The following post features student writing.

¡Hola amigos!

We are now on our 18th day in Costa Rica, and so far we have loved it! The purpose of this trip is to do community service in a village, but we are also discovering many new things, having fun, and not exhausting ourselves during our three relaxing excursions this month.

Being on a Putney trip is the most amazing thing I have experienced so far because it is different from other programs. When you first meet the fellow students, mostly nobody knows each other; however, those once-strangers have instantly become like members of a close second family. For a lot of people on this trip, the idea of a second family is a very special opportunity. This is a place where students can open up about difficult issues and feelings inside while having a strong and firm support group. Some days it can be hard to be around 15 people at once, but after getting used to it, eventually it becomes a privilege to be around people from all over the world. It gives us a sense of different cultures and countries while experiencing that local culture and beauty of Costa Rica.

So far, everything has been amazing. We are currently in a hotel that feels like paradise. We have a fantastic view and a communal environment with boys in a spacious cabin and girls in another one. No more cots! On this excursion our plans are for some to go surfing, others to go horseback riding, and lots of sleep! We can’t tell you how excited we are for the extra hours of sleep! Furthermore, there is a beautiful beach which we can see from our gorgeous terrace view, and we plan to go there for many hours of surfing, chilling, and tanning.

As this is a Spanish-speaking country, most of us had to learn or practice our Spanish to be able to communicate with local people here, and what is amazing is that you don’t have to speak the same language to be able to communicate with each other. We’ve had to point out, act out different things, and use other sometimes funny non-verbal methods so that we can communicate. A lot of students agree that Spanish is a beautiful language, yet it is one of the hardest to learn. This trip has provided us with so many fun, challenging, and discovery-filled moments combined into one, and we are all loving this trip.

I hope everyone back home is enjoying our blogs from this trip, and hopefully we can write many more before we leave this breathtaking scenery.

Pura Vida!

– Noor B.