Students said “hasta la vista” to the United States and “hola” to Costa Rica this summer.

From June 17 to June 27, fifteen students traveled to Costa Rica with the Spanish Club. While there, they visited Arenal, Monteverde and the Pacific Coast.

  Spanish teacher Nicholas Schiffgens thinks the kids who went on the trip really enjoyed it.

   “[The trip] was what it was meant to be. For some of the students, it was life-changing,” said Schiffgens. “It was an awesome trip. I don’t know anybody who was disappointed in what they got. Everyone had an amazing time.”

  Students were so inspired by the trip because they were able to experience a different culture than what they are used to.

  Schiffgens not only accompanied the students on the trip, but he also assisted in the planning process of the trip because he wanted to allow kids a chance to apply what they have learned in school to everyday life.

  “[I wanted to create a trip to Costa Rica] to open them up because we talk about everything in class,” said Schiffgens. “Talking about things, seeing things and experiencing things are so different…I did offer it to other students [other than my Spanish students] just because world travel is great. I just saw a great saying. It was, ‘If the world’s a book and you haven’t traveled, you’ve only read one page.’ I thought that [saying] was really cool.”

  Junior Maddie Tomasic says that her favorite part of the trip was visiting the elementary school.

  “My favorite place was probably seeing the school,” said Tomasic. “It was grades kindergarten through sixth. There [were] a lot of kids, and there was one teacher. It was really cool to see how they go to school versus how we go to school.”

Junior Luke Brusse also had a part of the trip that he liked the most.

   “[My favorite part of the trip was] probably the zip-lining experience,” said Brusse. “We all got to go on fourteen different zip-lines.”

  The zip-lines were located in a rainforest in Monteverde at a place called 100% Aventura.

  During their stay in Costa Rica, some students noticed the natives’ carefree and laid-back personalities.

  “[The people who live there] are really kind,” said Tomasic. “They have a saying called ‘Pura Vida’… It’s their way of saying hello and life is good.”

  Overall, many enjoyed the trip to Costa Rica, and look forward to what other trips are yet to come, one of which Schiffgens has already begun to brainstorm.