Pura Vida

Dear district 215 students, Traveling with you all to Costa Rica to take Spanish classes and live with families in Heredia was a great honor for me, and it was exciting for me to see how each of you grew during the two weeks that we were there. Every day, I felt proud of you all for stepping out of your comfort zone of the English speaking midwestern region of the United States of America to live with a Spanish speaking family in central Costa Rica. I loved seeing our district united.  I loved seeing North students and South students walk each other home, play soccer together, sing karaoke together, dance together, and play cards together.  I loved hearing you talk about your host families. I loved hearing about the conversations you had with them, the delicious food they made, the places you went with them, and the games you played with them.  I loved hearing about how these families embraced you and welcomed you and how you relaxed into the embrac...

Hello my name is Raelen Mccoyne and Im going to be an incoming senior at tf south.  I was fortunate  enough to attended this language emmersion trip with the help of family and friends. Last night, our CR family came over to see us one last time. After many laughs and picture taking, my two roommates (kori & Viviana) and I went to a floral shop to pick out a bouquet of flowers because she did the same for us our first day. Then we went to Office Depot to buy a frame and print out the picture of the three of us and her family that we took minutes before. When we came back we had to sneak the flowers in the house so she wouldn’t see! Then we wrote a letter to our mom tica  that showed our greatest appreciation for all that she’s done and the moments we shared. When we were finally done we surprised our moma tica with our gift to her! The expression  on her face was pure joy followed by tears. We hugged and told her how much we will miss her and how thankful we ar...

Wow! This trip has came to an end.. today was literally one of the best & saddest day. Had a little party with some great people I met on this trip. Told ghost stories, watched movies, played spoons ( yeah I learned how to play spoons on this trip ) , drank the best coffee ever, cooked rice and beans. Also my roommate and I got to play Pictionary in Spanish! SUPER FUN! Got to teach mama Tica how to take pictures on an iPhone, ate some bomb pizza!! Beggars who?! This trip has literally taught us so much. Not just did we improve in our Spanish but I’m sure we all learned how to appreciate what we have at home. My favorite thing from this trip has to be the good food we ate on the daily! Never in life would I eat vegetables but now thanks to my mama tica I’ll eat vegetables any time! My mama tica always hooked it up in breakfast, lunch, and dinner! Gallo Pinto in every meal but I lived for it! I’ll miss having something to do on the daily! Sure won’t miss the walks going uphill ...

I absolutely loved this trip!! The classes were very hands on and interactive and that is the type of person I am so I fit right in. My teacher was very helpful and informative, but we learned a lot within 5 hour classes. I also felt like I was on vacation. The weekend stay at Manuel Antonio was super fun. Zip lining was amazing and so beautiful over the rainforest. The beach was so fun and I had a lot of fun with the other students. I made some new friends during this trip, I'm usually an introvert. I absolutely love my mama tica Fabiola and her son Luca and I'm going to miss them so much. I added Fabiola on Facebook so hopefully we will stay in touch. Fabiola was so nice and loving this whole trip, I never felt out of place. Costa Rica is a beautiful country, although I thought it would be hotter here.

Hola! My name is Lucy LaMar and I'm overflowing with excitement to write this blog today! Although, with this excitement and the amazing moments that have occurred over these past two weeks comes a long blog. Therefore, I suggest grabbing some cookies to eat during todays blog,  as I write, I'm munching on my new addiction, Oreos covered in white chocolate! The Thanks. I'd like to start today's blog by thanking some people. Thank you to the District 215 administration and staff for making this trip possible, these words do not express my complete gratitude. Thank you to all of the businesses and supporters who helped us make it to Costa Rica. Thank you to our parents for  giving up a little control, accepting the worry, and loving us enough to send us to another country for the experience and growth of a lifetime. Thank you to the new friends and the old friends here and at home who have tolerated my excitement about the most mundane things and created a family here i...

Hey guys , it’s A’mari from TFN and on the 4th of July it was a different experience for me . Being in another country has really showed me how to appreciate what I have back home . The 4th of July is important to Americans because it’s the day the United States got its independence and makes Americans enjoy what America has yet to become. We went to school on our 4th of July in Costa Rica and enjoyed a small activity to represent the American flag. Since I’ve been in Costa Rica , the most interesting thing that happened to me was zip lining and meeting new people. I have been to the restaraunt called creperie and cafe entre nous in Heredia . I soooo recommend it if you haven’t tried crepes or want a good breakfast ! During the stay in Costa Rica , the culture differs a lot with how people interact and how the city operates as a whole. In Costa Rica since the 4th of July is an American thing , it’s not celebrated. Being in another country and speaking Spanish has been fun and interesti...

Hello, my name is Jasmyn and I will be talking about what we did today in Costa Rica. Today, I woke up at 8:15 AM, Because we had a little bit of free time before the traditional Costa Rican games started at 10 AM. So, I woke up, got  in the shower, brushed my teeth, and got dressed for the day. Me and my roommate are a breakfast which consisted of a breakfast sandwich filled with ham, egg, and cheese, toast with jam, and coffee for me, and tea for my roommate.After we finished eating, we started walking to the mall, because we had extra time before we had to be at ULatina (the university) for the games. So, me and my roommate walked to mall and shopped for a bit. Afterwards, we walked to  ULatina (the university) for the traditional Costa Rican games. When we got there, the options were either soccer or bingo. Me and some of friends all chose bingo. Others chose soccer, Some decided to not even play a game at all. Overall, the games were fun to play.These games included socce...

