It begins.
After reading (and being slightly overwhelmed by) the impressive stories from friends currently stationed across the world, time for my own blog! Saturday morning my journey begins. I’ll fly out – first to Charlotte and then to my new home: San Jose, Costa Rica. Fernando, an ICADS (more on this below) staffer, will soon meet me at the airport and bring me to my family(!).I will live with Mary, a divorced homemaker, her two children (ages 32 and 28) and her granddaughter. Mary “does aerobics and enjoys reading... is a hard working woman and a wonderful cook.”
I am going to Costa Rica through the Institute for Central American Development Studies. More info on this wonderful program here:
http://www.icadscr.com/programs/summ-internship/index.html
For the first three weeks I’ll have intensive Spanish classes, go to extra things like talks on the social and political history of Costa Rica, Latin dance classes, banana plantations – and simultaneously search for my internship placement. For the last 6/7 weeks I’ll work full-time.
Sprawled on my living room floor now, one of the last times for a while... though half-filled boxes surround me and to-do lists are scattered, at this moment, I feel ready. Ha just read this quote from Lord Dunsany (writer): “I think that travel comes from some deep urge to see the world, like the urge that brings up a worm in an Irish bog to see the moon when it is full.” I feel like that worm... ready for the sights and thoughts to come.
I’ll be in Costa Rica until August 12. Not sure now how often I’ll write in here, but I’m hoping and planning to write often. Maybe I’ll use it as a sort of journal, though the words from Anna Nalick fill my head (“And I feel like I’m naked in front of the crowd-cause these words are my diary screamin’ out loud.”) I’m excited but in a different way than I usually feel excitement, since this time it’s spurred by things unknown. Last June 3rd (exactly one year prior to this year’s departure) I wrote this: “On the way to work [domestic violence nonprofit], I heard a song and the words really resonated with me. Duncan Sheik sings of, ‘one of those mornings, where everything seems so clear.’ Today feels like one of those mornings. I’ve been feeling this way more here… I always have fleeting moments of this concentrated, pure awareness, but one of my ultimate goals is to figure out what way of life will make it stay. I’m really excited about finding such a future.” Later in the summer I wrote that “there were enough of these moments this summer that I know this is where I belong and what I was meant to be doing. I’ve never felt more sure of my place and my passions. These moments of pure awareness are guiding lights...”
Especially in this formative time of wondering and dreaming about/tentatively planning for the future, I look forward to opening up and hopefully experiencing more of these guiding lights – first in the beautiful country of Costa Rica (can’t wait to see it) and then Argentina with the School for International Training September-December.
Happy summer to you all and thanks for reading. :)
P.S. The address for this blog comes from Rainer Maria Rilke's "Letters to a Young Poet," which I love:
"...I would like to beg you dear Sir, as well as I can, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer."
As for the title, ICADS explained "Pura Vida" in this way: You will see and hear this phrase everywhere in Costa Rica. Literally, it means “Pure Life.” Ticos (Costa Ricans) use it to say anything from “I’m fine.” to “Life is great.” to “Everything is okay.”
posted by Colleen @ 11:31 AM
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