Pre-Departure

¡Hola a todas!

My name is Rachel Crooks and I am a third-year student at FSU majoring in History and Latin American and Caribbean Studies. Currently, I am at home and trying to unpack everything from my dorm and figure out exactly what I am bringing to my destination. 

I am not leaving for Playa Samara, Guanacaste, Costa Rica for another 25 days. 

  

For the next couple of days, I will put together a little binder of necessities – like medicine, important records (maybe a back-up scanned copy of my passport), and a map or something. I was also going to try and look up slang because I am not familiar with Costa Rican slang at all, unless you could the use of the word tico/tica. There are a lot of sayings which, in English don’t make sense, like: “soda” (meaning a small, family-owned restaurant) and “tome chichi” (meaning take that!). Even though they will be able to tell I am foreign before I open my mouth, I would rather at least use some slang so I am not using the vosotros form or some type of overly formal diction that makes it sound as if I learned Spanish from a textbook. 

I began following Facebook pages pertaining to the non-governmental organization I will be interning for (La Asociación CREAR) and for a news outlet called Voz de Nosara Guanacaste (Nosara is a couple of hours from where I will be staying.) I also have a twitter account and I have been following Costa Rican culture twitters but I haven't gotten much information out of it. So far I am getting glimpses of what the community I will staying with will be like which makes me feel better about knowing what to expect and knowing what is in the area. For instance, I know that I will be living in Playa Samara but I will also be making trips to Nicoya twice a week (not counting other times when I want to travel.)

Overall I am excited to have the opportunity to be able to speak Spanish on a daily basis without being in the confines of a classroom. I want to better my speaking ability but I also want to focus on reading. I am also excited to meet my host family (I’ve never had little brothers or los hermanitos before so this should be interesting) and to learn more about Playa Samara. I still have almost a month left, but I am getting everything prepared and I cannot wait to leave the states!