How Is LMU Similar To Costa Rica?
Luc Brubaker
Costa Rica Final Paper
06/21/13
LMU vs. Costa Rica The rich cultural and the many amazing traits that Costa Rica had in store for us, was only a symbol of the cultural and traits that fall within our team. It seems hard to believe that a country like Costa Rica and a small college soccer team can have so much in common, but along the trip I realized that in a lot of ways, we are the same. Reading the “Ticos” book could only teach each of us so much about Costa Rica and the Ticos that live there because it only mentioned “on the surface” facts that were pretty straight forward; It wasn’t until the trip, when we were able to delve into the culture itself and really understand what the book was saying. Costa Rica didn’t just …show more content…
allow us to grow as a team, but it also allowed us to grow as people, teaching us very valuable lessons along the way. Many experiences brought us together as a team and many of the memories will never be forgotten. The memory and the image that I think I will never forgot, will definitely be the zip-line. I don’t think anyone can forget the view that was presented while flying through the side of a mountain. Not many people get the opportunity to take part in such an activity, so really cherishing a moment like that was very important to me. The part of the zip-line that I will always remember won’t only be the scenery, but the way teammates came together. During the bus ride to the place, many of the teammates were expressing how frightened they were of this because of how high we were going to be from the ground. Once we got to the place and many of the teammates were thinking about not going through with it, other teammates came to the rescue and made sure that there wasn’t going to be a single teammate left behind. The reason why some of the guys went through with the zip-line was because of the encouragement of the team. It takes a situation like that to really have the team come together and because of that, I will always remember the zip-line activity. The activity that I felt brought the team together the most, would definitely be the the catamaran tour. Even though it didn’t end well with the coaches, it still really brought the team together. I don’t know if it was the alcohol or not, but during the whole tour everyone was full of life and bonded with players that might not have bonded. I know at least for me, I became really close with the upperclassmen that day because during the school year it’s hard to hang out with this especially if they live off campus. During the school year, the freshman usually hang out with the freshman, and the people who live in houses usually hang out with the people in their house. On the tour, everyone got a chance to hang out with everyone because we were stranded on a boat and no one could leave. Some people did some obnoxious things, but it was all in good fun. A lot of things were said to each other that were just positive, but very encouraging, especially being a freshman and hearing it from an upperclassmen. We are usually on the field when we are all together, but that is when our emotions run high because we are so passionate about the sport. Usually not everything that is said is positive, so it’s very easy to get discouraged. This tour allowed all the positives and encouragement to come out and was really good for our team. It’s unfortunately that it took a whole year for us to come together, but this tour was exactly what we needed. During the beginning of the trip, and specially during the first game that we played, was when I made the first comparison between Costa Rica and our very own LMU mens soccer team. Throughout my life and I’m sure I can speak for the whole team, I’ve thought that I have loved that game of soccer, but being around the Costa Ricans, soccer takes on a new meaning. Is their life. Each one of us have grown up playing soccer and worshiping our own favorite professional players, and that’s exactly how every single Costa Rican is. Soccer is the national sport in Costa Rica, there is no professional football or basketball league like there is here, so as the kids grow up, they all aspire to become professional soccer players.When talking to Emilio, he mentioned that almost all of the kids that we played were at least getting paid a little bit. Some of those kids look very young and in the United States, getting paid a little amount like that can make you ineligible to play in college. Many of those families probably weren’t very well of, so any money by the kids would help. It’s a whole different culture then us because the parents that I have talked to, said that they wouldn’t want their kids to go pro right away, they would want them to go to college first. The people who make a professional team, or at least play for their reserve team, still go out to local games to support soccer in their country. The Ticos book explained how their were three different levels of soccer for them: professional, club level, and the equivalent to a sunday league. During each of the games that we played, there were a number of fans there just to watch soccer, which seems crazy because this wasn’t a professional team playing, nor was it a league game, so there was so big result that came with it. They weren’t there because their kid was playing in the game, they were there because of their love for the game. All of us have that same love for the game, which makes us so similar. It was so easy to bond with the Costa Ricans because we all spoke the language, soccer. Every time a Costa Rican would see us with a soccer jersey or hear that we were a soccer team, you would be able to see their face light up. You would instantly become a big deal in their eyes, which meant so much