Study Abroad Costa Rica

I am one month away from leaving to spend almost 4 months in the tropical Costa Rica. So what am I feeling?  (Arenal Volcano. Photo Source:  http://deluxetravelcr.com/la-fortuna-san-carlos/ ) I'm Excited About: -  Meeting my host family. We don't find out who they are until about a week before we go, but I am really excited to find out who I am going to be living with. - Meeting my classmates. There are 25 other study abroad students who are living in San Ramon with me and I am looking forward to getting to know them and hang out with them.  - Going to Cuba! This was a big factor in making my decision to study abroad with this program. Cuba is very secluded, but every picture I've seen or stories I've heard make Cuba sound really beautiful and culturally rich. Someone told me that it's like travelling back in time, which is something I am looking forward to experiencing myself.  - Going to Arenal Volcano! This is one of the included exc

To start off, I should explain why I am even studying abroad in the first place:  (Photo Source:  https://www.zauca.com/travel-agency-website-design-rs-3800/ ) Since high school, I knew study abroad was something I wanted out of my college experience. I have always loved to travel (who doesn't?!?) and wanted include these travels as part of my educational journey. Even going into Summer Start (Western's freshmen orientation day), I made sure to go to the education abroad orientation and learn as much as I can. Studying abroad was always in my lifelong plan.  It wasn't until my sophomore year of college, when my roommate at the time was gearing up to spend a year in Spain, that I seriously started looking into my options.  For my major, Environmental Science, there is one specific graduation requirement where students have to either do an internship, senior project, thesis, or study abroad to earn 5-10 credits (when I started the major it was 10-15 credits). This r