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And so the adventure comes to a close, after a week of traveling Costa Rica with my family (my real one) and too many goodbyes, I got on a plane and flew back to Texas... after 24 weeks and 1 day exactly.

It's very bittersweet, leaving a place I've grown to love so much, and the community I've come to depend on, somewhere so beautiful and different from my own country and cities, but just as comfortable and welcoming now. I've got plenty of souvenirs, pictures, and journal entries to remember that life and those experiences, and I know I'll be back in Costa Rica some day, at least to visit...but it's still sad to see that chapter close.

In those 6 months, I learned so much about myself and about the world. I struggled with questions I didn't even know I had, and found answers to some of them. I experienced overwhelming joy, and got to live out a little rebellious phase (how many times do you really get to run away from real life and live in a different country without any serious consequences?). I settled into who I am, and spent some quality time with the person I've become, a person I didn't really know all too well in January.

I immersed myself in a culture and a language that were still very uncomfortable to me, and grew to understand and love them, finding where I fit in the balance between where I come from and where I was. I accepted something that was outside of myself, and incorporated it into who I am. I built relationships and a community with people who come from a very different place in life, and in the world, and found out that they really weren't so different when it got down to the basics.

And so I'm sad, very sad, to leave the land of waterfalls, beaches, volcanoes, and mangos, where everyone kisses you on the cheek, and coffee flows abundantly. Where life is a little calmer and a little more "tranquilo", where relationships matter more than accomplishments. I miss it all.

Luckily, I had something wonderful to come back to...

Two cities, both vibrant and fun, filled with people I love who care about me and who will go with me to all my favorite restaurants and activities. A family just as big and crazy as my Tico family, who loves me dearly. Tex mex, asparagus, cherries, driving a car, corn on the cob, nights on the lake, little things that make me happy that you just can't find in Costa Rica. All of this has made the transition back into "real" life, a little easier.

And I'm about to start a new chapter, a wonderful, exciting, terrifying, stressful, fun chapter: senior year. After that, who knows...

Not too long ago, I wrote a post about where I was from, talking about how each place I've lived has influenced who I am and where I'm going in life, and I still think that's true. And now thanks to Costa Rica, I'm going to keep adding to that list. As if I didn't already have "the travel bug" before, after such a whirlwind success in Costa Rica, I can't wait to get back out in the world and keep exploring, seeing as many countries and cultures as possible, learning all I can about the history and life of the places I go, and building the relationships and making the impact in those communities that really make those places important. Hopefully somewhere along the way, I can make a difference for some of those people. I can't wait!

So stay tuned for more adventures, who knows where I'll be next!

Until then, this blog comes to a close:

Con amor, muchas gracias a todos que han leido esto y compartido en mis experiencias! Los quiero! (With love, thank you to all who have read this and shared my experiences, love you!)

Meche

"Sola"

According to Google translate: 

Solo(a) (spanish) = single, alone, one, lonely, sole, mere, all alone, lone, lonesome, singular, neat

I think it's interesting that in Spanish they use the same word for lonely and alone, because after my last week here, I may have to tell Spanish that I disagree. 

So I finished with my official program a little over a week ago and after many days of tearful goodbyes and "last ___'s " my program friends left to go home. A while back, I had decided that I wanted to stay and travel for a little after the program ended, and I knew this was going to mean that I would be on my own for a while, but I didn’t realize that leaving my program friends would be so hard.

For those of you who have lived overseas or studied abroad, you understand, these people are your life, your family, for however long you’re there. For those of you who don’t know what it’s like, just think of the most emotionally difficult thing you’ve ever done, something that involved constant self-reflection and questioning, a growing experience of some sort, and think about the people you experienced that with, then you’ve got an idea. I spent every single day with these 17 people, in class, at lunch, coffee, on trips, at bars. We helped each other with translations and homework questions, navigating problems with host families or friends or boys, cultural differences, homesickness, relationship questions, and all made a few bad decisions on the way to defining ourselves. It’s the kind of relationship where you have to get really honest with the people around you very fast, because you have to depend on them. As long as I live, these people will have a special place in my heart, I may not keep in great touch with all of them, but we shared Costa Rica, and you can’t take that away, which means our friendship will always pick up where we left off.

