my first beach experince

Hello views out there to day was an layback day for us so we got to go to an very beautiful beach out here in costa Rica. Its my first time ever going to a beac h and I can say that I had the time of my life. It has a been a great experienc eand to top it off I got to travel to costa rica and go to this beautiful beach. It was a lifetime of fun for me. I can say that this group has some of the best people of all time they made this an experience of an life time. It something you have to see for yourself. I can say when we first got there the tides were coming in very low but the later in the day that we lare and stronger, but that did not face us. Unfortunly for the next couple day we will not be in contact until July 4th, we will be in the rainforest until then, Take care and we will be back in touch JULY 4th

After 10pm here in Costa Rica...

Sorry Mr. Dubas for posting after you. So these past couple days have been crazy. Meeting the high students was fun but I could not understand what they were saying; Mimi told me that the one kid who said to me "What Your Name" in English was making fun of me :(. But whatever it's cool!


The interview with Epsy Campbell was awesome, we all were really attentive and interested in everything she had to say. She was so passionate about PAC, and she truly felt that CAFTA would only hurt the people of Costa Rica. To be honest I agree, and I think most of us here do but I don't want to speak for anyone else.

I liked that we also got see the other party and that they supported CAFTA, but it was like a dry political speech like you hear in America.

Today (Friday) was awesome! It was such an amazing experience making beds for those who hard practically nothing but were so happy just to have what they did. The Nicaraguans that live in La Carpia are so better off there then they would have been in Nicaragua, but I think that's the saddest thing of all because no should have to live in those conditions. All of us took so much away from today because just by being there and seeing them smile and laugh just shows that family, friends, and community mean so much more than money. In the United States we have so much but all we really need is just love and compassion! :)

Now on to the fun stuff!
Coffee!! On Thursday I had TRES cups of coffee! I love Costa Rican coffee con leche & lots of
sugar!! The eggs and toaste at breakfast are bomb!! Love the rice!
Tonight at dinner we were served FISH and I Did Eat it - I know SHOCK right!? And it was not too bad! The mashed potatoes were delish! And so was the great hot chocolate!!

No internet access tomorrow through like next Wednesday night (which I guess is the 4th of July!!) so I just want to say to my friends and family have a great weekend and Happy 4th! I love you Eddie! Miss all of yins like crazy!

With lots of love!
<3 style="font-size:78%;">sorry for the informal writing

Heading out of town

Tomorrow morning we will be leaving San Jose for a few days. First, we go to Manuel Antonio National Park for one night and we will be ale to go to the beach and visit our first rain forest. The next 3 nights after that we will be staying inside another rainforest and doing work with the community to help them out. Mostly, we will be fixing up trails running through the rainforest that the community uses for eco-tourists that visit. What this all means is that we will not be blogging for the next few days since there will not be any internet connection. We will be back on line on July 4th when we return to San Jose.

Please visit our picture pages. This one has pictures taken by various members of our group and this one has pictures taken by our budding photojournalist,Meghan.

all heart

Costa Rica is a world that is brought together threw love and hope for there country's future. I look at them and I see the people of the United States only separated by a deeper tan and there language. My Spanish is not very good but it doesn't have to be. It is almost like reading minds and there eyes and body movements. You begin to feel like they are you and automatically. Your words are understood, We went to a school and I was paired up with a student named Javier. I consider him my friend because I felt the connection that we are the same person. And that is why we were able to communicate and it was the most amazing experience entering psychologically into a new world. The school honored us by having there band play and showing us around the school and we were also played a very enjoyable game of soccer. Imagine your best friends and how sometimes you don't have to speak to understand them it is exactly like that and I wish i could have spend another day with my friend Javier.

That Night we had a little dance at the hostel we are staying at and got to hang out and learn to dance Costa Rican style and I impressed them with some of the American Pop Lock style dancing. That was the first full day in Costa Rica and I can't imagine a better way to start out are experience. I believe a trip is blessed because everything is falling into place and destiny is taking is course.

We went to La Carpio which is a large neighborhood of ram shackled housing and very poor Costa Ricans and Nicaragua. And they were poor but they were all heart and they were happy no matter what and were even prouder of there accomplishments and I was proud to help build 16 bunk beds for these families with nothing but the floor to sleep on. Getting to meet these people and communicate with them and see there children and how much they love there mothers and i saw me in there smiles and really felt the equality in all man kind. And I thank god for this Trip this is truly the most meaningful experience of my life.

4 days late...

YAY! my first post is here! Well, just to let everyone know, im safe and doing well. Sorry that I am 4 days late, but if there was something wrong I would definately be in contact with you.

So far we have experienced so much stuff. The first day we went to the volcano in Poas and I was really excited. Before I came to Costa Rica, I thought that it was going to be really weird going to see a volcano and I thought that it was insane and dangerous, but it was really cool. And it is definately something that I would never do on my own.

