Our first batch of photos are in!

Please take a look at our group's photos!  Click onto the pictures link at the right hand corner of the blog.

Sincerely,

Mr. Moreland
City High Science Teacher

Now its kicking in... ;-)

OK now the excitement is starting to kick in. I can't believe 11 of you graduated today...this trip is going to be such an amazing final City High experience!

I haven't been in Costa Rica for 4 years. I'm excited about hearing Spanish all the time, the food, and the general happy feeling I have while traveling. I love travel adventures. And I'm so excited to witness all of you experiencing this for the first time. Your view of the world is going to totally change...can't wait to see it!

OK, that's all for now.

Oh -- what am I NOT looking forward to? Getting to the airport at 4:10am Monday morning! Yikes. But we can do it!

Excited and Scared

I am very excited about the trip in general. I am scared about talking to the Costa Rican students. I haven't really be keeping up with my spanish, so I am kinda rusty. I am worried aboutt ziplining. Hopefully there is a way around it.

Expectations/Fears

Written by: Jared Sams, Student

I am looking forward to visiting the volcano. I have never seen one in person, especially a live one. It will be interesting to see it for myself than just seeing it on TV. I am also looking forward to seeing the waterfall. Seeing nice sceneries in different parts of the world is also another big interest of mine.

The only thing that I'm nervous about is spending the day with our pen pals. I don't have any true Spanish experience and they don't really know too much English. It will make it hard for me to communicate and also to understand them. Luckily, we have people who speak Spanish and can translate the two different languages.

My Excitement and Major Fears

Just thinking about going to Costa Rica have my nerves on edge, especially since I have graduation going on. I am very excite to meet many new people like Espy Campbell, Manuel Obregon, and my pen pal whose name is Jose. I am looking forward to screaming down the zip line and taking a dive in the water, seeing many animals, like a monkey or a jaguar. What I am not the happy about is that I have get on a plane because I have NEVER been on a plane and I have watched so many scary movie avoiding planes going DOWN. I am, also, not that excited about bugs! They are my ultimate worse enemy and I thought I was over it but I am not. So I have to get over this fear or else...

What i'm excited about

Written by DJ Daughtry
I'm pumped for Costa Rica I can't wait for it. I've been talking with my pen pal and I can't wait to meet him. I think the thing I'm most excited about is zipping through the forest! I love doing crazy things like that. It says well be 60 feet above ground...YES. I also to learn how to say SWAG in Spanish. Also the party I really want to go to that too.

Excitement/Concerns

Brianna Holland

Excitement: I'm excited to meet up with our pen pals and actually get to hang out with them. I'm also excited about the soccer game just a LITTLE that we get to play against them. I am also excited about learning how they live verses how we live here in the USA. I'm excited that I'm getting to go to Costa Rica and learn a lot and actually come back and say it was a GREAT EXPERIENCE.




Concerns : One of the things i am concerned is not wanting to eat the food. I'm very picky when it comes to food so i guess ill manage i just don't like BEANS.!!! Another concern would be the zip line i haven't been on once for years and the one i went on was across the water but this one is in the Forrest so I'm a little worried on that. But i will most likely do it because i know it will be fun. I don't know how much swimming I will do because I CAN'T swim so ill be very careful of my surroundings whenever I go into the water.

blog

One thing in particular that i am excited to do is meeting the other kids. I can't wait to see what it's like to interact with people from another culture. I want to share this excitement by making new friends.
One thing that I am hesitant about is the food. I am afraid that i may go through withdrawal for peanut butter. However I believe i can cope by not thinking about it much.

Blog 1

Written by Alec Cepek, Student

I'm really excited but also nervous about the trip. It will be the longest I've ever been away from home, as well as the farthest. I'm nervous about the plane ride but people have also described it as a roller coaster type-feel which sounds pretty cool to me. The one thing I'm really excited for is to meet the people in the school down there. Although I'm nervous, I'm sure the trip will end up being something extremely fun and something that I will never forget.

Blog 1

Written by: Nikki Landosky, Student

I'm excited about the entire trip overall. This is the first time I'll be out of the country on a trip and I'm hoping to do a lot more travelling in the future. One specific thing I'm looking forward to is the zipline. It sounds like a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to going on it. Being in another country, I'm really excited about doing photography and overall experiencing a whole new culture that I'm not used to. I also look forward to meeting the students over there, that way if I keep in touch with them, I have international friends to talk to. I don't really think there's anything I'm necessarily afraid or nervous about. The only thing would be spiders, I have a major case of arachnophobia.

