Between Professor Ramirez’s presentation and the dance lessons we attended, today was a day full of learning. Professor Ramirez began by teaching us about the local and national culture of Heredia and Costa Rica, respectively. Much to my pleasure, she taught us in a very unusual way. Similar to the way elementary students are taught, Professor Ramirez taught both the history of the Ticos and about the nature of the country through short stories. In doing this, I felt that she made the material much easier to learn since it became very interactive for the whole class. Furthering this sense of interactivity, she also asked us to quickly learn some of the common games in the country before presenting the games to the class and then testing our memory of the games through a game of bingo later in the lecture. In doing this, I felt she made the information stick in our memory since we had to recall the information not only for our presentation to the class, but also for bingo. After learning about the culture and some of the history of the Costa Rica, we actually got to work in groups to paint our own Oxcarts, which are somewhat like murals but on the sides of carriages instead of buildings. All in all the interactivity of the lectures not only made the lecture go by very quickly, but it also allowed me to get a fuller appreciation of the differences between our cultures, teaching methods, and art forms and the Tico’s in a much more memorable way.

Later in the afternoon we moved on to one of the things I was looking forward to most coming into this trip: dance lessons. For about an hour we learned the basic moves of a couple Spanish dances, mainly the salsa. Although the dance lessons quickly turned into an impromptu workout, I loved every second of it and look forward to showing my moves off back in the states. Between Professor Teeter and our instructor, I am not sure who was more energetic, but with both of them demonstrating and dancing along with us, the room was filled with joy and energy, two things that kept everyone laughing and enjoying the lesson. To this point, the dance lessons were by far the best experience I have had!