In the summer of 2017 (the summer after my junior year), I finally accomplished something I had planned since freshman year: my study abroad trip. The flight to Costa Rica was my third time on a plane, and it was the longest flight of my life. The man at the check-in desk tried to ease my anxiety. “A flight to California would be longer,” he reassured, but it wasn’t the flight that made me nervous. It was the fact that in a matter of hours, I would be in a different country for the first time in my life … for seven weeks … for the first time in my life … with a group of people I didn’t know … for the first time in my life.
Slowly, my classmates trickled in. We were mostly girls. Only two boys would be joining us, along with our two professors. We introduced ourselves as we gathered at the gate and made awkward conversation while waiting to board. Then two plane movies later, we were in Costa Rica, fighting through a barrage of taxi drivers. Altogether, we boarded a charter bus and started the long journey across the country and up into the mountains to the modest university campus settled in the Monteverde Cloud Forest. On our way up, we stopped at a restaurant and ate lunch. I stammered my way through ordering a small meal in broken Spanish. It didn’t feel like a great start.
When we arrived on campus, we divided up into roommates, ditched our luggage in our cabins, and walked around the campus, getting accustomed to our new home for the next seven weeks. I walked around the campus with my future classmates and saw beautiful foliage and wildlife. Within minutes we were introduced to a few of the creatures that coexist with the campus: the fearless coati, the distant sounds of capuchins, the humble agoutis, and of course, Costa Rica is home to its fair share of large insects.
For dinner, we ate beans and rice. Some of my friends had visited the Costa Rica campus before, and they advised me to acclimate to eating beans and rice for every meal. I did not, but I probably returned to the United States in the best shape of my life. At times, being in Costa Rica felt like an extreme diet and exercise routine.
Our cabins didn’t have WIFI, so I planned my binge-watching ahead of time. I found out about the Netflix download feature and downloaded a random assortment of shows. That night, I learned that since I was in Costa Rica, I would be watching Costa Rican Netflix, which featured the Nickelodeon show Victorious, but only in Spanish and without subtitles, meaning I spent some sleepless nights practicing my listening skills. Just so you know, Victorious in Spanish is still funny.
My first night in Costa Rica was uncomfortably quiet, and falling asleep proved to be a difficult task. I could hear the forest breathing, mere feet away from me, and I was uncertain. This was just day one. How was I going to make it to Day 49? How would I adjust? I’m so picky and awkward and easy to discomfort. Surely, I would lose my mind. Maybe I did towards the end, but that’s a story for a different day. This story is about my first day, and as that day ended, I was beginning to feel a little nervous about the days to come.
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