un verano en español

Part about where I'll be staying (send me mail!):

Address in Costa Rica:

Zapote, Barrio Cordoba

De Autos Bohío 200 metros sur 200 este

Apto. El Cóordoba No. 21

San Jose, Costa Rica

 

Comments:   You will have your own fully furnished room in this 3-bedroom, 1-bath house. You will be living with Ana Cecilia Castro Valverde, she has a 22 year old son.  The house is walking distance to public transportation (1 block away) and shopping and to Universidad Veritas (7 blocks away).  Common areas in the house include a living room and kitchen. Facilities include a microwave, television, VCR and DVD player and internet.  A cleaning service is provided.

This will definitely be interesting, to say the least. I don't plan on telling my mother about the 22 yr old son until I'm there. The family has hosted before without any problems so I don't see a reason to worry her! Otherwise I just hope the family is nice, and that all the people I'll be working with can tolerate me, too. 12 days!! I still have to figure out my cell phone situation, get all the meds, pack clothes, and on top of everything pack to move into Easton Ave the day after I return! Hopefully everything goes smoothly, and I guess if it doesn't it will make for some interesting posts! Oh and YAY for internet in the house! (though I don't know how often I should really use it.) And if you think about it 8 hours of sleep plus 4 hours of either class or work a day leaves 12 hours for me to entertain myself every day! I plan on making a friend, possibly the boy across the hall? or someone in my Spanish class the first 3 weeks? and having them  explore  the city with me. I'll definitely be bringing back top-notch coffee (I'll have to get used to drinking the stuff myself). And lastly the school has some activities and I've looked into the Christian youth group and volunteering with underprivileged kids. Those are definitely ways I wouldn't mind spending my free time.

!!!!!!

I leave in exactly 2 weeks. I've made this blog for obvious reasons, so that everyone I love and care about can keep in touch with me! Between this and personal emails (at hgil@eden.rutgers.edu) the time will fly by. But definitely for the first few weeks I'm going to need tons of communication with everyone because I'm going to be majorly homesick! Well maybe not really for HOME but definitely for an English speaking environment. Right now I'm still waiting on my final housing arrangements but I know it will be within walking distance of Universidad Veritas where I'll be taking a 3 week intensive class (that I need to get Rutgers credit for) and then working for the rest of the summer hopefully doing busy work (right up my alley). Between this and the internship at the Rutgers study abroad office and Peace Corps I think I'll be in good shape to get into the Teacher's College @ Columbia University. It's so funny, Alexia definitely thinks I'm a total creepster right now stalking her because I decided to do a similar double major/minor (Cultural Anthro, Spanish/Womens and Gender Studies) and on top of that having Columbia as our top school, studying abroad multiple times, and considering volunteer service in the peace corps. Our ultimate career goals are different but we still seem to have a heckuva lot in common! One thing I have to do is try to absorb absolutely everything I can with this experience because my travels will ultimately form some kind of basis for my master's thesis (that one I'll hopefully be completely at Columbia!).

On another note, tomorrow is my going away party/ my mom's birthday celebration so most of my favorite people in the world are coming to bid me bon voyage!  I love that expression, but it  makes me think of  sailing away on a huge  boat in the days before planes, waving goodbye to all your loved ones on the dock. It would be freaking awesome if I was sailing to Costa Rica, but a direct flight out of Newark will have to suffice. Hopefully everything goes well tomorrow. We all pitched in and got my mom this super super cute Coach bag, but before we give it to her we're giving gag gifts so she'll be really surprised. Oh and I'm totally rambling because I haven't blogged in a while, but I have to say that I LOVED the Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (and I have to point out that Ben Barnes was NOT that hot, everyone just built him up to be. You want hotness? High King Peter's William Moseley is amazing!!) and the ending song was Regina Spektor's "The Call" which fit PERFECTLY at the end, and is my song of the moment. The lyrics apply to me leaving too - "I'll come back when you call me, no need to say goodbye." It's taking too long to upload the song so here's a youtube video with the lyrics - SO AMAZING, I love it.

So yes, there is no need to say goodbye because I will talk to everyone through this! I need to be updated on how horribly summer classes are going for everyone. Kris is going to be too busy working to keep up with this but Cait- I HAVE to hear all about your boys. Alexia- DEFINITELY need updates from Paris. Laur- I need to hear all of those random stories! You know, in your 3rd or 4th email to me you should copy&paste stories from your previous emails so I'll feel like I'm at home =P