Latest Experience...

The latest experience God has blessed me with is the opportunity to come to Costa Rica.  I am in Costa Rica for five weeks to study the Spanish Language at the Instituto de Cultura y Lengua Costarricense.  In particular, I am working on my conversation and writing abilities.  I will receive credit for these at the University of Akron upon my completion.  It is a unique opportunity because all of my daily routines depend on my ability to communicate in Spanish. 

Each day I attend class for four hours in the morning.  Here I work on various aspects of grammar and different lectures.  But each class is one on one and not a lick of English is uttered.  November and December are the down months here at ICLC.  The first week I was here there were two students form France, a mother and a daughter.  If we wanted to communicate it had to be in Spanish.  They left after the first week.  I was the only student at the institute for a time.  Now there is another student who lives in Costa Rica but is working on his Spanish.  His wife was a Spanish professor and she just past away in July.  Richard decided it was time for him to learn Spanish. 

The Institute is calm and peaceful and the campus is beautiful.  The professors are good at making me talk even when its not easy.  Poco a poco they say, a little bit at a time.  I am learning and I can just about understand everything being said.  Of course there are words that I have never heard, heck there are English words that I have never heard.  But I am getting a better grasp.  My conversation still needs work, but that’s why I am here.  One of the new words I learned was Ojala.  It’s a word that means “God willing.”  How awesome is it that they have a single word for that!  I will try to keep you posted on my adventures and experiences here in Costa Rica.  Ojala que si.

Some images of ICLC