Last Day!

I honestly can´t believe it´s already been an entire month already! Packing up my bag this morning was so hard because I feel like I have acquired a new home in Costa Rica: and my host mom has already made it clear that I´m welcome to come back anytime I want. Since we´re staying at the airport hotel tonight, last night was the final night with our families. My host sister and I stayed up talking and laughing because we both dreaded wasting our final time together- until at 1 am we got so tired that we crashed! It´s amazing how close we´ve gotten within these last weeks, and it´s going to be really sad to go.

On a happier note, we all went rummaging through downtown San Jose yesterday at the Market and Museum, picking up last minute gifts and souvenirs for our families. KOB got the nickname of the ´tourist´, because our teacher said that he was a sucker for a good deal. To speak for the girls, our weakness was the jewellery, of course. Between beads to coins to leather, the market had it all. For me, I bought myself a bottle of the signature ´Salsa Lizano´sauce so that I can cook some Costa Rican cuisine for my family when I get back. As for the boys, I´m pretty sure they just went for anything that had the signature phrase ¨Pura Vida¨ on it, but as the tour guide at the rainforest said, ¨If you know the phrase ´Pura Vida´ you pretty much know half the Spanish in Costa Rica¨. Speaking of Spanish, I think we were all amazed yesterday at how well we could communicate- really showing us how much we´ve learned in these past weeks.

All in all, I´ve had a fantastic, priceless and unforgettable experience on this trip. I´ve met new people, discovered a new culture, perfected my Spanish and acquired a new home in the (what I now see as short) span of four weeks. It´s sad to go, but I´ve made about twenty or more new facebook friends that I can keep in touch with while I´m away...and I hope that I´ll be able to plan another trip shortly along the road.

-Leah