Final Experiences
The last full weekend of the trip was during Dr. Magleoca’s class, The Water Planet. We had already taken our final for the class, and we departed from the Soltis Center for three days to travel to Guanacaste, the northwestern most province of the country, to study water use there. Guanacaste produces a majority of the nation’s two most popular crops: rice and sugarcane. We were to study something called the food-energy-water nexus,...
More Experiences in Costa Rica
The first two weeks of the trip were led by Dr. Mathew Lafevor, who taught Geography of Latin and South America. He spoke spanish, and knew a good deal about the culture and geography of the area. The class was engaging, but the activities that we did outside of the classroom made it even better. Dr. Lafevor’s two weeks also happened to line up with the worst two weeks of weather we had at Soltis. It rained every day, sometimes...
Arrival
I arrived in San Juan, Costa Rica, around 2:30 on January 17th. Only after waiting in the customs line for 45 minutes did I realize that the american man standing behind me, who had been on my flight, was also a UA student there for the same program. We hurried through customs, and rendezvoused with the rest of the group, who had been waiting in the baggage claim. We left together, and walked across a crowded street to a shaded...
My return
My program was unfortunately cut short by about 2 weeks due to the coronavirus. I was told Thursday that I had to leave as soon as possible and I was on a plane Monday morning, so my experience leaving the country and everything that I called home for three months was a bit different and challenging than most peoples. I was not super upset to go home early as I started to get homesick but the abrupt nature of it all was very stressful...
While Abroad experience
As my semester abroad is coming to an end I feel as I have experienced enough to give an overview and the pros and cons of my time here in San Jose Costa Rica. Time has gone by fast and slow at the same time, I remember my first day here like it was yesterday, yet it feels like such as long time ago. To be completely honest the first day was probably the worst day I had to get up at four in the mourning to catch a five hour flight in...
Pre-departure experiences
The spring semester of my junior year I went to San Jose Costa Rica. There were many things that went into my decision to study abroad. The main reason I wanted to leave the country is to experience something new. College, in my opinion, is the perfect time to travel abroad because your responsibilities are lower. I can’t think of any other time where you can pack your bags and go to a different country for months. I knew this was a...