TODAY IS THE DAY

It's here. Today is the day. I'm currently on an airplane on my way to New Jersey. My time in Costa Rica is over (for now) and I'm on my way to starting a new chapter in my life. For months I have been looking forward to and dreading this day at the same time. I am so excited to begin studying again and to be close to my family and friends for longer than a few weeks for the first time in almost 4 years! Of course on the other hand, I am leaving my love and best friend so that he can finish studying, himself. But luckily, Paris has been nothing but understanding and supportive and we are both ready for this next challenge in our relationship. So here we go, people! With this new transition in my life, will most likely come some new things for this blog. I mean, no pictures of volcanoes and tropical beach trips! But look forward to some new posts on healthy living and yummy food recipes.

See you soon!

EXPAT DIARIES - HOMESICKNESS

Before I moved to Costa Rica, I lived in Spain for nine months. It was almost exactly this time three years ago that I was unpacking in my new apartment with three other North Americans getting ready to live the next nine months of our lives in beautiful Cordoba. Although it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. You see, I was deeply homesick for almost the first three months I was there. It took me a very long time to get adjusted to living in a foreign country. I thought I would give some advice on what helped me through it and what I wish I had done from my first month there!

Get out and go for a walk. In my first few months abroad I spent too much time in my apartment and not enough time out in the city exploring! I quickly learned that just going for a walk outside, wandering around the streets and getting lost was one of my favorite things to do. By the time my family got to Cordoba, they thought I had lived there for years by how well I knew my way around the city.

Try the local food. A great way to have a little adventure and not have to leave your city is to try the local food. My roommates and I spent one afternoon trying snails for the first time and even though none of us enjoyed the actual food, we all enjoyed the experience. We spent most of the time playing with our food (sorry mom!) and making memories instead of thinking about how much we missed home.

Travel! - The best part about living in a new country is all the new places you can travel to. I know for some people, it may be financially hard to be traveling every single weekend (it was for me). However, I tried to take advantage of land transportation to visit different cities that are also in Spain. It is much cheaper to travel to a nearby city than to get on a plane to head to another country. However, I was able to save up to take a few bigger trips, including a very long weekend trip to the Canary Islands! Taking trips like these is such a good way to get your mind off of home because you spend so much time planning for the trip and then taking it makes you want to do it all over again.

Make a community for yourself. Over the months that I was working, I got to know a few of my coworkers pretty well. They took me under their wings and began inviting me to their homes to learn how to make typical Spanish recipes or invited me to go shopping to the best underground stores around. I also become really close with the mom of one of my private lesson students. Towards the end of my year there, we ended up spending a lot of time together and I went on some fun family days with her and her son that really made me feel like I belonged there. I think having these relationships helped me the most because I was able to bond with locals and not just other people from the USA.

Invite people to visit you. My parents had been planning on visiting me pretty much since the moment I knew I was accepted to the program. Knowing that my family was coming to visit me and having a lot of things planned for us to do, really gave me something to look forward to when I was feeling a little bit down about missing them. Not to mention, when your family visits you are pretty much constantly going out to restaurants and seeing tons of sites so that you are constantly staying busy.

These are just a few tips that helped me with my homesickness while abroad. What tips have you found that help you??

linking up with rachel and the expat diaries

the people you meet

tuesday was my friend's birthday and she invited me to go out to dinner with her and a bunch of other students. i had the absolute pleasure of sitting next to an elderly woman who came to costa rica from norway to study spanish. we spent the majority of the night sharing stories about learning the spanish language, living in foreign countries, and traveling experiences. she had many more stories to share than i did (she worked for pan am! so cool!) but it was one of those conversations that just makes you go, wow.

i think that is one of the pleasures of living in another country. you meet so many different types of people from all over the world. and sharing stories with each other is such a great way to get to know the world just a little bit more. here's to the conversations that leave you with that itch to travel to just a few more places and meet a few new people.

what happens when you live abroad

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the other day i came across this article by chelsea fagan. it immediately hit home ... so i read it again.

it is about the experience of living abroad. about the fears of leaving your home country for another and then making a life for yourself in that new country. and then about the fears of going back to your home but feeling like it is not quite your home anymore. you start feeling like you are missing so many things and that you are split between two lives. some of the words that resonated the most with me were these:

...There is a palpable fear to living in a new country, and though it is more acute in the first months, even year, of your stay, it never completely evaporates as time goes on. It simply changes. The anxiousness that was once concentrated on how you’re going to make new friends, adjust, and master the nuances of the language has become the repeated question “What am I missing?” As you settle into your new life and country, as time passes and becomes less a question of how long you’ve been here and more one of how long you’ve been gone, you realize that life back home has gone on without you. People have grown up, they’ve moved, they’ve married, they’ve become completely different people — and so have you.

