Welcome Fall 2014!

Well, here it is; that moment just before the beginning of the semester and (as we call it) "la locura". I'm anxiously typing our first blog post EVER, waiting to head out in a few hours and meet a few of the 24 students who will be calling LASP and Costa Rica home for the next three and a half months.

I was a student at LASP six years ago, back in the Fall semester of 2008. I can still recall the nervousness and excitement as I boarded the plane for my longest stint away from Ohio and my family & friends. There's no forgetting that first breakfast of gallo pinto, when one wonders how you could possibly eat rice & beans for breakfast (quite easily, in fact). I fell in love with that painted rooster the very first day.

Advice from LASP Alumni

Then there are all the unexpected moments, the uncertainty of meeting your "new family" and venturing into the great unknown that is life in a foreign country. I never would've imagined all the struggles and rewards that would come from such a short time in Costa Rica.

Now, after returning to Costa Rica every year since then, sometimes just for vacation and other times for a year at a time to work at LASP, I am focusing on remembering those first moments in order to connect with our students on their level. I can't wait to see the expressions and hear the stories of their travels and their "other lives" outside of this experience. I am praying for a most positive semester for our staff and students, filled with growth, wonderment and new exploration of ourselves and our place in creating a global community. Bendiciones y paz para todos.