This evening roughly half of the students on the Costa Rica trip will depart from National Airport on their way to our first exotic destination, the airport of O'Hare (located in Chicago). Before these students have a chance to acclimate to the sounds of the Dan Ryan Expressway, the wafting smells of sausage, and the lilting tones of the Second City natives, they will head off (again) tomorrow morning to Costa Rica, our second stop on the tour. The other half of the student group is leaving Saturday morning; we all draw together in the city of San Jose, the capital. The students are extremely excited for this trip; they come up to me all day long and ask a very narrow range of questions about the trip. Here are a couple of examples.
"What time will be set for curfew?"
"Can I wear [insert clothing item that is just a bit past dress code limits here] to Costa Rica?"
My favorite so far has been the earnest question, "I can take up to 50 pounds in my suitcase, right?" As I recoiled in horror (50 lb. suitcase up the steps, down the hall, up the stairs, back down and into bus 18 times on this trip) I asked why he needed 50 lbs. of anything. He responded that he only had 23 lbs "so far" but just wanted to know. In my heart, I already feel bad for our bus driver who will have to take all these "just under 50 lb bags" on and off the bus. We should all learn some colorful phrases in Spanish on this trip!
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