Hi everyone I would like to tell you about my day here in Heredia, Costa Rica. Today I woke up at 6am without an alarm...that never happens. I got up brushed my teeth washed my face and then went into my room (in my host families home) and turned on the tv. On channel 12 here it is the music channel and I enjoy listening to their music every morning while I get ready for the day. I went down for a breakfast of eggs with ham, toast and cheese accompanied with orange juice although usually my host mom makes me tea. My host aunt makes a great breakfast! At around 7:40am my roommate and I began walking towards la U Latina which is the university where we have been spending our time studying here in CR. Usually we have to meet in front of the university gates but today we had to meet on the other side in front of the “Paseo de Flores” which is a mall. We crossed the big yellow bridge to get on the other side and waited for our personal drive Jose. We all (got on the bus) and headed towards ...

Hi my name is JanCarlo Guerra, im going to talk about a normal day in Costa Rica. Today we had to be at the university at 8 am, so i had to wake up at 6 in the morning to get ready and be there on time,  I brushed my teeth and showered as soon as i woke up, and at 7 i had breakfast, my mama tica made me an omelette with a side of toast and some orange juice. I finished eating at around 7:20 and then I brushed my teeth. I left the house at 7:40, the walk to the university is about 15 minutes. When i arrived at the university we waited a few minutes for our bus driver to arrive so he could take us to the teatro. When we arrived to the teatro, they gave us a tour of the teatro and there was many sculptures and paintings all around. The design of the teatro was influenced by Europe. After the tour we had 30 minutes to just walk around San Jose. I also fed some birds while in San Jose. Before leaving i went to buy a fudge sundae from McDonald’s because it was really hot. When we arrived...

Today we started off the day with a cooking lesson. The lesson was held at a local primary school, Escuela Miraflores, with the daughter of my host mom as the teacher. We made empanadas, cajeta and juice. The cajeta was different then how I have seen. What I've seen is one thing similar to caramel, but today’s was made from condensed milk, powder milk and nuts. After the lessons, some of the guys played soccer with some of the locals, even though it started to rain. It was a small USA v CR game (USA won). The rest of had fun watching and cheering for our side. After our free weekend at Manuel Antonio, it's time to go back to class. Today we started working on the class final project. The classes have been helpful to me because although I do speak Spanish home, there are a lot of mistakes I make grammatically and the classes reinforce these grammar rules. And overall, being in Costa Rica has been a great experience that I'm grateful to have had this opportunit...

     Today was quite a day to say the least. As it is our first day back after returning from Manuel Antonio, we start our day off with some cooking and soccer. We learned how to make Empanadas, Refresco de Piña y Papaya, and Tajeta. A lot to learn about how Costa Ricans make some of their common foods and drinks. After cooking class the men (Mateo, JanCarlo, Josh, David, and Gavin) started playing soccer in fairly temperate weather bt continued to play as the weather worsened with rain. Nothing stopped these men from playing a fair game against a group of locals in Costa Rica. Going to school later, we completed our daily classroom work and proceeded outside for our interacrive games. We played "Pato, Pato, Gonzo"(Duck, Duck, Goose), Ninja, and Musical Chairs, which ended up with a broken chair and a debate about who won.

Hello everyone, I’m Morgan and I’m gonna tell you about our trip in Costa Rica so far. Between school, the host families, and the community of where we live, I’ve learned so much. I’ve learned more words, more cultural information, and a better understanding of how to talk to the people here. Today was our last day at Manuel Antonio. We got up this morning and packed up our rooms and then went to get breakfast at the hotel and the monkeys decided to join us. After breakfast we were sitting on our porch watching the monkeys climb on the balconies. Around 8:15 we left our hotel room to go to the lobby so we could leave to go snorkeling. We’ve never been snorkeling before. I was scared to go snorkeling at first but I’m happy I went. Although most of the time we were all scared of the fishes, it was a good experience. When we finished snorkeling, we headed back to the hotel to get our bags and change so we could start our way back to our host families. On our way back, we stopped for food ...

Hola soy Olivia! Today was a day full of adventures! The day started early with breakfast at the hotel. With so little time and so much to do we headed out bright and early to Manuel Antonio National Park. After a short ride to the park, we separated into two groups and started our guided tours. My group was guided by Diego. Along the way we learned about the types of animals and plants that are in the forest. We were lucking enough to see white faced monkeys, crabs, and two and three fingered sloths. We also had time to spend at the beaches inside the park. A little later in the day, those who chose to go zip-lining had an amazing experience. We went through nine cables and a monkey drop. The monkey drop was was kinda scary in the beginning but definitely worth it. Once we got back to the hotel we had some down time and many of us we spending it at the pool.

Hola! We’ve been in Costa Rica for 8 days now. Over the past 8 days I’ve learned a lot about the culture, myself, and the world outside of Lansing. Being here has taught me to appreciate having my family and friends around. Being away from them is incredibly difficult, but I am beyond lucky to be on this trip with such kind-hearted people who make being away easier. Costa Rica is such a beautiful country and all of us are so grateful to be here.  I want to thank everyone who made this trip possible for us. Parents, friends, teachers, peers, everyone. Everyone who donated money (individually or through our fundraisers), everyone who encouraged us to take this terrifying leap, and the three teachers who are here everyday encouraging us and making the most out of this trip. We all thank you.  Today, July 1st, we left Manuel Antonio. Our “vacation” away from Heredia was gorgeous. Today my peers either spent the morning on the beach, snorkeling, on a boat tour, or like m...