MAXIMO NIVEL

I got to work with kids every day, and I got to practice my Spanish skills. It was really fun. I got to immerse myself in the culture of Costa Rica. This experience made me a more well rounded person.

I was able to see so many sea turtles and an arribada happened while I was there. At first I had some trouble adjusting but got moved to the station where accommodations were very nice. Moving to the station hade my experience so much better.

Dont get me wrong, the retirement home placement was wonderful, the workers and residents were wonderful, and I was able to make the most of my time here. That being said I came here to gain medical experience and knowledge to be able to apply that to whether I want to study medicine in United States. It became abundantly clearly within a few days at the retirement home I would learn nothing about medicine and that it would be near impossible for someone to LEARN medicine here. I think if I had come in with that experience than I would have had better placement and it would’ve been more applicable. However has someone that was looking to gain that- I was very disappointed. I think it was also stressed that you do not have to be fluent in Spanish but just general knowledge but I found this to be the furthest from the truth. Not knowing Spanish very very well also impacted my experience because I felt like I couldn’t do half of what was expected of my role which was just to talk to patients and entertain them and I couldn’t even do that. Also including the home stay as well. Very misleading. That being said- the workers at the retirement home, at Maximo, and elsewhere were amazing and I went on some amazing excursions. The volunteer work though was much less impactful than I desired