¡Costa Rica!

a blog dedicated to my month abroad in this lively and beautiful country

[mycostaricandream]

8 june 2019 //

my last shot of costa rica and my first clear view of miami from the clouds. after running around miami airport for hours trying get through customs fast enough to rebook flights after our connection was cancelled i am finally home. this trip was an experience like no other and i am happy to finally be home to share all i have learned with my family and friends!

[mycostaricandream]

7 june 2019 //

of the three museums we got to visit while in costa rica, the jade museum definitely put the most effort into making their exhibits interesting. full of not just artifacts but also models and simulations of pre-columbian societies’ life styles. definitely worth a peak if you get the chance!

[mycostaricandream]

6 june 2019 //

my last day at ilisa has officially come. i am so grateful to this fantastic school that facilitated my learning for the past month. i will miss getting to do my homework with this view every day.

[mycostaricandream]

4 june 2019 //

upon the urging of our professor, our tuesday afternoon classes we cancelled and we got to spend noon watching a contemporary ballet performance in the national theatre. the outside and lobby are beautiful, but nothing compares to the inside; getting to experience this structure was totally worth the unfortunate dancing we had to watch! 

[mycostaricandream]

2 june 2019 //

my group and another ilisa group from utah took a two hour hike through rincón de la vieja to get a look at the numerous pits of boiling mud caused by the neighboring volcano. the forest was mosquito infested and i make a miserable hiker, but the pits were pretty interesting, i have to admit. 

[mycostaricandream]

CR difference & travel tips

- uber is much cheaper than taxis and they typically provide better service. even if you plan on walking and using the bus, download the app because its the best method of transport, especially after dark. 

- you can’t flush toilet paper. you throw it into a trash bin because the plumbing is on the older side and can’t handle it.

- no matter what anybody says, don’t take a rain poncho. rain smells different in CR and not in a good way so your poncho will start to smell unfortunate shortly after the first few uses. it’s also inconvenient to get out of your bag and especially to put back in, not to mention it automatically flags you as a foreigner. umbrellas are the way to go. 

- nobody has a/c. the capital is in the mountains and the heat is survivable even in the summer so it’s okay. the villa i stayed at by the coast where it’s insufferably humid had a/c though.

- relying on only wifi to get around is totally possible, most of my group and i did, but it doesn’t hurt to have data if you get lost or need to call an uber home from unknown areas. so if you want data, get a plan in your home country because you might end up wasting $25 on a prepaid chip in CR just to find out it wont work on your phone even if your cell provider unlocks your phone, like one of my group mates. 

- bank of costa rica has the best rates, so go there instead of private banks to either exchange other currency for colones or use an atm. 

- road rules are just suggestions, people will do whatever they can manage to do to get where they wanna go. four cars will drive together in a three lane road. people will run red lights when they’re tired of waiting. people will swerve around braking cars without checking who is in the next lane. you just gotta go with it.

- most people wear slippers at home and since the floors of people’s homes tend to be on the dirtier side in many cases, i recommend you “when in rome, do as the romans do” this and get a pair yourself. 

- a costa rican walking distance is not the same thing as an american walking distance. i lived a “walking distance” from the school, also known as 40 minutes away. you will either have to leave home early to accommodate the walk or uber everywhere.

- bring at least two pairs of sneakers because it rains almost every single day and because of humidity your shoes wont dry fast enough to wear the next day if they got soaked the day before. 

- homes are very open and in many cases people will have sitting/family areas that are actually outside but they have a roof over them. my host family’s living room (couches, tv, coffee table, wall decorations) were all in an open room that was part of the garage and opened up to the street.

- most currency exchange places wont exchange back unused CR coins for their worth but only based on the number of coins so try and use your coins as much as possible to avoid losing money when you get back to the USA.

- bring sanitizer and wash your hands often to avoid catching a cold; the pace of being abroad will only be made harder to cope with if you’ve got a cold. in case of catching something, bring all of the things you’d usually use at home with you because prescription medications can often cost more in CR, not to mention the hassle of going to a pharmacy you’re not familiar with. 

[mycostaricandream]

27 may 2019 //

an american walking distance from ilisa there’s this restaurant called casa manga that’s covered in all kinds of anime and cartoon merch with a japanese food-full menu and a dinning area full of tvs playing popular action movies. i went with half the gang here for dinner twice and we played games like uno and jenga in the middle of our meals; some of the best food related fun on the whole trip!

[mycostaricandream]

25 may 2019 //

this weekend my group and i planned a trip all on our own from san josé to quepos where we got to explore the manuel antonio national park. 

at the nature reserve we got to see both capuchin and howler monkeys, turtles, raccoons, deer, iguanas, crabs, a jesus lizard, and a baby crocodile. and to top it all, the beach was spectacular! the water was a beautiful dark blue color with strong waves and water definitely deep enough to swim in. if i do come back to costa rica in the future, it will definitely be for more time at the beach! 

we stayed at the beautiful (and affordable!) jungle villa where the manager michael, who had been a chef for 25 years, made delicious breakfast, lunch, and dinner for under $10. if you’re ever in the area, please do yourself a favor and stay at the jungle villa!

[mycostaricandream]

23 may 2019 //

this is my room at my new host family’s home, where i live with some of my favorite people in our group! total upgrade from my previous house for obvious reasons but also because i no longer share with anyone! 

