Our first official day in Costa Rica was a success! After staying awake for over 24 hours and a layover in Miami yesterday, we made it to Costa Rica safely! We were introduced to our host families, since we will be living in home stays. We spent the afternoon with them and had dinner, getting to know one another and share differences in our cultures and customs.
Today, we toured the city of Heredia, where we will be staying for the majority of our trip. We first began by taking the public bus to the public university where we learned about their schooling. Their school system differed from my expectations. I learned that the public university is free for students if they are able to pass the entry exam. In passing the exam, they secure a spot and their tuition becomes free. For students who do not pass the exam, they are able to attend private universities, however their tuition costs money. That differs drastically from the states, where we obviously pay to attend school. I thought this was interesting and a different way to approach the school systems.
After learning about the schools, we headed to the plaza and market. We were able to try a variety of different fruits and saw the beautiful church in the center of the plaza. We learned a little more about their culture, and how the city has many different parks as a form of exercise for people. It is a way for them to engage in activity and also be outside. Similar to that, their malls are also partially outside, allowing the restaurants to welcome the guests from outside and then the stores follow behind. The malls are an important place for people to gather and interact, as homes are not designed for hosting large groups. This differed from my original expectations as in the US our houses are designed to host holidays and other types of larger gatherings.
I find Costa Rica to be beautiful and I learn something new daily. My first impressions coming into this were different than my expectations. The neighborhoods and houses are very distinctive and very close together. People live in communities and almost all of their houses are protected by a gate. I knew prior to coming here that their directions were very different, but seeing it in person made it even more different and unique. There usually are not addresses to get from place to place, usually people explain places by a name of a store or restaurant. The street names are called “Calle” which refers to directions north and west and “Ayenda” which refers to east and west. Both are numbered, “Calle” refers to odd numbers and “Ayenda” refers to even numbers. This system is very different than I expected and continue to change my perspective of Costa Rica.
