Costa Rica / Coming Home

Family and Friends,
I had only two days and one night in Costa Rica, and I had just finished finals the day before I got there so it was pretty much the last time to hang out and have a good time with my friends, most of whom I will never see again after this week is over. The first morning I spent “rafting” down the Corobici River which was about an hour away from where the ship docked in Puntarenas. I put rafting in quotes because the experience didn’t quite match up to the description that was given. It was just my friends George, Mike, Paul and I sitting in a raft without paddles going downriver at about the same pace as the Eagle Trace Golf Course’s famed creek. Regardless of how disappointing the adventure was, it was still a lot of fun to be with friends doing something in a foreign country. Costa Rica was an easy country to overlook because it is the last stop before coming home and it seems that people had that on their mind more than the fact that we were in a place where people save their money to go on vacation. It seems that this was a good indicator for me of how overwhelming this trip was as a whole, that a place like Costa Rica could be overlooked. On my lone night there, I went with some friends to Jaco Beach, a tourist spot where many other Semester at Sea students were headed. I didn’t get arrested by the Costa Rican police, so I considered the night a complete success and I will leave it at that. I spent the second day picking up some souvenirs and walking around on the beach, but I have been a bit under the weather lately and I found myself exhausted about half way through the day, so there weren’t really any blog worthy events that took place.
The last few weeks traveling across the Pacific have flown by, even though I was finishing up classes and taking tests. I thought it would feel like the longest stretch for sure, but it is almost unbelievable to think that I will be home on Friday night. I have bittersweet feelings about coming home, which has nothing to do with lack of excitement but rather with the fact that this voyage that I had been looking forward to for so long will actually be over. It seems like only a few days ago that I was so nervous and anxious about leaving the world that I knew for an extended period of time. It has turned out to be the most rewarding thing that I have ever done and I wouldn’t take it back for anything in the world. Even with that considered, I don’t think I can completely quantify how all that I have seen and experienced has affected me until sometime in the future. It is strange because I have felt so disconnected from the world I have known for my entire life that I feel as if I have stepped into a time capsule that I will leave on Friday when I see my family again.
I definitely need to thank my parents, who sacrificed a considerable amount to let me go on this trip. I will be forever indebted to them for giving me the opportunity to see and experience the world like I never imagined I could. Thank you also to everyone who took the time to read my longwinded blog and all of you that gave me so much support and sent me messages throughout my trip. I can’t wait to get home and not only share my stories with all of you, but also to hear what everyone has been up to since I have been away. I guess this is the end of my life as a blogger, I hope you all have enjoyed it and I am so excited to see all of you very soon.

Conor