at least to me personally, because we don’t get that recognition in the states. Soccer is essentially the fifth biggest sport behind football, baseball, hockey, and basketball. Being in Costa Rica was a breathe of fresh air because although we both share the same culture or language, we both shared our love for soccer. One of Costa Rica’s biggest sources of income is from the amount of tourist they bring in every year. It seems as if their country is based around tourists because many of their jobs consist of activities that tourists would do or hotels that tourist would stay in. During the river boat tour, the tour guide was talking to the group about his experiences as a tour guide. He mentioned that his previous job involved tourists and even told us that his girlfriend’s job involved tourists. There is no questions that Costa Rica tourism is blooming and the reason why many of their people are employed. In a sense, LMU is like Costa Rica and the soccer team is like the tourists. LMU will always be there, but the players on the team are only there for four years, maybe five. It is as if the players are just “passing through,” just like the tourists do in Costa Rica. You could consider our time in college as a “vacation” because we are their to enjoy ourselves away from home and people fly in from all over the country to come to this one spot. We all do things during our college experience that tourists would do while they were away our vacation. There are times where we drink like we have no worries, there are times where we go off and see different sights, and there are times where we just stay in our room and enjoy the time off. Although our stay might be a little longer than the average vacation in Costa Rica, we are still very similar to the tourists that visit that beautiful country every day. Another comparison between Costa Rica and LMU, is the diversity that is present in both locations. Costa Rica’s diversity comes in all different forms though. The United States is a lot more diverse in the sense of people, but Costa Rica still has many different cultures and ethnicities in their country. For example, many Nicaraguans find there way into the country, even though many Ticos don’t like them. While my grandfather was visiting for a few days, he told me a story how he picked up a hitch hiker on his way to one of the hotels. Luckily the man spoke english, but it turned out that the man was a from Nicaragua. My grandfather told me that the man told him that he came to Costa Rica for a better life and because there were more opportunities there. He wanted to make more money, so that he can help out his family back in Nicaragua. I found that story particularly funny because that is the whole reason people immigrate to the United States. You always here about stories on how people come to the United States to make money and send it back to their family in another country. That is also a huge problem in California and the border that separates us from Mexico. Many of them want to come to California and get a job to better their family’s life. Costa Rica’s diversity expands further past just people, its vegetation, animals, and insects are also very diverse. During the forest tour, the guide pointed out at least twenty different plants and insects, along with pointing out animals such as monkeys, sloths, and birds. I have never seen so many different types of plants and insects in my life. Especially coming from San Jose, California and going to college in Los Angeles, you are very limited in the amount of insects and plants you are able to see. LMU is very diverse in the sense of the people that attend the school. Just from the soccer team, we have players from California, Washington, Colorado, Missouri and Hawaii. The person who lived next to me in my dorm was from Costa Rica and his roommate who moved in later on in the year was from England. Although we don’t have the wildlife that Costa Rica has, LMU definitely has a similar diversity. The final way that Costa Rica and LMU are similar, is that we are both small for our particular group or category.
For instance, Costa Rica is a very small country, as well as LMU is considered to be a very small college. In the matter of twelve days, it seemed as if we got a taste of everyone in Costa Rica. We went basically everywhere, except for the east coast, while still enjoying each places for a couple days. Twelve days touring the United States won’t even get you to half the states and no tourist will really get a taste for the whole country, like you could in Costa Rica. The only reason why you can’t get from end of Costa Rica to the other in a decent amount of time is because of the roads that they have. If they had roads and freeways similar to the ones we have in the states, it would probably a few hours to get from one side to the other. On the contrary, LMU takes about ten minutes to walk from one end to the whole, where at some colleges you need a car to get to the other side. If you go to a state school, there could be up to 40,000 students, whereas at LMU there are only around 9,000 students. If a Costa Rican came to the United States, I would imagine it being very intimating because of the size. I visited UCSB once and coming from LMU, it was a huge change. Nothing was walking distance and if you didn’t have a bike, then you were able to get anywhere in a reasonable time. That is the opposite of Costa Rica because in a lot of the places we went, there was a lot of things that were walking distance. Many tourists would be able to get away with not renting a car during their stay. LMU is the same way because you also don’t need a car to get around campus or even around the area. I didn’t have a car the whole year and I was fine the whole time because everything that I needed or wanted was walking distance. Costa Rica and LMU both are very small, but that just makes it a lot more convenient for the people who attend that