[mycostaricandream]

i didn’t like my host family?

as someone who’d been looking into the study abroad process for over a year before actually going, i heard only positive things about host families. “they’ve been doing this for a long time” everyone assured. “they’re so sweet and open” people promised. “you’ll have fun” they said. 

unfortunately,  this was far from the case with my host family. 

i came to costa rica with a suitcase full of gifts for my host family, open to enjoying our time together as so many others had said they did. they were much less interested in enjoying anything than i had anticipated. our host mom was just about the only person in the house of seven people that really spoke to my roommates and i and she instantly picked the latina of the group as her favorite. she spent the first couple days just about ignoring me and the other girl while communicating everything from bus-taking directions to dinner plans exclusively to her favorite. the only times she talked to the other girl and i were to scold us; even coming into our room at 7:03 pm to tell us how dinner was at 7 pm and how our own mothers would never stand for such tardiness only for us to come down and see she hadn’t even finished preparing the dinner before coming to yell at us. 

this behavior was finally starting to lighten up and we were starting to actually talk as a group, instead of just watching our host mom and her favorite girl talk when i lost my earbuds. after being gone a whole weekend my earbuds were not in the secure place i had left them and after searching the whole room top to bottom twice, i was reasonably frazzled when i went to ask her if she’d seen them around. long story short, she took my upset over the misplacement of my earbuds as an accusation of thief under her roof and even after she found them and the ordeal was over, she wouldn’t even fake a smile in my direction. 

up until this point, i had been talking nonstop with my group about how much i hated my living situation but i was still conflicted. on thursday, after putting off the inevitable in hopes to not inconvenience everyone else, i finally made the decision to speak to the ilisa director and get moved. 

i was so nervous to possibly make the whole group’s stay more complicated but the moment i said my goodbyes and the host mom didn’t even look up to escort me out, i knew i had made the right choice. 

if you ever get into a situation like mine and you’re not seeing any positive change after week one, do yourself a favor and talk to someone who’s in charge. your emotional well-being and the quality of the experience you paid so much for is always worth shaking things up a little. the only thing i regret is not moving sooner. 

[mycostaricandream]

20 may 2019 //

the first photo is of the view down the street from my host family house and the second is of my view from the back seat of the bus, both of which i see on a daily basis getting to and from school. it’s been really interesting walking and taking public transit as a opposed to driving a car everywhere; it reminds me of my childhood experiences in bulgaria!

[mycostaricandream]

19 may 2019 //

here is the basilica of our lady of angels in cartago, costa rica. i thought that san jose’s catholic church was pretty, but oooohhh man it does not hold a candle to this place. i could have spent at least an hour walking around inside taking everything in!

once a year, in october, people from all over costa rica walk (or take other transportation if they’re being more modern about it) all the way from wherever they are to cartago to pray in the basilica for miracles like the healing of a sick loved one. as you can see in the background of the second photo, people crawl all the way from the entrance to the altar to pray as a sign of respect. 

[mycostaricandream]

19 may 2019 //

after seeing the poas volcano the day before, i didn’t expect volcan irazú to be much different but boy was i wrong. as opposed to poas’ smoking crater, irazú was an intensely blue bubbling lagoon surrounded by a black volcanic ash beach. aside from the tourist who kept saying “google take a photo” instead of just pressing the button on his selfie stick, this site couldn’t have been more magical.

[mycostaricandream]

18 may 2019 //

while on our way to the la paz waterfalls, we walked through their animal rescue where we got a chance to see all sorts of insects, snakes, birds, monkeys, and wild cats. here is a shot of the first butterfly i saw in their butterfly enclosure and a very friendly toucan named mojito! 

[mycostaricandream]

18 may 2019 //

when i first found out we had a coffee plantation tour on our itinerary for this weekend, i wasn’t all that jazzed. i’ve never been a coffee lover and had a family friend who already went on the tour and explained everything to me but it was actually pretty enjoyable. i got a handful of chocolate-covered coffee beans and a pretty view out of it.

[mycostaricandream]

18 may 2019 //

today i woke up early in the morning and took an ear-popping drive up into the mountains to see my first volcano! with luck on our side, the mist cleared up right as the group and i reached the peak and we were able to see the crater and even the yellow sulfur gas coming out of the volcano. now i can officially say i’ve taken selfies with an active volcano!

[mycostaricandream]

12 may 2019 //

on the left is a statue that used to be on the roof of the national theatre of costa rica. in the typical european style of the time, this statue is a great example of how in its earlier years, costa rica along with much of the rest of the developing world, clung to european creations to express their affluence. the entire theatre, even down to the wooden floor boards, came from europe at great cost to the government just because of how much more valuable anything european was seen to be in comparison to local products.

the statue on the right is the only costa rican statue in the lobby and if i understood correctly, the entire theatre itself. titled the heroes of misery, this statue was created by juan ramón bonilla during his time as an art student in renaissance italy where none of his teachers believed he was capable of such a work and even investigated him for cheating. once they realized he was truly the sculptor behind the work he rose to fame and the piece was eventually shipped back to his homeland of costa rica. the theatre director decided a handful of years ago that the statue should come out of storage and be placed in the lobby, as an expression of costa rican pride in a building that otherwise embodied the colonial mindset.