Then after we did that and of course took very much needed showers, we met other high school students from here. And of course they spoke their language and we had to make the effort.
I felt kind of confident about my spanish until I got here. I was able to pick up every other word, but I was really nervous to the point that they probably thought I was a mute.

Then we started to play futbol (soccer) and that made me a little more sociable. Even though I don't have a gift at playing soccer I had a good time. I started talking to a few kids and they understood my spanish but I couldn't respond to them. I felt kind of bad. But they made me feel okay, and helped me with a few of the words.
After we left their school, they came to the place that we are staying at for a little party. It was pretty cool. We started dancing and of course I was loving that, and we talked with them and practiced a little more spanish. They are pretty cool kids. They are just like us, and many of them like to do the same things that we do.

Then the next day we had many interviews, we had one with legislators and we met with Epsy Cambell as well. It was great to here the different points of view about the Free Trade Agreement and its effects on Costa Rica, people are very passionate about this agreement and how it can change their lives.

And today was one of the best for me. Today we went to La Carpio to build beds for families. This is something that I never thought I would get to do. We built bunk beds for these families and I felt that we helped them alot. I felt like I had so much strength to do so much more. It was almost like this rush of energy. And alot of people that know me, know that lately, I haven't had that much energy, but that all passed.

Today made me appreciate so much, and made me think of life in a different way. Not to may people, or situations make me do that...
Well Im pretty much done for today, hopefully some more thoughts will appear later....

For Mom:
Of course I'm safe, and you should be proud that you invested in this trip.I miss you and of course you miss me, I don't really want to come home anytime soon, but I guess I will for your benefit..lol..HAHA gotta love me mama, and I love you too.

For My Boys:
You know who you are, I miss you guys and I hope to bring you back lots of stuff...lol...don't expect much because you know I'm cheap..lol...expect many NEW stories for when I get back...LOVE YOU ALL!

couldn't possibly describe with words...

This trip so far has been absolutely amazing. We met the high school students and now I miss them soooo much already... I wish we could spend more time with them. I have been really emotional so far (even though nobody knows it). At the end of each day we sit in a circle and reflect on the day and the trip so far. We it comes my turn to reflect, I only say a sentence- if that. I can't say any more without becoming emotional, so I just let others talk. Today, we went to La Carpia and met amazing people- amazing women. A lot of Americans think that they are just the best of the best of the best, in reality they're NADA. You never know what you're made of until you are faced with extreme adversity and challeneges. The women we met today are so young and so beautiful and of course, so strong. Many of them have kids and NONE of them have any male in their lives. I completely admire their strength and how they didnt give up on themselves or their families. Every single day, these mothers make sure that their kids have the things they need in order to live, even if it means sacrificing something for themselves.

The whole community was gorgeous (I don't mean in a visually appealing way), I mean the people. I have never seen such extreme poverty up close and personal and the spirit, determination, strength and beauty of these women and their kids is one of the most moving and emotional events that I have ever been involved with in my life. It felt so so good to build all of those beds and to know that I took part in bettering the lives of these children and their families that live in a 3rd world country. The kids were beautiful and they all wanted to help build the beds, and when they found out that these beds were for them the look on their faces were priceless. I wanted to cry, as I would like to do now too. It's only the 4th day of the trip and I already feel an incredible emotional attachment to this stunning country and its amazing people. I dont want to leave. Now that I have been aquainted with this place I want to study abroad here and visit my new friends.

On a lighter note, the people drive CRAZY! unlike in the U.S. where people have the right away to cross ti street, here people have absolutely NO right away to crossing the street. If there is a group of 14 or 15 people crossing and there are cars coming- you'd better (well if you want to live) jump out of the way. It's crazy, pero por su puesto, todavia me encanta este pies hermosa!

yo nessicito mas dias!

It is the fourth day in Costa Rica and it is practically impossible for me to explain how I felt during the programs today

As many of my fellow students have already said we visited a villiage called la cuerpia today. The plan was to go and build beds for some of the families in desperate need of beds for their children. What I think is very interesting is the fact that we didnt take as much out of the building experience as we did the feelings that we had while interacting with the women and children of the community. It so easy to feel your heart brake (in both a good and bad way) when a child is smiling from ear to ear when you tell them that their new bed if finished.

Mom: A mother forced a present on me in gratitude for building a bed for her children, I thought if you

Dad: Many children told me that Math is there favorite class and two children showed me their report cards for english class (100% all A's in English for both of them) I said A's are important, i thought of you

Shana: The villiage is full of people fighting addiction and succeeding, the work that you do is so honorable and the village would thrive if you were there to support it

I am terribly humbled and glad to have experienced the life of such strong and respectful people

=omg costa rica is awesomly awesome!!!

Um first of all I would just like to say that I am sorry for the unnecessary things I wrote in my last blog. I forgot what the blog was really meant for and I am sorry for that. What I wrote was not to hurt anyone, everything I wrote was about was a inside joke. But it wasn’t necessary and I am truly sorry for it.