Excitement & Fears

Antoinette Davis, Student

One thing that I am really excited about is going on the zip line. I never been on a zip line and the craziest thing is that I am afraid of heights but I really wanna go on it. I think that I might actually lose my voice from screaming on it but it should be fun. Another thing that I am excited to do is go swimming out there. Its going to be different since I never been to a beach out of state so it should be interesting.

Something that I am afraid of is the first day we start our service learning. The only reason is because I'm not a big worker and I am going to have to try my best to doing something I don't normally do. Another thing is meeting the school students because since I don't speak Spanish I feel that it will be hard to talk to the students and especially my pen-pal.

Excitement & Fears

Written by: Steven Tichenor, Student

I'm excited to complete a number of things in Costa Rica. I've been talking to my pen pal Carlos for the last week and i'm super excited. I can't wait to meet him and go zip-lining through the forest. I also think it's going to be fun to interview people there and see how Costa Ricans live. I know it's going to be very different than it is here and the U.S. and I can't wait to see the differences. I'm very excited to see the Poas volcano, because I've never seen a volcano in person and I think it'd be very cool.

I'm most fearful of the plane ride. I'm not really afraid of it, but I've never been on a plane. I'm not really fearful of any of the activities we will be doing in Costa Rica, because it all sounds like fun and I'm very excited to do everything! There's nothing I'm worried about in Costa Rica. I can't wait to try their food and live like they do!

What Robert Murphy is looking forward to and what he is not looking forward to

Written by: Robert Murphy, Student

What I am Looking forward to?

On day 3 of our trip to Costa Rica the first service project where we will be working in the community where we will work with the community where we will to help expand the paved roads in the neighborhood. I think it will be interesting to see how they pave roads down there without the big machines that construction workers use like the pavers and asphalt machines we have here in the U.S. It will also be interesting to see how the community members react to seeing students from the U.S. helping them build the roads and seeing their reactions, some are going to be bad and some are going to be happy.

I am also excited about going to the rainforest as I never been to a rainforest before and I might get to try the fresh fruits of the rainforest that dont have any chemicals on them like the fruits from farms have chemicals that make em bigger and last longer while the ones in the rainforest don't.

What I Am not looking forward to?

Well on Day 10 we will be zipping through the Rainforest on a zip-line, yes it sounds like fun but to me a non-height type of guy, I would rather stay on the ground on my feet not looking down towards the ground at high speeds. As you may tell I have a fear of heights and fast moving things at the same time. This is the only thing on the trip that I am not looking forward to but i plan on trying the zip-line as it is part of the Costa Rican trip experience and I don't want to miss out on it.

Excitement & Fear

Tayler Lo'ren Clemm

Pros:
For the Costa Rica trip I am excited about a lot of things. Im excited to meet so many new people and there cultures. I am anxious to find out how to make a traditional mask. I also want to see the many sites that we will past such as the Central Valley Mountain ranges and the sleepy towns of Atneas and San Mateo de Orotina. Swimming in the beach is one of my main excitements too. I want to see all of the different type of animals as well.


Cons:
I'm not afraid of too many things from the itinerary besides maybe the zip line and a personal fear, which is the birds. I'm not really looking forward to playing soccer for three days, but I know that I will enjoy it. Experiencing the Mexican restaurant has me nervous about trying the different types of food in Costa Rica as well. I am not looking forward to the last day because I know I will have enjoyed Costa Rica so much.

Excitement and fear

Austin Murphy, Student

The Costa Rica trip is one week away and I am so excited to be going on this trip. On Day 3, I am excited to be doing the service learning project in La Carpio and the social activity as we will be working in an environment that needs help. Since La Carpio is on the outside of the city, they do not have much access to paved roads. I think the experience of paving roads, and working alongside the Ticos of Costa Rica. This will be an amazing experience to expand my knowledge of the Spanish language and to practice my abilities in Spanish. Also seeing how the Ticos live compared to us in the United States will be amazing as we know they live differently but seeing it firsthand will be great.

One thing that I am afraid of is zip lining. I am nervous about swinging through the jungle like a monkey. I think this is going to be a fun and rewarding experience for us as a group. I am a little afraid of heights. One way i am going to accomplish this fear is to let other people go first and then ill go. I think this is the best approach to this fair as watching others lets me build up confidence in order to over come my fairs.

