6 weeks In :)

  I bet you are wondering what happened leading up to 6 weeks, well I’m going to tell you. You learned about my 1^st day, my 1^st week, and some of the culture differences now I’m going to tell you about the different things I’ve done here besides go to school to learn Spanish. Spanish is all around me 24/7, so I don’t necessarily have to go to school to learn the language. I have been many places where I’ve had to come in contact with someone who speaks Spanish, for an example, the 1^st real weekend in Costa Rica, the family and I went to Puntarenes Beach. This is a beach on the Pacific side and it is so beautiful. A beach in Costa Rica is totally different than in the States. Some of the beaches in Costa Rica are like having a park on the side of the ocean. There are stand of food and places to just sit and relax if you are not in the ocean. My 1^st contact with a Tico outside my family and school was here when I had to order something I wanted to eat and man was that hard. I also got to meet a part of my Host Dad’s family and see how differently they live along with the traditional things that are done in Costa Rica. Another place I visited within the 1^st 6 weeks was with my program to Volcano Poas and a real coffee plantation. Volcano Poas is one of the few active volcanoes in Costa Rica and I was at the tip top of it. (Check out some of the pictures). The coffee plantation was huge and very GREEN! The coffee plantation of “Café Brit” is famous because it’s the best coffee due to the soil of the volcanoes that surrounds it. Our visit there was a lot of fun because our Tico tour guides were very funny. They knew how to keep our attention even though they were only talking about coffee. The 3^rd place I’ve visited was a dance club in Costa Rica. You might be saying “huh?” but trust me it is very different. As Americans in a different country, you have to be aware of culture differences such as for females never accept a drink from a male because that means you are accepting him and you are willing to go with him if he asks. (Not in all cases, but most). The best part about this experience was getting to meet new people. Not all the experiences were the best, but it forced me to step out my comfort zone and try to speak Spanish. Another place I visited within the 5^th week of being here was a beach on the Caribbean side.(YES the Caribbean!) It was beautiful. Being in a different country, one of the few things people are scared to do is travel hours away without knowing much about the place, well I did it. A group of us stepped out of our comfort zone and traveled 5hours away to Cauhita. There we experienced a total different style of living. It was very different there because the cost of living is very poor. There weren’t many places to see besides the beautiful beaches. It made us cherish more of the things we have because there it wasn’t much, not even compared to where I actually live in Costa Rica. There in Cauhita, we took a tour through one of the national parks there and saw monkeys, sloth’s, different types of birds, and a lot of different insects. I can say enough how beautiful it is to travel and see things you have never seen before. Within the first six weeks, it has been such a life changing experience. It is very overwhelming because you are trying to learn a new language, but at the same time you don’t want to overload yourself with stress of trying to learn it. I learned that by just going out and doing things instead of locking myself in a box because I’m scared. The best way to learn is to go out and get into things, talking to people even when you don’t know what you are saying and volunteering. Speaking of volunteering, I am currently now volunteering to assist a Spanish teacher teach English. You may be thinking how am I going to learn Spanish if I’m teaching English, well simple, I help them learn English and they help me with Spanish. It is great trade off. I couldn’t ask for anything better. The first 6 weeks here have been amazing. Yes, I miss my family and friends a lot, but that’s when I go out and do things so that I won’t get home sick. The best way to deal with home sickness is to occupy yourself. In the states, I use to sit at home and complain of how there was nothing ever to do and coming here doing the things I could simply do at home was a shocker to me. It amazes me how being in a different country changes your outlook on things. ONLY BEING HERE FOR 6 weeks!

Culture Differences Part One: Costa Rica and United States

This is a mural of God and pictures of events in the Bible.

