Preparing for our trip to Costa Rica!
2015 Student Field Reporter Project: We’ve enlisted the help of several students to share their 2015 Costa Rica experiences with us. Over the coming months we will regularly feature their posts, photos, and reflections – letting them tell their amazing stories of Costa Rica and it’s impact on their lives!
Reporter: Alexandra, Moraga Middle School Student
“Yay, I am flying to Costa Rica,” I excitedly told my friend, as I was waiting to check into our flight at the San Francisco airport. We finally got to the front of the line to check into our flight and our teacher handed the airline employee the passports.
“There’s one missing,” the women said. “Alexandra’s passport.”
Suddenly, I woke up and realized I still had two weeks before my classmates and I were heading off to Costa Rica on an EcoTeach adventure. The last few weeks, I’d been bouncing back and forth between excitement and apprehension that I might forget something important, so I was looking forward to the final parent/child meeting. I was also looking forward to spending time with the people I’d come to know so well during all of our preparations for the trip.We were going to review last minute preparations, the rules, what we were going to eat, and of course, what we were going to be doing.
When we got to the meeting, the teachers were handing out papers and our Costa Rica handbook. The handbook had a lot of information in it. It had our reports that we did on Costa Rica. It also had games, Spanish phrases, and important facts about Costa Rica- a recap of everything we’d been studying for the past several months. I was also relieved to know that I wasn’t the only one who was having odd dreams.
As my teacher was talking, I realized how much stuff I needed to remember. Water shoes, hiking shoes, money, different types of clothes, a camera, a backpack, and of course, my passport. Thankfully, she passed out a packing list and specifically talked about each one. We also talked about how we could not bring phones or electronics. All the kids were bummed when we talked about that.
Finally, we talked about where we were going. The first night is in the mountains and is going to be cold. But, she said if we wake up early, we might able to milk a cow! How cool would that be? We spent a long time talking about the turtle project. We are going to go to a place to help with sea turtle research. While some of us are doing that, the others are going to be learning about mangrove reforestation. Nearly everyone shared their excitement and it dawned on me how close we were as a group compared to when we first started these meetings.
Our teacher reminded us about a lot of things. I am super glad we had this meeting and I’m also glad about having the opportunity to share so much with my classmates. We’re all sure to have an amazing time in Costa Rica, but I’m also sure that I’ll have a new appreciation and deeper connections with everyone joining me on the trip. Also, it never hurts to have more people to help remember the important stuff.