Culture and Social Issues of Central America - Study Abroad in Costa Rica

This course will introduce students to the European-heritage and Indigenous cultures of and contemporary socio-political issues facing developing countries with a focus on Latin America emphasizing issues affecting children and families in of Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Costa Rica. Using Costa Rica as the focus of study, domestic and international aid responses to poverty and vulnerable populations, public and private, will be explored.

This course is an opportunity to learn about and from the developing world… in Costa Rica! From a global perspective (with an emphasis on Latin America), we will explore social policy issues as they affect vulnerable populations, particularly children and families. We will be introduced to domestic and international aid responses through guest lectures and site visits.

For the field portion of the program, we will be spending three to six afternoons at a public child care center for very poor, pre-school children, half of whom are Costa Rican and half of whom are from Nicaragua. Students should be prepared to engage the children in activities (arts and crafts, music, dance, games), providing their own supplies.

So, I found out this week that my program each summer goes to Costa Rica for a study abroad class. All I know so far is as much as I posted above (the course description) But I was thinking this would be a pretty cool thing to go and do. I want to travel more and although I have a always associated study abroad w/ Europe, why not go to a place I have never been and speaks the language I am trying to soon become bi-lingual in. We shall see what happens, I can not find out any more until after the information session in the begging of March. Very excited though of the possibility

SNOW!!! View from my office :)

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

And so it begins again...

This is the last weekend of freedom for me before my spring semester begins. I had a great month off and was able to recharge and get ready for this next semester. I am hoping that my classes are more interesting this semester, because Fall was a lot of repetition from what I learned the past 4 years in undergrad. I was extremely bored in my classes last semester because it was all so repetative, but according to my faculty adviser I may be bored my whole first year. So I will cross my fingers that at least some of my classes will have new and exciting topics for me to learn. I will be taking 4 classes again along with still continuing on at my internship at the elementary school in the Bronx. I did choose to take all my classes on one day, we shall see how quickly I regret doing that. I will be going to my internship Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday; and I will have 11 hour days on Wednesday when I go to school. This leaves me with 3 day weekends every weekend! I am trying to find a job of some sort to do on Fridays and/or in the evenings the days I have my internship, I had a promising opportunity but I'm not sure if it is going to work out or not now. My classes this semester are: Practice II, Research I, Clinical Practice w/ Groups, and Human Behavior in the Social Environment II. I FINALLY got the majority of my grades from last semester, I still am waiting for my Social Policy and Welfare grade, but so far I have gotten 1 B, 1 A-, and 1 A. I'm guessing the Policy grade will either be an A- or a B+. Not too bad for my first semester in grad school. The exciting part that I keep telling myself is that I am now a quarter of the way done with my Masters and that much close to freedom! At least freedom from school books, essays, and exams!

I also have a busy social life this semester too, now seeing how much time school takes I see that I do have enough time to do other things too. I have a friend coming to visit every month from back home in Cali for a long weekend. My sister is also coming in March during her Spring break, and I am going down to North Carolina to visit my brother, sister-in-law, and 2 nieces next month! I am finally going to see more of the North East too, my friend from Maryland invited me to come down with her during one of the long weekends in February to see Baltimore and then she said she would take me to DC too. I'm also looking into studying abroad this summer for 3-6 weeks. I am going to a meeting later this month to see if I can afford it and if the courses offered can count as an elective towards my Masters. And in July I plan to go up to Ottawa, Canada to visit my Canadian friends who came down here for New Years. I am very much looking forward to all the exciting adventures ahead and continuing to learn at my internship and become a better therapist.

New Pictures

I have updated my webpage with all my pictures on it. It is current with all my pictures from this past fall, from Christmas in California, and also my pictures from my NYE. Here is the link to view them all. http://picasaweb.google.com/cmwright121

I will update later this week or early next week about my grades and next semester's classes. :)

Happy New Year

I had a great trip home to see my family and visit with most of my friends. It was great to be in warmer weather (a little too warm for December) but it's SoCal. I was home for a week and a half and it was not enough to visit with everyone enough. Christmas was great and I got very needed warm clothes! The day I came back to NY my friends from Canada, that I met this summer in Europe, came down to visit for a week. We were busy the whole time they were here, showing them all the tourist and must see site seeing place. We also did ALOT of shopping. Well I did looking, but they were able to have a larger selection to choose from here than they do back at home, and our clothes and shoes are cheaper than in Canada. We went to a club for NYE and had a good time. Their whole visit was jam packed but it was great to hang out with them again. I already started to plan my trip this summer to go up to Canada for a long weekend to visit them! The past 4-6 weeks have been packed with finals, Christmas back in Cali, and out of town visitors. It was a great time, but I am looking forward to slowing down the next few weeks. I start back to my internship tomorrow (same school I was at this past fall) and have that 3 times a week until May, classes do not start until the 20th, so I have a few weeks to relax until I'm back into the swing of school. I am so exhausted from being on the go for so long, I'm going to go eat some dinner and go to bed early. I will update soon about what classes I will be taking and how I did on my first semester of grad school.

<3 Bye for now.