Taking the Leap to Costa Rica

Fear, nervousness, and excitement were some of the many feelings that I had right before I embarked upon my journey to Costa Rica. My main reason for going abroad was to improve my Spanish speaking skills. I had previously taken a couple of Spanish courses and again fell in love with the language. I wanted to be able to be at least conversational in Spanish and reach a whole another demographic of people. 

I knew that going abroad in Latin America and a beautiful country like Costa Rica would be a great opportunity to improve my Spanish speaking ability. I recently picked up a minor in Spanish and planned on completing the majority of it in Costa Rica. Barely any students from my university go abroad for a semester in Costa Rica so I wanted to help pave the way for other students to potentially participate in the study abroad experience.

The night before my flight, I was extremely emotional. I shared a couple of tears with one of my good friends because it was my first time ever leaving my family for a long period of time and living abroad. On the other hand, it was a very exciting opportunity because I knew that not many people would get this experience. When I got to the airport early in the morning to leave, I tried not to get emotional again when I hugged my little brother and my dad goodbye. Many of the same questions that I had months before ran through my head like, was this the right decision? Will I meet new friends? What if everything goes wrong? Even with all of these concerns, I knew that this was one of my life goals and I had to accomplish my dream.

One of my good friends who graduated from LSU told me that one of his biggest regrets in life was not studying abroad. He said that he had the opportunity numerous times to do it but did not go because of fear. He told me that if I did not go as well that the fear and regret would eat me up inside like it did him. I knew that even though I was nervous and did not know what to expect I had to at least take the risk and see what happens. The old saying goes, “You miss all the shots you don't take.”

When I first arrived in Costa Rica, I was greeted outside by one of the program directors and my roommate. Everyone was so nice and friendly. When we arrived at our host family's house I was very nervous because I did not know what to expect, but we were greeted outside by my host parents and for dinner we had a delicious meal of rice, beans, chips and homemade natural juice. When my host mom asked if I wanted seconds, I knew that this was going to be a great home stay! Weeks before our study abroad experience I found out that our host family owned a restaurant. I was excited because I knew that I was going to be eating well!

Before the start of school, all the students that were part of the CIS abroad program took a tour of the city of San Jose which was really helpful because many of the places I would fall in love with, especially El Centro, Parque Nacional, and Parque Metropolitano La Sabana. The first couple of days of school were stressful because I was taking mostly Spanish classes so I had to adjust on the fly. Sometimes I dreaded going to class because I feared that I would be called on to answer a question or not understand what was being talked about. My LSU Spanish professor told me that the first couple of weeks would be hard because you were being immersed in a new language so mentally I tried to prepare myself for that.

I had originally taken all Spanish classes but I had an elective, “Advanced Phonetics,”
which was extremely difficult. I changed my class for Latin American history which
turned out to be a great choice! During the first week of class, I met two guys who sat by me in my first period Spanish class. We instantly began to bond and from that day
forward I knew that I would always have friends to hang out with at the school. Making friends was very important to me because I am very social and did not want to be isolated, especially in a foreign country. I really wanted to talk with many of the locals  and practice my Spanish. Even when I arrived at my homestay, one of the first things my roommate and I told my host family was to only speak in Spanish so we could practice. I still talk to some of the locals I met till this day and I am still close to my two friends that I met in my Spanish class!

Blog by Nehemiah Ray, Louisiana State University - Baton Rouge

Learn more about CIS Abroad programs in Costa Rica here!