That being said, I was very sad for a few days. I couldn’t just call up a friend and ask them to meet me for coffee in half an hour, or ask if they wanted to go to a movie, or tell them some strange thing I saw that is normal for Ticos, but still out of the ordinary for us. But then something amazing happened…I found out I wasn’t alone after all…Sure my best friends were gone, but there was a whole new untapped community of love waiting to surround me.

I spent more time with my Tico family, eating father’s day lunch together, combing through old family photos, playing with my 3 year old host cousin. I spent time at the school where I teach English, and had my students run to greet me with hugs and yells of “Meri!!!!”. They wrote me letters to take home with me, and the teacher I have worked with all semester invited me over to have dinner at her house.  I found a bigger community of Tico friends than I knew I had, all of who wanted to spend time with me before I leave.  I took a trip on my own to one of my favorite beaches, and met a handful of people in the same situation and we formed weekend-long friendships, ate dinner, sat on the beach, went out dancing, watched movies, climbed waterfalls, and talked about life.

I found that even though my best friends were gone, I was not alone, not even a little bit. And that’s when I knew that I really had found yet another home in this place. Yes, I’ve had lots of fun, traveled a bunch, and taken some classes, but the most important thing is that I became part of a new community, one very different from the ones I’m used to, but filled with the same love.

And even though I’m leaving here in a week and a half, I know I’ll always have a home here to come back to, and that’s a pretty amazing feeling. 


So thank you, to all of you who have been a part of that community, those in Austin, DC, and other parts of the world who kept me connected to my other homes and families, the IFSA crew who lived this with me and knows me better than just about anyone, the Tico friends and family who invited me in to be a part of their world, and those people I met in passing who showed me I wasn't the only one on this journey. It's been fun being a part of your communities, and I'm so excited to continue these relationships and see where they'll go. 


¡Te quiero mucho! (I love you so much!)

What I learned from telenovelas...

As some of you may know, the telenovela "Soy tu Dueña" ("I'm your boss", also translated as "Woman of Steel" for the US version) has become one of the staples of my time here in Costa Rica. In my first week here, my host mom invited me to watch with her, since she watches it every night at 9. I figured it would be another good way to practice my Spanish, would give me an opportunity to bond with my host mom, and would be something fun to look back on...but then I got involved. It's become kind of a running joke in the house that they know it's 9 o'clock when I sit down expectantly in front of the TV. Now don't worry, I'm not obsessed, and I know full well just how ridiculous this show is, but as today is the finale, I felt I owed it a tribute here on my blog.

To give a brief overview, the show is about Valentina, a smart, headstrong woman who in the very first episode gets left at the altar by Alonso (not a good guy). Heartbroken, Valentina leaves Mexico City where she's been living to move back to her family-owned cattle ranch with her aunt and cousin (the evil Ivana!). She takes over as the "dueña" or owner of the ranch, and basically manages it on her own, turning it into a successful business. She also wears lots of cowgirl outfits and spends a lot of time riding horses. Next door lives the handsome Jose Miguel, also a rancher, and the two of them fall madly in love. This of course is not enough to make a telenovela, a romantic comedy maybe, but it would be too simple of a story line if it ended here. Instead of ending up happy together right away, the couple's marriage plans are ruined when Alonso shows back up declaring his love for Valentina and Ivana (the cousin) declares that she's in love with Jose Miguel. Then there's Rosendo, the classic bad guy. He's in love with Valentina as well, and ends up doing a lot of terrible things (kidnappings, killings, burning things, etc.). Between all of the drama surrounding Valentina and her various love triangles (since pretty much every main character in the show has some sort of romantic history) and a few side stories with secondary characters, the show gets pretty dramatic, but is fun to watch and has captured the attention of not just Costa Rica, but also Mexico, the US and many more countries.

