I came to Costa Rica on Jan 1st of 2005. I spent 2 months studying spanish at a language school, and during this time I lived with a Costa Rican host family. I still keep in touch with my host mother and sisters and I am very thankful that I was able to create such a great friendship with them.

My travel experience was rewarding both in my artistic life as well as my personal life. I was able to document (through photography) many new and culturally different situations that I never would have had access to were it not for the trip. Some examples being, different natural scenes and wildlife, traditional homes and communitites, families, “Fiestas” (parties put on by communities) that exhibit traditional foods, dancing, costumes and ways of celebration.

More personally, I grew to love this country and the people very much during my stay. The trip turned out to be absolutely lifechanging! I met my husband Andrey less than a week into my time here and he was a major catalyst for me deciding to start my life after college here. We were married on Feb. 18th of this year and could not be happier. I work for a very successful residential development and every day I can enjoy the beautiful surroundings that I fell in love with over a year ago.

Both Andrey and I are artists at heart and enjoy painting and taking photographs together in our spare time. Hopefully through future travels we will have more opportunities to experience different cultures and new inspirations for our work.