area. With such good times, brings such bad times. The trip wasn’t all good for everyone, me specially after my first night at a bar. This trip has brought many “first times” for me, but unfortunately my “first time” at a bar was a total disaster. If you have ever seen a little kid in a candy store, my night was exactly like that. From the moment that I walked up to the bar, my eyes lit up, and I had to check the whole place out claiming everything that I wanted. Wanting a lot of alcohol is a lot different than wanting a lot of candy, so this got me in a little bit of trouble. Throughout the night, I kept buying teammates shots because I wanted to be a good team and I also wanted to have a good first time at a bar. Towards the end of the night, many of the teammates gave their shots away that I bought them because they didn’t want to overdue it. I definitely should have taken that as a huge hint, but me being completely oblivious at the time, decided it was a good idea to keep going. The moment when I realized that I had to much, was when I sang “Come Fly With Me” by Frank Sinatra. I don’t know why I thought it was a good idea to pick one of the hardest songs to sing, but at the time it seemed like such a good idea and because of the alcohol I felt that I was prepared to take on the task. Just by the facial expressions of the coaches, I knew that I did a subpar job, and Mennell went as far as asking me if I have ever heard that song before. By this part of the night I was having the time of my life, but what comes up must come down. About an hour after my singing performance, I returned back to the room, where I proceeded to throw up and pass out in the bathroom. This was not one of my proudest moments, but I don’t regret it a bit. This night taught me many lessons, that I won’t have learned if I hadn’t had it. I learned first that I never want to even smell tequila again. I have never been so sick to my stomach than I was the next day, I almost just wanted to die. I will never put myself in a situation like that again. Another thing that I learned was that karaoke is not my thing. I always tell people how bad I want to sing karaoke, but at least now I know why I shouldn’t do it. Lastly, I learned how to control yourself at a bar. Although I was pretty drunk, I was able to observe the rest of my teammates, and from that I know how to behave myself next time. It went from the best night ever, to the worst day ever, but I was the learning that made it a good situation for me. Besides this night where I learned a lot about myself, throughout the trip I learned a lot about the team. Since we only see each other for about three hours a day and it’s all at practice, its hard to get a real sense of everyone outside of soccer. This trip allowed some people to show their true colors and allowed to see who really was here for soccer and who was here as a “vacation.” It was a sad realization that a lot of the people really didn’t care about the soccer as much as they did about what happened outside of the game. Especially for me who couldn’t play because of my injury, it hurts to see some people take it for granted. Being able to play soccer isn’t something that people should take lightly. I’ve been injured twice now, both injuries keeping me out for months at a time, so I know what it’s like to have soccer taken away from you. There should be no reason why any play doesn’t take a game or soccer trip as serious as they can because nothing is worse than not being able to play at all. It was just sad to see some players take it as a vacation, while I was there itching to play just a second. Another thing that I learned was that deep down, our team can actually be positive and not fight like we do on the soccer field. One of the problems that we run into sometimes is the negatively and blame that we throw on each other when things aren’t going our way. This trip showed a different side of the team and if we can keep up that attitude during next season, we should do very well. Some of the things that I learned on the trip really bothered me, but its nothing we can’t fix as a team, and I know once it’s fixed the WCC championship will be well in reach. In a lot of ways, the trip to Costa Rica was the best trip or even best twelve days of my short life. It had everything from learning experiences to alcohol, from animals to soccer, from boat rides to zip-lining. There was really nothing that we didn’t do and we got to do the whole thing while traveling around one of the most beautiful countries in the world. As for the educational aspect of the trip, I couldn’t have asked for a better experience. A lot of us were disappointing knowing he had to do “work” on the trip, but I really didn’t mind because it’s always good learning about different cultures. You can truly appreciate what you have or where you live until you have seen other places. Even though Costa Rica was amazing and I would love to visit there again, there is no place like the United States and specifically California. All of the sights were beautiful and the wild life was amazing, but having to slap a bug off your skin every couple seconds or having to put on the bug spray that gave me a huge headache is not worth living there. I can’t imagine myself living anywhere else besides California because I know that the weather is reliable and there is no bugs. I definitely didn’t appreciate California enough until i came back from Costa Rica. I thank it for everything that it has taught me and brought me because this experience will last a life time. Costa Rica had been good to me, but there is no place like home.