...So you look at your life, and the two countries that hold it, and realize that you are now two distinct people. As much as your countries represent and fulfill different parts of you and what you enjoy about life, as much as you have formed unbreakable bonds with people you love in both places, as much as you feel truly at home in either one, so you are divided in two. For the rest of your life, or at least it feels this way, you will spend your time in one naggingly longing for the other, and waiting until you can get back for at least a few weeks and dive back into the person you were back there. It takes so much to carve out a new life for yourself somewhere new, and it can’t die simply because you’ve moved over a few time zones. The people that took you into their country and became your new family, they aren’t going to mean any less to you when you’re far away. 

 i dont think it is much of a secret that i really miss home a lot when i am here. i am constantly thinking about the things that i am missing at home between friends and my family. but at the same time, the thought of going home to be closer to them makes me a little nervous when i know that paris would not be able to come with me, at least not right away. the idea that costa rica is now another home to me is very apparent and looking toward the end of the year when i am thinking of going back home to study again raises my anxiety level a notch or two.

it is not definite yet that i will be leaving costa rica at the end of the year, and even if it turns out to be definite, it is still many months away. there are many conversations to be had and decisions to be made. i just couldn't help but feel a connection to this article when i read it. and i think anyone else currently living abroad or not should also give it a read. it is a very accurate portrayal of an expat experience.

a little expat advice

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i'm not usually one to give out a lot of expat advice, mostly because i don't really consider myself an expert. i know i have lived in two different countries for almost a total of three years now but i still feel like there are things that i learn all the time about living abroad. and maybe one day i will write about all of those things that i have learned but for now i am just going to give one teensy little bit of advice.

before you leave a country, make sure you close all of your accounts whether they are banking, internet, cable, etc.

of course when i was in spain almost two years ago i didn't close one of my accounts because i was advised that it wasn't necessary. it is necessary!! i am now dealing with a such a headache from trying to pay things that were charged to me and closing my account and time differences etc. this all could have been prevented if i had just done the logical thing and closed my account when i left.

obviously i am going to take from this: everyone makes mistakes, its not the end of the world (my favorite) and at least it wasn't something more. and i think anyone thinking of moving abroad should remember that when you leave...close those accounts!! 

;)

bittersweet

as many of you know, i am going back to the states on sunday for a nice long 5 week visit. i could not be more excited! i'm not gonna lie, i am always looking forward to going home even if i just got back from a trip. don't get me wrong, i really do like being here in costa rica with paris and his family and working at my job but i also really love being at home with my friends and my family.

it's hard living in another country without your own people. it's hard always feeling like that foreigner girl, especially when the language spoken isn't your native language. it's hard not being able to do some of the things you would normally do at home just because here it simply isn't safe or comfortable. and it's really hard not to think about those things a lot of the time.

oh the other hand, it is very very nice to be here with paris and to have the opportunity to live (pretty much) on our own and have our relationship grow while we are face to face instead of thousands of miles apart ... yes that part is nice.

so that is why this upcoming trip is bittersweet. because paris .. and my baby rocco ... cannot make the trip with me. in order for paris to enter the U.S.A he needs a visa. even if it is just a week long trip ... he needs a visa. and that visa process really isn't all that easy or cheap. so we are waiting until he has a little bit more experience at his job where they can write him a really great recommendation letter that will hopefully lead him to visa-dom. but until then i have to make my trips home solo (or sola .. you know if you're speaking spanish). so yes this trip is a little bittersweet because heck yes i am excited to go home! but boy oh boy am i gonna miss my two guys!

an anniversary

its always a little weird to me when you realize that it is the anniversary of a certain event. like a whole year had gone by but you can still remember that event as if it was just a month ago.

well this time last year (actually last week last year) ... i moved to costa rica!

thats right, i have been living in costa rica for a full year!

i thought i would do a little recap of my year but since i didn't have a blog for the first half of that year i'm gonna have to think a little bit harder. 

so, in my year here in costa rica ...

i went on a semi-frustrating job search but did get hired at my current school (six months in advance!)

