Aero: Tiffany Bane – Costa Rica 2016 – Epilogue

Creative Commons Image via The LEAF Project

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This trip was one that was worthwhile. I had so many great experiences that just went above and beyond my expectations that I had going into this trip. I had so many things I was nervous about for this trip and now I realize I had nothing to be nervous about.

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Tiffany Bane

Traveling with people that I barely knew at the being at the trip turned out to be the least of my worries because by the end of the trip those same people turned out to be some good friends.

Knowing very little Spanish was a very good fear, but it turned out that learning the language while engaging with people made learning even better. My host family was very close to the Central Park which was close to the supermarket, and other stores. This is very similar to where I live, and this was one thing that I was curious about when I left.

I had so many experiences that made this trip worth it. From being able to see volcanos in 2 countries, to zip lining. The zip lining was a mixture of actually zip lining and some hiking that made for a wonderful experience, the only downfall of the zip lining was that it was too short! The volcanos in Costa Rica and Nicaragua were so cool, I’ve never been able to get that close to a volcano before.

The one experience that I will take away from the trip is when we went to the girl’s home it may have only been for 2 hours but it was felt like a day. It was so fulfilling to be able to sit with the girls and just talk to them and see how they live their lives. I let them talk about the things they like to do, but they seemed to be more interested in what we liked to do in the US. The one thing that shocked me the most talking to them is that when they asked what my age was and I told them I was 22, they all gave me that look like I was so old, and it amazed me because in the US that’s not an old age but to them it was. When it was time to go it was like I had known those girls for more than just 2 hours, and if I could go back I definitely would.

This whole trip was about personal growth and I think that by trying everything that we did and being open about it all I definitely had some personal growth.

Tiffany Bane
LEAF Contributor
ML@FLCC: Costa Rica 2016

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