Adventures and Learning in Costa Rica

Have you dreamed of exploring tropical rain forests? Spending the night in a village with an indigenous community?  Swimming in warm tropical waters? 

Have you always wished you could experience first-hand the central role culture plays in all forms by exploring the music, dance, food, art, sport and language of a different country? 

 Nope – you do not have to live an Indiana Jones-like life to have such adventures.  You might consider enrolling in CCV’s fall study abroad course Intercultural Communication with travel to Costa Rica.

This course offers students the unique opportunity to travel to Costa Rica to experience first-hand the central role that culture plays in all forms of communication. During the first half of our trip, students will center themselves in the mountain community of San Luis, a small community located right next to Monteverde, near the “Tico” village of Santa Elana, and adjacent to one of the world’s most famous tropical cloud forest reserves that sits high along the continental divide. The second half of the trip will begin with an overnight in the tiny indigenous Bribri community of Yorkin, where CCV students will travel up river in a motorized canoe and spend time with a women’s artisan group. The rest of the trip will be spent in Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, a tiny and lively beach village on the Southern Caribbean coast that is home to many distinct cultures, including Indigenous as well as Afro-Caribbean and Latin peoples, and residents from some 40 different nations. In both locations, CCV students will immerse themselves in Costa Rican culture by engaging in a wide variety of educational and nature-based activities. 

•  Experience the music, dance, food, art, sport, and language of three distinct Costa Rican communities.
• Contribute to the development of a socially responsible ecological tourism movement by staying at two beautiful and modern eco-lodges: one is nestled in the breathtaking mountains and the other in a stunning tropical coastal paradise. 
•  Improve your cultural literacy skills by visiting an Indigenous reserve; interviewing community leaders; eating meals at local folks’ houses; touring an organic coffee farm; helping local farmers milk their cows; listening to live calypso music, participating in a fiesta; and taking dance, cooking, and craft lessons.  
• Engage in some of the following once-in-a-lifetime optional activities: do a zip line canopy tour; take surf lessons; take a guided bike ride or horseback ride along the coast; relax at the beach; learn traditional fishing techniques; visit a botanical garden, hummingbird garden, and/or butterfly garden; take a night or sunrise hike; or participate in a community service activity with young children at an Iguana captive breeding center. 
•  Visit one of Costa Rica’s largest and most diverse traditional craft villages and purchase locally made souvenirs for your family and friends.                                                         
   

Visit http://www.ccv.edu/study_abroad to learn all of the details about this course, the trip, and the application and enrollment process.  You can also ask your advisor for more details. There are only a few remaining seats, so please submit the application as soon as possible.

Buenos dias!

Good Clean Fun - With Your Trash!

Photo from http://lessonplans.craftgossip.com/recycle-your-lunch/2010/08/28  

by Debby Stewart, 
Dean of Students, Community College of Vermont
 

If you have children, you may feel a little like a beleaguered recreation director by this time in the summer. Good weather sure makes things easier, but the pace at which kids can burn through activities is daunting, if not exhausting. What's a poor parent to do – especially when the parent has end of summer semester papers to revise, projects to craft and exams to ace?

Look no further than your recycling bin. Cereal boxes, oatmeal cylinders, toilet paper tubes, and egg cartons can all be used to fuel your kids’ imaginations. If kids are old enough to handle scissors, you can give them a roll of masking tape, a pair of kid-approved scissors, and access to the paper garbage.  Since a blank page or empty canvas can be a bit overwhelming, start by issuing a challenge: Create a robot! Design a sculpture that looks like grandma, dad or the dog!  Build a town, a kingdom, or an amusement park!

Sometimes kids can be slow to warm to these kinds of projects, and may need a little help getting started. Don’t let that discourage you. Few things are more satisfying than the act of transformation--making something out of nothing.  Depending on the age and interests of your child, you may want to play together. An imaginative project can “romance” both children and adults alike, particularly as the possibilities unfurl. One robot or sculpture begets another, castles multiply, roads require vehicles, and everything can benefit from a layer of paint.

You can also use plastic recyclables—like mini bottles of shampoo or mustard and ketchup containers—to create magic potions for play in the tub or wading pool. Add a little shampoo and a few drops of food coloring to each bottle, fill with water, and you've got the makings of a terrific witches’ brew or silly soup. If your kid delights in the creepy, toss some small plastic spiders or snakes into the mix.

For toddlers, you can simply freeze ice cubes of different color and then slip a few at a time into their water as you bathe or play with them. The contrast of frozen cubes and warm water can be fun for young children, particularly as the colors dissipate and mix to create new blends.

Once the creative energy is flowing and your child is engaged in a project, you can steal some time to focus your energies on end of semester assignments – or, you just might decide to take a time out and dig in to some imaginative play with your child.

For more ideas on how to crank up your children's creativity through simple and easy projects, check out this website: http://madebyjoel.com/.  What are your best tips for keeping kids entertained during the dog days of summer?