Before my retreat in November, it had been something like eight years since I had been back to Costa Rica. The last time I was there the roads were a disaster. I mean pot holes everywhere. And not just pot holes, but, like, POT. HOLES. Cell phone service was pretty much nonexistent, and you could forget about wifi. Despite the infrastructure issues and spotty cell service, the country always had a special place in my heart due to having participated in a foreign exchange program there when I was sixteen. The family I lived with and the friends I made there had such an impact on me and to this day I am in touch with them. The country feels like my second home, and I had desperately wanted to book a retreat there but I was scared.