A little more than a year ago, a bunch of girls on my hall were freaking out about the deadline for study abroad applications being so close. There was a lot of frantic running back and forth asking for references and checking to see if essays sounded dumb. I looked at this with the vague idea in my head that maybe I should sign up too - you know, just to see if I got in. I probably wouldn't get an answer back for months anyway. So I filled out the application to spend Spring 2014 at the Costa Rica Center in (get this) Costa Rica.
About two days later, I got an email from Lindy Scott*, director of the Center, saying that I had been accepted and could make a deposit at such and such site. Whoah! A deposit? I was still in the fuzzy land of maybe-at-some-point-I'll-get-an-interview and now I was admitted just like that.
I don't remember the rest of that day. I may have been in shock.
Fast-forward about 13 months and I will be arriving in San Juan in three days, 14 hours, and a number of minutes that I don't have the energy to calculate. Getting ready to study abroad has been one of the most stressful things I have ever done. (Before you judge me, fit everything that you will need for the next five months in one 50 pound suitcase. Then we'll talk). But now it's so close all I have to worry about is the flight(s).
In case you don't know, I'll give you some background about this program. Whitworth has a campus in Costa Rica where Whitworth professors teach Whitworth classes for Whitworth tuition. During the program, the students stay with spanish-speaking host families in the near-by city and take a bus up the mountain to the Center every day for classes. Each of us will have an internship with a local business. We will also be taking two short forays into other countries: a week in Cuba (fingers crossed, sometimes they randomly decide not to let students in for a while), and a week in Nicaragua. There are 21 (ish) students going on the trip this semester, and we will be led by three program assistants who are Whitworth grads (Lauren Davies, I am coming for you!). The whole thing is very exciting. So if anyone wants to make a montage of my life and set it to the song "Down in the Valley" by the Head and the Heart, I would probably think that was schaweet.
God has blessed me with this opportunity to immerse myself in the culture of another country, and I couldn't be more excited! Please keep me in your prayers over the next months, and if you need to contact me use Facebook or email because I don't know how much a phone call from Costa Rica costs but I'm guessing it's a lot.
*Side note: I originally thought Lindy was a woman, and I definitely sent him an email that began "Dear Mrs. Scott" at some point. Sorry, Lindy.
