A electrifying and educational trip that I took the summer before my senior year of high school was to Heredia and Monteverde, Costa Rica where I lived for a month with host families and attended a spanish language school for five hours a day. Immersion is the only way to effectively learn a language and I had the best time with my host family and international friends that were also at the language school. Shoutout to my mother for forever installing my love a travel and sending me out in the world to independently explore, knowing that I would come back a better version of myself! What an amazing role model I have.

Part One: San Jose and Heredia

The main reason that I went to Costa Rica was to improve my spanish skills, so I chose to study through the CPI program which has three locations throughout Costa Rica. I chose to spend two weeks in Heredia, a cute suburb out of San Jose and two weeks in Monteverde, the cloud forest. I lived with host families both time and that experience has its pros and cons…but overall I really enjoyed the time I got to spend with them. Plus I got some of the best food…can’t beat that! I loved the spanish school I attended…I was in a class with only one other guy who was my age and the personal instruction was really on point. In Heredia, we went to the local theatre, explored the city, took salsa and cooking lessons and spent a lot of time eating ice cream! Everyone  was from around the world and we all made friends super fast. My host families house was about a 20 minute bus ride from the school and they picked me up everyday which was super sweet.

Part Two: Monteverde Adrenaline Rush

A highlight of living in Monteverde besides the amazing biodiversity is the plethora of actives to get your heart racing and blood pumping! There is an amazing hipline that we did during some fairly majestic cloud coverage. I also got the chance to repel down a series of waterfalls…with the last one being over 100 ft down into a lake. It was amazing and an experience I certainly will never forget!

Part Three: Monteverde Exploring

When we weren’t in class, studying spanish, spending time with our host families or jumping off waterfalls, we spent a lot of time just hanging out in Monteverde at local coffee shops, at friends apartments drinking Imperial, going to the local discos and drinking all that Tang! It’s wonderful how easy it is to make friends no matter where you are, even if we are all coming and going at different times. And the best part is that many of still stay in touch years later and have reunited whenever we are in the same town!

What a trip…can’t wait to go back to Costa Rica, visit my sweet host families, eat all that fattening food and hopefully spend a month surfing on the coast!

Lots of Love.

-Kaila