MPHS Spanish students experience an adventure of a lifetime - Part two

[July 05, 2016]  MOUNT PULASKI - The fun never stops - While there are plenty of activities for the Costa Rican students to take part in, there are no school-related activities that include sports. “All activities like that take place outside of school,” said Grunder. “I went with my family to violin practice and soccer practice. Their evenings were just as full as ours are.” These kids play soccer on Sunday, practice violin and piano, go to theater and some even play volleyball. They also love music and dancing.

An event that Grunder was invited to take part in while there included a spelling bee and it was evident she enjoyed that experience. “While we were there, there were two nationwide events going on. They had a spelling bee sponsored by the Peace Corps in English. So, many of us were asked to help the students there practice for the English spelling bee and that was really fun. I got invited to go to another school and moderated the spelling bee. I got to work with the Peace Corps and that was really fun.”

This was all part of the English Celebration Day, which included the spelling bee, a speech competition, a fashion show and a lip-sync competition, all put on by the students and all in English, Grunder explained.

“While we were there our school also had their annual Arts Fair. Part of the chaos of the school schedule was due to this. I kind of equate it to our Homecoming Week when schedules are off and we are interrupted,” said Grunder.

“Many of the students who were in our group were also part of a dance presentation. They were doing a traditional folklore dance and they practiced forever and had a professional choreographer come in.

"Of course, they had a band come in a play heavy metal American music. They love their American music there. It’s a big deal.

"A lot of the people that speak English there very well are self-taught. They learn their English from television, YouTube, music and movies. Some of them speak so beautifully.”

Unfortunately the MPHS students missed the big day of the Arts Fair because the American kids went ziplining that day. “We were bummed that we were not there because we watched them practice for a week. But we got to see some video.” Grunder added that is was a competition, too, with the students advancing to regionals and nationals.

The food was a hit

“The food was great and nobody complained about it. Everybody loved it,” said Grunder.

School cafeterias have to abide by a national law that requires all food served to be fresh. Grunder added, “Unbelievably, it works. The ladies actually cook. It’s restaurant quality and colorful plates everyday.

Primarily the staple food in Costa Rica is pinto gallo. Pinto gallo is rice and beans, but it’s made a little differently than other Latin American countries. For breakfast you will have pinto gallo with eggs and cheese. Where we were at there was a lot of cheese and a lot of dairy farms.”

The students also ate some tortillas and a lot of plantains, according to Grunder. “If there is one thing that I know a lot of the kids want to eat coming back, and that is a lot of plantains. A plantain is a banana that is not sweet. They just look like green bananas but they are prepared in a lot of ways. Sometimes they mash them, fry them or just serve them as a side dish,” she said.

“Of course the fruit there is great. They grow a lot of pineapple in Costa Rica. We got to eat a lot of really good pineapple. They grow a lot of watermelon there.

We did try a lot of new fruit, like mamon.
[See YouTube video - English/Spanish video] They look like a miniature lime, but you bite the skin, pop the top off and inside is a big seed with a grape coating on it and you peel it off and chew it like gum. It’s the coolest experience.

Beans and rice are popular with every meal but it’s not like that’s all there is. When you look at a plate there’s beans and rice, but then there’s beautifully bright vegetables, fruit, meat, you know everything. Potato salad is a big thing there, too.”

The meat of Costa Rica consists of beef, pork and chicken, just like the United States, said Grunder.

Another similarity with the U.S., is chain restaurants like McDonald’s and Pizza Hut. Grunder, a self-proclaimed foodie, was particularly fond of the McDonald’s in Costa Rica, which featured an ice cream store. “Their McDonald’s had a separate ice cream store and I said, “We need that!”

The group also really enjoyed the tropical drinks offered by the small Central American country. “Drinks were great. A lot of the drinks were tropical coconut, mango and papaya drinks. Some of the kids really fell in love with Costa Rican candy. The food was not a problem.”

Nor was how often you eat the food a problem. “Costa Ricans eat four times a day,” said Grunder. “Breakfast, lunch, merienda and dinner.” She explained that merienda was around 4:00 p.m. and that featured a snack that was usually coffee, cookies and pastries. The Costa Ricans also eat a late dinner, usually around 9:00 p.m. “A couple of the kids, like Peyton, had professional chefs as mothers and they really liked that,” she added.

