MONROE - Twenty Monroe High School Spanish students, and group leaders Lisa Hendrickson and Michelle Kister, traveled to the town of Guápiles, Limón, Costa Rica where they lived with families, attended school, learned about the community of Guápiles and toured the country.
This trip was the second half of the 2008-09 Monroe High School Costa Rican Exchange. These same students had hosted 20 Costa Rican students from the Liceo Experimental Bilingüe de Pococí along with their group leaders, Tobías Ramírez Gutiérrez and Eliana Barrantes Esquivel, for three weeks in December and January.
In Costa Rica from June 29 to July 15, the Monroe students went to the capital of San José, where they visited the national congress building, the Gold Museum, the National Opera House and the Central Market. They took baths in the hot springs and went on the zip line through the tree tops of a tropical rain forest at Recreo Verde. Although they walked the Caribbean beach at night from their hotel in Tortuguero, they were not able to see turtles laying their eggs, but they did tour the canals and saw monkeys and the lush tropical vegetation. The Monroe students and their Costa Rican hosts also visited the Poas Volcano and they spent a day swimming at Manzanillo Beach on the Caribbean.
More importantly than the tours, the Monroe students bonded with their Costa Rican host students and their families. They experienced the more relaxed lifestyle and culture and greatly expanded their Spanish language skills. According to Hanna Knutson, "Costa was a great learning and growing experience for me. I found out a lot about myself and learned to let go a little more and face some of my biggest fears."
Kendell Niffenegger reflected, "I feel that getting to know and build relationships with teenagers from another country is an experience that every teen should get the opportunity to do."
This summer marked the eighth Monroe High School Costa Rican Student Exchange and the fourth exchange with the Liceo Experimental Bilingüe de Pococí. Established in 1995, the program is modeled after the Monroe High School German Exchange. Selected students, who have completed two or more years of Spanish study, work for two years to raise money for their trip and for hosting the Costa Rican students in Monroe. They attend orientation classes before they travel and complete reflection journals while they are in Costa Rica to earn a semester credit in world language study.
The next Costa Rican Student Exchange will be in the 2010-11 school year. In 2009-10, the Monroe School District plans to conduct an exchange between K-12 teachers in the Costa Rican Guápiles area. Fifteen Costa Rican teachers will come to Monroe in January and Monroe teachers will travel to Guápiles in June/July of 2010.
This trip was the second half of the 2008-09 Monroe High School Costa Rican Exchange. These same students had hosted 20 Costa Rican students from the Liceo Experimental Bilingüe de Pococí along with their group leaders, Tobías Ramírez Gutiérrez and Eliana Barrantes Esquivel, for three weeks in December and January.
In Costa Rica from June 29 to July 15, the Monroe students went to the capital of San José, where they visited the national congress building, the Gold Museum, the National Opera House and the Central Market. They took baths in the hot springs and went on the zip line through the tree tops of a tropical rain forest at Recreo Verde. Although they walked the Caribbean beach at night from their hotel in Tortuguero, they were not able to see turtles laying their eggs, but they did tour the canals and saw monkeys and the lush tropical vegetation. The Monroe students and their Costa Rican hosts also visited the Poas Volcano and they spent a day swimming at Manzanillo Beach on the Caribbean.
More importantly than the tours, the Monroe students bonded with their Costa Rican host students and their families. They experienced the more relaxed lifestyle and culture and greatly expanded their Spanish language skills. According to Hanna Knutson, "Costa was a great learning and growing experience for me. I found out a lot about myself and learned to let go a little more and face some of my biggest fears."
Kendell Niffenegger reflected, "I feel that getting to know and build relationships with teenagers from another country is an experience that every teen should get the opportunity to do."
This summer marked the eighth Monroe High School Costa Rican Student Exchange and the fourth exchange with the Liceo Experimental Bilingüe de Pococí. Established in 1995, the program is modeled after the Monroe High School German Exchange. Selected students, who have completed two or more years of Spanish study, work for two years to raise money for their trip and for hosting the Costa Rican students in Monroe. They attend orientation classes before they travel and complete reflection journals while they are in Costa Rica to earn a semester credit in world language study.
The next Costa Rican Student Exchange will be in the 2010-11 school year. In 2009-10, the Monroe School District plans to conduct an exchange between K-12 teachers in the Costa Rican Guápiles area. Fifteen Costa Rican teachers will come to Monroe in January and Monroe teachers will travel to Guápiles in June/July of 2010.