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I am pleased to offer you admissions to Northeastern's NUin Program.
Wait, What?
Their NUin Program.
You got into the NUin program?
Yeah.
What is that?
Which is where your fall semester you're abroad, and then they bring you in, in the Spring.
On August 20th of 2013 26 of us were dropped off, in the middle of a storm, on a country
On August 20th of 2013 26 of us were dropped off, in the middle of a storm, on a country
The one thing I sure of, was that we were all about to start on a huge adventure and
I was determined to make the most out of it.
Once we started our On Sight Orientation things kicked off. We got to know each other through
sport, dancing, and just plain old chatting.
We learnt the names of our peers, and where everyone was from. Through stories we explored
differences between the East Coast and the West Coast, Belgium, Brazil, Venezuela, China,
Germany and the Dominican Republic. And although we had to suffer through some long lectures
about our new home, we all still managed to have a blast.
Although sometimes our orientation location seemed like heaven on earth, we did have to
leave. This kicked off the next part of our adventure, meeting our host families, joining
the University and integrating into San Jose life.
One of the amazing parts about Costa Rica is that it is so small, this made travel extremely
accessible. So when San Jose felt a bit slow, we'd run down to the Coca-Cola bus stop, get
our tickets leave for a weekend.
But we didn't always travel for fun. Sometimes we left the city to do work. Whether that
was building paths, releasing baby turtles, or teaching kids English.
Little could compare to the gorgeous beaches, magnificent forest tops, and breath-takingly
adorable animals I've seen since being here, but the time I spent with the fourth and fifth
graders I taught English to, is irreplaceable.
In Phil Collin's song, Son of Man, he says, "in learning you will teach, and in teaching
you will learn" and he couldn't be more right. These kids pushed my strength and challenged
my weaknesses, but most of all they gave me invaluable life skills about language, and
teaching.