We spent most of our first week on the lovely Whitworth Costa Rica Center campus. And, it sure is so lovely and tranquil! Close your eyes and soak it up...
I had some wonderful quiet times outside in the morning before it rained. It is quite calm and refreshing to be up here. What a beautiful place to learn in all aspects of the word. The campus is pretty high up on the Monte de la Cruz. Apparently, we're kind of located in a "cloud forest" or something like that. Here's a picture, but it can't quite capture the view of a cloud crawling over the mountain (and that's the continental divide!). It gets pretty cold up here at night, but I don't mind too much because it's NOTHING like the cold of my dear friend Wheaton, Illinois!
On to classes and other stuff...We had a lot of orientation classes as well as academic classes. I've really enjoyed getting to know the other students in the group (only 6 of us!) and all of the staff. I'm the only one from the south and from Wheaton, so represent! I'll definitely be putting up some pics of them along the way. Being that there's so few of us, we get a lot of one-on-one attention in classes which is so great. Each day, I learn so much, sometimes too much if you know what I'm sayin' :) In the morning (Tuesday-Friday), I have a Spanish class- Advanced Grammar through Lit-taught by Dinorah. She is so great and an amazing example of patience. Then, on Wednesdays, Ticcia and I (talk about one-on-one attention!) have Spanish in Christian Ministry class with Lindy. I'm so excited about this one! We're going to be studying Latin American church history and theology, as well as learning vocabulary and Scripture passages in Spanish and so much more! Then, I have a public policy, ethics, and worldview course that I think is going to be pretty challenging but transformative- the best kind of classes! I definitely would get a little overwhelmed after a full day of classes, so I am so grateful for times of real life experience. For example, on Monday and Friday, we went into the nearby towns for a "plunge", in which we had to answer certain questions, find out where important stores or landmarks are (how many times can one person ask, "Donde esta?"??), and take lots of random pictures.
This is a picture of Emily and Nanda doing homework ever so diligently
Above is one of the pictures that Josh and I had to take in front of the post office of San Rafael during the plunge.
And finally, just to explain the title, here's a picture of us taking out the compost :) For all of you environmental science majors out there (Chelsea and Sus!), Whitworth in Costa Rica is all about sustainability, which represents beautiful stewardship of God's creation!
Summing it up, my first impressions of Costa Rica are the following: rain (lots of it!), tranquil lifestyle, good food, beautiful and colorful nature all around, friendly and loving people (Ticos!), and a unique country that stands out among the other Central American countries.
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