Let me start this off by saying if you ever study abroad, do not go into another country comparing/contrasting and expressing your views to the people of that culture. The best thing to do is to take in the new experience and just go with the flow. There are things that you are not going to expect when entering another country. Nothing will ever be the exact same as being home, but the experience allows you to cherish the things we do not usually appreciate as much. For an example, hot water! Yes, hot water. Here, people preserve their hot water. You have to turn a switch on to receive hot water, and then for the first 15minutes it is not so hot, it is lute warm. So imagine taking a shower early in the mornings. It is not the best, but hey, I have to do it. You learned of one culture difference I came across being in this country and that was the kiss on the cheek for greetings of female-to-female and male to female. As the same in the US, the males greet each other with a handshake. Another big thing I have seen while being here was the way males recognize a nice looking woman. No matter where you are or what you are doing, if a male notices you, they are sure to let you know. For an example (and the most popular one), a female walks the side walk and a male spots her walking as he rides by, she will either get honked at or whistled at. To this day, it is still very uncomfortable because I am definitely not use to that, but the females here are and they continue with what they were doing. Another significant difference is personal space. It does not exist! In the U.S, if someone invades your personal space, it becomes a bit of a problem according to the situation or it makes you very uncomfortable. I have definitely experienced this multiple times while I have been here. First experience; after class, I decided to go home so I waited a little while for a bus. One finally arrives and it is empty. I pay to pass and I sit and wait for a few others to get on. Let me remind you the bus was totally empty, BUT one woman decided that she wanted to skip every open seat and sit right beside me. Definitely shocked me!! Like seriously, all the open seats she passed, but she sat next to me??? Until this day, I still do not understand. Another experienced I faced was on Independence Day of Costa Rica. The streets were full with tons of people. When it was time for the parade, people were on top of people LITERALLY! It was definitely pass my comfort zone. The next thing I am going to talk about is a little funny, but it is true. There is a famous saying “Arrive on time, you are late, Arrive five minutes early you are on time.” Well for those who haven’t heard this, for an example, if you have a job interview at four and you arrive at four you are considered late, but if you arrive 5 minutes until four you are on time. Well guess what, that does not exist here! In this country, there is something called “Tico Time.” (Ticos are the name of the people here. Just like people from Mexico are called Mexicans.) Time does not exist here. If a friend from here tells you to meet him/her at 2pm, that could mean for them anywhere from 2:30 to 3:30 at the earliest before he/she arrives. SERIOULSY! Even my teacher is never on time for work. Class starts at 8, but because of “Tico Time,” sometimes it doesn’t start until 8:30 latest. Oh, let me mention that my class is 2 1/2 hours long and in between we take a break that is only suppose to be 10minutes and that ends up being 30minutes. It’s crazy I know! J . The next thing is somewhat funny as well. Anywhere you go, you will be judged or there will be stereotypes based upon where you are from. One thing as Americans entering this country, we are going to stand out tremendously and there for we have name, Gringo/Gringa. I’m sure you are like “what?” Well this only means white male/woman, blue eyed, typically blondish hair. Very stereotypical saying that I do not have two of those features, but in other ways people here will categorize you as that. For an example, you are spotted as a gringo/a if you talk really loud when the person you are talking to is right beside you. You are spotted as a gringo/a if you stumble across your sentence saying umm, I do not know, uhhh, how do you say, or you know what I mean. In addition, you are spotted as a gringo/a if you are running across the street hoping to not be hit by an oncoming car. I think that was the funniest thing a Tico told me that. Driving here is very different than in the U.S. Reason being is because pedestrians do not have the right away here. You are considered very fortunate to have a car in this country because most people cant’ afford one. It is also not common for a fairly young person to have a car. After talking with a Tico, I was told that most people below the age of 25 do not own a car, and he in fact is 23 and does not have a clue how to drive. Honestly, I do not blame him though. I would not want to drive here. People drive sooo crazy here. Stop signs to drivers here are yield signs, people pull out into oncoming traffic, and people are very impatient drivers. When I say impatient, I mean it because they honk their horns for everything. Example, there is a lot of construction taking place in this country and you would think people would understand if traffic is stopped for about 5mintes, but sitting in traffic all you hear are horns honking. It is so funny to me, but it is how life is here. Very fast pace and condensed. There is sooo much I can talk about, but this Blog is getting a little long and I applaud you if you have gotten this far in the reading. I will be sure to add more down the road. These are only some things I go through or see daily. Being here so far has been an eye-opener of how differently things vary from place to place and how we as people do not see it as normal because we are captivated in how we do things. I have been enjoying everything so far even when I have been uncomfortable in a situation. The biggest advice I would give someone at this point would be to just go for it and not be scared to mess up because along the way, someone is going to correct you. Stay tuned for more crazy things as I adventure in Costa Rica J



My Host Mom's Birthday. This is what a traditional cake will say



1st week, Adjusting to something totally different

So you learned about my 1st day, now I'm going to talk about my 1st week. The 1st couple of days were a little slow. I received my luggage the next evening around 6 and at that time I received Internet connection!! WOOHOO!! I was the most happiest girl ever!! I had things from home that comforted me a lot and I could call and email people! :) It was very comforting to be able to settle in my new home! Meeting the parents was very different. In the culture here, the greeting of females to females or males to females are always with a kiss on the cheek. That was very different for me. I didn't realize this was the norm here in Costa Rica until the daughters came home and did the same. In my household, and from what I've seen, the families are very family oriented. When food is served we eat as a family,or whoever is home at that time, we eat at the dinner table. We discuss any events or things that pop to our head that occurred during that day while eating. At home, for me, when dinner is served, we go our separate ways. Speaking of eating!!! Prior to coming here, I had this big fear of not liking the food, but was I wrong!!! The food here is more American than what people! I eat pork, chicken, french fries, salads, sandwiches, etc. Yes, there is a Costa Rican twist to everything, but the point of coming here was to adjust and try new things. I am satisfied highly with everything I'm given, and if I don't care for something, I just say no me gusta mucho (I don't like this a lot). :) The means of traveling here is mainly by bus or by walking. In order for me to get to school, I have to take the bus. Man was this scary for me. I've never taken a bus before and to me, compared to where I live, this city is HUGE! The father took me for my first bus ride and I have to admit, it's still hard getting use to. You have to pay attention to your surroundings at all times so that you know where to get off at. Luckily the dad was with me the 1st couple of days, but the 3rd day I was off to school on my own. After getting off my bus I have to walk a distance, and my 1st bus ride alone I thought I was lost.. YIKES!! I was forced to approach a stranger and ask for directions. Of course I had no idea what the girl said, but from her sign language I figured it out and found out I wasn't really lost, just couldn't remember where I was! Hahaha I made it to school on my own the 1st week riding the same bus to school and back home with no problems. Classes began on a Monday and beginning the class the teacher immediately got into speaking Spanish! WHOA! What was I getting myself into? After being into the class for about 30minutes, I relaxed a little and started realizing, "hey, I know more than I thought I did. This may not be so bad after all." For the first week, it was a little hard for me because I was surround by a lot of strange people and in another country. I was very slow at meeting people at first so I went home immediately after classes to study Spanish and more Spanish. Slowly, as days passed, I began to be more comfortable with people around me. Though I was starting to become comfortable with people, I was still not comfortable with my surroundings and exploring on my own as others were doing. Like I said before, I'm from a very small town and this place was huge to me. Big city with my poor communication skills didn't go well together so I spent my 1st week back and forth between home and school. Sounds pretty boring, but I learned more in each day than I would've learned in a semester at home and that part alone was exciting. The fun comes soon!

