Settling In (5/17 to 5/31)

5/17 to 5/31

Hello, my name is Jake and this is my first study abroad blog post. I am studying Spanish and tropical ecology in Costa Rica. I attend the Instituto de San Joaquin de Flores. I have had experience studying Spanish individually and at UNH. I hope to be at least conversationally fluent in the language by the end of my six-week study abroad term.

It has already been two weeks in Costa Rica and while it has passed quickly, it feels like I have been here for much longer. Everyday is a complex series of experiences and introductions to new ideas. I constantly flow in and out of speaking Spanish and use it for many different tasks. So far, the greatest gift has been the hospitality of my host family. My family is rather large, but the members most involved in my life are my mother Elizabeth, my father Julio, and my brother Daniel. When I eat at home, one of them is always there to eat with me and engage in conversation. Daniel is the only one who knows English, which was slightly worrisome at first because he is at school for most of the day. But, this has turned out to be a good thing because I am forced to converse strictly in Spanish. 

My classes so far have been so informative, yet also fun. At UNH, I study environmental science, business, and Spanish. My passions are sustainability and communication. Here, I have been able to pursue both these passions. A significant portion of my tropical ecology class consists of excursions for field study and conservation projects. In the classroom, my professor discusses topics entirely in Spanish and teaches material that is as complex as any UNH environmental science class. My other class is Intermediate Spanish II. Unfortunately, so far the material has been mostly review for me, though the class is still very informative in the sense that I am forced to speak Spanish and am constantly learning how to further perfect my speech. 

I have had many excursions thus far, not just for tropical ecology, but also for the institute and for personal interest. The first weekend, the institute directors made arrangements for all of us UNH students to travel to many key locations in Costa Rica. We visited Heredia, the home of the National University of Costa Rica, many conservation areas, and many sites of religious significance (in this country, virtually everyone practices Catholicism). On the first Friday (5/25), my tropical ecology class traveled to a local farm to study various flora. I tried many fruits, an extremely hot pepper, an entire coconut, leaves from different plants, and saw hundreds of ants carrying objects ten-times their weight to an ant hill. Over the second weekend, my friends and I traveled to Playa Hermosa on a personally planned excursion. We ate at different restaurants for some meals and cooked for others. We hungout, watched some movies in Spanish, and went surfing (much easier than it looks). The following Monday, my tropical ecology class traveled to a forest to study a natural spring, preserve trees, and plant a tree as a class. This past Tuesday, my friends and I traveled to a village an hour away to buy souvenirs and to see one of the largest painted ox carts in the world. Wednesday, I did a presentation in my tropical ecology class about a turtle and only spoke Spanish. Today, for my Spanish class, I walked to a senior citizen home to sit down with an elderly man and discuss the cultural changes in Costa Rica over the years. This weekend, we will be traveling to Manuel Antonio for an excursion planned by the institute. 

Other than that, I am not sure what else I can discuss. I have been eating very well, running occasionally, lifting at a local gym, and attending weekly yoga classes at the institute. The weather is much different here. In the states, I am always checking my phone to see what the next day will bring, but here, it has consistently been sunny until the afternoon, at which point it rains until the evening.

Overall, I love life here. My friends are very easy to get along with and share many of my interests. My family is very supportive and adaptable to my schedule. My professors are very invested in my education and easy to communicate with. The program leaders are very resourceful and are always available to help answer questions and plan excursions. In fact, it is because of them that I have been able to successfully plan weekly sessions at the public library to help Costa Rican students learn English (very excited for this).

This post covers a significant amount of time, but my future posts will be approximately biweekly and probably a little shorter. Thank you for reading! Hasta luego!