Andrew: The Social Environment

Now that we are two weeks into our trip, our social interactions with students at Del Mar have changed greatly... For the better. Understandably, there was some awkwardness as we first started to integrate ourselves into Del Mar's and Nosara's environment, but it feels like we've almost fully merged into the school and friend groups here. 

As I wrote about in my last post, the lifestyle and environment here seems to have a huge impact on the people. Specifically, their attitudes and interactions. Despite being in a high school environment, the complications of teenage social interactions seem lessened significantly. The social situation at Del Mar has stood out to me as one featuring extreme inclusion. 'Friend groups' exist, as they do in other high schools, but each student integrates into the entire community more than I have ever seen at home.

I believe that, despite the largely positive outlook in our posts, I feel that we acknowledge should some of the perspectives of the Del Mar students as well. They seem to agree that the social situation is more casual and the Costa Rican environment has a positive impact on their lives, but there are certainly trade offs from living in a city like Houston. The students have mentioned difficulties with their college and career paths; They say that Del Mar (and IB) prepares them for college in America, but that isn't a realistic path for everyone, despite their education. It's important to recognize these distinctions as short-term exchange students, as we still have a relatively limited perspective.

Despite any of the negative aspects, it still seems that every student loves Nosara, as do I, Carly, and Ilan. This has been an incredibly valuable opportunity and I feel a bit sad thinking about our departure date. In the future, I hope that this exchange program will continue, and by the time I am in college, I hope Del Mar students will have the opportunity to come to Houston.