A Day in the Life of an Intern at the Cloud Forest School

I start my day at 4:45 am. My alarm goes off, I wobble out of bed, and put on my sneakers, stretch pants, and t-shirt to begin my day with a power walk from Bajo Cementerio, through Los Llanos, and up to Santa Elena, lasting around one hour, with my host mom. We talk about various things and get to know each other a little better everyday. I practice my Spanish as well. We both return to our humble home at around 6 am. I wait in line to use the bathroom, having two other sisters getting ready for school at the same time. At around 6:50 am, breakfast is served. Yummy smells of gallo pinto, eggs, garlic bread, pancakes, agua dulce, hot chocolate, coffee, and various other things usually fill the air; this is my favorite meal of the day. After eating, I scramble up the hill to the stop of the Cementerio bus with my host sister and am greeted by our usual bus driver. About 10 minutes later, I arrive at the Creativa. I walk through the campus to the picnic tables outside the office and greet the other interns and teachers gathered there. We talk about our afternoons or concerns for the day and then make our way to our perspective classrooms.

I work with the 3rd grade class; Liz and I start the day off with a morning brainteaser followed by our daily exercise sequence at the meadow. We return to form a circle, have class meetings, and complete calendar, which involves different activities every week. Throughout the day the students have writer’s workshop, reader’s workshop, Spanish, math, theme (such as geography and landforms or maps), and either art, physical education, or environmental education. Liz and I also read aloud books and play community-building games; free time is granted as well when the class works together as a community. On Monday mornings, the escuela holds a peace circle so that the community can come together once every week and on Friday mornings, it holds community sing.

I lead guided reading groups, take individual students out of the classroom for one- on-one help, and make trips to the computer lab and library. I help Liz prepare for future projects, give insight on how to better help students, begin new projects for the classroom, and have even substituted for the 3rd grade for 3 days. Sometimes I may cover recess or bus duty. At the Creativa, I am able to take Spanish class 2 times as well. On Friday afternoons, another intern and I have started an all girls sports club where we promote girl empowerment and teach colegio girls how to play volleyball and soccer.

After school, I usually walk home, alongside the other interns. We stop in Chunches to use the Internet, get ice cream together, or take yoga classes. On weekends we sample different restaurants, go to the Ferria, or go for walks in the Monteverde Reserve. We have also planned trips to Playa Samara and to hot springs via horseback rides. During the September break we were able to visit Nicaragua and are going to Panama during the October break.

Every night I come home to my host family, some of the nicest people I have ever met. The family is huge, something I really enjoy coming from a small family. There is always a member or friend of the family in the house. We chat for hours over coffee and banana bread. I am able to really better my Spanish skills. We watch movies together, go for walks, play games such as monopoly (monopolio in Spanish), visit a family members farm in San Gerardo, or go swimming in a river in Sardinal. We cook dinner together as well which may consist of rice and beans, meat, salads, vegetables, spaghetti, fish, tortillas, empanadas, tomales, and various other dishes. I love my host mother’s cooking. Occasionally, my older host sisters take me out dancing or to watch their brother’s band, Chancho y Monte, perform. I really feel like part of the family and I could not ask for a host family.

Living in Monteverde is a pleasant experience. I feel safe and accepted in this community. I have learned so much while being here and am growing so much. This experience is different from many other, more structured, abroad programs. The experience is very much up to you; it can be humble and monumental all at the same time. However, it is a liberating experience. For the first time I feel truly independent. The sound of the rain falling on a tin roof in Costa Rica is something and someplace I never thought I’d see or hear while 19 years old. While smelling the fresh air in the mountains of Costa Rica, I feel that there is a whole world waiting for me. From a little dirt road in the center of a valley of mountains, I have life at my doorsteps, in my grasp. I am at the center of the world right now, literally and metaphorically. Life starts right here, deep in the rainforest. I am in the mix, humans, wildlife, forest, and freedom. It’s the little things that make up this trip. Before I go to sleep I piece together my day and remember all the moments that have made me smile and all the first-time experiences that I have accomplished that day. My eyes are so much wider now. When I put my day together, my week together, and my month together, I realize what invigorating experience I have been having.