Costa Rica Final Paper
06/21/13
LMU vs. Costa Rica The rich cultural and the many amazing traits that Costa Rica had in store for us, was only a symbol of the cultural and traits that fall within our team. It seems hard to believe that a country like Costa Rica and a small college soccer team can have so much in common, but along the trip I realized that in a lot of ways, we are the same. Reading the “Ticos” book could only teach each of us so much about Costa Rica and the Ticos that live there because it only mentioned “on the surface” facts that were pretty straight forward; It wasn’t until the trip, when we were able to delve into the culture itself and really understand what the book was saying. Costa Rica didn’t just …show more content…
allow us to grow as a team, but it also allowed us to grow as people, teaching us very valuable lessons along the way. Many experiences brought us together as a team and many of the memories will never be forgotten. The memory and the image that I think I will never forgot, will definitely be the zip-line. I don’t think anyone can forget the view that was presented while flying through the side of a mountain. Not many people get the opportunity to take part in such an activity, so really cherishing a moment like that was very important to me. The part of the zip-line that I will always remember won’t only be the scenery, but the way teammates came together. During the bus ride to the place, many of the teammates were expressing how frightened they were of this because of how high we were going to be from the ground. Once we got to the place and many of the teammates were thinking about not going through with it, other teammates came to the rescue and made sure that there wasn’t going to be a single teammate left behind. The reason why some of the guys went through with the zip-line was because of the encouragement of the team. It takes a situation like that to really have the team come together and because of that, I will always remember the zip-line activity. The activity that I felt brought the team together the most, would definitely be the the catamaran tour. Even though it didn’t end well with the coaches, it still really brought the team together. I don’t know if it was the alcohol or not, but during the whole tour everyone was full of life and bonded with players that might not have bonded. I know at least for me, I became really close with the upperclassmen that day because during the school year it’s hard to hang out with this especially if they live off campus. During the school year, the freshman usually hang out with the freshman, and the people who live in houses usually hang out with the people in their house. On the tour, everyone got a chance to hang out with everyone because we were stranded on a boat and no one could leave. Some people did some obnoxious things, but it was all in good fun. A lot of things were said to each other that were just positive, but very encouraging, especially being a freshman and hearing it from an upperclassmen. We are usually on the field when we are all together, but that is when our emotions run high because we are so passionate about the sport. Usually not everything that is said is positive, so it’s very easy to get discouraged. This tour allowed all the positives and encouragement to come out and was really good for our team. It’s unfortunately that it took a whole year for us to come together, but this tour was exactly what we needed. During the beginning of the trip, and specially during the first game that we played, was when I made the first comparison between Costa Rica and our very own LMU mens soccer team. Throughout my life and I’m sure I can speak for the whole team, I’ve thought that I have loved that game of soccer, but being around the Costa Ricans, soccer takes on a new meaning. Is their life. Each one of us have grown up playing soccer and worshiping our own favorite professional players, and that’s exactly how every single Costa Rican is. Soccer is the national sport in Costa Rica, there is no professional football or basketball league like there is here, so as the kids grow up, they all aspire to become professional soccer players.When talking to Emilio, he mentioned that almost all of the kids that we played were at least getting paid a little bit. Some of those kids look very young and in the United States, getting paid a little amount like that can make you ineligible to play in college. Many of those families probably weren’t very well of, so any money by the kids would help. It’s a whole different culture then us because the parents that I have talked to, said that they wouldn’t want their kids to go pro right away, they would want them to go to college first. The people who make a professional team, or at least play for their reserve team, still go out to local games to support soccer in their country. The Ticos book explained how their were three different levels of soccer for them: professional, club level, and the equivalent to a sunday league. During each of the games that we played, there were a number of fans there just to watch soccer, which seems crazy because this wasn’t a professional team playing, nor was it a league game, so there was so big result that came with it. They weren’t there because their kid was playing in the game, they were there because of their love for the game. All of us have that same love for the game, which makes us so similar. It was so easy to bond with the Costa Ricans because we all spoke the language, soccer. Every time a Costa Rican would see us with a soccer jersey or hear that we were a soccer team, you would be able to see their face light up. You would instantly become a big deal in their eyes, which meant so much at least to me personally, because