It's been a hectic semester, but I'm officially in Costa Rica for the next week and half!
My professor recruited me for the program several months ago. Initially I was skeptical because I'm in graduate school, and graduate students simply do not go abroad! However, he talked me into applying "just because." Lo and behold, I got accepted to the program and decided to do this since I never studied abroad during undergrad.
The program consists of two 3 credit courses, one taken during the spring, and one in the fall. The spring semester class is dedicated to learning as much as possible about Costa Rica, the people, the land, and the history. Then we go abroad during the summer, and in the fall semester we dedicate our time to working on our projects.
With the culmination of the class, we left for Costa Rica just a few days after finals ended.
I got up around 6am this morning, and my roommate drove me to the airport (Thanks, Kara! I owe you a bunch). After a brief argument with the front desk attendant at the airport ("US Airways has never flown to Costa Rica! You better check the other airlines. Maybe you got the wrong reservation." "But I have the reservation right here! It says US Airways!" "It's wrong!" Well I'm here so clearly you're wrong) I got through security and chilled at the gate. The first flight to Charlotte was relatively quick and painless. Once I was in Charlotte, I ran into two people from my class at the gate. Turns out they were on my flight too!
We were unfortunately seated apart, but no big deal. I spent the entire flight reading my book, and then the last half hour gawking out the window as we descended.
We met the rest of my class outside the airport and rode a van to our hotel in San Jose. The hotel is called Villas Tournon, and it's pretty decent. There are four girls to each room and the rooms are actually comfortable. The hotel is in a dangerous area, but not too bad. We spent the rest of today exploring, but we were very tired so we didn't really go out much.
Tomorrow we are visiting two schools for the deaf and the University of Costa Rica. Should be fun!
Jellyfish out!
My professor recruited me for the program several months ago. Initially I was skeptical because I'm in graduate school, and graduate students simply do not go abroad! However, he talked me into applying "just because." Lo and behold, I got accepted to the program and decided to do this since I never studied abroad during undergrad.
The program consists of two 3 credit courses, one taken during the spring, and one in the fall. The spring semester class is dedicated to learning as much as possible about Costa Rica, the people, the land, and the history. Then we go abroad during the summer, and in the fall semester we dedicate our time to working on our projects.
With the culmination of the class, we left for Costa Rica just a few days after finals ended.
I got up around 6am this morning, and my roommate drove me to the airport (Thanks, Kara! I owe you a bunch). After a brief argument with the front desk attendant at the airport ("US Airways has never flown to Costa Rica! You better check the other airlines. Maybe you got the wrong reservation." "But I have the reservation right here! It says US Airways!" "It's wrong!" Well I'm here so clearly you're wrong) I got through security and chilled at the gate. The first flight to Charlotte was relatively quick and painless. Once I was in Charlotte, I ran into two people from my class at the gate. Turns out they were on my flight too!
We were unfortunately seated apart, but no big deal. I spent the entire flight reading my book, and then the last half hour gawking out the window as we descended.
We met the rest of my class outside the airport and rode a van to our hotel in San Jose. The hotel is called Villas Tournon, and it's pretty decent. There are four girls to each room and the rooms are actually comfortable. The hotel is in a dangerous area, but not too bad. We spent the rest of today exploring, but we were very tired so we didn't really go out much.
Tomorrow we are visiting two schools for the deaf and the University of Costa Rica. Should be fun!
Jellyfish out!
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