paris finished his two-year english course and we went to his graduation

paris and i, his sister, and 6 friends rented a gorgeous bungalow in manuel antonio for a weekend

 i spent christmas and new years in new jersey with my friends and family

paris and i celebrated our two year anniversary

i started working and after a long and tedious process was accepted for a working visa

my parents came to visit! and we spent some time at the beach

we got rocco!

and many other fun weekends that would make this post way too long!

what a whirlwind year this has been so far. in my experience when you are living in another country the time seems to go by much faster than not.

happy one year costa rica anniversary to me!

thoughts on my students

 

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first, let me say that if i ever received that ^ thank you card from one of my students, i think i would die. so cute. although there is no such thing as starbucks in costa rica (slightly upsetting) soooo i don't think that would happen any time soon. 

i wanted to take some time to point out some things that i have noticed about my students here in costa rica. i may be wrong, but to me my students seem completely different from my classmates and me when we were in seventh and eighth grade. 

1. they are extremely open. there was one activity in class where i asked them to raise their hands if they considered themselves a private person. only one student out of fifteen raised their hand. when i made sure they knew what the question meant, they all scoffed and said, private? nah not me i'll talk about anything (and its true). these guys will talk about anything in front of anyone. and there really is only one person that i would consider private or shy in my class. maybe i am mistaken but at that age i remember more people being a little bit more intimated to speak up and share things in class.

2. they never. stop. talking. i have a fair amount of students who literally never stop talking. i'll call attention three or four times, i'll even say those students' names to get their attention, and they just keep talking. its not like they don't here me because i see them look at me, they just keep talking until they finish their conversation and i find it incredibly rude. i've asked them multiple times how they can continue to be so rude when their teacher is standing in the front of the class trying to get everyone to be quite and they can blatantly ignore me. and even if the other students aren't talking they don't say anything. i cant ever remember one of my classes when i was student being that disrespectful. it kind of blows my mind.

3. they don't play sports. i think out of the 24 students that i have in total, maybe 3 of them play a sport (of course soccer). in fact, they don't really do any extra curricular activities. when i was there age, maybe a year or two older, i was on sport team after sport team, rec teams, club teams, and school teams, i was in the band (yes, yes i was in the band... clarinet), and always trying to get involved. on mondays when i ask these guys what they did over the weekend, i'm lucky if i get "i went to a family bbq." most of the time its, i played wii (xbox, playstation, etc), watched tv, and went on the computer." and sometimes its even a "i did absolutely nothing i didnt even leave the house." ahh!! whats wrong with these kids. and its not just my students its almost all of the students here. they need to get out and get involved!!

i'm sure there are many more things to add to this list but i'll leave it at that for now. and regardless of how frustrated my students can sometimes make me, i think they are great and i really enjoy being their teacher. and i hope one day i'll receive i really cute thank you card like that one!!

reminiscing

now that we're into the month of may, its got me doing a lot of thinking about this time last year. may of last year was my last month teaching english in spain. some of you may not know this but after i graduated college, i spent 9 months teaching english in cordoba, spain and it was an amazing experience. may was my last there and it was also by far the best month. in cordoba, may is the most exciting month of the whole year. people save up their vacation time to use it in this month so they can enjoy all the partying and not have to worry about work! its really crazy. i wish that i had started my blog last year but i really didnt even know about the blogging world at that time. i thought i would just share a little bit of my experience from that time because it has been on my mind so much lately. 

the celebration in may starts with the patios. so many houses in cordoba have little patios that people decorate with hundreds of dollars worth of flowers and decorations in hopes that they will win a prize for having the best patio. there are three actual routes of where you can go to see all of these beautiful houses. my friends and i (and hundreds of other people) would take walks at night just enjoying the patios and walking through the city. in the old part of town, the streets would be filled with people just drinking outside and listening to music and basking in the atmosphere of the night.

i worked at an elementary school and one day we went on a field trip to see the patios and the balconies with all the flowers. that day the girls would not leave my side haha. i think one of the things i miss the most about spain is walking and being outside all the time. when people had somewhere to go they just went and walked. the streets and the architecture are just beautiful, so different from what we are used to in the states. i think i calculated it and on any given day walking to and from school and my private lessons i would probably walk about 7-9 miles a day. its no wonder everyone over there is stick thin!

