Hasta la vista

I cant say that I made the sanest decision by quitting my job and heading off to Costa Rica, but it certainly feels right. At least being not the sanest person does have its fun moments.

After much soul searching, I came to the conclusion that Marketing is not for me. I appreciate the opportunities I have had and the people I have met on my career path, but I am destined for something else. I decided that my career ambition is to be a Spanish teacher and to do that, a few changes needed to be made. First, I needed to find a school that would take a non-education backgrounded person and make me and education backgrounded person with out making me get another bachelors, so Hello Masters of Art in Teaching program at National Lewis University. Next I had to take a boat-load of tests: Basic Skills, Spanish Content Area, Miller Analogies Test, and a Spanish proficiency exam (coming up in August). Finally, I needed to make up 7 Spanish credits because I was short the needed 32 for the program. I searched high and low to find (eh-hem) higher level Spanish courses in IL to no avail. So I finally found the study abroad program (http://www.amerispan.com/) in San Jose, Costa Rica for 5 weeks and it fit my needs perfectly. I leave July 5th and will return Aug 9th.

I will be staying with a family: a very sweet woman who calls herself "Mami" and says that she has a big house and all the "chicas" that stay at her house think she is a good cook, and her husband, I presume "Papi". They have adult children who are married with children of their own. I think its so sweet that instead of being lonely in their empty nest, they take in struggling Spanish speakers, like myself, and let us live with them. :) There will be one other girl there while I am there and we each get our own bedrooms. I will be taking 2 courses: one Spanish course in the AM and one Spanish elective in the PM. To get into these courses, I had to take a placement exam that I ended up having to take about 4 times because of random technical and mental ;) difficulties. I thought fate was putting me in check, in a "why would you ever think that quitting your job and going to Costa Rica is a good idea" type of way, but in the end, it is all working out.

I am very lucky that Pepper is allowing me to "have my job back" when I get back to the states, and I am lucky that I have the amazing support of my friends, family, co-workers and Joe. So I am really doing it. I have the rest of my life to save for my retirement, right? Thanks 401K!

Still though, I have moments where I wonder if I am crazy. I think I will just embrace it because damn, I quit my job and am going to Costa Rica for 5 weeks. I am living la vida loca, and will be living the vida de Costa Rica!

Thanks for following me on my trip. I hope I entertain you with my adventures! :) 12 days till I leave!