Submitted by Scott Eisenhart on the 2014 winter session study abroad program in Costa Rica sponsored by the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures…
Hello everyone! Greetings from sunny Heredia, Costa Rica! I must say, judging from the weather reports I have seen on CNN, it looks like I picked an excellent time to head south. I suppose I’ll start from the beginning: I woke up on Friday, January 4th at quarter to 5am, and hopped in the car. From there, it was an hour drive to the Philadelphia airport, where the lines were huge! I suppose this was because of the nasty weather. In any case, I rushed through check- in and security, and the rest of my study abroad group were boarding as I got to the gate. Albeit, I was panicking the whole time, but I made it to the plane. Hooray! The flight itself was uneventful: lot’s of sleeping, music-listening, and the occasional gust of turbulence. When we landed in San Jose, I could not believe it. The heat hit me first. I had forgotten what temperatures above freezing felt like. We were quickly whisked away to customs, and we then boarded a bus that took us to the university we would be studying at: la Universidad Latina, the largest private university in the country. There, we met our host parents. My roommate, Luke, and I are living with a very lovely lady who was very kind and sweet when we first met. We loaded our bags into a taxi, and off we went another 20 minutes or so until we reached our house in the neighborhood of San Joaquin. The house is a ranch-style home with lots of open space. Luke and I share a bedroom adjacent to the bathroom. We also found out that we would be sharing the house with another study abroad student. Anna, from Austria, who was very kind to us, and it was a treat to learn not only about the Costa Rican culture, but also Austria’s as well. Luke and I slept very well that first night.
The next day, Sunday, was a very calm and relaxing day. Luke and I woke up and went to Catholic Mass with our host mother. A significant percentage of Costa Ricans are Catholic, so it was very interesting to see how religion played a part in daily life. After that, our host mother took us out to lunch, where we had arepas. Essentially, arepas are open-faced corm tortillas with meat and cheese in them. They were very tasty, and I hope we can go back to that restaurant soon! After that, Luke and I explored our neighborhood a little bit. We live very close to a park, and we spent the afternoon playing soccer with some local kids. Even though we were significantly older than they were, they still kicked our butts.
On Monday, we grabbed a bus and went to the University for our first day of classes. We started out with a tour of the university. There are some similarities between it and UD, but it is also very different. ULatina is very open; almost all of the doors are open, and there is a ton of green space. After the orientation, we had a quick, typical Costa Rican lunch: chicken, beans, and rice. After that, we had our first class: Contemporary Latin America, taught in English by our UD faculty director. The class will give us a closer look at Latin America, specifically Costa Rica.
After class, Luke and I met up with some other UD students who lived in our neighborhood, and we visited each others’ houses. After that, Luke and I returned to our home, and presented our host mother with several gifts. Luke gave her some chocolate popcorn from his town. I gave her a porcelain clock, as well as some Amish postcards. She was very grateful.
Well, so far that’s everything! Be sure to stay tuned for next week’s post: we have several excursions coming up, and I’m sure there will be lots to tell about those. Until next time, this is Scott saying “¡Adios!”