Department of History

This past July I made my eighth and lengthiest trip to Latin America in order to study at the Intercultura Language School. When I first arrived in the capital, San José, it was late in the evening and it was difficult to orient myself with only partially visible rolling hills and mountains in the distance; however, I had opted for Intercultura’s home-stay program, so I was picked up outside the airport by my first “Tico” family and did not have to spend much time wandering the city (that I saved for the end of my trip). The next day I embarked on my journey to the school in Sámara, where I spent the bulk of my three weeks studying Spanish. I took a public bus to the Western coast that ended up being five and a half hours long (I had actually been on a few buses in Latin America before, however, this experience was definitely the most memorable). The key moment of the journey was when I saw the words “no asiento” on my ticket while standing in line…it then hit me that I would be standing on the bus for the entire ride. The bus was so crowded (Costa Rican public schools were on break and Sámara is a popular location for Costa Ricans on vacation) that I ended up standing on a stair near the rear door and was constantly bumping into others or having people lean on me for support. In retrospect this ride was the ideal way I could have started my trip;I was immediately immersed, just me and whatever friends I could make on the journey through the mountains.

The town of Sámara is beautiful. I lived with an extremely friendly and helpful family, the Lopezes, in this tropical paradise. The town is located right on the beach and due to its exclusivity, the majority of the shop owners and residents do not speak any English. Intercultura itself backs up to the coastline and offers a second-to-none language program. My class on average had only one other student. I was kept busy studying for eight hours each day (four in the classroom and four with language exercises and reading), however I made sure to take a couple of hours each day to participate in some of the local ceremonies, customs, and sports. The school as a whole was intelligently designed, and in conjunction with a home-stay in the remote town of Sámara, made for endless practice in Spanish (so much in fact I felt myself speaking poor English for a few days after I returned). Perhaps the biggest highlight of the trip was the relationships I formed with my hosts, the Lopez family was fantastic. Every evening we would sit out on their patio and chat about the day’s events or our cultural differences. I became quite close to my “Tico Hermano,” the Lopez’s eldest son, and we would often share music and chat about our interests. The Lopez children and I vowed to be “lifelong Facebook friends” and I already plan on returning to visit them sometime in the future. Perhaps most importantly, I brought the Lopez family plenty of WVU souvenirs in order to spread our school’s popularity across the globe.

Jordan Lieser, 2nd Year History PhD.