But anyways let’s get to Costa Rica. So far so good!!!! Costa Rica has been really fun so far. We have might with so many different people. We have might a congressman, a cofounder of a political party, a lady who made her own organization that helps people who can not really help themselves. Everyone we have talked to I has really open my eyes about the different things that are going on in the world. Like CAFTA and how much it is EVIL. But meeting all these people has really open me to different things that are going on in the world.

We got to see a volcano the second day we were here. The volcano was awesome. I was just at awe; it was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen in my life. We also got to see this lake that was further up on the trail. The clouds were just surrounding us and it was just amazing to see all of the sights. One of the greatest things we did was go see our pen pals that we wee trying to email. When we got to there school we had to meet up with the kids that we were talking to. I got this girl named Stephanie; she was like the coolest out of all the other students. Mainly because I didn’t have to speak a word of Spanish to her. She knew English so I was pretty happy about that. Also everything she liked I liked so were had A LOT of things in common. The funniest part of that day was playing soccer with the kids. That just had to be the best part. Like before we played I thought our team was going to get killed because none of us really played soccer. I did but that was al the way back in middle school. But when we started playing it all came back to me. I scored 5 points and hurt my knee. But it was all good. We also had like a mini party at the hotel with all of the students. We danced for hours I was really sweated by the end of the dance. I LEARNED HOW TO SALSA!!!!

Today we made beds for the poor people at this area. It was really inspiring. It’s like now I want to go back and do more for these people. I just got really caught up in the moment when we first built a bed and the little kids were so happy. Just seeing their faces made me feel so much better. I would totally go and make beds for those people again in a heartbeat. Tomorrow is going to be awesome too. We are going to a new hotel and were going to live there for awhile. We get to go to the beach and swim that is going to be really fun also. But I really can’t wait to swim in the waterfall.

But so far it’s been really fun and I can’t wait to do a whole bunch of other stuff.

All of the pictures that I took are too large to upload to the photobucket, so I uploaded them to my flickr. If anyone is interested in looking at them I put up my favorite photos of mine.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/meghanrosephotos/

Beautiful

Oh my gosh!
Today was one of the best days i ever had in Costa Rica.
We went La Carpia which is this community of people who has to live in really small houses made of metal. Later I will upload pictures. We went to certain houses and built bunk-beds for the children. It was really touching to see them smile. OMG i wish i could live here for a little. I was just really happy that i could help these little cute sweet babies out. The people here are s0o0o00 nice, i just live it. This one guy in another car made funny faces at us when we were on the bus. He was trying to make us laugh and it worked.
Tomorrow we go to the beach...YAY...its going to be beautiful..W0oT!
well TTFN.

Embracing The ROOTS

It said to say that I'm still dealing with cultural hangover (believe me it's a good thing). This trip so far has been 'mazing. Today was very interesting because we were able to get tw0 Juxtaposingg ideas on CAFTA. As your probably already know that we meet with Epsy Campell (btw she is so intelligent and amazing) After her interview we were able to meet with Gelbert Jerez who was an important figure in the NLP. Just having this opportunity to meet with these people and having conversations about controversial issues is really breath taking.


Just to let you know I feel that i am an expert in Costa Rican Political History. We had a tour of the legislator building where all the important decisions are made. thought many found it be long, i was just in awe of our tour guides passion for Costa Rica. He just had a great sense of pride in his country(in a good way). Being a tourist it is sometimes extreme hard to get excited about the history of another country, because it don't relate to you. This guy made me excited to learn abut president Salas who was only 3 days in 1948, because the revolution had started in Costa Rica. To me that is CRAZY, but at least he got his own painting. ;p. Learning about how our tour guides uncle/godfather got an national citizen merit for his work in medicine. Our tour guide's passion made me excited to want to learn more about Costa Rica History. I saw how rich and unique it's history is, and it opened my eyes to being to appreciate the history of other cultures and their difference. I really got out of this is what the US can learn form the Costa Ricans is their sense of appreciation an honor ALL THIER ROOTS. I hope that one day American society can embrace it the same way.

Well today was very interesting because we were able to get tw0 Juxtaposingg ideas on CAFTA. As your probably already know that we meet with Epsy Campell (btw she is so intelligent and amazing) After her interview we were able to meet with Gelbert Jerez who was an important figure in the NLP. Just having this opportunity to meet with these people and having conversations about controversial issues is really breath taking.

well as midnight passes in pittsburgh or 10 here, we have another early rise 6:30 (yeah!!!)

Embrace the Roots
Cristal

Beautiful*l* Rose

I had the most amazing experience last night. The students from the local school came to our hostel to have a party. We talked, danced, ate pizza. A few of the students tried to teach us how to baliar (dance) as well!



