tuesday we had another regular day of classes. After class we went to the local campus of the Universidad de Costa Rica Public universities only cost $40 a semester, if you can believe that.  We had a presentation on the community service the students do there.  Each student is required to complete 300 hours of community service to graduate.  They do the work with other students of their same concentration as well as others to learn how to work cooperatively within the community and interdisciplinary.  Most of the time they work in areas of extreme need; the idea is that when they join the workforce they will understand they are working for the greater good of the country and not just "plata" (money).  I think this is a concept that could and should be applied to every college across the world, some people just don't realize what they have or how much help their community might need.

always,
a

Week 2!

Sorry I wasn’t able to update on Friday – my sister was on the computer all night and Saturday morning I left for the weekend so today is the day for last week’s update.

Sunday was my favorite day in Costa Rica thus far by leaps and bounds.  It was a rather long day so please allow two paragraphs for me to semi-adequately describe it to you.  It was our only free day this whole trip so we planned our own activity.

Jungle Cats!

We left at 6 am by private tour bus for La Paz waterfall.  After about a 1 hour drive we arrive to the place where we ate breakfast. Typical Costa Rica: Gallo Pinto, eggs, fried plantain, cheese and bread with strawberry spread.  Another hour drive followed and after many twisty, curvy roads we arrived at La Paz.  Little did I know there was basically a zoo included in the waterfall, check this out: open air bird house (got to hold a toucan), jungle cat house, orchid garden, hummingbird feeding area (yes I got to hold a hummingbird on a flower in my hand), open air butterfly conservatory (had to be careful not to step/run into them), monkey house (they held our hands through the bars), snake house, frog garden and last but not least – La Paz waterfall.  Here is the website if you are interested: http://www.waterfallgardens.com. We then took a shuttle back to the top and had lunch at a gorgeous open air restaurant where the exotic rainforest butterflies flew around our heads as we ate a delicious buffet. JUST WAIT. That is only the first paragraph.

Rainforest Frog

Day Amazing – part 2. After lunch we all got back on the bus, down some more curvy roads on the edge of the mountains/rainforests and drove about an hour to The Springs.  Here is a link but don’t look yet:http://www.thespringscostarica.com. The Springs is a five star resort with small hot pools everywhere ranging in temperature from lukewarm to 108 degrees.  Each was gorgeous; there was a swim up bar, Jacuzzi, waterslide, multiple waterfalls, and beautiful tropical plants everywhere.  Not to mention the whole place overlooked the Arenal Volcano.  After about 3 hours of swimming, relaxing, and tanning, we returned to the locker rooms to shower for our 3 course dinner.  I got a house salad, coconut battered mahi mahi, and black forest cake.  Way too soon, we found ourselves on the way back home to Curridabat. Over 12 hours on that tour wasn’t enough for some of us.

La Paz

Wanna guess how much that cost: 3 meals, all transportation and 2 incredible locations?  $129. In Spanish we say “vale la pena”.

Monday we had to go back to school – seems to happen to us everyday after there has been a weekend recently. Darn it.  Class we got a new teacher – Giovanni. After class today we had someone come speak with us about migration in Costa Rica.  Here that mostly means Nicaraguans immigrating to Costa Rica, aka: “Nicas”. Rather interesting/useful considering that I have to write my 25 page paper on that exact topic when I return to the U.S.

Buffet Lunch

Tuesday we had class as usual. After class we had a professor from UCR (Universidad de Costa Rica) come and speak to us about Costa Rican history and it’s place now.  I’m not a big history person so this lecture was probably the most boring to me so far, in addition that, the guy spoke SO fast and talked 40 minutes past when he was supposed to.

Wednesday was another day that should prove helpful to my research efforts for my paper.  We visited a local Nicaraguan village called Rio Azul (Blue Rive) and separated into pairs.  Each pair interviewed a mother or young adult who immigrated here from Nicaragua.  It was such an eye opener for so many students.  I interviewed a single mother who left her alcoholic, drug-addicted husband to bring her children to Costa Rica so they could get an education and so she could get a job to buy them food.  Really makes you appreciate what you have.

The Springs

Thursday after class we went back to the other Nicaraguan village to play with the children.  This time we made cards with them and then went outside to jump rope and play some futbol (soccer) for a bit.  There were a lot less kids this time and they weren’t nearly as crazy.

