Quince Días is a 15 day holiday in July beginning on July first and ending on the 15th. Since our summer marks their winter, Quince Días is their Christmas break. It is the WorldTeach policy that the first week of Quince Días is free for volunteers to travel about Costa Rica after a brief 2 days of Mid-Service (which includes more Charlas and lots of reflection on our time thus far). The second week is to be used (optionally) for implementation of a community service project, though the project can be started before or after that week. In the past, these projects have ranged from such things as putting on plays in English, organizing soccer tournaments, teaching exercise classes, and teaching English classes to adults. I will be teaching adult English classes, but my project will not begin until next Tuesday because my director was convinced that no one would come during the vacation time.
But, now that my Quince Días are over, what do I have to say for myself?
Well, I spent the first week in Playa Guiones, a beautiful surfer town in Guanacaste. One of the other volunteers offered up a beach house owned by her uncle for others to stay in at a discounted price. Knowing I wanted to do nothing else but bum around at the beach the whole week (as opposed to bumming around in the mountains), I eagerly jumped on that idea. Through the various coming and going of all the other volunteers, there were probably about 17 of us in and out of the house all the time.
The house had every comfort that we loved and missed like air conditioning, an oven, hot water, a washer and dryer, a stove, large refrigerator (with a real freezer!), and soft pillows. It was nice to be able to cook what we wanted, sleep when we wanted, wake up when we wanted, and be independent in all the comforts that we were used to for a week.
I think that Mid-Service (what we call the first week of Quince Días) comes at just the right time and also just the wrong time. It was just at the right time because it was nice to have a break from teaching and trying to be Costa Rican. But, I’ve been told that they* say that the first three weeks of language immersion are the hardest. My fear was that a week of constant English would ruin my Spanish improvement, but I actually found it to be quite the opposite. I think being removed from the stress of constant Spanish practice (I’d often wake up and find myself conjugating verbs in my head or practicing various parts of Spanish grammar) helped me to relax a little bit more and increase the ease of my Spanish speaking and understanding. I think the other problem was that spending a week the way I was used to really made me miss home. For the first time this week, I really began to feel homesickness and various frustrations over things I have been encountering here. It definitely made me see my entire experience thus far in a very different light and I definitely want to try to make more of the rest of the time I have left.
*If anyone would happen to know who “they” are, I would appreciate if someone could tell me. I’d like to see about the accuracy of those findings.
You can do it :)
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