we don’t get that recognition in the states. Soccer is essentially the fifth biggest sport behind football, baseball, hockey, and basketball. Being in Costa Rica was a breathe of fresh air because although we both share the same culture or language, we both shared our love for soccer. One of Costa Rica’s biggest sources of income is from the amount of tourist they bring in every year. It seems as if their country is based around tourists because many of their jobs consist of activities that tourists would do or hotels that tourist would stay in. During the river boat tour, the tour guide was talking to the group about his experiences as a tour guide. He mentioned that his previous job involved tourists and even told us that his girlfriend’s job involved tourists. There is no questions that Costa Rica tourism is blooming and the reason why many of their people are employed. In a sense, LMU is like Costa Rica and the soccer team is like the tourists. LMU will always be there, but the players on the team are only there for four years, maybe five. It is as if the players are just “passing through,” just like the tourists do in Costa Rica. You could consider our time in college as a “vacation” because we are their to enjoy ourselves away from home and people fly in from all over the country to come to this one spot. We all do things during our college experience that tourists would do while they were away our vacation. There are times where we drink like we have no worries, there are times where we go off and see different sights, and there are times where we just stay in our room and enjoy the time off. Although our stay might be a little longer than the average vacation in Costa Rica, we are still very similar to the tourists that visit that beautiful country every day. Another comparison between Costa Rica and LMU, is the diversity that is present in both locations. Costa Rica’s diversity comes in all different forms though. The United States is a lot more diverse in the sense of people, but Costa Rica still has many different cultures and ethnicities in their country. For example, many Nicaraguans find there way into the country, even though many Ticos don’t like them. While my grandfather was visiting for a few days, he told me a story how he picked up a hitch hiker on his way to one of the hotels. Luckily the man spoke english, but it turned out that the man was a from Nicaragua. My grandfather told me that the man told him that he came to Costa Rica for a better life and because there were more opportunities there. He wanted to make more money, so that he can help out his family back in Nicaragua. I found that story particularly funny because that is the whole reason people immigrate to the United States. You always here about stories on how people come to the United States to make money and send it back to their family in another country. That is also a huge problem in California and the border that separates us from Mexico. Many of them want to come to California and get a job to better their family’s life. Costa Rica’s diversity expands further past just people, its vegetation, animals, and insects are also very diverse. During the forest tour, the guide pointed out at least twenty different plants and insects, along with pointing out animals such as monkeys, sloths, and birds. I have never seen so many different types of plants and insects in my life. Especially coming from San Jose, California and going to college in Los Angeles, you are very limited in the amount of insects and plants you are able to see. LMU is very diverse in the sense of the people that attend the school. Just from the soccer team, we have players from California, Washington, Colorado, Missouri and Hawaii. The person who lived next to me in my dorm was from Costa Rica and his roommate who moved in later on in the year was from England. Although we don’t have the wildlife that Costa Rica has, LMU definitely has a similar diversity. The final way that Costa Rica and LMU are similar, is that we are both small for our particular group or category.
For instance, Costa Rica is a very small country, as well as LMU is considered to be a very small college. In the matter of twelve days, it seemed as if we got a taste of everyone in Costa Rica. We went basically everywhere, except for the east coast, while still enjoying each places for a couple days. Twelve days touring the United States won’t even get you to half the states and no tourist will really get a taste for the whole country, like you could in Costa Rica. The only reason why you can’t get from end of Costa Rica to the other in a decent amount of time is because of the roads that they have. If they had roads and freeways similar to the ones we have in the states, it would probably a few hours to get from one side to the other. On the contrary, LMU takes about ten minutes to walk from one end to the whole, where at some colleges you need a car to get to the other side. If you go to a state school, there could be up to 40,000 students, whereas at LMU there are only around 9,000 students. If a Costa Rican came to the United States, I would imagine it being very intimating because of the size. I visited UCSB once and coming from LMU, it was a huge change. Nothing was walking distance and if you didn’t have a bike, then you were able to get anywhere in a reasonable time. That is the opposite of Costa Rica because in a lot of the places we went, there was a lot of things that were walking distance. Many tourists would be able to get away with not renting a car during their stay. LMU is the same way because you also don’t need a car to get around campus or even around the area. I didn’t have a car the whole year and I was fine the whole time because everything that I needed or wanted was walking distance. Costa Rica and LMU both are very small, but that just makes it a lot more convenient for the people who attend that