But between the bad acting, cheesy (and predictable) plot lines, and the slightly absurd modern-day cowboy theme, the novela had some good points and life lessons which I'd like to share with you:

1. It is perfectly natural for a man to take his shirt off for no apparent reason.

2. Bad guys are always bad, but they will pay for their actions and get what they deserve in the end.

3. Sleeping around is a bad idea. (There's always one or two women villains in telenovelas who are a bit promiscuous, and always pay for their actions. In this one, Ivana ends up suicidal and crazy, convinced that she's pregnant with an imaginary baby.)

4. Family is important, but a dysfunctional one can cause serious problems (that make for some very entertaining story-lines).

5. Men, even the good ones, have their flaws and are going to mess up...but then again, so do the good women. In the end, a strong couple can work it out.

6. Love is strong and can survive some pretty tough things. (It can also make people CRAZY, and I mean actually medically crazy with hallucinations and suicide attempts)

7.  A strong woman with self-confidence can achieve anything she puts her mind to. (She also may end up with half a small Mexican town in love with her, causing quite a bit of trouble, but she ends up with the right guy in the end).

So that's my plug for telenovelas...yes, they're absurd, but I must say that this has been one cultural experience I will remember fondly.

"I'm saving turtles this weekend"

This weekend, I witnessed a miracle. And I don't mean that to sound cheesy...there's just no other word to describe it.

As part of my study abroad program we had a weekend-long trip to the Pacuare Reserve, a 6 Km stretch of beach and jungle dedicated to saving leatherback sea turtles.

These turtles are endangered, and only about 1 in 1000 of the eggs laid makes it to be an adult. On the reserve, they try to make sure as many eggs survive as possible. You'd think this would be easy...who would want turtle eggs? Well...poachers who can sell them as a delicacy, raccoons and larvae like to get at the eggs before they hatch, and crabs, seagulls, the sun, and sharks are waiting for the babies before they can make it to the ocean.

A mother sea turtle (who is giant...if you take a six foot tall man and imagine him with a giant shell, that's about what you're looking at) comes up on to the beach at night, digs a nest, lays about 60 eggs, covers them back up, and makes her way back to the sea. About two months later, the babies hatch, and instinctively know which way to dig themselves out of the nest (which is about 2 feet underground) and once in the open, make a beeline for the ocean. These guys can fit in the palm of your hand. No parent is there to protect them or help them on their journey, they just set out on their own from their first seconds of life.

This journey of about 30 feet can be one of the most dangerous things these babies do. Even a small stick in their way, or too deep of a footprint in the sand, can delay their trip to the ocean, and in those few seconds they can get snapped up by a crab, a seagull, or just get too hot to continue. Those that do make it, and survive a few decades in the ocean, come back to the SAME BEACH to lay their eggs about 25 years later.

So, volunteers at the preserve have a few jobs. All of which take place in all night beach patrols (going out in 4 hour shifts). The first job is to help study the turtles. Very little is known about what sea turtles do between being born and coming back to lay their eggs and why they choose the beaches they do, so any turtle sighting is immediately accompanied by a large number of measurements and tests to gather as much data as possible about the turtles. Second, is to protect the nests. When a mother turtle comes up to lay the nest, the volunteers make sure it is in a good location and make sure the tracks are hidden so that poachers can't come find the eggs the next day. Third, they make sure all of the hatchings go well. For this, volunteers clear out all the twigs and debris on the beach around the nest to make sure the baby turtles have a clear shot at the ocean. If the volunteers are actually there when the babies are born, they follow the baby turtles to the ocean, making sure their trip is as easy as possible. Finally, is the job of excavations. Once a nest is past it's hatching period, the nests get dug up to find out how many eggs hatched, and how many didn't, and if they didn't, why they didn't.

