Aero: Kyle Hubble – Costa Rica 2013 – My Expectations

Costa Rica 2013: My Expectations

Aero: Kyle Hubble – Costa Rica 2013 – My Expectations

Kyle Hubble

Where do I begin? I suppose I should note that I have never, not once, been outside of the country any further than across the border to Canada.  So this being my first trip outside the country requiring a passport I will say that I am excited, very excited. In all honesty I don’t know what to expect when I arrive in Costa Rica and I am reluctant to write this reflection simply because I’m uncomfortable making presumptions about people I have not met.

I do know that I will be challenged during this trip in a number of different ways. Let’s start with the obvious. I’m going to be in a place where Spanish, not English, is spoken, all the time. My biggest hope is that I survive the massive blow of language shock awaiting me when I get of the plane. I really must remember to listen. Even though I’ve had three semesters of Spanish courses I’m still nervous about my skills regarding listening and speaking Spanish, but then again this is why I’m going.

I do expect for there to be some similarities between my culture and that of Costa Rica’s, but I’m really looking for the differences. Specifically, I want to see how those differences are valued and impact their culture. In my course of learning a different language I’ve learned that one culture can describe an idea or thought that another cannot. It’s these different ideas I’m hoping to encounter and hopefully be aware enough to notice them. I am also looking forward to meeting new people and making new friends, both in the people we meet from Costa Rica and the other students in the group.

I’m a math person at heart so I’d like to wrap up my reflection with a concept from Geometry. If you consider a triangular prism you would have a shape formed by three rectangular sides and two triangular bases. However if you only look at one side straight on you’d never be able to comprehend the whole form. In trying to identify a shape it’s important to consider all of its faces and the shape of each face. I believe that this experience will be looking at a different face of the world and it must be considered to come close to figuring out the form of our world.

– Kyle Hubble

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