A busy day at DePauw:
9:20 am: No alarm goes off. I am naturally awake. Last semester my first class started at 10 am. 9:40 pm: Get my morning bagel. I would go to class early to do some work.
11:30 am: Out of class and ready for lunch. Lunch with my favorite humans, my friends, where we claimed our table. Sometimes lunch was the only time I could hang out with friends because of how busy I was. I cherished this time. Sometimes I had meetings during lunch time.
12:40 ish pm: I would go isolate myself in order to get some work done mostly in Julian. Commute: 3 minutes.
1:20pm: I would have class
2:20pm: time for my afternoon smoothie at the BLEND.
3:00- 4:45 pm reserved for homework and small to-dos.
5:00pm attend meetings, when I had time my favorite time was Feminista! Time.
6:00pm: Civic Fellows exec meeting. If I had time I would get dinner to go before or after the meeting.
7:00pm: time to socialize. This is usually my free time where I attend events that are going on campus or I bother my friends while they study.
8:00-10:00pm: STEM Guide tutoring hours. Where I would help my fellow CS majors or interests survive Data Structures.
10:00pm: More homework time or time I would take to do BETA work or any other work for the many organizations I take part in.
12:00am: My average bed time hour.
========================================================================
A busy day in Heredia:
6:30 am: My alarm goes off I don’t have class till 8 am but trust me I have to wake up at this time. I lay in my bed dreading my two c
lass day. I get ready, feeling relieved that I prepared my outfit for the day the night before. I am ready to go
7:00 am: I walk to the kitchen and am greeted by my Host Mom Flory who woke up early to cut my morning breakfast, a plate of fruits and she always leaves out cereal hoping that I will eat something more than just fruit. She thinks I am too skinny. We sit there in silence while I slowly eat my fruit and then I take my lunch that she or my Host Sister Daniela has so graciously made for me.
7:30 am: It’s time to leave to class and on a good day I could arrive around 7:45 , but usually takes about a 20 minute walk. Depending on what I am wearing that day I greeted by many cat calls or just a “Buenos Días”, which I like to think is innocent.
8-9:40 am: Spanish class.
9:45 am: mostly everyone in my program walk to IFSA office to “do work”, but mostly chat and eat lunch. If I am really busy I’ll try to get some work in, but I am in no hurry.
12:30pm: I head to the bus stop so that I can take a bus that will take me to my Computer Science courses. My class doesn’t start till 3pm, but this bus is free and the next one does not leave till 3pm.
1:30 pm: This campus far away from central Heredia where everyone else has class. I get to campus sit in the hallway and do work (they have better wifi here). On a chill day I’ll go to la soda, lunch room, and talk to some of my classmates. Mostly it is them talking about their other classes that I am not in.
3pm: my class starts, sometimes anyway. It’s very common for classes to start late here, nobody is in a rush.
4:40 pm: I am out of class. On a good day I’ll get out before 4:30 where I can take the free bus but usually I have to go to the public bus stop and wait till 5 pm. They get me to my house roughly at the same time if the public bus is on time.
5:30 pm: I am home, no one else is. I go to my room do work and eat when I get hungry since they leave food waiting for me on the table. I continue my work or not for the rest of the day.
11pm: Usually the time I go to sleep
Most of my day is commuting from one place to another something that I do not have to worry about at DePauw.
======================================================================
Now neither of my days are exciting. However, I have found that my days in Costa Rica go slower during the week. But, my weekends are my favorite memories exploring what Costa Rica has to offer. Do not get me wrong I enjoy my days at DePauw, but the atmosphere is different. At DePauw everyone is on the go, everyone has something to do, I always have something to do. In Costa Rica I wait until the weekends in order to have something to do. Although I have been here for months Costa Rica still is not my element. It took me a whole semester at DePauw to even say that I knew my way around everything: buildings, communities, and organizations. In Costa Rica I may have made friends and have found some spaces where I feel comfortable I do not have my community and that has been one of the hardest parts about going abroad. I feel as though I am a freshman all over again and freshman year was not my peak.