Hello everybody and greeting from Costa Rica.  First and foremost, I would like to thank all the wonderful people that have worked their tail off to make this special opportunity available to all the Study Abroad groups.  Personally, I would like to extend my appreciation to the Study Abroad office, Cary and Anna, as well as the SPC Honors College.

The first couple of days have been truly unbelievable.  The first day, we woke up early and had a nice healthy fruit breakfast and then we set sail for the heart of San Jose to do a little souvenir shopping before we visited the Costa Rican Chamber of Commerce.  At the Chamber of Commerce, we learned the nuts and bolts of the Costa Rican history and economy, which broke into the several main topics beginning with innovation and protecting the environment and finished with the presenters explaining how in 1949 the government kicked out the military which was brilliant because now Costa Rica enjoys political stability and frees up government funds to invest in education and infrastructure.  F.Y.I. Costa Rica blows the doors off most other countries with a 98% literacy rate and 92% of their energy derives from renewable sources!!!

On Day 2, our group again had a very healthy breakfast and jumped in the van to tour INCAE.  INCAE was the first Business School to offer MBAs in Latin America in 1964 thanks to JFK urging Harvard to collaborate with the Central American Presidents to establish the school.  Since its inception and still today, INCAE remains as a First Class Business School and is recognized in the Top 10 in the world.  The Director of Admissions gave a mind-blowing passionate presentation that physically gave most of us butterflies because of the opportunities that INCAE provides.  The learning atmosphere is designed to embrace other culture/languages in a practical manner and not just theory.

Well, that pretty much hits the highlights for the first two days.  It is absolutely incredible how much our perspective has increased and we still have 8 days left!!