In a la escuela (In the school)

Each of us had a chance to look around the school. The students showed off amazing art work. By art I mean lovely mirrors with amazing designs around them, lots of Pooh designs. They had wire work. Stuff that you would find in home decor stores for candle decorations. My student was a boy, I couldn't understand him very much but we both tried. I found he had a girlfriend, I understand why, he was muy guapo (very handsome.) That was an amazing and inspiring experience, I've never met more friendly people.


When the students came to the party it broke the ice. This great guy who was the best soccer player, Kevin (Ke-Bin) was the most fun for me. I danced we taught our amigos (friends) the electric slide, some liked it. Kevin and I started to talk, I was very interested in his social life. Before coming to Costa Rica we learned they were very religious but turns out most aren't! Kevin wants to be a doctor or become involved in medicine which is very cool. The boys were cool, the girls were very fun as well.


La Carpio

I had the best and worst experience today in Costa Rica. We visited La Carpio which is an extremely poor area. The people lived in what is worse shacks than imaginable to any American Person. These people don't have water they can drink that's clean. When they go to the bathroom it runs through their walkways, into their water and homes. Its very sad. Their clothing is very torn and dirty. With Softly International we built bunk beds for this families. My group was amazing, Meghan, Nee, Monteria, Matt (our guide) and myself. Our last bed a very good looking Tico (word for Costa Ricans) helped us his name is Ernesto. It hurts me so bad to see people like this. Our old clothes these people could use, shoes, hair things everything. Even the plastic we took off of the mattresses before putting them on the bed we tried to keep in good condition, so they could reuse it. I can not even speak anymore of this, it was so sad. Though sad these people were so proud and if anything I hope to take away a sense of pride in who I am and my views even if I am not always proud of the U.S.


I wish I could stay here a lot longer, its so...so..marvelous.

SORRY IF MY TYPING IN BAD BUT COMP. USAGE IS IN HIGH DEMAND AND I DO NOT HAVE THE TIME TO TRULY GO THROUGH IT ALL SORRY!!

ending of day 2

Whats going on all views its just about the end of day 2 and I can say, im still loving it here in costa rica, I really wish I can stay alittle longer then the ten days. To day we had alot of interviews and got alot of information. our first interview was with the infamous espy Campbell who is the president of PAC, which stands for Citizen Action Party, and I can say we fell in love with her, what see is doing as president of this party is amazing and we are right behind her one-hundred percent. She has this young lively hood and good intension on helping woman of afro decent.

We also got to talk with and lady who has started many foundations to help families that dont have the money are place to stay to support themselves, and just listening to her motivated all of us and we can wait to help them. Thats going to be very uplifting to them and us. The day was insiteful. I am so happy to be here and with my friends I can say this is an experience like no other, thanks to all of our sponsers for help making this experience to us. See ya later.

Photobucket Album

Check out our photo album

This post is not about my love letter.

This trip just keeps getting better and better and it is still only the third day.
I have seen so many amazing things and I am just so happy that I have gotten this opportunity. I've seen my classmates with their broken Spanish having fun and exciting conversations with Costa Rican high school students with their broken English. It was beautiful to watch and amazing to be a part of. I also saw a young, blind man on a bus with his guitar singing a beautiful song and it was so awesome. Tomorrow we get to build beds for Nicaraguan refugees and I'm so excited. I love doing things like this. This is what I live for. I love to talk to people and I love helping people and I just can't even put into words how excited I am to do this. I'm sure I'll have a really interesting blog with pictures and everything tomorrow.

Buenos Noches!

My favorite thing

So Bossert and I decided that each night, we would meet as a group and talk about the day. How did things go? did we have any problems? Etc. So last night was our first of these meetings. You will probably guess from seeing the kids posts that meeting the high school kids and having them over for pizza and dancing was a great thing. So I wanted to share what I mentioned as my favorite thing from our meeting last night.

My favorite thing was just watching the kids. They met an environmental leader (Gabriel Quesada) that has been crucial in enacting changes to the Costa Rican constitution. They met a musician (Manuel Obregon) that has been bringing together traditional musicians from all of Central America to write new music and bring that music on tour throughout the world. They met with students their own age to see what they might have in common or see how different they were.

I was so proud of our kids when we met the first two individuals. They knew everything that Gabriel Quesada talked about and were able to ask great questions about the struggle of the environment with politics and modernization. They asked great questions of Manuel Obregon as well and were delighted by his music.

The students from the local school was the best though. When we got there, they didnt want to talk to them. "My spanish is horrible", "I don't know what they're saying!" was all they would say. But we paired each of our kids with one of the local students and watched as they ignored each other for the most part. Then we put them into two teams and had them play soccer. And that is where the friendships began. By the time we left the school, they had made some connections. When they realized the kids were coming to our hostel for a "party" with pizza and music, they were thrilled. You should have seen them show each other dance moves to both U.S. music and Latin American music. By the time the local students left, they were so sorry to see them go and had even exchanged email addresses to keep in touch. I'll let Meghan tell her story. Make sure you ask her if she doesnt fess up. LOL.

