Uniontown students visit Costa Rica
Accustomed to drilling her upper-level students on the finer points of the Spanish language in the classroom, Heidi Miller recently got a chance to see the teen-agers practice their skills in real life. Miller, a Spanish teacher at Uniontown Area High School, took a group of students this summer to Costa Rica, where they had plenty of opportunity to put their lessons to the test.
Student Renee Garber said the trip gave them all a chance to speak their Spanish.
The 10 seniors and one junior are students of at least Spanish 3 and mostly Spanish 5 classes, and Miller said they had no trouble keeping up with the language, especially with the Costa Ricans’ minimal accent and a tendency to speak slowly.
“They have an expression – pura vida – take it easy. Just relax,” she said, noting the common greeting is literally translated as “the pure life.”
Miller has a three-hour video that chronicles the June 18-25 trip, and she would like the Costa Rica travelers to talk to others of her students about their first-hand experience in a foreign land.
“I would like to have them talk to my classes to explain what it’s like to use the language and be somewhere else, because sometimes in the classroom you can’t understand what it’s really like,” she said.
“I hardly spoke any English, mostly Spanish” said Brandon Duncan.
“When I came back, it was hard to go somewhere to eat and not speak Spanish,” said Ryan Hutnick.
Several of the students who were involved talked recently about the trip and displayed photo after photo of the places and things they saw. On her classroom wall, Miller put a display of maps, photos and a variety of information on the Latin American country, known for its exotic flora, fauna and landscape.
Their itinerary included a stop in San Jose, the cosmopolitan capital of Costa Rica, where the group started and ended their stay. They went to the Arenal Region, site of an active volcano; Monteverde, location of a cloud forest reserve; the Carara Reserve, a place to spot birds and animals; and to the mountains of Sarchi and Poas, home of one of the world’s largest volcanic craters.
“Costa Rica was a beautiful country, and it was neat to see all the things you don’t see here, like the rain forest. We went from the mountains (of Monteverde) to the (Punta Leon) beach. That’s the first time I ever went in a day from mountains to a beach,” said Duncan.
That trek, which included four hours on horseback, may have been the most unforgettable for the group members, for they each had something to say about it. Christina Marcinek, whose horse refused to walk anywhere but at the back of the line, said that ride sticks out among of her memories.
Of the scenery, Garber and Virginia Destro said the beach impressed them.
“I was most interested to see people of a different culture,” said Mallory McCune. “Groups of people live in villages with medical centers and schools, and almost every village has a soccer field, so soccer is a way of living down there.”
Miller commented that the Costa Rican government, when it disbanded its army, split the military money between health care and education.
“It is available and is free. You can tell by the people themselves, by looking at them, that they are well cared for,” she said.
Sarah Howarth, the lone junior in the group, had a first-hand experience with a medical center when she was checked out after a mishap on an attraction.
Everyone was having a good time maneuvering into the Monteverde cloud forest on the Sky Trek “zip line,” a cable and pulley contraption with a harness into which the rider is strapped and moves with his or her hands and feet.
“Part of my harness broke and I was stranded on the line,” Howarth said.
She laughed about the incident and said it did not at all sour the trip. She was not badly hurt and said she received excellent treatment at a medical center.
“I was terrified, but I would do it again,” she said.
The teen-agers explained the country, for the most part, is rural and the economy is based on agriculture, with coffee beans a staple of the system. They said they were a little surprised to see no homeless people.
Hutnick said something that struck him was a lack of crime.
“You really didn’t have to worry about violence. The people were nice and they got along good,” he said.
They said environmental issues are important and 20 percent of the rain forest is in reserves.
“It was very clean and the air felt more crisp,” said Graham Snowdon.
Regarding the cultural traditions and heritage of the people, Miller said many Costa Ricans are not indigenous to the country, often hailing from Spain, and are “a lot like us.”
“I was surprised how Americanized they are,” said Howarth.
The group noted that Monteverde was a Quaker settlement and well-known for its dairy products, including ice cream the likes of which they insisted they have never had.
They got up close and personal with a variety of creatures: sloths, toucans, a tarantula, fire ants, crocodiles, cats, stray dogs and a couple of surprises.
“We were watching a monkey coming from a tree and he jumped and something fell. I thought it was a leaf but a rat hit me on the head. I have pictures of the rat on the ground,” Duncan said.
In another incident, Duncan said, during an evening forest walk he was scouting the trail for wildlife and passed right by a poisonous snake that Miller eventually discovered.
“Right on the side of the path was a fer de lance. I was actually looking for it and couldn’t see it. Mrs. Miller spotted it and got it on camera,” Duncan said.
Also on the trip was Colby Love, Greg Adams and Brian McDowell. Miller’s husband, Jason Miller, an Earth science teacher at the high school, accompanied the group, and they had a tour guide.
They went under their own auspices, and the trip was not sponsored by or connected with the school district. It was up to the students to pay their way, and the destination was their choice.
Miller said she has taken students in the past to Mexico and another teacher is planning this summer to take a group to England and Ireland.
Except for Garber’s prior visit to Italy, this was the first time the students have left the United States. They agreed the visit to Costa Rica – organized through EF Tours, which caters to teachers and students – was well done, and they would all like to go again.
“We had no bad experience,” Hutnick said.