Greetings from Miami!
Since I have procrastinated on creating my first blog entry (so typical of me), I now have a story to share. Hurricane Irene is well on her way to stopping airline traffic all over the country, so it was essential that I get out of D.C. this morning, early. I had booked a 6:05 am flight, so I was all set. Who gets up that early to fly? Well, apparently EVERYONE, presumably because the dang hurricane made everyone try to get out of the Nation’s capital wayyyyy too early on a Saturday morning. I got to the airport in plenty of time, at 4:55 am, and the airport is a madhouse: lines are super duper long, moving pretty slowly, and everyone seemed to be flying American today! So here’s an extremely short rundown of my morning: waited a long time in long lines all to miss my flight. Oh my goodness I thought I was going to cry I was so stressed. So I waited in another line for another half an hour, and thankfully there was one spot open on a flight at 7:05am, so I switched and I am still flying into Costa Rica today. If there hadn’t been that one free spot, I may have not gotten out before Irene got to us. Note to self: hurricanes will certainly crowd an airport at ungodly hours of the morning.
Now that that’s done….
My name is Kendall Irish, I am from Maryland, go to school in California, am majoring in Environmental Studies and minoring in Latin American Studies. This is my third year in a row starting off the new school year in a new place without knowing anyone (I transferred from the University of Arizona after my freshman year to the University of Redlands), and I have to say that I love the discontinuity of my living situations. I love to meet new people and make new friends and be connected to so many different persons.
I hope that this semester will present me with many new experiences that will be challenging as well as insightful and inspiring. I have done little international travel, and never to a place where I’m not surrounded by my native language, so I think that will be an adjustment, especially because my host family speaks no English! I hope that the culture shock will be minimal, I like to think that I can live on much less that I do at home, but I fear that my adjustment may not come as easily as I want. I’m actually pretty anxious about the lack of sun there will be… sunshine may be just about my favorite thing. I’m excited to not have internet at home, and to challenge myself to manage my time really well since my homestay is an hour walk from the Institute. I’m hoping to learn a lot about gardening and helping around the house, and to interact with my family and the community. I’m really looking forward to observing the community and how everyone interacts, considering their goals as an eco-village, especially because Monteverde is so much bigger than an ideal eco-village size. I think I will learn a lot from my teachers and fellow students, and I can’t wait to meet everyone! See you all this afternoon!
Kendall