area. With such good times, brings such bad times. The trip wasn’t all good for everyone, me specially after my first night at a bar. This trip has brought many “first times” for me, but unfortunately my “first time” at a bar was a total disaster. If you have ever seen a little kid in a candy store, my night was exactly like that. From the moment that I walked up to the bar, my eyes lit up, and I had to check the whole place out claiming everything that I wanted. Wanting a lot of alcohol is a lot different than wanting a lot of candy, so this got me in a little bit of trouble. Throughout the night, I kept buying teammates shots because I wanted to be a good team and I also wanted to have a good first time at a bar. Towards the end of the night, many of the teammates gave their shots away that I bought them because they didn’t want to overdue it. I definitely should have taken that as a huge hint, but me being completely oblivious at the time, decided it was a good idea to keep going. The moment when I realized that I had to much, was when I sang “Come Fly With Me” by Frank Sinatra. I don’t know why I thought it was a good idea to pick one of the hardest songs to sing, but at the time it seemed like such a good idea and because of the alcohol I felt that I was prepared to take on the task. Just by the facial expressions of the coaches, I knew that I did a subpar job, and Mennell went as far as asking me if I have ever heard that song before. By this part of the night I was having the time of my life, but what comes up must come down. About an hour after my singing performance, I returned back to the room, where I proceeded to throw up and pass out in the bathroom. This was not one of my proudest moments, but I don’t regret it a bit. This night taught me many lessons, that I won’t have learned if I hadn’t had it. I learned first that I never want to even smell tequila again. I have never been so sick to my stomach than I was the next day, I almost just wanted to die. I will never put myself in a situation like that again. Another thing that I learned was that karaoke is not my thing. I always tell people how bad I want to sing karaoke, but at least now I know why I shouldn’t do it. Lastly, I learned how to control yourself at a bar. Although I was pretty drunk, I was able to observe the rest of my teammates, and from that I know how to behave myself next time. It went from the best night ever, to the worst day ever, but I was the learning that made it a good situation for me. Besides this night where I learned a lot about myself, throughout the trip I learned a lot about the team. Since we only see each other for about three hours a day and it’s all at practice, its hard to get a real sense of everyone outside of soccer. This trip allowed some people to show their true colors and allowed to see who really was here for soccer and who was here as a “vacation.” It was a sad realization that a lot of the people really didn’t care about the soccer as much as they did about what happened outside of the game. Especially for me who couldn’t play because of my injury, it hurts to see some people take it for granted. Being able to play soccer isn’t something that people should take lightly. I’ve been injured twice now, both injuries keeping me out for months at a time, so I know what it’s like to have soccer taken away from you. There should be no reason why any play doesn’t take a game or soccer trip as serious as they can because nothing is worse than not being able to play at all. It was just sad to see some players take it as a vacation, while I was there itching to play just a second. Another thing that I learned was that deep down, our team can actually be positive and not fight like we do on the soccer field. One of the problems that we run into sometimes is the negatively and blame that we throw on each other when things aren’t going our way. This trip showed a different side of the team and if we can keep up that attitude during next season, we should do very well. Some of the things that I learned on the trip really bothered me, but its nothing we can’t fix as a team, and I know once it’s fixed the WCC championship will be well in reach. In a lot of ways, the trip to Costa Rica was the best trip or even best twelve days of my short life. It had everything from learning experiences to alcohol, from animals to soccer, from boat rides to zip-lining. There was really nothing that we didn’t do and we got to do the whole thing while traveling around one of the most beautiful countries in the world. As for the educational aspect of the trip, I couldn’t have asked for a better experience. A lot of us were disappointing knowing he had to do “work” on the trip, but I really didn’t mind because it’s always good learning about different cultures. You can truly appreciate what you have or where you live until you have seen other places. Even though Costa Rica was amazing and I would love to visit there again, there is no place like the United States and specifically California. All of the sights were beautiful and the wild life was amazing, but having to slap a bug off your skin every couple seconds or having to put on the bug spray that gave me a huge headache is not worth living there. I can’t imagine myself living anywhere else besides California because I know that the weather is reliable and there is no bugs. I definitely didn’t appreciate California enough until i came back from Costa Rica. I thank it for everything that it has taught me and brought me because this experience will last a life time. Costa Rica had been good to me, but there is no place like home.