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| Kelley Waidley in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua holding a 6-month-old black spider monkey named Saraya. (Photo Credit: Kelley Waidley) |
A common theme in Kelley Waidley’s life is adventure.
Kelley, a 22-year-old in the last semester of her
undergraduate career at Frostburg State University, is majoring in both Spanish
and international development. She is originally from Charles County, Maryland.
Kelley took a leap into the unknown in the
spring of 2014, when she studied abroad in San José,
Costa Rica. Though such experiences are encouraged in the Spanish department
here at FSU, Kelley said that it was more of a last-minute decision for her,
and that she mostly set it up by herself through an organization called International Studies Abroad.
While in San José, Kelley lived with a family, or a “homestay,”
consisting of a mother, daughter, and their dog. She took two Spanish classes,
and international relations class, and an environmental sustainability class at
Veritas University, a private art college, on which she commented, “I don’t
study art, that’s just where they placed me.”
In Kelley’s free time during this experience, she travelled
to many beaches and towns surrounding San José, but explained there was
always something to do within the city, too. During her excursions away from
the city, she saw volcanoes, and went bungee jumping and zip lining.
Her most memorable experience while studying abroad was a trip to Nicaragua, where
she went “volcano boarding.” She explained that the surface of the side of the
volcano was entirely ash, so tourists are permitted to hike up the volcano with
a wooden board and essentially sled down the slope, reaching speeds of about 50
miles per hour. Kelley laughed while explaining that in trying to steer the
board down the slope, she actually wore down her shoe and ruined the sole.
Studying abroad was not Kelley’s only adventure. This past
summer, she attended Burning Man, an eight-day festival held in Nevada’s Black
Rock Desert. Gifted a ticket by her aunt, she and her cousin prepared
themselves by packing everything they would need to be self-reliant for their
entire stay, and headed out to the desert.
Kelley spoke fondly of the art she saw while attending the
festival, explaining “radical self-expression is one of the main principles of Burning
Man, so weird is celebrated there.” An example of this was a sculpture she
observed that was a steel structure of a woman with glowing blue and red veins
that breathed like a real person.
Reminiscing on how she filled her eight day long stay in the
desert, Kelley smiled and simply said, “there’s a million and twelve things to
do at Burning Man.” She explained that each campsite is meant to contribute
something to the community that is built during the festival, whether that be
food, entertainment, art, or some combination of the three. No money is
exchanged, and everyone is expected to contribute their fair share.
Kelley expressed that she would absolutely return to Burning
Man in the future, so long as she could afford another ticket and the travel
expenses to head back out west.
Kelley is not leaving her spirit for adventure behind when
she graduates this winter. Expressing a love for the warm, friendly people and
the “phenomenal” weather of Costa Rica, she aspires to return and become certified
to teach English, hopefully finding a position that pays well enough to
pay back her student loans. Indonesia, Taiwan, the Caribbean, and Central and
South America are all on her list of places to explore next.
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