Today was the day everyone has been dreading. And quite possibly the longest day ever. I took some last minute pictures of our cabin and once we were packed and ready to go we reluctantly drove back to catch the ferry back over. It was hot in the sun but I sat in it. I won’t see it again until May. Laura 1 lost her hat to the wind – it was extremely windy.
Once we got off the ferry we stopped at the supermarket to pick up a few things. I picked up some of the chocolates we had at Soltis, peanut (maní), water (finally not sink water), coffee for my parents and Vitaloe – a drink made from the aloe plant. It was recommended to me so I gave it a shot. It was extremely refreshing. Word on the street is it can be found at the Giant in Selinsgrove. I’ll be sure to get some of that when I get back.
After the supermarket we stopped at a souvenir store that was totally for tourists. I picked up some jabanero sauce for my family, some figurines for my grandparents, a shot glass for my brother, and a t-shirt for my sister. I’m glad I was able to get everyone a little something.
After shopping we went to the airport to see the first group off. Once they left our bus driver was kind enough to drive us to the mall, since we had about 12 hours to kill. We went to Mall Incternaciónal. It felt weird being a tourist in a mall, carrying all of our stuff. But we got ice cream at Pops, which was delicious and our lunch. Then we walked around a bit and practiced some Spanish, taking in all the cultural differences and similarities. There were some similar stores like Adidas, Billabong and Hallmark, and some different stores. Walking into the stores we were immediately greeted by an employee and we had to quickly tell them we only knew a little bit of Spanish. Fortunately they knew a little bit of English and we were able to meet in the middle. Only once did we have difficulty paying with a card and the cashier used Google translate. I thought that was a clever use of his computer. It was good to see what he was trying to say too. Laura bought a birthday card for her boyfriend’s birthday in Spanish, I hope he likes it. I had another chances to practice Spanish when we ordered Subway for dinner.
After dinner we went to the movies to see American Sniper. I thought the movies was going to be in Spanish with English subtitles and I thought how cool it would be to see a full movie in Spanish, but instead, the movie was in English with Spanish subtitles. It was still a good learning experience but I was a little slow reading the subtitles and often didn’t finish before they changed. I wonder how many people in the audience understood the movie in English and how many actually had to read the subtitles. I would get frustrated if I had to read subtitles for a whole movie. The theater was also crowded so I wonder if it’s normal to watch movies in another language. It didn’t seem to deter the crowd any. I feel like in America, if a movie isn’t in English, there would be a smaller turn out. Even though we are quite the melting pot, I feel like the general thought is, “If you can’t speak our language, leave”. First of all America doesn’t even have a “national” language and secondly, the people of Costa Rica don’t seem to mind if we can’t speak their language – they seem to all know a little English. I wish people in America were more open to other languages and cultures.
After the movies we got a taxi and headed to the airport to wait for six hours. The terminal was completely abandoned (it was only 11PM) and we got to our gate quickly. Unfortunately, I was told I couldn’t bring one of my shells back. It was a fairly large one so I understood and I wasn’t surprised. I’m glad I didn’t get the others taken away, although I’m still a little bummed, I really liked that one. Our flight to Panama was at 4:30AM. So we still had some time to kill. Everyone fell asleep on the floor waiting. It was quite the sight to see. The nice thing about having a flight so early is I got to see the sunrise. I love watching the sunrise and sunset from a plane. We had a short layover before we flew out of Panama and onto JFK. Rachel’s parents drove us back to Susquehanna and we stopped at Panera for lunch and the first thing I wanted to do was order in Spanish! I had just started to get used to ordering my food in Spanish. I can’t imagine what I’ll come back from Spain like. I wonder if I’ll start speaking more Spanish.
All in all I’m glad I got to go to Costa Rica for spring break. I’m glad I saw the flyer for the class. I definitely grew from the trip as a person. I learned a lot about the ecology, and myself / I found myself again. I was having a lot of trouble with everything prior to the trip, but I believe the best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in travel. And that’s exactly what I did. I met a lot of great people and did a lot of cool things. I love being disconnected from everything and I’m dreading turning my phone back on. I don’t want to reconnect with the world just yet. I’m not ready to go back to reality. That was probably one of my biggest pet peeves of the whole trip – people complaining about not being able to survive without wifi. Honestly, I think it’s pathetic. I have no problem disconnecting and falling off the face of the Earth for a little. It’s good for me. It’s good for everyone to do every now and then. I really just want to stay here a little longer. Not to mention, I’m not ready to head back to the snow. I hope we bring the warm weather back with us. This trip came at the right time for me and I could go on and on about how much good this trip has done for me. It was a lot of fun to be a bio kid for a week. I hope to come back to Costa Rica one day.
A Life Full of Laughter 