By La' India S., a Teen Delegate participating in AmeriSpan's Coronado Independent Teen program

My first week in Costa Rica has been amazing! The school is smaller than I expected but beautiful. The surrounding scenery is full of trees and flowers. The teachers are nice and helpful. They have one goal and that is to teach us as much Spanish as they can and help us learn about Costa Rican culture as well as other Latin American cultures in today’s society. In class we review verbs, culture, and play games to help us remember and use what we have learned. Each night,  we receive homework, or “tarea”, that leads us into discussion for the next day and helps us with our conversation skills. My daily schedule starts by waking up at 6:30 am. I take a shower and get dressed and breakfast, or “el desayuno”, as we say here, is at 7:30 am. At 7:45 am, I walk to school and classes begin at 8:00 am and go until 11.40 am. After school, I walk home with friends. We usually go to the cafe close by or an ice cream shop called POPS. The ice cream is amazing! I always get the same thing, a vanilla caramel sundae with whipped cream and nuts on top.

My host family reminds me of my family back home. They are helpful and supportive. Here, I have one brother, two sisters and a father and mother. My two sisters are twins. They are playful and friendly. The whole family keeps me laughing. We also have a French poodle named “Poli”. For breakfast, we eat fresh fruit and bread with butter or cream cheese. For dinner, we have a variety of foods. My first day, we had Gallo Pinto for breakfast. Gallo pinto is a typical Costa Rican dish for breakfast or lunch. It consist of rice and beans with sour cream and a fried egg. It is very delicious. They also showed me around the town of Coronado. It is a small town but has lots of small shops, cafes and restaurants. Coronado is famous in Costa Rica for the church in center of the town.

This weekend, my classmates and I went to Puerto Viajo, Costa Rica. It is located on the East side of Costa Rica. It is also called Pura Vida and the Caribbean side. We stayed in cabins called “cabinas” and went to the beach and shopped. The beach was unbelievable. The water was crystal clear and there were coconut trees everywhere. Also, the food was very good. There were a lot of rice and beans and chicken and plantains. The people were very friendly and helpful. They had Jamaican colors and Bob Marley everywhere. The men had dreadlocks and dark skin. It felt like a whole different country. It was the ultimate vacation!

See all of La'India's blogs

Discover AmeriSpan's Coronado Independent Teen program

Join Garrett F. on his Ecuadorian quest with the Quito Junior Immersion program

Today is Friday and I have finished my first school week in Quito. Let me walk you through what the day is like for me here:

I wake up at 7:30 am and have breakfast courtesy of my host family. Breakfast isn’t always the same but it usually consists of fruit, toast and tea. Then at 8, my two friends and I walk to school. We can take the bus, which costs 25 cents, but our school is only a 15 minute walk away. On the way to school, I usually buy a water, which only costs 35 cents! School starts at 8:30 and for the first two hours of class, my teacher will usually go over vocabulary, verbs or other Spanish grammar. At 10:30, we have a half an hour break, during which I usually grab a pastry or some kind of snack from the school food stand. Then, for the second two hours of school, we do activities to practice what we learned earlier.

At 1 o´clock I have lunch with the rest of the teen program, along with Maria Paz and Jose Antonio, our program leaders. The lunch, which is made by the school's chef, is always something different yet wonderful tasting. We usually get a tasty little desert as well! After lunch, we do our program activity for the day. So far we've done things like volunteer at a children’s day care and take Salsa lessons. All of the activities have been fun, and I've also learned a lot about the city and its culture through them.

After we're done, we usually go back to our host families' houses, where we have dinner at 7 pm. Dinner is always delicious and enjoyable as we eat with the family. After dinner, we finish off the day watching a movie or playing cards. This week has been great and I’m looking forward to the trip to the cloud forest this weekend!

Hasta Luego,
Garrett

See all of Garrett F.'s blogs from Quito

Find out more about AmeriSpan's Quito Junior Immersion

For details about studying in Vienna, see Studying German in Austria

See all of Lauren's video blogs from Vienna

Here, Niki W. documents a typical Friday activity.

For more information on this program go to Teen Junior Immersion in Heredia, Costa Rica

See Spanish programs in Heredia

See all of Niki's video blogs from Heredia

For details about studying in Vienna, see Studying German in Austria

See all of Lauren's video blogs from Vienna

Surf's up!  In this video, Niki W. captures the efforts of some surfers-in-training from her Junior Immersion program's Spanish school in Heredia.

For more information on this program go to Teen Junior Immersion in Heredia, Costa Rica

See Spanish programs in Heredia

See all of Niki's video blogs from Heredia

In this video, Niki W. takes us on a tour through the Junior Immersion program's Spanish school in Heredia.

For more information on this program go to Teen Junior Immersion in Heredia, Costa Rica

See Spanish programs in Heredia

See all of Niki's video blogs from Heredia