Hi Everyone! I’ve found another travel diary entry from 2014 that I made after I’d been in Costa Rica for a whole week. I wanted to share it with you, especially if you’re a young student looking to study abroad. While my thoughts are absolutely sporadic, I hope you get a sense of my many emotions through each new experience.

–

Today marks my first full week in a foreign country. It’s funny because I take taxis and the public buses so often here in Costa Rica, and I never did in Los Estados Unidos because I have a car. My new mom, sister, and I took the bus from our house into central Alajuela to go shopping for school clothes for my sister. Lately, at the local elementary, the teachers had been having a strike. And on Monday, the students finally go back to school. So, my Host Mom took full advantage of that fact that her good friend owns one of the trendy clothing stores in the area. After shopping, I bought a few postcards (4 to be exact, so I don’t need calls or texts from home saying,  “Send me one!”)for about $1.35 for a few people who really want one and told me in time. I have one friend, Jae, who’s actually demanding a letter from me. Well, I’ll see about that.

Anyways, we then ate at a fast food place, Pollo Campero. Apparently, my new sister loves fried chicken, and she’s such a tiny person too.

After we took the bus back home, I took a long nap, I was so tired from all the walking and shopping. Plus, I’ve been up since 7:00 am, and it’s a Saturday. We left a little after 9:00 today. Also, it started raining around 3:00, and it’s still raining. Welcome to summer, I mean, rain season Folks! Now, it’s almost midnight. So far, it hasn’t rained this long at all. Normally, it’s only 1-3 hrs. I hope it stops soon because I want to go use the WIFI at my new Aunt’s house. She let’s me come over whenever, which is great. Her daughter, Zaylin is so great. We’re always playing some game.

Okay, so my favorite channels here are Cosmo (I’m such a stereotypical female sometimes) & Investigation Discovery (I didn’t know how many stupid criminals we really do have in the U.S.).

I don’t know if we’re going to church tomorrow, but this morning I had my own little bible study. You all, God is such a blessing, a gift, because this opportunity has been amazing thus far. I’m learning so much, so fast. I sit and just think, I barely heard about this trip the week before Spring Break of this year. It was all by chance(seemingly). Well, I’m enjoying everything but the bugs. I have a new routine to keep them away and out of my room. In the morning, there are barely any bugs, so I’m good. When I arrive home from school, I quickly close my windows and turn off the lights to stop the bugs from being attracted at night. Before I developed my little routine, I had to play a game (“Kill That Bug”) every night before I could go to sleep. After doing all of that, I’m fine.

Oh, next week, I have afternoon classes because the other student I came with needs a special teacher who can only come in the afternoon, and the academic director doesn’t want to split us up. I believe the teacher who could teach her is sick this week. Ugh, I really wanted to go the movies this week after class. Now, I have to wait a lot longer.  It’s always me isn’t it. No se por que (I don’t why). My life always seems so complicated now.

Oh, by the way, these braids I’m sporting are way more convenient when getting ready for class, but they’re starting to get really itchy because their almost 2 weeks old. I just want to take them out and wash my hair normally. I think I’m going to rinse out my scalp again tonight. Oh yeah, Ticos (the natives) don’t shower at night. I don’t why because it’s really hot here.

Ticos are also futbol fanatics! My family would definitely like it here. I just don’t understand the obsession with sports. Here, it’s life! This weekend, some of the other students are going to Manuel Antonio, a nude beach a few hours away. You have to be nude to enter. I told my dad yesterday and asked could I go (jokingly, of course), and he freaked out lol. I just would be terrified to go there with all those people looking at me.

–

I want to hear from you too! If you studied abroad like I did in Costa Rica or another location, let me know what you day to day was like below.