Howdy Y'all: Houston to Liberia

Minus a few flight delays in the arrival of this plane, everything has gone according to plan! Jalyn (another student), Bill (my professor) and I met in St. Louis to fly together to Houston where we would meet the rest of the students at around 9:30AM. There are 9 of us in total participating in this Missouri School of Journalism study abroad trip and I am the only freshman.In Houston, the "kids" (2 boys and 7 girls) ate at a restaurant overlooking our gate while "dad" (Bill) guarded our belongings in the seats below. I had hummus and tortilla and a mixed salad and it was a decent late lunch meal. On the plane leaving Houston, I had a "classic snack box" with crackers, cheese, salami, M&Ms and cookies. It was yummy!We have safely arrived in Liberia (LEE-Bear-ria) and made it through customs and security just fine. On the flight to Houston I sat next to a flight attendant and on the ride to Liberia I sat next to Jalyn on the plane. We walked outside of the airport to meet Fern, the Costa Rican co-coordinator of our program. On first impression, she is very welcoming and patient -- qualities of a traditional Tico (Costa Rican) that we learned about through our coursework. We boarded our things into a large van/bus deal and met the driver who took us to Subway and McDonalds for a late night dinner snack.Notes about Costa Rica:

1. Toilet paper goes in the trash, NOT the toilet. It's strange and uncomfortable, but I'm sure people use less toilet paper that way! It takes a little adjusting (and I have forgotten more times than remembered), but Fern tells us to remember to switch back to normal practices once we get into the states.
2. The weather is beautiful! Granted, we arrived at 10PM or so, but it feels like Kenya/Uganda and I got a tad bit homesick of my second/third favorite country upon stepping out of the airport.
3. My Spanish is coming back to me! -ish. Our bus driver for this evening, Javier, has been nice in teaching me Español when I ask questions. Ticos so far are very friendly and appreciate any effort to try and speak their language. Bless freshman year Spanish and phrases I remembered :)
4. Bugs, bugs, bugs So far, the only spotting of creepy crawlers was a gecko and a few ants, but I don't want to jinx it. Known for its natural beauty and environmentalism, Costa Rica is home to biodiversity galore --- and that includes diversity in creepy crawlies. Cheers to bugs not in my bed!

I'll go ahead and share a little about our trip and what we're doing in Costa Rica (or what I know, at least!). As a group we have had three classes to prepare for our field reporting experience. Bill wrote an insightful book, "Green Phoenix", that I will talk more soon but it is one of our readings for the course. During the classes, we munch on apples and oranges courtesy of Bill, ask questions, and listen to Bill tell us about his many experiences in Costa Rica and about what we can expect to face on our two-week venture (that is finally here!!).The trip, in a nutshell, is centered on the human and environmental/agricultural conflicts present across Costa Rica, with particular interest to Guanacaste Province and Monteverde. A prime example of this involves sea turtles and that will be one of the highlights of our trip (hopefully tomorrow!). We will also be visiting a coffee farmer, other agriculturalists, nursing students from MU, the Cloud Forest, and other sights to report and inform our audience at home about the socioeconomic, cultural, environmental and food production landscape of the country we will call "home" for the next two weeks. We have long, busy days planned with various visits around the country and story producing on demand. The course is worth 6 honors credits and by the looks of our itinerary, we won't be stopping any time soon.I'd say emotions-wise I'm on the fence about how prepared and also how not ready I am for this trip. It's difficult to go into another country, another place with different cultures, social norms, common expressions and "ways of life" and given the nature of this course, report about them in ways that do not include personal bias, stereotyping or generalizations based on what one thinks. Especially as someone trying to enter the journalistic trade, it is important to recognize those inherent thoughts and biases about people that are different than you and it is something I am constantly working on. I'm lucky that the University of Missouri is home to such interesting people that were not raised the same way or feel the exact way I do about issues facing our country and the global space we live in. Sure it's easier said than done, like many things, but I'm hoping that I'll be able to approach this journey a bit differently as a result of my summer in Kenya and Uganda.I don't want to, in any way, falsely report about or misinterpret the Ticos given the language barrier and cultural differences, so that is perhaps the biggest worry I have as I start reporting tomorrow. It'll be an exciting journey and I'll be updating daily on here and for our trip blog posts that I will be sharing as well.I'd like to give a special shoutout to the people we made this trip financially possible for me - all of my scholarship donors for this school year. The generosity in funds given has allowed me to take incredible classes, go on a study abroad trip like this as a freshman, and not worry about the financial aspects of getting the most out of my college education. National Elks MVS,  Miss Springfield Scholarship Pageant, Sigma Alpha, Olean Community, VFW, National FFA and the many others that contributed and supported my education thus far and are allowing me to have as impactful of a freshman year as possible.Hasta la vista!