Day 1 - Preparations and Departure!

 Hey everyone!


Woohoo first blog post, it's Wanis and Ammie!


Today, we started at Menlo for orientation and bonding! We started off in Stent Hall with a short discussion with Mr. Brown about all the trips and expectations. Then, we headed to a conference room for bonding and going over the trip! 


Our first activity was taking family photos with each other! Attached are some photos each of our groups took.  After that, we did some Costa Rica trivia and bonding activities. 


Once we came back we also discussed some expectations and standards for this trip, to ensure we knew what the expectations were for this trip. We also wrote some reflection letters to ourselves for after the trip we talked about some goals we had, and questions we had. Overall, these letters were for us for when we came back. 


We talked about home-stays and the love the families already have for us, despite not knowing us, this really got us excited for the trip especially since we will be hanging out with our home-stays, and doing activities and bonding with them during our downtime! Today was a very chill day, we meet at the airport tonight for our red-eye, and we wake up in Costa Rica! 


See you in Costa Rica!


- Wanis + Ammie









Popular posts from this blog

Day 2- Making New Memories

Image
After seven hours on the plane, we were feeling a little exhausted and ready to get off the plane (including Sage who was stuck in a middle seat). We made it through customs and were met by Randall and empanadas, which immediately lifted our spirits. The empanadas were so delicious and most of us fell asleep right after eating on the three hour bus ride to the Ecolodge. Everyone seemed to be instantly refreshed and reenergized after waking up. We listened to music, which was a strange mix of house and country, and took in the beautiful scenery around us. Everywhere we looked was luscious and green, and we drove by a waterfall which was gorgeous.  We arrived at the Ecolodge and were greeted by the amazing community here. We had our first lunch of rice, beans, chicken and fruit.  After a meal and some downtime, Randall walked us through a great activity. We got to learn more about each other and the group goals, values and fears. We talked about being afraid of getting left out ...
Read more

Day 5- Off to Homestays!

Image
Hello everyone, Mila and Kai here. Today each group from yesterday switched locations, Kai’s group went to the school and Mila went to the farm. At the school, we were greeted brightly by the school children. The school contains 23 students of various ages, grades 1-6th. They were all smiling and speaking Spanish, words that only a portion of us could understand. We played fun games that took us back to elementary school summer camp. We played pato pato ganzo (duck duck go), animal (head shoulders knees and toes), and taught each other songs. After talking with the students, we were welcomed to eat lunch together: spaghetti, meat sauce, and salad, accompanied by tamarind water. The conversations were very fulfilling, and we were sad to see the students go. Even though we had so much fun with the children, we also learned about various ways we could help the school. We will be able to repaint a classroom where the paint is currently peeling off the walls, allowing students to be in a cl...
Read more