The End

I wrote the first part of this blog post on my plane home last Monday (December 4). My assignments are all turned in. I’ve said goodbye to the other students, professors, and both of my host families. And tonight, I will sleep in my actual home in Wisconsin. I haven’t truly accepted the fact that…

A Week In the Life

To give you an idea of what the ACM Costa Rica experience is like, I’m going to explain a typically atypical week here. Three weeks ago provides the perfect example. Monday was a relatively normal day, starting with our Español y Cultura (Spanish and Culture) class from 9:00 am to 11:00 am. We usually have…

Español

The main reason many students choose to study in Spanish speaking countries like Costa Rica is to improve their Spanish language skills. That was certainly one of my main reasons for choosing ACM’s Costa Rican program. After almost four months of speaking Spanish on a daily basis, my language skills have improved significantly. My background…

My Community Practicum

I wrote this blog a week after returning from my homestay in San José de la Montaña about my experience working on my community practicum project, and am posting it here now.   Now that I’ve been back in San José for a week I have had a chance to process and reflect on the…

Día de Acción de Gracias

When I signed up to go abroad for fall semester, I knew that there would be some events that I would miss at home. I was fine with missing most of these, but yesterday was an especially hard day to miss. Thanksgiving (Día de Acción de Gracis in Spanish) is one of my favorite holidays….

My Last $100

In Costa Rica we don’t have to spend money on much – lunch is the only meal that isn’t provided by our host families and almost every other expense is covered by ACM. This allows us to spend money how and when we want to. I think it’s fair to say that most of us…

San Josés

One of the main reasons I chose to come on ACM’s Costa Rica program was the community practicum experience. The structure of the fall semester program is split into three parts. For the first five weeks, the students attend classes at the ACM building in San Pedro, just east of the country’s capital, San José….

Costa Rica to Nicaragua!

Hi ACM blog readers! My name is Jacob Cohen and I’m a junior physics major at Carleton College currently studying in Costa Rica. Actually, this blog won’t be about Costa Rica, but about its northern neighbor Nicaragua! A highlight of the Costa Rica program is the five-day excursion to Nicaragua, which we went on three…