Country is new destination for TAHS Spanish students
Three Tracy Area High School students embarked Friday for a weeklong adventure in Costa Rica as part of the Spanish Club’s annual overseas trip.
Almost every year since the 1970s, Spanish students at TAHS traveled to either France or Spain, but things got changed up this year, and the kids and their chaperones found Costa Rica their new destination.
TAHS Spanish teacher Pamela Anderson said the Costa Rica sojourn offers the students something different than the Spanish trip, which Anderson has taken 23 times over the years.
“Spain is far more historical in nature, and we didn’t have enough kids sign up to go to Spain this year,” she said. “We switched it to Costa Rica, partly because of the price — Costa Rica is probably about $1,000 less.” Anderson said Costa Rica offers a much more nature/ adventure experience than France or Spain, which are both geared toward historic landmarks and buildings.
“They’ll get to experience the Costa Rican culture; they’re very ecological-friendly,” Anderson said. “We’ll experience the rainforest, a volcano, see the beach, the coastland, we’ll go to some nature reserves. Much different kind of trip.”
Anderson said she personally is excited to visit a different locale.
“Everywhere we go in Spain, I’ve been there before — the fun part of that trip is seeing the students experience it,” she said. “But this is fun because it will be all new for everyone.”
Making the trip are students Brianna Duscher, Kevin Brown-Vasquez and Jonathon Reyes, along with chaperones, Anderson, Vicky Rasmussen and Tonya Duscher, as well as Anderson’s niece from Eden Prairie.
Also different from decades ago is the number of students who make the trip. Those journeys typical consistently included at least a dozen kids, if not more.
“A big part of it is the money, it’s expensive,” Anderson said. “Also, my class sizes are smaller than what they used to be. Priorities have shifted for the students.”
Costa Rica is one of 20 Spanish- speaking countries across the globe.
“They’ll get to use their Spanish, perhaps more than they would in Spain because Spain has many English speakers,” Anderson said. “Before COVID, we had a ‘family stay’ for five days, so immersing ourselves in the culture was a bigger part of the trip than it is now. Now we are more tourists than participants in the culture. They can now get by with mostly English, but it’s good for them to at least try the pleasantries in Spanish; they recognize far more than they can perhaps say.”
The group flew out of Minneapolis, bound for Houston, on Saturday morning. Then it was on to San José, the capital of Costa Rica, after a five-hour Houston layover. They’ll return on March 30.
Brianna Duscher said this will be the first time she has left the United States.
“I’m mostly looking forward to the beach there,” she said. “I’m very excited to tour different parts of the world and how they live there — their rural markets and how they live their lives.”