Friday we had our big weekly test.  I studied for about 6 hours on Thursday but I still didn’t feel prepared ( I don’t know that I ever would have).  We were given our oral topic yesterday so I just decided to write my response and memorize it to decrease the chance of making a mistake.  More time consuming, but again I would say “vale la pena”.  It was a relief to have those over and after words we all enjoyed a sweat inducing workout of a Latino dance class which included Salsa, Meringue, Creole Swing, and a short choreographed piece.

Manuel Antonio is next so be sure to check in again soon!

always,

a

(ps. There are more photos but this is all I have at the moment – will update)

COSTA RICA, here I am!

Costa Rican beauty the second we get there!

You guessed it, its gorgeous here.  So we landed from our 3.5 hour flight and of course, this rainbow was there to greet us - I took it as a good omen.  It was a 1 hour ride from the airport to our houses, we were all exhausted and starving because our first plane was delayed an hour and our second we had to run to in order to make on time.  I could write pages and pages about what we have been doing here, but I am going to try to keep it to one page a day.  Get ready for a Costa Rican adventure!



The first day after we had our placement tests, we went to the bank to exchange money, learned all the good places to eat lunch (and ate lunch) and then had a short orientation to living with a host family and the tico (Costa Rican) culture.  The current exchange rate is about 500 colones to 1 dollar, which is actually rather easy to compute when shopping as long as you can multiply by 2.

Colones (local currency)

The second day we had a more substantial class.  We were assigned to classes according to ability, but the classrooms are very small and classes only consist of 1 to 4 people each.  Its intimate, but good for learning and especially convenient for lots of questions about the language and the culture.  In the afternoon we were lucky enough to make it to downtown San Jose and do a scavenger hunt.  The hunt itself wasn't that fun, but it was kind of convenience to be forced to practice asking people for directions - little did I know how handy this would be.  I'm sure you're thinking, how hard could it be? worse comes to worse just mapquest it or ask someone. I would tell you that 99% of streets don't have names, and if they do no one knows them.  Also, they only use landmarks, measurements of blocks and meters, and pointing to tell you how to get places.  About 25% of the time, the measurements they give are wrong, too much or too little.  Usually more of the latter which makes me constantly worry that I already passed my destination.

Day three we went to a museum.  It was all about the history of San Jose and the ancient times. To be honest I don't remember too much but I have the pictures to remember it by for later.  Later in the day we all decided to find somewhere to hang out and a local restaurant/bar was having karaoke night so we decided to go.  It was fun, we didn't stay out late but its nice to interact with the ticos outside of school.

Our mask maker!

On the fourth day I got my first sunburn.  We sat in the sun during lunchtime and my arms burned a little.  This is nothing compared to my burn in a couple days.  After class, we went to visit a local Nicaraguan community of "pobres" to play with the children and bring them juice and cookies.  They were ecstatic to have us there and I was surprised to see so many of my classmates so into playing with the kids.

Day five (does it feel like time is starting to fly to you too?!) its finally Friday!  We had our weekly test in our classes and I think I did fine.  After class we got a bus to a workshop of a local mask maker.  Probably the most adorable man I have met here thus far.  He said the masks are like a second family to him and he refuses to sell them because he wouldn't sell family.  He even gave one away to the winner of a game we played but first he asked her where it was going and then kissed it goodbye.

Today, day six, we went to the Orosi Valley.  Everywhere the "naturaleza" is so pretty.  We made a few stops on the way to the main rest/photo area.  Once we got there we spent about an hour just sitting around talking quietly, admiring the view, and enjoying the most perfect weather.  The view was gorgeous.  This is also when I got sunburned - every stop we went to was 10 or 15 minutes to take pictures, but no one told us we were going to be at this one for so long otherwise I would have put on the SPF 30 sunscreen I brought with me.  Live and learn I guess. When we got back to Curridabat, a couple of us decided to go back to downtown San Jose to pick up a few last minute things for our trip tomorrow.  What trip is that you ask? I guess you will have to wait and see. Talk to you again in a week!

Orosi Valley (Me, Liz, RJ)

-a

Post-Christmas Update

Wow, there is going to be a lot of updating in this post - so put on your seatbelts ladies and gentlemen.

