Harker Goes To Costa Rica 2018

When I first exited the airport of San José, I joined my classmates in complaining about the humidity and heat. I was excited for the trip, but I was expecting a different scene as I exited the airport of Costa Rica, not the same cars from the USA rushing to grab a spot to pick up a loved one. I shrugged the thought away, thinking that tomorrow we would see more of the beautiful Costa Rica, and we did! The next couple of days, we walked around Grecia. We visited a church, or in Spanish, una Iglesia. It is called la Iglesia de la Virgen de la Merced. This church is special because it was built purely of metal. The only non-metal parts of the church are the windows. The windows are decorated with stained glass illustrating beautiful pictures covered in intricate designs. After exiting the church, our tour guide Minor told us that the entire town is connected by streets (that go north to south) and avenues (that go east to west). The streets and avenues have names, however, most ever...

Thursday, August 9, 2018 Today was a very memorable second to last day in Costa Rica. Today we visited Sarchi, famous for its painted oxcart wheels. When we arrived at our first destination, we took an oxcart wheel painting class. We received a blank wheel and we used different paint colors to copy a certain design. In the end, the three best painters would receive authentic miniature oxcart wheels. In first place came Ally and in second and third were Emily and Gloria, respectively. After our painting experience, many of us purchased various items at the gift store. These included miniature oxcarts, butterflies, and clay birds to serve as mementos of our adventure. Afterwards we drove by a park containing the world’s biggest oxcart on display. The oxcart’s design contains intricate patterns and is very colorful. We also passed by the chu rch of Sarchi, a turquoise structure with many different depictions of angelic figures. Next we went to Sarchi’s oxcart factor...

Wednesday, August 8, 2018 Today we participated in a dance class. Our instructor, Crystal, taught us 3 different styles of dance including meringue, salsa, and bachata. To start of the class we did a warmup. In the ten minute warmup we exercised every part of our body from head to toe. Next we learned the basics of meringue which originated from the Dominican Republic. This style of dance has two beats. In this dance you are not supposed to lift your heels of the ground or bend both your knees at the same time. We practiced this dance with a partner. The next style of dance we learned was salsa which originated from Mexico. This type of dance has eight beats but the fourth and eighth are pauses. The final dance we learned was bachata which originated from the Dominican Republic. This dance has four beats. Overall, many students enjoyed the class and thought it was high energy and a lot of fun. Written by Anishka Raina A video can be found in the Google folder gi...

Wednesday, August 8, 208 Nuevo Milenio 10th Graders Heads Up Today was our second visit to Nuevo Milenio. It is a private school in Grecia. In our first visit last week, the students there helped us improve our Spanish by playing games such as Charades in Spanish. This week, we played many games with them to practice their English. The students were warm and friendly when we walked in. As we arrived in Nuevo Milenio, we divided ourselves into smaller groups and introduced ourselves. First, we played games with the tenth graders. In my group, we played a game called Atlas. In Atlas, you start with the word Atlas and the next person names a place that starts with the last letter of the previous word. Other groups played games such as Charades, Heads Up, and Never Have I Ever. Throughout the morning, we were able to switch groups and interact with many kids. Then, we took a recess where we played a game of volleyball with the Nuevo Milenio kids. Many of us were not good a...

Tuesday, August 7, 2018 After an early breakfast at 6:30, we boarded the bus and headed to La Carpio once again. We stopped at one of the main buildings of the Humanitarian Foundation before heading to a smaller center, a daycare whose walls were covered in beautiful murals painted in countless different colors. Gloria, the head of the daycare, received us warmly and told us a little bit about her and the center. She runs the place all by herself and prepares lesson plans for every week and makes different snacks for the children every day. The kids began to arrive at 9:30, when the daycare opens, and left at 11:30, when the daycare closes. However, Gloria always stays until around 1:00 to clean and prepare activities for the following day. She also proudly presented to us graduation pictures of kids who were going to a different center to continue their education this year. Then, we began to play with the kids. Some children ran to the art station, others to play with d...

Every weekday afternoon, we spend three and a half hours studying in Academia Centroamerica de Español (ACCE). Its proximity to the villas make it easily accessible from almost any location in the city by foot. The first level of the building is a restaurant open to the public, while the basement is a movie theater in which we watch movies in Spanish to improve comprehension, and the upper level holds classrooms. Although this does take up most of our afternoons, it is a very relaxed learning environment and adds a uniformity to our days. Our first visit to the school began with a brief overview of the trip’s itinerary and a description of the diagnostic exam which was given to separate students into the small groups of two or four in which they would feel most comfortable. This exam consisted of a written test, which was a straightforward examination which determined the extent of students’ knowledge of grammar; this was followed by one on one “interviews” to test ...

