¡Pura vida! Pure life. Going into my one month stay in
I began my journey in my comfortable
For the first and last week of my expedition, my group visited the more popular Costa Rican attractions—the Arsenal volcano, the Monteverde cloud forest, and Uvita beach. Although all of this was extremely fun and added to my overall experience, it was not the highlight of my trip.
The most authentic component of my trip was the community service portion, when I stayed with a Costa Rican family who lived in the remote
I lived, worked, played, and grew to love my new community. Everyday, our group worked on a construction site alongside the locals—our fathers, brothers, friends—and we constructed a community kitchen from scratch. Seeing the fruits of our labor with my family immensely catalyzed our bonding, as every single day we would wake up, work, and come home exhausted together. At home, we would relax, share stories, and play games. On several occasions we played gigantic soccer matches with the entire village.
Eventually there was no need for more background information, as I felt as though I knew these people for my entire life. No longer was I testing the limits of my high school Spanish vocabulary, but I was pushing the limits of my mind by having intellectual conversations.
Upon my return home, I was unpacking my luggage when I stumbled across a shirt which I had bought at the airport. It said “
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