Over spring break 12 students from both Niles North and West went on a 11 day long vacation to Costa Rica. During the trip students stayed in a total of four different cities throughout the entire country. The first four days students stayed in hotels with Spanish teachers Mr. Tapan Patel and Ms. Alejandra Arteaga, the chaperones who accompanied the students. On the fifth night students stayed with host families.
During the trip students are fully immersed in Spanish culture. They speak full Spanish the entire time and visit local markets and other stores to get the full experience. The students also went on other adventures like ziplining one day and exploring a waterfall another.
On days students were with their host families, they lived the same lives as them. This included doing things like going to church, playing board games, or exploring individually with their families. This allowed for each student to get their own experience to remember for a lifetime.
The reasoning behind this trip is to give students an authentic experience and be fully exposed to the culture. Students have to use their Spanish to be able to communicate and in turn learn more about the culture and perfecting their speaking skills. Although it may seem uncomfortable at first, students got used to it
“You learn how to be comfortable speaking Spanish,” sophomore Amber Weatherspoon said. “When you’re in class you might say something in English because you don’t know how to say it, but when you’re in someone’s home you have to say it, even if it’s wrong, because that’s the only way your host family can understand.”
Artega explained how all the students had such an amazing and would recommend for all other students to go. “We actually surveyed the students about if they would recommend another student to go and they all said they would highly recommend it and that it was the best experience.”
As the trip came to an end the emotions were strong from everybody involved. Despite only knowing each other for a few days, the students and their families had grown extremely close. As they said goodbye students left with a forever, one in a lifetime, memory.
