Abroad Alone: Costa Rica Week 1

After my freshman year of college ended in April 2017, I took a volunteer trip and lived in Quepos, Costa Rica. My roommate Buker and I were supposed to go together, but she ended up not being able to go for a variety of reasons. After high school, I was really burned out but wasn't able to take a gap year because I was on scholarship. Scholarships at BYU do not allow for any sort of deferral unless it is medical or a church mission. Because I just wanted time off, they would not hold my scholarship. The day after finals ended, I headed to Costa Rica.

Because I was in Costa Rica for an extended period of time, I'm going to give weekly updates. I've found that this works best to go into enough detail but still have them long enough to be worthwhile reads. This first one will be a bit longer than normal due to leaving on a Friday instead of a Sunday.

Day 1

I flew from Salt Lake to Dallas and then Dallas to San Jose, Costa Rica, which is the capital city. On the plane from Dallas to San Jose, I was able to talk to a man named Harrison, who was going to pick up his girlfriend from a Costa Rican humanitarian trip. We talked about religion and the various beliefs that are similar and different. I got picked up at the airport by a man named Josue. I honestly thought my Spanish was amazing before I got to Costa Rica. I only had a basic high school Spanish level of competency in Spanish. Though I'd taken it for three years and was decent at the time, I had taken a year off and could barely string a sentence together any more. However, Josue was kind and responsive even in my broken Spanish.

I spent the night at Hotel Robledal. The hotel was fairly nice. I went night swimming and felt absolute euphoria. The frogs were out and I saw lizards, snakes, and all manner of birds. Nothing can compare to that night. I was on top of the world. I was on my own in a new country and felt incredible.

Day 2

View from the bus

I took the bus from San Jose to Quepos in the afternoon. The bus ride was absolutely stunning. I loved looking at all the green trees, canyons, rivers, and oceans. The bus took an hour longer than normal due to the traffic, so my host family wasn't there to greet me when I made it to the bus station. It was a bit panic inducing, but I eventually found Francesca and her husband. They had gone to the grocery store across the street and weren't there when the bus pulled up. When they found me, we walked to their house. I was given a room upstairs. The whole house is bright green on both the outside and the inside. Every house in Costa Rica has bars on the front and is open to the front. There are no air conditioners so this helps keep the wind flow throughout the house.

Mirror selfie in my room

My room was fairly spacious. I had my own sink and dresser while sharing a bathroom with another volunteer named Regina. I sent my sister a video of myself giving a tour of the room so I figured I better attach my favorite screenshot of myself from that. I had a view of the mountains nearby and the house is only three houses from the ocean. It was a tropical rainstorm and absolutely stunning. I love tropical rainstorms.

Day 3

I started the day off with an orientation meeting at the institute I was volunteering with. I worked with an organization called Maximo Nivel. We talked about what was safe to say and what places and things I should avoid. I will be working at a preschool called Jardin del Mar with kids between three months and six years old each morning from 8:30 until 11:30. I had surfing lessons every day that week from 1-4pm. Mostly I was just really excited to get started working and living my life in an amazing beach town.

After the orientation, I went to the beach. I rode the bus from the house up to the institute and then from the institute to the beach. Each time you get on the bus, it costs 365 colones, which is about 60 cents. The beach near Quepos is actually in a small tourist town called Manuel Antonio, a famous national park in Costa Rica. The beach is amazing because you can see monkeys and sloths all over on the beach, which is absolutely picturesque in scenery. Costa Rica outlaws new buildings on the beach so it's pretty much pure rainforest. It's absolutely stunning.

Back at home, I met a volunteer that arrived that day. Her name is Jacqueline Phillips. She was also a teenager abroad for the first time. She was attending the institute to learn Spanish and we practiced our Spanish together. Neither of us were very good, but we thought we were great, which is quite honestly hysterical.

We ended up eating dinner together with our host family. Dinners here are usually rice, beans, salad, and some sort of meat or potatoes. It's delicious. Breakfast usually consists of mango, pineapple, watermelon (GROSS), and other fresh fruits along with some sort of bread product. For lunch, we are on our own.

Day 4

View from the institute

I went up to the Maximo Nivel institute with Jacqueline during the morning. She had her orientation before we headed to the beach. I had my first surfing lesson as well. I have an absolutely private lesson, so it's just me and the instructor. I really enjoyed it. I am a good paddler because of my competitive swimming background, which makes it much easier to get up on my board. I really enjoyed surfing and ended up getting up on my very first try, which apparently almost never happens.

While I was surfing, Jacqueline met a guy. This turned out to be a pretty standard thing throughout the time we spent together. This guy decided he wanted to meet with the missionaries for my church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This sent me in a scramble to find their number. Mom ended up helping me try to find their number, but we couldn't locate it ourselves.

Day 5

I surfed all morning before heading to Jardin del Mar, the preschool, during the afternoon. Nick, the field manager up at Maximo Nivel, showed me and Claire Hendon, another new volunteer around. She had the afternoon shift while I had the morning shift. She and I ended up spending the rest of the day together. We met up with Jacqueline and Claire's traveling companion, Caterina Elliott. The four of us had some ice cream from Pops, which became a near daily occurrence for us, before having dinner with our host families. We met back up at a bar later on. I don't drink so I just watched everyone and helped translate for those who did not speak Spanish.

