This morning my new friend Rachel and I left our new friend, Laura’s house in Pennsylvania and started our journey to JFK airport. At JFK we met up with our leaders, Dr. Iudica and his family and Dr. Matlaga and his family. His wife (also Dr. Matlaga) was also there. Since this was a carry-on only kind of trip, once everyone was together we put all our liquids in a giant bright yellow bag to be checked and then made our way to the gates.
Our first flight landed us in Panama before we finally made it to Costa Rica. I noticed a lot of similar stores like Adidas, Puma, and Victoria Secret. I also noticed a lot of chocolate stores. There were many Spanish speakers who also knew English, and I thought this seemed like a good place to practice some of my Spanish. We moved through customs pretty fast and found our guide Priscilla. Just like any other country, there were many people outside the airport asking if we needed a taxi, and once our bags were loaded onto the van, the man asked for a tip and then more, just like the men I saw in Africa (on our Tauck trip in 2014) who helped us with our luggage; they kept asking for more and more. Dr. Iudica had to chase this man away. I also noticed, like Africa, there aren’t really any driving rules it seems, and the houses here are similar too with the fences and cement pillars. I think it’s neat we have the place to ourselves tonight (Santa María Inn). The climate is breezy and humid but it certainly feels better than the bitter cold back home in Connecticut. So far a lot of what I’m seeing reminds me of my trip to Tanzania this past summer and I’m really looking forward to seeing how the ecology is different and the culture. I have only seen a small part of the culture so far. I look forward to diving deeper into the culture, because I find that the most beneficial part of traveling and certainly the most eye opening. As a creative writing major with no minor or college background in biology/ecology, I’m interested to see what I take away from this course. I have done similar trips like this in high school and I really grew from them, I can’t wait to see how much more I’ll grow as an individual from this course.
A Life Full of Laughter 