I found Poland in Costa Rica!

Hola readers!

So I don’t think I mentioned in my bio that I am a daughter to two immigrants from Poland. I love my Polish culture and couldn’t be more proud.

My host family was really interested in the language when I told them and we even spent a whole day together where I taught them some words in Polish, including how to say their names. It was a blast. At school, we have an amazing professor who studied abroad in Poland when he was younger and then decided to live there for 2 years. I was so happy to have met him and be able to speak Polish to someone here in Costa Rica.

I decided that I wanted to find the Polish people. I set out to find a neighborhood, as we have in Chicago, or maybe just a restaurant. I had trouble finding the neighborhood, but with some help from the professor, I was able to locate a Polish owned restaurant near San Jose.

I embarked on this trip with two friends and we got to see so much on the way. We discovered new parts of San Jose that we haven’t been to and even passed through another university here in Costa Rica. We had tons of fun. The restaurant had delicious food and I felt like I got to connect with my culture by going there!

The trip turned into a day spent in San Jose. We got some souvenir shopping done and then of course got lost trying to find the bus back to Heredia, where we live. The thing is, at this point, getting lost is not as nerve-wrecking as it was when I first got here. I feel so happy having reached a point where I can get into a taxi and say my address out loud, not have to show the driver the piece of paper. So when we walked down the street in search of the bus, we knew we didn’t have to worry, we calmly asked around and found our way. What’s really interesting is that ticos (Costa Ricans) will always give you a direction, even if they don’t know. They feel it is rude to not help someone, so they would rather give you any direction than not one at all.

Until next time,
Pura Vida!