Aero: Brianna Cardina – Costa Rica 2016 – City Life

… Life outside of the house was quite different than what I experienced at home in the US. I’ll start with talking about – quite literally – the outside of the house. There was no front yard or back yard on ours, and many of the others. The house was small, and only two floors […]

Aero: Brianna Cardina – Costa Rica 2016 – Life at Home

… Life at home was the same, yet different. We all ate food together, chatted with each other about our days, and went to bed at decent times. But we had new foods, a language barrier, and an earlier bed time. … … In the mornings, we were waken up at 6 AM or earlier… […]

Aero: Brianna Cardina – Costa Rica 2016 – Learning the Language

… English is my first language. In middle school and high school I took French. I learned how to speak Japanese during my year abroad. But I barely knew Spanish going in to this exchange. Before our travel to Costa Rica, I took Spanish 101 – That’s where I learned hellos and goodbyes, numbers, days […]

Aero: Brianna Jackson – Costa Rica 2016 – Epilogue

… What can I say that I haven’t already? Never in a million years would I have believed that I would have been given the opportunity to go to another county. Certain expectations were met, and other expectations were completely shattered. I was nervous about my host family, and while we didn’t eat a meal […]

Aero: Brianna Jackson – Costa Rica 2016 – Travel

… Traveling was one part of this cultural experience that I wasn’t worried about. Getting into the country wasn’t as bad as I thought it would have been. If anything, it was easy. Spending roughly five hours on a plane wasn’t pleasant, but it was bearable. Arriving in country was easy and simple as well. […]

Aero: Brianna Jackson – Costa Rica 2016 – Biodiversity

… Biodiversity in a wider scope refers to the variety of life on the entire planet. Costa Rica, and Nicaragua are certainly rich in their biodiversity. They both have a variety of plants and animal life that were extremely protected by the government. During the trip we visited volcanoes, lagoons, a wildlife habitat, mud pots, […]

Aero: Brianna Jackson – Costa Rica 2016 – Food and Dining

… The food and dining in Costa Rica was one of the best aspects of the cultural experience. Breakfast and dinner was usually shared with my fellow classmates at our host family home, and unfortunately, our host family members never ate with us, instead making sure that we were all settled and had enough to […]

Aero: Brianna Jackson – Costa Rica 2016 – City Life

… The city of Alajuela was where we were most of our time, and it was nothing like I expected. I was expecting it to look like New York City, or something similar, with big skyscraper buildings, all fancy and gleaming. What I was introduced to however was a small city that was very welcoming, […]

Aero: Brianna Jackson – Costa Rica 2016 – Life at Home

… Living with a host family in Costa Rica was one of my biggest concerns. I was worried about living with complete strangers, who didn’t speak English, in a foreign country that I had never been to. I didn’t want to make the wrong impression, doing something that would offend them, and so on. I […]

Aero: Brianna Jackson – Costa Rica 2016 – Learning the Language

… Living in a country for two weeks, where the language is not one that I am fluent in, was certainly a culture shock. It was very overwhelming at first, and very hard at times to try and communicate with the people of Costa Rica. The most difficult experience concerning the language had to be […]