So all in all, my favorite part of the day was watching them and knowing that, as we have learned, City High kids represent whether they are down the street in Pittsburgh, in New York or DC and even outside of the US. I'm proud of them.

Wow... so much happened.

Well as I sit here, I am amazed at how much fun we have been having at Costa Rica. As a new plane flyer, I was a little nervous, but I made it through fine. As the trip progressed we did amazing things but the most amazing activity was visiting the school students in Costa Rica. It was sooooo sad to see them go and I almost cried because the connection that we made with all of them was just beyond words. In terms of the weather and atmosphere around here, it is hot'ish with a lot of humidity. When we were in Poas (a volcanic area) located about an hour outside of San Jose my jacket had so much moisture in it. Today was a day of hope for the people of Costa Rica in our minds because we meet leaders of P.A.C., a Costa Rican political party that is in favor of a change towards a more viajo pais (young country). A hot topic in Costa Rica is the Central American Free Trade Agreement. Many groups call this possible agreement between the US and Central American countries, TLC. As I was walking down the street I could see many echos against TLC including a persona' de Costa Rica (person of Costa Rica) yelling "
¡No T L C ere!" (No TLC here) which was great. Well I need to go because mr. Dubas is yelling at me to go to bed. Good night. Hasta manana (until tomorrow).

Day one

So I am not going to take time away from the kids posts but I wanted to say what a great day we had. Many thanks go out to Gabriel Quesada and manuel Obregon for all of their time and effort. They really made the trip better.

As you can see from the picture above, we also made some new friends today. Sure, it isnt the best picture but you can see how much fun we had.

We'll be back tomorrow after we meet with several politicians and tour the Senate building.

As you read, please feel free to ask our bloggers questions. I promise they will all answer you.

Futbol ♥

Wow...where to start?

1. Mom I love you & I am safe.

2. The plane
My partner was Donvian and it was his first time flying! Bossert switched me seats so that I could have the window, I lucked out twice people switched me seats! D. (as I will further refer to him as) was gripping his seat belt, I think his zennnn was awesome. He chilled out though after we landed in ATL. Bossert and Dubby of course couldn't our flight had to wait to get to the gate so we were running VERY close to schedule. Have you ever seen Home Alone ? Well we were those people weaving holding onto one another to get where we were going. Chelsea was dying of a full bladder but we ALL survived. AMAZINGLY ALL of our luggage arrived!!!

3. Itinerary
ARE THEY CRAZY? We didn't get in untill after 11:30 last night, local time. Which means it was 1:30 am PGH time. It was after lights out which is at 10pm, BORING but completely 100% understandable. Our room was crammed, but we all passed out. The biggest thing, we had to wake up at 5am! You know I was expecting miserable people that early but EVERYONE was ready to set out! Okay so I ran to the shower thinking I'd be able to take a long one, wow was I wrong. They were right the water, ice cold.

4. Volcanos...say whattt?
We went to see a volcano, we seen a lovely crater. As a lovely friend of mine once spoke, "I can onlu describe it as undescribable."

5. Schools?
My spanish was TERRIBLE! Sorry Kovarik :( you tried but I am just not that good! Suprisingly I was very quite, not like me right? We played soccer, that has so far been the highlight of my trip. I was def. on the loosing team but I was one of the best Americans, the best boy on the other team was guarding me, I was proud. It was the best time I've had. This one lovely girl was speaking very broken english which was fun, she asked if I played soccer before and I tried to explain that I have, but that recently I coached younger kids.

6. Food
MUY MAL
That means, not like home.



MY TRIP IS AMAZING, THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO MADE THIS POSSIBLE.



♥ Erica

Can we keep it?

Hola Mis Amigas y Famila!!

Costa Rica is amazing! Everything I have seen so far is new and beautiful and I honestly feel really blessed to be experiencing everything.

So a basic rundown of whats happened so far:

1. plane to atlanta
2. plane to Costa Rica (on which they played the office...nough said)
3. Food in Costa Rica (Deliciouso)
4. BED - Casa Ridgeway is Amazing! Its beautiful, peaceful and friendly.
5. Uno dia - desayuno (breakfast where i ate rice and beans with sourcream from a bag)
6. Volcano Poas - ABSOLUTLY AMAZING!! We were very blessed to be able to see the actual crater and smoke which is abnormal compared to the normal cloud coverage that Matt tells us is there.)
7. Lunch
8. Meeting the Estudiantes from Costa Rica- They were awesome! I loved speaking spanish with them and it acctually make me feel like i knew something even though we spent a large amount of time trying to translate each others spanglish... es dificil!
9. Manuel Obregon
... and NOW... we are waiting for the students to arrive so that we can hang out!

Todaay it has rained, i have been un poco infermo y espanol es dificil but... COSTA RICA IS AMAZING and i cant wait for tomorrow!