Most excitingly, I just finished my 5th semester at Towson. My GPA is now a 3.7, not too shabby if I may say so myself.  I ended up with As, one A- and one B.  Unfortunately the B was in my 100 level Family Studies class where I found out one project too late that our professor was going to grade everything really easy until the big final project which she was going to grade extremely hard in comparison and take off points for things she never specified for our paper and presentation on "a topic we are interested in that relates to the class".  Nevertheless, worse things could have happened this semester. I am happy with the other A's I got in the harder classes...   Next semester's 21 credits is going to kick my butt so thats what I should really be worrying about; or should I say mentally preparing myself for.

Now that Christmas/Hanukkah is passed and I finished shopping my life away for the perfect gifts for everyone on my list, the countdown begins for the time until I leave for Costa Rica! Just thinking about it makes my tummy flip.  I am so excited and nervous, I feel like I am on fire and somebody put me in the freezer.  I depart on the 2nd and will be returning on the 23rd. I wish I was going abroad for a full semester (even though I'm not sure my mother could handle that) but the classes I need just aren't offered anywhere I think is worth paying thousands of dollars to go.  If you are anyone who knows me though, you already know how this upsets me.

Here is a link to my program if you are interested: http://www.towson.edu/studyabroad/costaricaSPANmini.asp

In Costa Rica I will be taking two classes, an upper level elective and a oral pronunciation and expression class. I will be living with a host family and can't wait for a chance to practice my Spanish again. I feel like it is my long lost love! Mostly because I didn't have room in my schedule for a Spanish class this semester.  I will be in class about 6 hours a day, and besides that I hope to explore the beautiful country, facination culture and lovely people I hope to find there.  If there is one word my friends who have been abroad with me before would use to describe me, I'm sure most of them would say adventurous.  I throughly enjoy things that push me out of my comfort zone, like asking the taxi cab drivers (in Spanish) why he chose this job, how he got the car, if he likes it.  I am also not afraid to buy the strangest local treats in the candy stores to test them out, like chile power covered lollipops from Mexico.  Of course updates will be posted on here when I go so that whoever is interested can keep up with my adventures.

Luckily for me, when I do get back home my position in the Financial Services department at Baltimore County Savings Bank will be waiting for me.  The internship there has been such a valuable learning experience.  My boss even invited me to accompany her on a trip in February to Tenesee where she is going to a factory full of Spanish speaking workers to try and provide them with life insurance (she doesn't speak Spanish).  What an opportunity!! I'm just glad I have a month to brush up on my Spanish before we go.

I was also talking to another bank employee over the holidays and she happened to mention that the Marketing department there was basically run by one person and she was swamped with work. Lucky for me she is so busy - sounds like an excellent opportunity for an internship.

I was also offered an intership with my parents financial advisor from AXXA (pronounced ax-ahh) in their marketing department.  Their advisor heard all about my work during college application time, scholarships and grades in high school.  He told them I should write a book of my successes and strategies - I think I might settle for just the internship and skip the book.  Mostly because I know the kind of students who need help with all those things are not the kind of people who are going to read my book to get help.

Seems like everything is working out for now, but I have to go make a packing list for Costa Rica and finish up my Marketing scholarship application so until next time...

a

Here we go again.

I thought I had posted between this post and last post but apparently I was wrong.  So here is an update: as I was going along figuring out the prerequisites for the Financial Planning Track, I was informed by the accounting department that the track no longer exists. Towson is so good about this stuff...

In addition, I decided to change my major. I made it official today.  I spoke to my lovely advisor who agrees and thinks I made the right change at the right time.  I am now an eBusiness and Marketing double major, and I plan to become a CFP after college.

A couple important things went into this decision. First and foremost, I figured out that financial analysis is too dry. This is the type of finance they teach at Towson and I don't want to put myself through semesters and semesters of classes I am not interested in.  Second, I am a creative person and I don't think I would like to have a job that doesn't require any creativity.  Last but certainly not least, I am a people person. I don't know if there is a word for people who are intense people persons, but that would be me.  I actually considered getting my degree is psychology to be a therapist but decided to go the business route instead.

Ultimately, I decided becoming a CFP was the right fit.  My mom said she knew I would change my mind about my major, and my advisor said he expected me to change my major as well.  Seems like everyone knows me better than I do! Here's hoping for the best.