Amazingly, I got to participate in all of the above. We watched mother turtles come up onto the beach, watched babies break through the sand and find their way to the ocean, and I got to participate in an excavation where we actually found a few little turtles who hadn't made it out yet, and needed a little extra help. One of the mother turtles chose a poor location for her nest, in the middle of a bunch of plants, whose roots would have invaded the nest and killed the babies, so we had to move the nest! We took lots of measurements, found a new, safe location, and I got to dig the hole for the babies to live in, one that was as much like their mom's nest as possible.

I can't describe to you how powerful it is to watch nature at work, to watch these amazing creatures follow this invisible set of directions that they have from the moment they are born, and to get to participate, knowing that your work is allowing one more turtle to have a chance to survive. To know that those that do make it, will be back to the same place, to know the ones laying eggs now were born about the same time you were...it just made me remember how many incredible, wonderful things there are in the world, and how we don't make them happen, how we can only be thankful at the opportunity to participate. And if these little turtles that can fit in my hand can push on confidently with life, can follow a path that they don't know, but know they need to be on...I know I can do the same...

And so that y'all can have a taste of the experience, here's the beginning, middle, and end of one of our little turtle's journeys to the sea!

Breaking out of the nest

See that nice clear path we made for him...and that's the sun rising, not setting 

Here you can see his little tracks as he gets swept up in the waves and off into the ocean!

¡Feliz Pascua! (Happy Easter)

I had no idea what to expect celebrating Easter in another country, especially as a non-Catholic in a  country who's official religion is Catholicism.

The night of Good Friday, my host family took me to see the processionals. For those of you who've never seen one, it's basically a giant funeral for Jesus. All the participants are dressed in fancy clothes, and the participants include musicians, Mary Magdalene and the women at the tomb (women dressed in elaborate mourning outfits, holding spices for the body), angels (usually small children in costume), Jesus' body (dead, with blood, in a see-through coffin, covered with flowers) who is carried by 8-16 men, depending on the size of the procession, followed by Mary (the virgin, mother of Jesus), and John and Peter (the disciples). The procession can take hours, and as it passes, viewers on the side of the road join in and walk with Jesus to the church, it's actually kind of cool. We ended up going to three different processions, each from different neighborhoods, and each one was a little bit different. It was pretty powerful to watch my host brother carry Jesus' body up a hill, and the whole experience was reverent, sad and joyful all at the same time.

Saturday night is apparently one of the most dangerous nights of the year to leave the house. All over town people take to the streets to burn the body of Judas, and it kind of turns into mini-riots...this I don't really understand, and it kind of frightens me, I saw a few of the fires myself, and it was really easy for things to get out of control. I'm also not really sure how this contributes to the spirit of Easter, since not even Jesus tried to kill Judas, but I guess our traditions of easter eggs and bunnies don't make much more sense either.

Speaking of which, there are no bunnies or eggs on Sunday morning, there's no pastel candies or animal shaped chocolate, no egg hunt, and definitely no Peeps (how I missed them). In fact, it's just kind of a normal day...a lot of people don't even go to church...but it is one day that no one has to work.

We celebrated Easter morning with a family trip to the mountains. About ten minutes north of where I live are some beautiful, open, green mountains, with lakes for fishing, so my family brought a picnic (with a grill, folding chairs, and a coffee maker), and we spent the morning and afternoon lounging by the lake, fishing, and eating together. My WHOLE family went, host parents, brothers, sisters, brother's girlfriends, cousins, aunts, children of cousins, and it turned out to be quite the party.

The lake and fields where we were

My host brother, Joshua, with his first catch of the day!

My "Gringa sister", Danica, and our host cousin, José, eating watermelon

Sisters!!! Me, my host sister, Natalia, and Danica, the other student who lives in our house (aka my "gringa sister")

My host family! Danica, Natalia, my host mom-Ana, me, my host dad-Ronald, and in the back my host brothers Juan Pablo (left) and Joshua (right).

We ended the day as all good Easters should end, with the Heredia/Alajuela soccer game (it's the semi-finals, and my family is split between the two teams) Heredia, the team that Juan Pablo and I like, and the city where we live, won, so next Sunday is the final game! Juan set off fireworks to celebrate and we ate some chinese food (since apparently that's still open on Easter). So not exactly your typical Easter celebration, but still filled with the family and love that I was missing back home (the fishing and fireworks added a little bit more familiarity to the day as well).