Bars in Costa Rica are interesting because nearly all of them are dancing bars. Because dancing is such an important part of the culture, everyone knows how to dance salsa, bachata, merengue, and others. It's very entertaining to watch, so I didn't even mind not being involved in any of the festivities really.

Day 6

I started working at Jardin del Mar in the morning. The school is split into three rooms: the babies between 3 months and 2 years, the toddlers between 2 and 4 years old, and the kids between 4 and 6 years old. The teachers are strict. I mostly work with the toddlers. The teacher expects them to be absolutely silent and stay on their sleeping mats when it's their nap time. They are not allowed to talk or entertain themselves in any way. It's kind of cruel.

We also feed the kids breakfast, a snack, and lunch every day while I am there. Helping everyone eat is always a challenge. Mostly the wrong things are very structured. Meals and naps are structured while lessons are fairly free. Mostly the kids run wild when they should be learning something. It's kind of depressing honestly.

Jacqueline and I out at lunch

After work, I went surfing. I really love surfing and how it's a time to just relax and think while still having a task to focus on. It reminds me a lot of swinging, which is one of my very favorite things to do at home. On my way home, I swung by Maximo Nivel, also known as COSI, and did some work for my swim lessons company before heading home for dinner with Jacqueline.

After dinner, Jacqueline and I were headed out when we noticed the boys next door were also American. It turns out they are part of COSI as well and are a large group of first generation Americans here to volunteer. All of them are fluent and Spanish. We went out to a bar together and I had my first salsa dancing lesson. It was super fun.

Day 7

The next day was business as usual with school and surfing. When I got home for the day, Regina had cooked us an authentic Swiss meal. She is from Switzerland and speaks German, English, Spanish, Italian, and French. We had a typical mashed potato along with some chicken and mushrooms for dessert. Regina made us a chocolate mousse for dessert. It was delicious. Her husband and two teenagers back in Switzerland are very blessed.

Gabe and Alex doing shots on the beach

After dinner, we met up with the same group of Michigan first-generation Americans as yesterday. They are so much fun. We went to Club Republik but pregamed on the beach beforehand. Between the thirteen of them, they went through an entire bottle of American tequila, a bottle of vodka, and a bottle of Costa Rican whiskey. Because I don't drink, I drank the extra chaser and made sure everyone stayed alive. My favorite thing to watch was the drinking toast they did. They all stood in a circle and said, "arriba, abajo, acentro, a dentro," which means up, down, to the center, and inside. Mostly I just think drinking chants are hilarious.

Inside the club, it was fairly packed for a Thursday. Costa Ricans are wild. I got to dance again with the amazing dancers. Alex (pictured at right) was on the Michigan ballroom team so he was FUN to dance with. He would spin us around, dip us, and do all sorts of tricks. Some of the other Michigan boys (there were nine of them) were really good dancers as well just because it is a massive part of their culture. Mostly I just really enjoy dancing and learning a new style of dance.

Michigan group post-clubbing

The club was right next to the ocean, so afterwards we walked along the ocean for a bit. On the way back home, we stopped and took a picture in front of the Quepos sign. I swear that every Latin American country has a sign with massive letter delineating which city it is. The city pride is unreal. I finally rounded up everyone and we made it home after a stop for the quick fast food place at the end of our street. We didn't get home until almost 5am, which meant that I worked in literally less than 4 hours. Good times.

Day 8

I got to play dress up with the kids at the preschool before heading to surf. It was my last day of lessons and I had a different instructor than normal. His name was George. He didn't speak really any English so it was a good practice session for me with my Spanish. I was getting slowly better due to speaking pretty much exclusively Spanish. My host family didn't speak any English. George really liked me so we made plans to surf more together.

After my lesson, I stayed on the beach. I got hit on by a ton of dudes. Men are so forward here. They will stare at you blatantly and then try to get you to sleep with them immediately. They will ask your name and then immediately jump to asking you to go back to their house with them. It's not my favorite. I get hit on quite a lot because I have blue eyes and can speak Spanish.

When I got home from the beach, Jacqueline and I headed to La Feria, which is essentially a farmers market that happens every Friday. I ate a lot of goodies and delicious fresh fruit. Then Jacqueline and I met up with the Michigan group at Bahia Azul, a karaoke bar on the ocean that is literally 3 houses down from us. It was super fun to watch everyone sing karaoke and dance. The Michigan group left at 2am for the airport, so that was sad.

Day 9

Pops ice cream

We had a very mellow day on Saturday. I think the week finally caught up with us. Jacqueline and I went to the beach pretty much all day. She played volleyball while I just played in the waves.

We met up with Caterina, Claire, Gabe (the lone Michigan boy left), and Willy (the boy next door Jacqueline was interested in) at Selina. Selina is probably the best hostel in Manuel Antonio. Selina Hostels are the best chain of hostels, in my opinion, in all of South America. The Manuel Antonio hostel is a hostel in the middle of the rainforest with a bar, drinking, dancing, and a pool. We had a lot of fun that night, and it was nice to have a relaxing day.

Life Lessons

Overall, my first week in Costa Rica brought a lot of challenges, but it was also a period of great growth. I learned a lot about myself. I learned my Spanish wasn't as good as I thought it was. Men can be disgusting when left with no boundaries. Schools abroad are much different from schools at home and the standards are very different. Mostly, I just learned that new cultures are exciting, but they do take some time to assimilate to.