Getting a picture of what life is like in Costa Rica

Even though the students traveled to Costa Rica during June, this time right now is winter for the Central American country. Grunder said the temperatures ranged in the low to mid 70s where they were located in the mountains. Not bad for a winter in Costa Rica.

Because of the moderate temperatures and rainy weather, no one had a problem sleeping, she said. “It was perfect sleeping weather. Although, it did get dark early in the mountains. And living in the mountains was like living in the clouds.

When we would go on excursions during the day, just 30 minutes down the mountain the weather was completely different. Hot, humid, and difficult to breathe,” Grunder said.

“Costa Rica is by no means a third world country. It’s a very modern country,” she noted. All the families the students stayed with were middle-class and everyone had a nice house and two cars.

“Biking is a big thing there, too, and in the morning moms would be walking and hiking in their Nike shoes. WiFi was accessible. It was good. It was not difficult to adjust to,” she said.

Students in Costa Rica also go to college and have dreams just like the American kids. “English is very important to the Costa Ricans in order for them to advance,” said Grunder.

"As Ben said, you really have to be self-motivated to want to do well in school. There are a lot of things in place for you to not do so well," Grunder said.

Nonetheless, family goals and student goals are the same as those of the U.S. students.

Costa Rica does not have a military, either, so that is not an option for young adults, but they do have a police force and a fire department. Grunder also mentioned, “They are up and coming in software development, so there are opportunities there, too.”

A factory tour

Grunder said, “We added a last minute tour to the trip, and by far it was my favorite. It had nothing to do with nature and everything to do with the Costa Rican people. It had everything to do with hopefully just showing the kids what work is like in Costa Rica. "Marvin, the young man we hosted in January, his dad owns a factory. So we quickly organized a trip to the factory and it was a working factory. It was a yucca plant. Yucca is a root vegetable. It’s like a staple food in Costa Rica, like a potato is to us. Marvin’s dad runs the processing plant.”

Grunder and her students toured the plant, which involved watching approximately 22 workers standing all day long, shaving the yucca into stalks with a machete. “What I loved about that experience was that they got to see the inside of a factory. We got information about how they grow it, how they process it and what they do with the leftovers, feeding it to the happy cows they said.

"Then the money part came in. Mostly women were working there and they had crates and they filled their crates with the shaved yucca and they would take it over to the station where it got weighed and they would get two dollars. They moved quickly but it took about an hour to fill the crate.”

“It was really interesting for some of the students to see what their Ticos had to do to raise money to come to the U.S. It gave them a new perspective on work, the value of the dollar and what it was like to work in a place like that.”
She also noted that Marvin’s dad does not speak English, so Marvin and his friend translated during the tour.

The American students and their impressive impromptu speeches

“The other experience that I think the kids will remember the most, and I know I will too, was our last night there,” reflected Grunder. “It was very impromptu. We all gathered at the church sector and had a potluck. One of the mothers, who spent a lot of time with the kids, she was the social planner, that was Madeline’s host mother, and she was really great. She invited our students to stand and speak one at a time in Spanish.

"There were at least 50-70 people there. One by one, and I will probably cry, my students stood up, some of them having barely two years of Spanish, only a couple having four and a couple having three, and gave speeches from their heart, in Spanish, thanking these people, talking about the relationships they formed, talking about the country and talking about the culture.”

Tears welling up in her eyes again, Mrs. Grunder said, “Uhmm, yeah, I was a cry baby that night.” Grunder can laugh about it now, but she was obviously beaming with pride.

“It was just so nice. You know, they all had their own language experience there. We being English speakers, the Ticos really wanted to practice their English, so it was really hard to stay in Spanish, because they wanted to learn English. So, for my kids to stand up on the last day to face all these people and just speak from their heart in Spanish was the most rewarding part of the whole thing.

"They were very insightful. They were so respectful. In fact, this particular group, over and over I just kept hearing they’re just so polite, they’re just so nice.

"We need to brag about this more. Because we don’t brag about our students like we should. I mean I took eleven of them to a foreign country and I didn’t have one ounce of behavior problem, one ounce of a negative word or anything.