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!!!

WHY STUDY ABROAD??

Day before flight. Day before the biggest change of my life. Where do I begin? Well, lets start with the official "yes I'm going to study abroad." November 2009, I committed myself to what will make my life here on out. I never thought I would make such a decision. I mean, I have a family, why leave? Why? Well, this is why... to better myself, to get out of my comfort zone so that I can learn to face fears in my future, so that I can say I’ve done something a lot of people will never get the opportunity to do, so i can be different, so i can learn that there is life outside of me. Some say I’m crazy and some say that what I’m doing is pointless, but I say I’m committed to have a better life than most. One other thing I can say… I WAS SCARED. I’m going miles out of comfort zone and I had every right to be, but leaving out that zone was not my only fear. The fear was leaving behind loved ones and things in fear that it won’t be the same when I return. Lets think logically here, duh-things are never bound to remain the same, but I’m still faced this leave. Many thoughts were going through my head, so many words like what if I don’t fit in, what if I never pick up the language, what if, what if, what if? Urgggghhh. I think my ultimate fear was not being understood when in time of an emergency or getting lost. That was my biggest worry. Every one who has been tells me “don’t worry, you will be fine,” but seriously how can I not? I’ve never flew before and here I am hopping on a four hour flight AND going to a country where I don’t know the language. What is there not to freak out about? It’s funny when thought about, but I’m doing it. You only have one life to live, make the best of it and I plan on it. So here it was since November until now I’ve been anticipating the day that I take the hugest step of my life. It’s the night before my flight and I’m inspired to write down every experience, feeling, emotion, etc that happens starting now. Someone else will face what I face now and I want to be a living testimony. Did I mention I was nervous as crap?? Hahaha. I Could’t sleep with thought running through my mind. All summer I’ve been putting thoughts together. What should I bring? What will be my goals? What will I do when I come back? All these things are guaranteed to cross the mind. Question #1. What should I bring, answer: not everything could come Hahahaha. The day before my flight someone special, who has traveled abroad before, told me “bring anything that makes you at ease when stress levels rise” and that for me was my Mp3 player (music). The best advice I was given because I’m sure times like that will occur. Question #2. What are my goals, answer: LEARN!! Take everything learned and take with me in the future. Of course that’s not my only goal though. I want to change as a person mentally, emotionally, and physically. I want to adapt to a different culture and make their habits my own so that I can say change in lifestyle is possible. Question 3: What will I do when I come back? Answer: I DON’T KNOW!! There were sacrifices that came with this decision, no car, no phone, no job. Basically coming back with the same thing I had to leave with. Sacrifices must be made, and determination will have to become stronger when returning because starting over is a definite. This is a new chapter in my life, and coming back will be another, and becoming successful will be the ultimate!!

Who Am I?

Hello Friends,

My name is Ashley Nicole Tingle. I am currently a senior at Coker College in Hartsville, South Carolina. I am majoring in Psychology and planning to make Spanish my 2nd major. I am 21 years old and I have faced some very challenging things in my life making me the person I am today. I am very hardworking, ambitious, open minded, and an all around fun person. At home, I work and go to school full time. Things haven't always been easy for me. I've had to work ten times hard than the person beside and had to keep a smile on my face at the same time. My freshmen year of college I lost my scholarship due to a lot of problems at that time and ever since I've been struggling to get by in school, but here I am going to Costa Rica. How? Well entering Coker I declared my major in Physical Education and I can't say that was the best decision for me. I struggled for three years in that field until I decided to change my major. I changed my major last semester of my junior year. Yes, it sounds crazy, but believe it or not without studying abroad I would graduate on time, but I decided to extend my education a year and go for more instead of settling due to inspiration from my professors at school. Now I'm focusing on two majors and I'm striving for everything I can get. I never had things handed to me. I've always had to work for them, so here I am in Costa Rica and I'm working even harder! Me on my own, no help, no person guiding me along the way. JUST ME!! BUT, I'm happier than I''ve ever been! I honestly feel that this is the best decision I could have ever made in my life. How many people can say that they have done what I'm doing? Not many, but you can. :)