myJaxonIf we don’t go crazy once in a while, we’ll all go crazy. - Hawkeye

Life is all about experiences and this is my section to tell the world what I have learned. Afterall, what is an experience if no one ever hears about it. This section is going to have a TON of stories regarding my adventures, and misadventures. One can only hope that everything goes well, but, seriously, that never happens. Some of these are fun, some are depressing, some are life; but I’ve gone through what is here and I want to share. I hope this section helps someone in someway or they just enjoy it. I know I enjoyed most of these experiences.

Right now, I only have three experiences to list. They were somewhat life altering, but not by much. Let me explain…

Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico 1999

During the summer of 1999, I had to opportunity to travel to Guadalajara, Mexico to study at the Universidad de Guadalajara for 6 weeks. I went through Grand Valley State University’s study abroad program and I had a wonderful time. The program was suppose to be only for 5 weeks, but they received some really good deals on airline tickets that kept us there for another week. I never once heard any complaints.

Any, for the 6 week period, I was living with a Mexican family and going to the Centro Estudios Para Extranjeros which is a part of the Universidad de Guadalajara.

The program was intended to help students with their communication skills in Spanish. Which I can verify did. My Spanish improved so much that I actually had a professor comment on it.

Here is a little background on how the school works. The school has 10 levels of study. A student participates in each level for 5 weeks. Then they “graduate” to the next level. The 10 levels teach grammar, however, once the student reachs level 7, they can begin taking content courses. These content courses are exactly what they sound like. You can take literature, political science, business or history classes. Regardless of the level a student is in, they have the option of taking any of the supplementary courses. These courses helps the students with their conversation skills, writing, grammar, etc.

I had so much fun on this trip, it kind of lead to…

Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico 2001

For the winter semester of 2001, I had the opportunity to travel back to Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico to study at the Universidad de Guadalajara for 3 months. This time, while I still received Grand Valley credit, I did not go through the school’s program. They did not have a semester program to Mexico, so I had to create my own.

The first time I was in Guadalajara, I went with a group of about 20 students with a professor from Grand Valley. This time, I went with two other girls, Joslyn and Mindy. I met Joslyn the first time I went to Guadalajara and Mindy knew Joslyn from school. Mindy went down the summer after we did and decided to go back before she came home. She was able to talk Joslyn into going back for a semester (something I had been trying to do as well) and next thing we knew, we were on our way to Mexico.

While I was in Guadalajara for the there months, we lived with a Mexican family that Mindy and Joslyn had stayed with the first time they came down; and went to the Centro Estudios Para Extranjeros, which is a part of the Universidad de Guadalajara. The way this school works is very much like any school in the United States. There are different grades (but they call them levels) that students progress through.

Here is a little background on how the school works. The school has 10 levels of study. A student participates in each level for 5 weeks. Then they “graduate” to the next level. The 10 levels teach grammar, however, once the student reachs level 7, they can begin taking content courses. These content courses are exactly what they sound like. You can take literature, political science, business or history classes. Regardless of the level a student is in, they have the option of taking any of the supplementary courses. These courses helps the students with their conversation skills, writing, grammar, etc.

Anyway, back to me. The first time I went down there, I was in levels 3 and 4. This time, I wanted to complete all the levels (levels 1-10). My first session there, I was in levels 5 and 6. I also took a conversation class that counted towards a requirement back at Grand Valley (however, while I was gone, they changed the program so I had to retake the class later). I still received credit for the class. During the second session, I was in levels 7 and 8. I also took a class called “la historia de las relaciones entre Mexico y EEUU” (it counted towards my IR degree ). That was my first content course and it was an interesting one at that.

Towards the middle of the second session, Joslyn and I ran into a professor from Grand Valley. She was preparing her summer trip down there and she kind of caused some trouble. She was taking the next GV group in June, but she was also taking a group to Costa Rica over the New Year (Dec 2001-Jan 2002) for 10 days. The good news is if it wasn’t for Prof. Ferrell, I would never had gone to Costa Rica for 10 days. The bad news is Joslyn and I decided that we had to leave Mexico early in order to afford to go to Costa Rica. Our 15 week stay in Mexico turned into 10 weeks and the end of our trip.

San Jose, Costa Rica 2002

One day, a friend, Joslyn, and I was walking down a street in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, when I happened to see one of my professors from Grand Valley State University. It was the middle of a semester and a teacher was playing hookie in Mexico. Kind of odd if you ask me. Since we knew her and she knew us, we started a conversation. Come to find out that she was planning the summer study abroad program for Grand Valley in Guadalajara and wasn’t playing hookie after all. Let’s just say that chance encounter started something rolling.

Later, Joslyn and I found out that she was also planning a trip to Costa Rica. Well, when an opportunity arises, one cannot let it go. Five days later, Joslyn and I were changing our tickets to go home sooner so we would have the money to go to Costa Rica.

Costa Rica between December 29, 2001 and January 9, 2002 meant a few things: 1. Hot weather in December and January 2. New Year’s in another country (awesome, right?) 3. Skipping my boyfriend’s birthday. While I was in trouble for skipping Jesse’s birthday, he did like the fact that I was home from Mexico sooner. Anyway, back to Costa Rica.

I went to Costa Rica with 20 students, Joslyn included. It was quite an interesting trip, but it did prove one thing to Joslyn and me…next time, we go on our own without a group. It’s just easier to explore new areas when you have to get the consensus of so many people. In the end, I had a blast. It was a new experience I will never forget (especially some of the characters on the trip).

So let me tell you a bit of what I and the group did. Since we arrived in San Jose on December 29th (a saturday), we did not have school until Monday. The bonus here was Tuesday was New Year’s, making Monday New Years Eve - in other words, no school. Julia, our professor who was on the trip, had plans for us on Sunday; Monday and Tuesday were pretty much ours to do with as we pleased. Starting on Wednesday and going for five days, I attended the Costa Rica Spanish Institute and took classes for four hours a day. After each class, more trips were planned with the group. We went all over San Jose. To a coffee plantation, a house that looked like the one in “Gone with the Wind”, Downtown San Jose (although Joslyn and I ended up there by accident on Tuesday), the National Museum, etc. Let’s just say the days were a little busy. The weekend found us in Manuel Antonio, a gorgeous beach with howler monkeys. On Monday, it was back to school for two more days. Then we came home. Joslyn and I tried to stay behind, but the airliner just didn’t want to bump us, oh well, we had missed the first two days of classes already. Whoops.

It has been a year since I was in Costa Rica and I can still remember the fun I had while I was there. It was one of those experiences I was talking about before…you know, one’s that change your outake on life, changes you.

If you want to see any pictures from any of the previous three trips, you’ll have to wait until I can get them scanned in and put up somewhere. Once I do, I’ll insert a link to the pictures here.