So, a day late, Happy Easter, or ¡Feliz Pascua! from Costa Rica!

Semana Santa

In Central America, Semana Santa (aka Holy Week) is the equivalent to Spring Break in the US, except everyone gets a vacation, not just students. Everyone has the whole week off to be with friends, family, travel, and relax. My friends and I jumped on this extra vacation time by heading somewhere that would be impossible to get to over a weekend...Panama.

Now most of you are probably thinking...Panama...canal...and that's about it. Little did you know that Panama is home to what I now believe is one of the most beautiful places on earth. Just think Hawaii...but with fewer people and not as developed, and you'll have Bocas del Toro, the archipelago/national park/small town where we spent our week.

It's much easier to do the rest of this with photos:

First Stop: Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica. The trip to Panama is pretty long, so we broke it up with a few beautiful days on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. This beach, Playa Cochles, is a national park, so it's beach/jungle wilderness beauty is still well preserved!

My Traveling Buddies! Sarah, Lizzie and Kaelyn! Our second day in Puerto Viejo we rented bikes and went exploring along the coast. The weather was perfect and we had so much fun!

The Panama Border Crossing: You get out of your bus and walk across this very rickety old bridge.  And if you fall into the river below...there's crocodiles, so be careful. On the other side, we waited in a long line for our passport stamps, it was fun to mark another country off the list!

Our Hostel/Hotel: Casa Max. I would HIGHLY recommend this place to anyone traveling to Bocas del Toro, it was cheap, clean, cute, and we had our own room, bathroom and balcony (with hammock!) You can see our room there in the top right, with the towels hanging off the side. 

This restaurant kind of sums up the feeling of Bocas, it's a bunch of tiny islands, and so many of them just have small restaurants or hotels on stilts painted pretty colors. We also went snorkeling with the fish right below the restaurant!

The Golden Grill: Cheap diner food, we went so often during the week that the waitstaff knew who we were...but really who can resist 85 cent ice cream?

Me at Red Frog Beach. On our first full day in Bocas, we went on an all-day island-hopping tour. Red Frog was a beautiful beach that is home to little red frogs! We didn't see any hopping around, but a small Panamanian child did show us one she had caught in a leaf...in exchange for a quarter and a cookie. 

Playa Bluff: a beautiful beach on the main island that is better for surfing than swimming (we learned this the hard way). As you can see, this place was DESERTED, we had this entire beautiful beach to ourselves!

Wizard Beach: this one is on Isla Bastamientos, which is a national park, which means that the jungle comes right up to the sand, and the ocean is pure, transparent blue water perfect for swimming! This beach was also deserted, leaving us to create our own "Pirates of the Caribbean" adventures :)

And that was our trip! We met some amazing people, had a great time relaxing on the beach, and got a much needed break from our school work (I do actually go to school here)...all in all, a success!

Where are you from?

I cannot even count how many times I get asked that question...

Sometimes they just assume an answer, "you're from the US, right?" or "What part of the US are you from?". Other times it's a little more hesitant, as if maybe I could be Canadian or German, or maybe a "blonde" Tica (wishfull thinking). But without a doubt, every person I meet here asks me some version of this question. 

My first answer is always, "From the US, from Texas!" and sometimes that's enough. Other times it's the long version "Well, I'm from Texas, Austin actually, but I go to school in Washington, DC. I'm here for six months with an exchange program, so right now I live in San Rafael and go to UNA". That's usually a little confusing for them, and honestly for me too, especially in Spanish. 

But this all got me thinking, as someone who has moved around a lot in the past 21 years, where am I really from? I mean, I have had 12 different bedrooms, all of which were "my home" at the time, and which I still remember fondly and call my own. At the moment, I have roots in three different cities, all of which I love and feel at home in. That kind of feeling isn't summed up in an answer as simple as "I'm from Texas". 