another huge attraction in may was the feria. this was one of the main reasons people took off work in may. i also heard that people would actually take out loans so that they could enjoy this ten day long celebration to the fullest. feria is like a county fair to the max. to the extreme. during the day its filled with kids and their families playing games, winning prizes, going on rides, and eating all the fair food you want. there are also hundreds of "tents" with different types of food and music being played. there is a tent for every age and every style of music. at night, this place turns into the biggest outdoor party scene imaginable. thousands of young and old adults alike gather to eat, drink, and dance. oh the dancing. and everyone would stay out until the break of dawn and even later. i can honestly say that one of my nights at the feria with all my friends is on my top ten days of all time list. such memories.

and finally, (for this post), i cant help but mention how much i miss my roomies. there were many times throughout our nine months together where i think we all just wanted to throw in the towel and say, see ya, spain! however, that last month in may i'm pretty sure we can all agree just how awesome of a time we had had together. i still crave our weekly taj mahal dates (our local indian restaurant), caña de españa dates where we would sit and drink tinto de verano for hours, cooking and hanging out in our moldy apartment, and overall just wondering the streets of spain together. 

if you're ever planning a trip to cordoba, spain, i would highly suggest going in the month of may :)

hi everyone, my name is britta and this is my blog...

OH HEY...i thought maybe i would introduce myself again since you prooooobably forgot who i am because i have been blog MIA for the past two weeks. but i'm gonna do my best to find as much time to update as i can!

sooooooooooooooooo the biggest news as of late has to do with that picture right up there! yes everyone, those 12 little check marks signify that i am officially allowed to work here in costa rica! i'm legal! after my failed attempt two weeks ago i was even more frustrated because i just felt like all my effort over the past 4 months was shut down when the man at migración told me the three things i was still missing.... ugh. but this morning i marched right up to the same officer (okay so i waited almost 2 hours and by chance had the same officer) and demanded he accepted my documents! (well i politely asked him how he was and the proceeded to listen to him talk about how much he likes florida). but who cares right?! he took my mounds of paperwork and gave me this one piece of paper and told me, "this will allow you to stay here in costa rica." HALLELUJAH.

obviously more things have happened in the past two weeks, for example I STARTED WORKING. but more to come on that tomorrow (i promise i'm gonna try really hard for tomorrow!)

;)

a life abroad

 

as for many people, living abroad has taught me a lot about myself. i began my travels in college with two month-long stints during our school's winter term. the first in madrid, spain and the second here in costa rica. i've always been somewhat of a shy person, not opening up until i feel extremely comfortable, choosing to stay home and watch a movie rather than going out to party, and mostly sticking with my main group of friends since high school. which is why i've been surprised at myself to choose to be so far away from my home.

even though, i myself had chose to move to spain, not knowing a soul and not being at all familiar with my location of cordoba, i felt like i had to do it. it was a very hard transition at first, not knowing where anything was located or how things were done and constantly feeling overwhelmed by the language barrier. however, little by little i became accustomed to the spanish ways of eating, sleeping, socializing, and even talking until my last five months there felt just like i was at home. 

living in costa rica so far has been a similar experience but having paris here as well as his family has made the experience much different. almost everything i do i rely on paris or someone else in his family. even just going to the grocery store down the street i always prefer to wait until paris can come with me so that i dont have to go alone. while the language barrier now is much less apparent i still ask paris to make certain phone calls for me.

i begin working next week and getting ready for that has pretty much forced me to get over my fears of venturing outside of the apartment by myself. so today i got myself ready and ran what seemed like a million errands all around town by myself. i was able to accomplish things in the morning that normally would have taken days if was going to wait for someone to be able to help me. its funny how things so small such as going to the store for school supplies or getting another document for my visa certified seem like such a victory for me today but they do. and i'm darn proud of it.

hi there!

welcome to the boots parade! my name is britta and this is my brand new blog. that picture right there does a pretty good job of depicting what i've been doing for the past year and half: traveling (give or take a bag or two).

i graduated undergrad in may of 2010 and a few months later i flew to spain to teach english. during those nine months i flew back and forth between spain, the usa, and costa rica to visit my boyfriend (hi babe!). once i finished teaching in june i flew back to the usa, waited two months, then made a big move to costa rica!

so right now i am starting my life in costa rica (well actually right now i'm visiting the usa for the holidays) and i'm super excited about it! i got another job teaching english that starts in february and i am really looking forward to it.

well thats that. hope you enjoy!