"They really impressed me with utilizing the few Spanish words that they have. They really spoke well and they just did it, you know. It was impressive, to say the least.

"They made people laugh. I’ve always told them you know you know your Spanish when you can crack a joke and Spanish people laugh at you.

"Or now I can say, my gosh, if you can give a speech from your heart and make people cry. They did it.

"They weren’t expecting to do that. It was totally impromptu. They didn’t have any practice.”

Making note that all the boys went first, Grunder commented that “they knocked it out of the park.” She also added quietly that the boys shed a few tears while they were speaking.

“This is what it’s about, you know. I don’t know that I will ever travel to a foreign country with students again just to travel because those relationships and the things that happened that we didn’t expect were going to happen were the things that are going to keep them wanting to go back, keep them wanting to stay on top of their Spanish, keep them communicating and getting so eager and excited to have them here in January.

“It was a very rewarding last evening and it made leaving the next morning even that much harder. It was very hard to leave. We can only hope that they have as great of an experience as we did because it really was very positive. It was great,” Grunder said.

The last night together the students reflect on the experience

Grunder told one final story of the last night she and the students spent together in Costa Rica. After they said good-bye to their host families, they stayed in a lodge in the jungle that had tree houses, complete with monkeys in the nearby surroundings. Lots of loud monkeys who indeed do throw things, according to Grunder.

Her response to that was characteristic of her personality. “It was fun. It was really fun,” she said.

So, she gathered the students together for a “pow wow” in her room and she asked the students to answer questions about the experience. They were very honest, she said, and she was happy to share their responses.

Here are the comments the students shared on their last night together in Costa Rica. Muchas Gracias, Senora y los estudiantes!

Peyton Taylor: Costa Rica was much more beautiful than I thought it would be. I loved it there, and I am going to miss everyone a lot! I wanted to stay longer.

Shay Inselmann: I was surprised that shoes have to be worn in their homes. And, I was surprised that my shower was not warm.

Eli Olson: My top three memories are: Laying on the ground with friends, looking at the stars, and listening to "Hotel California"...in Costa Rica! Going to the hot springs with my host family. And, being at the waterfall and ziplining in the jungle!

Faith Doerr: I learned that I am not as tough-skinned as I thought I was: I can fall in love with a family in just 12 days! I also learned that I really do like to try new things. I also realized that just because the way people live is different, doesn't mean they're poor.

Elizabeth Siebert: Even though our MPHS group was diverse, we all grew closer and got along well.

Madeline Moody: I wish it was longer. I would have talked more with my Tico’s brothers earlier in the week. I already want to go back.

Ashley Houser: I learned that I am braver than I thought I was. It surprised me how close all of us (Hilltoppers and Ticos) became so quickly. We all come from different (friend) groups, but we all got along great.

Morgan Kinnaird: I was surprised by how much of the language I actually could understand, because I didn't feel confident in my skills. I have never felt closer to a group of people like this before.

Jaden Elliott: Honestly, I didn't think it would be as well-developed as it was. The food is much better than I could've wished for! And, I loved the friendly, chill people.

Felipe Buenrostro: I learned how independent I can be. I was surprised by how chill you can be and still get things done.

Sebastian Scassiferro: Everyone was so friendly and patient with us. I learned that in a tough situation (with language), I can speak Spanish pretty well.

[Teena Lowery]

My (Teena Lowery) two cents:

MPHS is so fortunate to have Rachel Grunder not just as their Spanish teacher, but as an individual who truly cares about the students and their positive growth. She is truly someone who beams with pride when talking about her “Hilltoppers” and her compliments about these kids and their positive attitudes just goes on and on.

MPHS is also very lucky to have Grunder take such an interest in jumpstarting the foreign exchange student program. It’s been years since MPHS was involved in this endeavor and if the first successful trip is any indication, it looks like there will be more trips in the future.

With that being said, Grunder already has a group together that will go to Spain next year.

In the meantime, MPHS families will host Spain students September 10-30, 2016.

Students can then look forward to their Ticos visiting Mount Pulaski January 5-16, 2017. Looks like many life-long bonds will be forged and for our little community, it will be fun to welcome these young people into our lives.

Job well done, Senora.