And really, when I think about it, each place had an effect on me, something different to teach me, something to add to my life...

Dallas, I can't speak much for, since I was two when we left, but it did ensure that I knew from the very beginning that I was a Texan, and that that would always be home and where my family was. Japan doesn't really merit much of an influence either, since I was only there for about 2 months, however it was there that I made my first friend who didn't speak my language. 

Singapore, taught me about acceptance, adventure, and the importance of good friends. At age 7 I knew about Ramadan, Diwali, and the Moon Cake festival.  It was normal for kids to come and go from school, to live in every part of the world, and to speak other languages.  It taught me that the world was huge, and diverse, but that it was also accessible and open for me to explore. I also learned that family can be people you're not related to by blood. Sometimes friendships can be so strong and survive so much that they become your support structure, and really, if you can find this community, you'll always have a home. 

Connecticut, whether the place or the timing in my life (4th grade girls are pretty tough everywhere), taught me about defining myself. I spent a lot of time learning to discern what was and what wasn't something I was, supported, or agreed with, and what I wanted to be like. I also learned how other people saw me, what it meant to "fit in", and whether or not that was important to me. But, this was also where I started to learn about the importance of imagination and creativity, after all, you don't really need to think "outside of the box" until you've learned how to create one for yourself. To this day, "Appleseed Farms", "Beach House" and "Dogsled" are some of my favorite memories with my brothers, and those games really gave my 9-year-old self a chance to imagine what the world and my future were going to be like. 

Then there's Austin. With about 10 years of my life, Austin holds the prize for greatest influence, and the most variety of influences in one place. Here is where I learned what it means to be a family, and how to take care of others. Texas tradition taught me the importance of loyalty, pride in yourself, being polite, and not compromising who you are. Westlake taught me how to be a leader, how to succeed in heavy competition, and that the only real way to survive a cut-throat environment is to find a group of people to help carry you through. Austin taught me how to be a little "out there", and that different can be good,  and that individuality is important and should be valued. All pretty important lessons for a teenager. 

DC, an animal all to itself, hectic and powerful, has trained me how to fight for something I believe in with all my strength. Everyone who goes to DC is passionate about something, and willing to dedicate their lives to it. Working and learning in this environment gave me the confidence and skills to actually get things done in the world, which is a pretty wonderful feeling, but it also showed me that all that fighting can be exhausting and alienating, and while I know I'll always have a strong social justice streak, there may be other things in life that are also important. 

And now Costa Rica, the laid-back, pure opposite of ambition-driven DC, is teaching me everyday how to enjoy the journey and to let life happen. Sometimes you just have to relax and enjoy the experience instead of planning and controlling. When I get just the littlest bit stressed, over a project, or a trip, or something else, without a doubt someone tells me "Tranquila!" (litterally, "be tranquil", but used more like "don't worry about it") and I realize, that my stress and worry are not worth it, that my time here is too precious to waste it on that. Maybe that's another lesson, appreciating what you have and savoring every moment, because you know it's not going to last forever, and finding beauty, community, and joy in little, everyday experiences. I cannot count the times I have thought to myself "Of course I'm (fill in the blank...playing music on a beach at sunset, having a conversation about "typical Americans" with two French education majors (in Spanish), singing one of the few Spanish songs I know on a bus with a group of people I love being around, trying to convince my 4th grade student that it is not a good idea for her 12-year-old brother to be my boyfriend, etc., etc.). These experiences have been full and wonderful and rich, and I had nothing to do with making them happen, I just accepted where I was and what was happening instead of trying to control every detail, and they turned out better than I could have imagined them. 

So, here I am...12 bedrooms, 3 continents, 7 cities, 5 languages attempted, (only 2 successfully), a city girl, who likes being outside, music, bright colors, traveling, mexican food and sundresses. Maybe if you really want to know where I'm from, you should get to know me, because where I've lived has made me who I am, and right now, I'm really happy with who that person is, where she's been, and where she's going.