DAY 1

Leaving everyone I loved was the most difficult thing I had to do in my life. I mean 4 months at a time does not seem very, but to me it seems like forever. August 18^th was definitely the day that I will never forget. It will be hard to forget how nervous I was when I stepped off the plane in San Jose Costa Rica at 1:35pm that day. This was my 1^st time flying, my first time going to a different country, my 1^st time losing my luggage (what were the odds I said), and my 1^st time being around people where I didn’t know one person and didn’t understand anything that was said. How scary was that?? Well honestly in my opinion, everything went smooth! I didn’t panic when I found out my luggage wasn’t there. I had a girl who has studied abroad before stick by my side for a little who talked me through some things and gave me important information. I guess I got lucky. I didn’t panic when I didn’t know what the parents were saying at dinner, but I must admit the panicking came a little later. Well, not really panicking, but a state of being lonely came that evening. I was told that we didn’t have internet at the time where I was staying, and it wasn’t like I could easily pick up the phone to call home and talk for hours about what has happened so far. So I didn’t have luggage, no internet, no form of real communication, and no true understanding of the parents. Well guess what, I cried! For a whole 5minutes I cried my eyes out, but the rest of the evening I was teary eyed and went to sleep. (lol) Before I came I was warned of culture shock. I think that was my biggest portion of culture shock because everything else came to me ok. I didn’t panic when I saw how different things were here. The things I thought about on the taxi ride home was wow, things are so condensed here. Where are the road signs? Where are the stop lights/stop signs? Where are all the stores? Wow, people drive crazy here. The air is really dirty, and WOW there is a lot of construction. So many things going through my head, but I kept my cool. This was only the 1^st ten minutes into a new country so I had to be patient and not be so judgmental about things. I had to be open-minded and not crawl into a corner and hide because I was not use to these things. This was my 1^st day and you might think how did I do it. Well simple, because there was no turning back after getting on the plane in Charlotte NC. Hahaha.. I got on the plane saying I’m actually going to do this and got off the plane saying I’m here and Costa Rica bound! No turning back!!!