After preparing for this trip for more than six months, it felt weird to realize that it was finally Today. The insanity of the last weeks of school, finals week, mad packing and rushing, and too many goodbyes, culminated this morning with my 6:30 airport dropoff. (Huge thanks to Audrey and her family for having me over and waking up obscenely early to drive me here.)

My lengthy journey to Liberia, Costa Rica begins in Houston.  A 3-hour flight to Phoenix, a 3-hour layover, and another 5-hour flight to Costa Rica will land me in San José, the capital. There, I will meet rep from Projects Abroad (the company who is providing my placement, homestay, etc.) who will take me to a hotel for the night. Then tomorrow, I’ll begin the 5-hour bus ride north from San José to Liberia where I’ll meet local Projects Abroad staff, be given some sort of tour or orientation, and then introduced to my host family.

I’m definitely feeling ready for this trip right now. I’m excited about getting to teach and apply all that I’ve been preparing over the past year but I’m also looking forward to getting to learn about new cultures and customs. I can’t wait to start meeting people and finding out more about the people I’ll be interacting with over the next several months. The thing I’m most looking forward to is getting to speak Spanish all the time. That was what I missed most when I left South America last year and so, naturally, is something I’m anxiously anticipating. I’m intrigued by all of the unknowns that currently make up the time in front of me. I want to make sure I’m focusing on appreciating the experiences of each day so that I don’t get to August and wonder where the time went. I’m a little nervous, mostly about how I’ll be able to perform as a teacher, get along with people, how I’ll fit with my host family, whether my Spanish will sustain what I want to do; all of those thoughts are running through my head. The other feeling is just an overwhelming sense of tiredness. The last several weeks of school were absolute insanity for me and I’m behind on rest and mental preparation for leaving the country on my own. I could use about 48 hours of sleep right now, but since that’s not an option, I’m just going to dive in headfirst and give it my best. Here goes…

“Pura Vida” is a Costa Rican saying which translates to “Pure Life.” This ultra-common phrase in Costa Rice describes much about the lifestyle and culture of the people there. More on that later. For now, welcome to my blog! I hope you’ll continue reading with me as the summer progresses and I share my adventures in teaching and backpacking in Costa Rica and Central America.

This trip was made possible by the generous funding provided by the Loewenstern Fellowship. This program is offered through Rice University and offers students the opportunity to perform service projects of their choice in Latin America or Asia. Other Loewenstern fellows will be traveling to places like the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and India. Our service areas are diverse and we’ve each chosen social issues that we’re particularly passionate about. Our fellowships continue into the 2011-2012 school year and we’ll be responsible for educating others about what we’ve learned as well as trying to serve our home community through our experience abroad.

For my service project, I’ve chosen to pursue English education in Costa Rica. I know almost nothing about the students I’ll actually be teaching and won’t find out until I’m on the ground and in the school. The extent of the information I’ve been given includes 1) The students will be somewhere between ages 4-14 and 2) I’ll [probably] be assisting a local teaching in the classroom. Beyond that, it’s all a mystery. While this hasn’t given me much opportunity to prepare for teaching, I’m excited by the challenge this will pose and I hope to find that this will force me to stretch my abilities as both a person and as a teacher.

To prepare for teaching, I’ve been working towards receiving my TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) certification that I will [hopefully] receive in December. I’ve taken classes at Rice such as “Structure of English” and “Theory and Methods of Teaching English as a Foreign Language” and have also been working as an English tutor and language partner since the beginning of the year.

While teaching, I’ll be living with a Costa Rican family. My host mom’s name is Yelba Pomares I don’t know too much about them yet, but according the bio I received, they don’t speak English, which I’m quite happy about. One of the things I’ve noticed already is that in the city where I’ll be working, they don’t use addresses. Streets have no names and all locations are given as points relative to some major landmark. For instance, my homestay is “25 meters east of Hotel Riviera” and the school where I’ll be teaching is “300 meters east of the main entrance to the soccer stadium.” Liberia itself is a small city of about 45,000 people, located in the northwestern quadrant of the country. It serves as a gateway to many of the tourists who pass through headed for the west coast or for jungle adventures further inland.

After spending May and June teaching in Liberia, I’ll move on to something different for July. The first week will be spent on a rainforest conservation project in the Barra Honda National Park. After that, I’ll have about 16 days to backpack in Central America. I’m receiving funding through the Schumann Award for Travel Journalism to investigate hostelling and backpacking culture abroad. I’m really excited to share more about this as the time draws closer.

Again, I’m thrilled that you’re willing to read along on this adventure with me. I’m looking forward to sharing more with you as I learn and grow through this experience. Pura Vida!