While still in the midst of their study abroad experiences, students at Linfield College write reflective essays. Their essays address issues of cultural similarity and difference, compare lifestyles, mores, norms, and habits between their host countries and home, and examine changes in perceptions about their host countries and the United States. In this essay, Kara Barlow describes her observations during her study abroad program at Centro Cultural e Histórico José Figueres Ferrer, in San Ramón, Costa Rica
