Bridging Experiences Across Land and Language by Michael Eckhardt

Going to live in Costa Rica was one of the easiest and most difficult transitions I ever made. Spending time with good people (my American friends and Costa Rican acquaintances) was a blissful experience. By learning so much about the Spanish language before I left, it made me open to the power of absorbing the culture. Many of the locals didn't speak English, but I'd known more Spanish than just what was necessary to order something. It let me really dive into the lives of these people. By sharing thoughts and first-hand experiences with each other, we got to understand the scope of the types of worlds we lived in personally. It wasn't just the staff at the resorts we hopped from, either. It was the common people, the families who had humble homes, the farm workers of several plantations. They all had different outlooks, different stories; most of which were perspectives I never would've imagined getting to know and understand. They had concepts for things I'd never considered, and they had understandings of parts of life I'd never questioned before. It truly shaped a big part of my worldview and allowed me to gain extra experience with foreign languages, which is one of my biggest passions. I feel that if everyone were able to get an experience in a foreign country just like this, that it would definitely change their life for the better, should they choose to truly immerse themselves. (Photo taken by Jenna Hines)

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