Anticipation and Anxious (Jocelyn McLaughlin)

Right now I'm that calm type of anticipation. I don't think that it has hit me that I am going to be leaving my family for 12 day in a foreign country. Looking at the Itinerary I am not nervous or afraid of anything that we will be doing their Costa Rica. Their might be things that I will not like, such as the jungle part because my brother keeps saying that I am going to be see huge bugs. Also the fact that I am going to have to not be able to try to communicate fluently.

Now onto the things that I can't wait for. I can't wait to go zip lining even though I really don't like heights I really can't wait. I really want to see a monkey of sloth too just no giant bugs. In general i just want to experience the cultural and life style of Costa Rica.

Excited and Nervous

Written by: Julia Rippel, student

I'm really interested to meet our pen pals (and attempt to use some Spanish). I'm also excited to see the Poas volacano! I've always been fascinated with them, and I think it'll be really cool to actually see one in real life. I can't wait to be in the rainforest and see all the different animals and plants. I really hope we'll have time to go swimming in one of the waterfalls. I'm both excited and nervous about zip-lining.

I'm a little nervous about the service project in La Carpio, because I'm kind of out of shape, and it sounds like it's going to be pretty heavy duty work. I'm also a bit worried that I won't like the food or will get tired of eating rice and beans every day.

Excitement & Fear

Written by: Bethany Daffern Student

One of the main things that I'm excited for is going into the rain forest and actually getting the chance to zip line through it! It's something that is going to be different, exciting, and actually an adventure for some. Another thing that I'm excited for is meeting the high school students on Day 2 which some of us have had a chance to talk to. We'll all be able to meet kids our age and be able to talk to them and learn about them and what they do in school, and see how it differs from the education that we got.


The things that I'm nervous about is once we meet the high school kids its going to be more difficult to talk to them, seeing as though most of them mainly speak Spanish even though they are learning English in their school. It's going to be hard when we go anywhere because we're going to have to know some kind of Spanish to make it through our time in Costa Rica knowing either little to no Spanish and adjust. Another thing that I'm afraid of are the spiders and snakes. I am someone who doesn't like snakes at all. If i see one I'll move cautiously out of the way and in the opposite direction to not direct the attention of the snake.

What your science teacher is looking forward to and what he's afraid of

Written by: Mr. Moreland, science teacher

What I’m Excited About:

On Day 5, we will be going to the Poas Volcano and meeting with Roldolfo Van der Laat. The view of the volcano is spectacular! At times it is foggy, and you can’t see the caldera, or the top, of the volcano. Then all of a sudden the fog clears and you get to see the immense size of the volcano. It reminds me of driving south, towards town, on the Parkway North and making the final turn before you see the Pittsburgh skyline. I also really enjoyed seeing all of the tropical plants and animals that we got to see during the hike up to the top of the volcano.

What I’m Afraid Of:

There are two things that I am afraid of. First, on Day 2, we are interviewing three people: Epsy Campbell, Manuel Obregon, and Ms. Melissa. There is a lot of activity this day, and I am worried that near the end of the day our group will lose their focus and attention span. My other biggest worry is the risk of injury during our service learning activities in La Carpio and at Quebrada Arroyo. I hope that all of you pay attention while you work and that you safely handle any tools. The last thing I want to do is to take one of you to a hospital.

Excitement and Afraid of What???

Written by: Rob Matchett, student

I'm so excited that I have been given this great opportunity to travel out of the country. I think it is so cool that we get to go experience a new language and culture, and in Costa Rica of all places. Of everything on the Itinerary I am so excited to go zip-lining. When it said we were going on a canopy tour on zip lines i was like that is AWESOME!!!! I mean honestly how many people can say they've been to the rain forest let alone zip-lining through it? Also I love science so it will e interesting to experience all the scientific stuff we do like the volcano and the different interview that we will do concerning scientific issues.

I'm scared a little scared of heights but I know I can conquer that because the zip-lining will be so amazing that it wont even phase me.I also am not to happy about the whole flying thing because I hate that feeling like when your on a Roller Coaster and your out of control.Plus I have seen final destination one too many times to even enjoy a plane ride. Also I don't like snakes or spiders and from what we seen when we were still learning about Costa Rica there are some there. I think Ill be okay with the spiders but the snakes I will run away from. Just Kidding but I probably will be very freaked out and keep my distance. If its one thing i learned though its that life is short so you have to set your fears aside break free experience new things and have fun.