Diversity

Coming from ruarl small town South Dakota without much travel experience outside of my state let alone the country (never at all), this trip to Costa Rica will not only be a rememberable adventure for me, it will also be a life changing experience a real eye opener you could say.
I can not speak for the rest of my group that will be going on this adventure with me, but I have had not much experience with diversity. I come from a very caucasion middle class community. In fact, looking back at my high school class I don't feel there was much diversity at all. Sure there was spanish and german classes where we studied their cultures and every now and then in other classes we would explore others as well. But, it was not until I came to NSU that I realized how naive I was to other cultures. NSU has a great diversity of students and cultures. By just opening up and meeting people here you can learn so much about the world. But listening to their stories and actually going and experiencing it hands on I feel could be a whole new experience in itself.
The first challenge I feel I will come across is the language barrier. I have taken some classes in spanish but not nearly enough to feel confident enough walking around in Coast Rica. We are working on our spanish speaking skills and hopefully this will be able to get us through well enough to make it through our trip without to big of problems
Second, I am a little nervous about the food. This is probably not as big of a fear for my group members as me. But I am a hamburger and fries type of girl, a very picky eater. At the same time I am very excited to try something new. I just do not want to offend anyone by not liking the food that they serve.
Next, I have no idea what to expect for the living conditions. The experience of living in a village for two weeks makes me excited and a little nervous. I have heard that we may run into several areas without running water. For a girl who has never roughed it in the woods this will be an experience all in itself. Oh, and the bugs! I have seen some pretty interesting pictures of insects that exist down there. Not your typical mosquito and fly. As a bio major I will be more than thrilled to snap a picture to show to everyone in my invertabrate class. But, I am just not sure how I will react to seeing any wildlife anywhere other than outdoors.
And finally, the interaction with the people. Our body language and actions could be perceived very different then what we are use to. The same goes for our perceptions of them. We will have to be aware that their may be times that their actions or ours could make someone feel very uncomfortable and we could come off as rude.
But, all that aside I am estatic to go on this journey. I can not wait to have new experiences, and come back full of knowledge and insight of a different corner of the world. Only 47 more days!!!

TRAVEL IS FATAL TO PREJUDICE, BIGOTRY, AND NARROW-MINDEDNESS AND MANY OF OUR PEOPLE NEED IT SORELY ON THOSE ACCOUNTS. BROAD, WHOELSOME, CHARITABLE VIEWS OF MEN AND THINGS CANNOT BE ACQUIRED BY VEGETATING IN ONE LITTLE CORNER OF THE EARTH ALL ONE'S LIFETIME.

MARK TWAIN, 1867