The past 48 hours have been an extreme journey starting with the 3:45 am wake-up call on Sunday morning, which consisted of a four-hour flight to Dallas, a connecting flight to Houston, and then the last and final flight to Costa Rica. After a fog block and flying in circles for a good 45 minutes we finally landed at around 9:30 pm, made it through the backed-up baggage claim, and found our bus. It was a 19-hour day, with the time difference, and was the first journey that I would take with this new group of kids who I would be spending the next 2 weeks with. I don’t think I have ever connected with such a bright group of people as fast as I have with this one. The long day of flight was followed by what seemed to be an even longer day of driving; from the hostel to the house we were entertained with the card games, the Subway stops, the John Denver songs, and the shared drama from our home towns (that we could forget for the time being.) After finally reaching the house, it wasn’t anything any of us really expected but was completely worth the two full days of travel.
As soon as we arrived there was a pool and a whole beach waiting for us. We all tossed our bags in the rooms and ran up the spiral staircase which led to a room with a large balcony. Looking at the view, we all laughed about how different our expectations were. As we first made our way to the beach, we reminisced the quality of our phones over the silver digital Sonys and film cameras, but I quickly realized that being present with these people and the environment is more important than simply capturing a good quality picture or posting it somewhere for others to see.
Finishing off the night by swimming in the pool, taking the first shower since I don’t even know when, and journaling under the cabana in the pouring rain, thunder, and lighting was a refreshing end to a long couple of days. We can’t wait to get started tomorrow.