Reflection Time

As of right no my emotions are mixed. I have set up a lifestyle here in Costa Rica and I am content here but at the same time I am excited to go back home. Over the last couple of weeks I have become more comfortable with the country and therefore I don’t feel as though I have changed that much. However, I have a feeling by the time I adjust back home I will look in the mirror and see a different version of myself. The only thing I can say I have noticed more in myself is independence. Since coming here, in my free time if I need to get something or want to go to the pool I have to look up where to go, I have to find which buses I may or may not need to take and so forth. I have found that now I have the skills I need to do these things whereas before I was always just calling my dad and asking for what I need instead of getting it myself. I have found here I am no longer dependent on the internet (I realize there is a bit of irony in the fact I am writing a blog entry for the Internet). The Internet is not readily available and I don’t have the ability to simply look up the answers on my phone here. Although it is not necessarily considered a new idea to write homework on paper instead of typing it, to my generation it is. In Costa Rica I have learned to rely on pen and paper and less on my computer to do school work, which is something I had not done until this trip. Something I would do differently here would be to have explored more in my free time. I have to admit there were moments where I had to choose between sleep or going for a walk around town and I chose the former. I wish I had spent more time seeing all that Heredia has to offer. Also, I wish I spent more time getting to know my host mother. Although we had some great conversations at dinner and she took me to go pick fruit one morning before school, I wish I spent more time understanding my host mother and her life. In the end, I am glad I have gone on this trip even though I cannot feel all the ways it has changed me, I do know they are there.