Costa Rica arrival!

 The Costa Rica group arrived safely at SJO.  Stay tuned....

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Thursday, June 6

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As I (Kirin) banged on doors at 5:00am, I was greeted with a variety of delirious, sleepy, and angry faces. Thankfully, the sunrise — the reason for our early rise — quickly brightened the sky and our moods. Then at a much more reasonable time — 9:30am — we finished our breakfasts, ready to depart for the well-earned last (activity-filled) day. First up, we visited one of Eric's favorite nature reserves awing at the monkeys, and stunning lookout points overlooking the ocean. Gazing out, we watched the waves lapping against the rocks. After our walk in the park, we made lunch — consisting of peanut butter, and Gauva/Strawberry/Pineapple jam sandwiches, chips, and cookies. Everyone was ecstatic at the food selection Kirin and Melina made at Megasuper for the picnic. After eating, we frolicked in the water and beach. We swam, suntanned, and harnessed our inner Pura-Vida, enjoying the much-deserved break after our stays here.  With smiles from ear to ear, we were all prepared to go sho...
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Wednesday, June 5

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Hey Menlo Parents, It's us again, Jilynnette and Justin. We are currently in Cahuita on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica. The students needed this break after shedding many tears this morning, saying goodbye to the places they have called home and the people they have called family for the past few weeks. It was especially hard on the host families who adopted all of our students with loving, kind, and open arms throughout the entire trip. We are looking forward to the next day and a half of relaxing, but more importantly, the students will spend a lot of time reflecting on their experiences. They will reflect on the hardships they have overcome, the frustrations of cultural differences they encountered, and celebrate all the wonderful and fond memories that will stick with them for a lifetime. Pictured below are all the students with their host families. Unfortunately, some of the host moms and dads had to leave for work early in the morning and are not pictured. Nos vemos, Jilynn...
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Saturday, May 25

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After packing up all our things last night, we all headed onto a bus and were each dropped off with our roommates at our homestay families. We spent the night playing games with the children, including soccer, Jenga, and Uno, and chatting with our new homestay parents, getting to know them. We then enjoyed delicious dinners prepared by our homestay parents and went to bed early after a long day. We woke up in our new homes, met by another tasty breakfast before getting picked up by the bus again and heading to the soccer clinic. On the bus, everyone excitedly talked about their different homestay families and all the animals that were at each of our houses, including dogs, cats, cows, rabbits, and some very loud roosters. Once there, Chino, a community organizer who runs the soccer clinic and used to play on the Costa Rica Premier Soccer League, talked to the group about the importance of shared values and coming together as a community. Before starting to play, we were introduced to a...
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