Watercolors and Wishes

My life since AMIGOS has felt like a dream. I keep expecting to wake up back in Costa Rica. As I've been applying to colleges, I've had many chances to reflect on my experiences thanks to college application essays. The following essay I wrote as part of my application to the Westminster Honors College. The prompt was: Discuss the most interesting conversation you have had in the last year. What made it so interesting? Let me know what you think. On July 16th at around 7pm I wandered out of my small room in search of food and companionship. I had just finished writing a letter home to my mother in Salt Lake City about my experiences that week in Costa Rica. The sky was beginning to darken through the window, and the house was strangely quiet for that time of day. Usually my host father would have arrived home. My host mother, Mirna, would be cooking dinner and the smell would permeate the house and flood through the cracks in my bedroom door. My host brother would be wat...

So, I wrote an essay about my experience last summer with Amigos for my English class as practice for College Apps in the fall (scary thought!), and it turned out better than expected so I thought I would share it with you all. Here goes nothing... It is a warm, humid morning. Strangely, the sky is devoid of the large Cumulus mediocris clouds that have plagued the small valley for the last week. The sun is just rising over the green mountains, casting a warm glow on the small cement buildings around the town center. The sun reflects off the tin roofs of the houses where families are beginning to stir. A few early-risers stroll past the small park to catch the earliest bus into the closest city. A slight breeze causes the metal swings to creak and the leaves in the trees to ruffle. The smell of fried plantains and chickens waft across the blue sky, past the gleaming white walls of the Catholic c hurch building, past the Pepto-Bismol pink walls of the mayor’s office, and into the...

I figured that I should probably tell you all about AMIGOS now, because it is pretty much consuming my entire life. If you already know about AMIGOS (probably because I never shut up about it) feel free to stop reading if you want. I wont be offended. Okay, maybe I will be offended, just a little bit. Anyway, Amigos de las Americas (or AMIGOS for short) is this amazingly fabulous international nonprofit organization that sends college and high school aged students to rural communities in South America for 6-8 weeks, where they facilitate community development, live with a host family, and hopefully become completely fluent in Spanish (Haha... it's a joke. I'm the worst gringa I know!)). Once upon a time in 7th grade, there were two lovely people who came into my Spanish class to talk about AMIGOS, and at first I was only interested because at least the spanish teacher had turned of Destinos while they gave their presentation. By the end of their presentation I was hooked. ...