Upon arriving in Costa Rica, after scarfing down a much anticipated dinner, our group arrived in a quiet and secluded haven: our casitas. Multiple houses are separated from the street by a large and sometimes faulty iron gate that keeps trying to close. Our little houses are situated on the border of a large lush green grass field, dotted with various fruit trees and plants that could never be seen in California. Each casita has four beds separated in two rooms, a bathroom, a couch, tv, and a generally unused kitchen area. Marlisa helps us tidy the rooms, change the towels, and look after the casitas when we leave for our daily excursions. Every morning after waking up, the group convenes at breakfast in a pavilion at the end of the field they call el rancho , always prepared by Sra. Lavina. Ranging from cereal to gallo pinto and always served with a variety of fruit and tropical juices, she always fills us up first thing in the morning in preparation for the eventful day ah...

Sunday, August 5, 2018         Today we visited Manuel Antonio National Park in Costa Rica, hiked through the forest, and swam in the beach.        Firstly, the forest: the humidity amplified the sun’s glaring heat, but the foliage around the trail blocked out most of the rays. We were surprised by how dense the trees and plants were to either side of the trail, and while we were hiking, we also passed by many animals. First, we saw various monkeys at the start of the trail - howler and white-faced. They climbed around the path, extremely close to the passerby, like they were posing for pictures, and would also leap from hanging telephone wires to nearby branches. Next, we saw a crab through Minor, our guide’s, telescope, and a sloth in the upper boughs of a tree. We went on to see two more sloths, one a two-toed sloth and the other a three-toed sloth. Other animals we encountered included a small, green, gecko-like snake with beady ...

August 3, 2018 Today, we participated in a cooking class taught by a woman named Sra. Lavinia who has been making typical Costa Rican breakfasts for us everyday at the casitas . We learned how to cook a traditional Costa Rican dish called “arroz con pollo,” which translates to rice and chicken. Vegetarians ate a variation of the dish with vegetables instead of the chicken. Students participated in prepping the ingredients by chopping the vegetables like the green beans, carrots, green onion, leek, bell pepper, white onion, broccoli, and chayote while some others shredded the chicken. We learned about a paste called achiote which was added to give the rice a yellow color without altering the taste of the food. Sra. Lavinia taught us that firmer vegetables like the green beans and carrots had to be put in first since they take longer to cook. The final dish was served with fried plantains which were a student favorite. Plantains are similar to bananas except they larger, less swee...

August 2, 2018    National Holiday of the Virgen of Los Angeles  Costa Rica's patron saint. La Carpio Just northeast of San Jose and Grecia is a small town called La Carpio . La Carpio is a peninsula 25 square kilometers in size, one river on each side that merge into a single river at the end of the town. Unfortunately, the end is where all the trash of neighboring cities goes. A single, paved road runs through the length of the town, parallel to the two rivers. The town's population is mostly consisted of Nicaraguan refugees in search of shelter and peace. In the small town is the Humanitarian Project with the Costa Rican Humanitarian Foundation . The project itself helps to educate the impoverished children of La Carpio . The director, Gail Nystrom, is the manager of seven different schools and has always dreamed of helping people in poverty. Ever since she was little, she wanted to join the Peace Corps and, in 1975, she was sent to an island just off the coa...

August 1st, 2018 Today we went to a forest reserve in Grecia , El Bosque del Niño .   We hiked to a waterfall and saw three different types of mushrooms. We also saw the skin of a dead beetle when shed turns a metallic color.  Unfortunately the ground was wet, muddy, and somewhat slippery. However, because the rain had fallen the previous night, many flowers had opened up and many plants had uncurled their leaves. Our guide, Minor, showed us a very dangerous pod which has many thorns.  In the inside of the pod there was a seed called el ojo de buey (ox eye). People used them to make necklaces to wear them as a good luck amulet.  We learned about a tree calles a "strangle fir." The seeds transmitted through animal scat. The trees grow downward and on top of other trees.  It is called strangle fir because it "strangles" other trees.  It actually wraps around the tress and cuts off their nutrients.  The waterfall was at the middle of the hike. ...

Tuesday, July 31, 2018 In Centro Formativo Nuevo Milenio , we played games that students from 8th and 9th grades prepared for us. We were divided into groups of 4. Each group went to a different station and every 20 minutes we would switch stations. We played games like charadas, teléfono descompuesto , and pasapalabra. In charadas , a student would give another person a word in Spanish and he/she would have to describe it till someone guessed it.  A similar game is pasapalabra . In pasapalabra, there are two teams and one person from each team is given an item that they have to describe in one word.  We played telephone in Spanish.  There was also a game called Pedro y Pablo where someone would "call" another person. One loses if he/she messes up. Centro Formativo Milenio is different from our school. Although the campus is about the same size, there are more grades because it is both a middle and high school.  Their classrooms are smaller yet they have more ...