Safe and Sound in San Jose

We had a painless trip that ended very late last night...little did we know we had to get up at 5am to start our exciting day! We lucked out...the clouds cleared and we could see the Poas Volcano so clearly! My favorite parts of the trip so far: 1) sitting next to a student who has NEVER been on a plane before and watching this student experience take-off and landing for the first time.... and 2) meeting the SUPER COOL Manuel Obregon, music producer and preserver of traditional music. ~bossert

The infamous flight, and daydream

I will have to say that I am happy to be costa rica but for the first time flying, its something. the lift off and the landings well I can say that being cared is something nice ha ha ha. I can say I glad that the first ride is over. I can belive that I flowen on an air plane and to be able to stand on another countries ground well it to much the sites well they are something you have to see for yourself and i can say if your an travel and you never visited costa rica i say go i only been here on night and dont know alot of spanish its not an bad place. we got to visit and interact with some of the kids here and all I can say wow the people out here are so cool, and entergetic. I love it out here. Got to go talk to everyone later see ya!!!!

Day 1

So much has happened I don't even know how I am going to fit it all into one blog post.

Yesterday was my first flight ever, and I was a little nervous at first but I quickly got over it. It was a lot of fun. The food wasn't so great but on the plane from Atlanta to Costa Rica we did get to watch an episode of The Office, which was great.

<---This is a picture from my window on the plane to Atlanta. When we arrived to Costa Rica we met our tour guide Matt and hopped on the bus to take us to our hostel. Our hostel is the coolest place by the way but the second I got in the room the first thing I saw was a giant spider in the corner. So yeah I didn't sleep well last night.


These are some pictures of us in our hostel room. BUNK BEDS!

I will write more later but right now I have to party with some Costa Rican High school students.

More pictures and blog later tonight or tommorow.

Meghan<3

First Flight

Well!... First I want to thank my parents for paying for this amazing trip, as well as our sponsers who made it possible for me to take my first flight. My favorite part was when you get that feeling that all your guts just went down to your toes, sort of like a HUGE rollercoaster. In the day time you could see all of the clouds, it was like ridding on a bunch of marshmellows except you can eat them. Today ...June, 27, 2007; we went to a highschool and got a cool tour by the kids there. Man those kids are awesome. We got to talk to them; but i felt so lost and bad because i couldnt understand them that well, but towards the end i got to know them pretty well. We played soccer with them and it was awesome. At 7pm-10pm we will b partying with them. I cant wait. well i have to go...see ya

PS: Mrs. Moye your cam is in good hands.
Hi mom1-mom2-dad1&2..TIM!! byebye

No Wild Animals, but a Baby!

WE'RE HERE!! So far it's Awesome!! The plane rides were good (bad food though). It's so different down here, no sewer system so when you go the bathroom you cannot put the toilet paper in the toilet, it goes in a waste can next to the toilet [soo weird].

We went to the volcano today, it was amazing (I don't have my digital camera but Mimi & Meghan took amazing pictures which I'm sure they're going to upload later because we are way behind schedule). We're going to go meet up with high school students and play some soccer and hopefully get some lunch - oh and by the way breakfast was awesome, loved the coffee (and hate coffee)!

But we gotta run. I miss all my friends & family, wish you guys were here. And to explain the title:
Mrs. Provident told me not to bring home any wild animals, so Mimi and I decided that we're going to bring home babies!

Adiós!
<3 Chelsea

Down to the wire

I havent blogged in a while so I thought I would add something before we all head out into the wild blue yonder. It's been a long road getting here but it has finally come. We have finished the main part of the course. Bossert and I have told everyone all we could about the people and the environment we will immerse ourselves in. We have graduated 8 of the group. So I guess now we are taking 4 students and 8 graduates. Quite an accomplishment. And now, the reality sets in as I start to pack. It's sitting here next to me on the table. I'm looking at it and thinking, "Am I really taking this much? Do I really need this much stuff with me?" My answer is that I hope so. If I bring it all an dont use it all, I will be really upset with myself. I guess I'll find out soon enough.

I have a feeling that the next post on the site will be from Costa Rica. I also have a feeling that the posts will change quite a bit. I just hope that all of our excitement flows through the netherworld of the internet and you can feel it too.

See you there.

Dubas

=omg this trip is going to be awesomly awesome!!!!

So we have like I don’t know 4 days maybe left. I am pretty mellow about it. I mean I am happy I am going, don’t get me wrong. It’s just like when I get there I think I will go all crazy and wild. It’s going to be awesome. Now most responsible people would have packed up all their things like a month ago and wouldn’t have to rush around the house getting everything ready a day before or even the morning of the trip. Well considering who I’m going with I’m sure that is what is going to happen to a lot of us.

Now not many of us have gone on a plane so I think some of them are a little nervous. Myself being such a nice friend I told some of them that there pretty fun. If you like riding in something that shakes around a lot and could possibly fall and kill you. Well that last part I didn’t add but I did talk about the turbulence. I love airplane rides, I just like sitting there listening to music or talking to my friends and eating the food. Oh, how I love the air line food. People say I’m a little weird for that, apparently not many people like air line food. But I love it!

