Another semester...

Sarah: Our students arrived a little over a week ago and we have had a good time getting to know them and seeing them adjust to their semester abroad experience. There are 5 students right now who will stay for the entire 16 weeks, and another 3 that will come down partway through and stay for about 9 weeks. We had a full day of orientation last week before their classes began on Tuesday. We are in full swing now, and they have Spanish classes every day, they are working on developing their research projects that they’ll work on the entire semester, and they have been going through some readings for an Applied Cultural Integration class. On top of that, all of them have at least one independent class from SNU to work on throughout the semester.

To get the students out of their comfort zone and get them interacting with the community, we have set each one of them up with a family here in the valley. They’ll eat dinner with their family a couple times a month, and conduct a series of interviews with them for a class that allows them to get to know that family on a personal level.

This past weekend we took the students into San Jose to familiarize them with the city. One of the highlights was going to a church service all in Spanish. The worship was led by our friend Alex Grant, a former staff member of LASP, who is a very dynamic Afro-Costa Rican and had a lot of fun dancing around and singing upbeat songs.

It has been a lot of fun to have the students around. Even though they are busy with classes and work, we still find plenty of time to play games in the evenings!

These pictures are of the completed newly-painted bodega (kitchen) and our library/common room with new furniture. All of these were taken before the students arrived, so it looks nice and new and fresh. :)