When we get to Costa Rica I’m not sure exactly what we are doing but I have some ideas. For one we are going to interview a Congressman I think. We are going to be fixing up some beds and other things for some people. We are going to take like a tour in the rain forest. Might go swimming in a lake or at a waterfall, and we get to go to the city and see what it’s like there. Oh, and I can’t forget were going to visit our pen pals. We get to play them in soccer. Don’t except us to win though not many of us have played real soccer I think, we’ll most likely get beat BAD!!!! Then we get to go dancing, the dancing is going to be awesome. Mimi and I have this move that we do when we salsa dance it’s the stuff if I may say so. But really I can’t wait for Costa Rica, it’s going to awesomely awesome.

One last thing, I just wanted to say that I am going to miss all the seniors and I hope they will stay in touch and won’t forget about City High or myself.

P.S. The boys are totally going to get the girls with a prank. Spiders are all over the places in Costa Rica just remember!!! lol

The count Down

Were just a few day away from the beginning of the adventure to Costa Rica. I never been on a plane before but I’m ready. In the past weeks it has been kind of fun learning more Spanish which feels very hard to understand to me, but I’m working on it. I can say that I learned a lot of things about the Costa Rica, their government, and the environment. also learning how to salsa was very fun. i thought is was cool learing about the different concervation techiqunes.I can say Ms.Bossert and Mr. Dubas as taught us a lot to get ready for this trip. I can say I took alof from learning about costa rica. I'm super excited.
I'm not sure what to expect but I know its going to be suprising. I think the trip is going to be very exciting, definitely for me because I don’t travel a lot and just to be able to go their week beautiful people it going be fun. I cant wait to get there.

Siete días hasta que desviarse de Pittsburgh

I have never been this anxious about traveling before. I feel like I’m on a plane getting ready for lift off. I can defiantly say that I feel a lot more prepared this time around then last time. I’m not saying that I know what to expect because I have learned every time I travel it’s a new experience. I intend to travel to Costa Rica with no expectations because it doesn’t leave room for disappointment, but leaves ton of room for surprise; which I am totally looking forward to during this trip.

In the past weeks we talked intensely about ecotourism. Even though I knew a lot of knowledge prior to this class; I can honestly say that Mr. Dubas has done a wonderful job in giving us tons of information about ecotourism. I was surprised by how much I didn’t know. I think I just realized how much has to be invested into a land that is developed for ecotourism or even basic conservation.

Even though we look over the pros and cons of ecotourism I think the class’ general consensus is that ecotourism is on the better if not the best way to implement the ideals of conservation in our world. And I am really excited about going back to Quebrada Arroyo where they practice the ideas of conservation in the truest from then any place I’ve ever seen. And going again with the new knowledge I have ganged this past year, I think this experience will give me a different prospective and really allow to go down with an open mind

Siete días hasta que desviarse de Pittsburgh
Laterday
*Cristal*

C-R-A-Z-Y-N-E-S-S

I cannot believe that we only have 9 days until we depart for Costa Rica, Everything about the trip seemed like a distant dream or thought that will not happen for years to come, but as I am posting this, we have 9 days until we leave. Although we finished with our class work and for the seniors, only the final awaits, we are still left with a sense of responsibility that our teachers Miss Bossert and Mr. Dubas has instilled in all of us regarding this environment. This sense that we must help preserve what we can of the environment has lead some students to car pool or use public transportation (Port Authority buses) to venture to the Pittsburgh international Airport, where we will meet a Delta Airways Airplane to journey thousands of miles to a foreign land. I think we all cannot wait for this experience to be a part of the many stories that we will tell our grandchildren (if we are so blessed). I hope to (as I am sure many of my classmates hope to) post many pictures of our trip so that everyone out there can also become a big part of this trip.

Joe

Cooking and Dancing

We are getting ready to leave Pittsburgh and go to Costa Rica. And before that we have been finding ways to experience Costa Rica in are classroom. One of are assignments was to cook something that is Costa Rican and i decided to make there pollo en salsa (chicken and salsa) that was a lot of fun to make homemade salsa and create a delicious dish for my fellow classmates and soon to be travelers. I work at an Italian restaurant as a cook and getting to experiments in another cultures style was a real treat and very enjoyable.

The Wednesday classes are teacher refines are skills in Spanish and recently we had a class on dancing. And I have had prior experience in swing dancing and i found that the salsa was very close the only difference was the fallowing with your hips which i believe is the key to salsa dancing.

I can't wait to experience this new world we will be entering and I know i will have a great time and i will make sure others around me will as well. This will be a great ending to my high school year. I am very lucky to be participating in this and am thankful for my classmates teachers and all those that are behind us supporting this adventure.

12 days away from Costa Rica...can you believe it??

This week we have learned two very important things:
1. Ecotourism
2. Salsa Dancing

To be honest I think that Ecotourism is pretty amazing. Its common knowledge that people like to spend money on themselves. For the most part what that money goes to in no was supports the environment (in many ways it can make it worse). Ecotourism is a great way for people to spend money on themselves and still support the environment. I am really excited to be going to a country where Ecotourism is becoming such a strong asset to both the land and the economy. For me, experiencing an amazing location and culture while knowing that I am doing as much as i can to not harm the natural flow of things is whats so amazing about this trip we are about to take.
Salsa dancing, which is the second thing we studied this week is a whole different story. I am extremly excited to experience salsa dancing in person with people who acctually know what they are doing. Although I dont think that any of us will be competing in a Salsa competition any time soon, we did have a ton of fun trying to learn all the steps.

P.S. A word to the wise... if you are salsa dancing, dance far away from Nee.

Bonding ♥

For the past month we've learned all about Costa Rica's environment and politics. We learned about biodiversity and why its so important to keep our environment healthy and running. The research on why Costa Rica wasn't colonized, and who we're interviewing, but I feel like I'm doing something more than just stuffing my brain with facts about Costa Rica.

Mr. Dubas put up an assignment about different conservation techniques and placed everyone in a group, I had gene banks, with Morgan. I mean Gene Banks, who thinks of this stuff? I was amazed at the idea and hopefully with this snippet of what I learned you'll be interested too! Gene Banks are a very technological way of trying to save the environment! They extract different genes and DNA from animals and plants. This is stored in a safe place and will hopefully be used later to bring back those extinct species or try to preserve them. This sounds all fine and dandy but this process can be very costly and third world countries are not up to these standard yet. Along with money it breaks our natural evolutionary cycle. Over time things grow and adapt to the surrounding environment if the world developed a fungi and then we tried to reintroduce frogs they may not live because they can not fight against the fungi, so all of that time and money may be wasted. I like this way of conserving the Earth, its different and we are living in changing times, sometimes we just need to take risks and try something new.


Morgan's an 11th grader who I never seen before LAS (Latin America Studies.) I feel as if I am becoming a better more rounded person learning about Costa Rica with different students I never knew. At first I was mad at Doooubby and Bossert for always sticking me with people that were outside of my box but I found out that those people aren't too bad. I really can't wait for the trip, Morgan's been telling me about how much she hates wildlife so I know it'll be a good laugh in the Rain forest. I think this trip will be all that much better because I'm spending it with some new friends ♥


On a less heartful note..we are reading a very interesting site about the benefits & criticisms of ecotourism in Costa Rica. So far we've only made it down to the waterfall, but its talking about how things may seem good for the environment but sometimes they aren't. That's one thing that I love about Bossert, she always shows both sides, go check out the site!


http://www.american.edu/TED/costa-rica-tourism.htm#general

Save the Animals and We Save Ourselves

Meghan talked about the two videos that we watched [which were awesome, we should watch more!] but to summarize them up is just that humans need ecosystems. Many diverse animals live in different types of ecosystems, and we need those animals and plants because in the end us humans will suffer greatly and start dieing off like the animals are.

Today (and yesterday) we are talking about the different types of conservations, which all have pros and cons. The six we came up with from the videos are:

1. Biological preserves
2. Public policy
3. Gene banks
4. Captive breeding
5. Ecotourism
6. Bioprospecting

Donavin and I are researching Ecotourism. We think it's awesome because it benefits the environment, the people, and the economy!

LOVE THE ENVIRONMENT! SAVE OUR ECOSYSTEMS!
<3>

Last week in class, we got to watch these two really great episodes of Planet Earth. We were discussing as a class the environment and how ecosystems are being systematically destroyed and how species are dissapearring right before our eyes. The first episode we watched talked alot about what we had been discussing, about ecosystems being ruined. It was very interesting but very sad. It's really depressing to see the destruction of the planet that humans have caused. The second video was more about how some animals are very endangered and how some species are creeping closer to extinction. The video was also about conservation and what things are being done and how people are trying to save these species and their natural habitats. In class now we are debating on some of the different ways to conserve nature. Some of the ways we have talked about were biological preservations and captive breeding. It is all very interesting stuff but it is pretty depressing.

Closer and Closer

Wow, 25 days to go until Costa Rica! I'm pretty excited and also scared at the same time. I'm not your average girl of wild life you know. I'm pretty sure that if I hear a howler monkey I will be screaming right along with it...Too bad no one will think we're making great music.

Well overall even with my fear of the wild life and the culture shock that I'll go through, I'm still really excited about it though. I think this experience will make me well rounded and understand more things outside of the United States. We have to remember that this is a big world and it goes further than America.

Anyways, I feel that we're pretty informed about what to expect while on this trip, socially, economically, politically, and of course the environment as well.

Hopefully my cautious spirit won't be a problem for me.

We'll have to wait and see won't we.

Sheesh, our trip is coming closer and closer...AND I CAN'T WAIT!