Trip Summary

So, I’m back home now and back into the swing of things. My trip finished up very stressful, getting everything done for my report in such a short time was very overwhelming. I’m all done now though and overall had a wonderful experience. I had to write an essay about my experience for the School for Field Studies and I wanted to share it with everyone, so here it is:

I participated in the 2011 spring semester Costa Rica School for Field Studies program. I lived in Costa Rica for three and a half months with 27 other students. I experienced great personal and academic growth from the program. I made new friends and learned about Costa Rica’s environment and the environmental issues they face. The water issues in Costa Rica really caught my attention. I learn how even one of the most environmentally friendly countries in the world still has a long way to go to fix all of their environmental problems. This program has helped me decide that I want to focus on sustainable agriculture in developing countries in the future.

The School for Field Studies program in Atenas, Costa Rica focuses on sustainable development. During the program we were taught about natural resource management, environmental economics, and tropical ecology. We took several field trips all over Costa Rica where hikes and field lectures were given. Several of the different types of forests Costa Rica has were visited. We hiked through cloud forests, dry tropical forests, transitional wet to dry forests, and mangrove forests.  The directed research portion of the program spilt up the students in the respective classes. I choose the environmental economic directed research project that focused on the socioeconomics impacts of tourism. A weeklong trip to Panama was taken by the entire group during the program. Participating in center projects helped maintain and develop the field station further. I helped make hydroponic raised beds in the green house, I helped maintain the garden and orchard, and I also helped make a constructed wetland for the student affairs manager’s house. We also participated in community outreach projects. These included recycling programs, painting a new sign for the local orphanage, and a language exchange with local students learning to speak English.

I experienced a great personal growth during my time in the program. I made wonderful and long lasting friendships with the other students in the program. Living in such close quarters with 27 other people was challenging, but I found rewarding aspects as well. Getting to know other people with similar interests as myself made me feel more confident in the career path I chose. I was homeschooled and being able to develop many friendships with people my age was very rewarding. Getting up early in the morning to pick oranges to make orange juice for breakfast made me even more appreciative of what real farmers do on a daily bases to supply us with food. With every ice cold shower I took, I came to understand how important the little things are. I also realized how wasteful America is and that it’s going to take a lot more work than I thought to change the way America thinks about its resources. My personal growth as far as the friendships that were created was one of the best parts of the program for me.

My academic growth was also greatly impacted by the program. During the directed research portion of the program, I gained valuable information on how to conduct a research project and how to properly write a research paper. I learned about tropical ecology which I had never studied before the program. I feel like I learned better and retained more material when a field lecture was given compared to a lecture in the classroom. Overall I feel like I learned more in the classes in this program than in the classes at my home institution. The difference between being shown a plant in the field and in a book amazes me. In the field I was able to see how big a plant was, I was able to touch it and smell it. I retained so much more information when in the field than in the classroom. For the rest of my life I will know what the characteristics of a mangrove forest are. This is because I learned about mangrove forests while sitting in a mangrove forest. Even if my career does not lead me to work directly with mangrove forests, this information is incredibly valuable to me because of the way I learned it. This program opened my eyes to the way I learn things best and that is a very useful and powerful tool I am grateful to have.

                

One of Costa Rica’s environmental problems concerns their use of water. Costa Rica does not have the proper infrastructure to supply water to the entire population. Clean drinking water is a right by law to every Costa Rican. The water that is not properly supplied is not regulated and therefore not paid for. Costa Rica also does not have a proper sewage system. All of the waste water runs into the streets and then the river and eventually to the ocean. Trash also pollutes the water in Costa Rica. Fifty percent of the population and 80 percent of the industry in Costa Rica live in the central valley. All of the waste from the central valley drains into the Tarcoles River Basin. This river is highly polluted and drains directly into the ocean. A large amount of the electricity in Costa Rica is powered by hydroelectric power plants. Hydroelectric plants do not produce the amount of greenhouse gasses as more traditional power plants, like coal-fired power plants. Building hydroelectric plants does have some damaging effects on the environment. It destroys habitat and uses one of our most precious resources for something other than drinking. The water used by agriculture, not to mention agriculture itself, is also damaging to the environment. This program made me aware to the fact that environmental-friendly forward-thinking countries still have pressing environmental issues.

The SFS program influenced my future goals. I now want to have a career with more emphasis on developing countries.  My major at Virginia Tech is agriculture and applied economics with specialization in environmental economics. I now know that I want to pursue a graduate program in sustainable agriculture. Sustainable agriculture is important to me because I feel that of all the environmental issues the world is currently facing, agriculture is one of the biggest. Having a sustainable, affordable, and adequate supply of agricultural products is essential to the human population. The SFS Costa Rica program helped me to decide where to specialize my future study and career.

Panama and other things

I know this is long past due, I’ve been a little overwhelmed by everything I have to do and I’ve been very sleep deprived. Four weeks ago we left for our week long trip to Panama. We all loaded on to the bus at four in the morning and proceeded to sit on that bus for the next 18 hours. At times it felt like we were never going to reach Panama City. We visited many places once in Panama. We went to Old Panama and Colón, both of which are ruins that I found pretty cool. We went to the Metropolitan National Forest and got to ride in the canopy crane. We got to see a Harpy Eagle, the national bird of Panama, at a zoo-ish place. We went to the Miraflores Locks. It was very cool to see how the ships pass though the locks of the Canal. We also got to see one portion of where they are expanding the Canal. We watched a video of how they plan on expanding it and how the new locks are suppose to be more sustainable in terms of fresh water use. However, by expanding the Canal they are still increasing their demand for fresh water, so the sustainability of it is questionable.

On our way back to Atenas, we had some problems at the border. At first the Costa Rica entrance person gave the first three students a 40 day visa stamp. This was not good because at that time the program was 44 days and a lot of students are staying after the program. Then they told us we needed to have our trip itinerary so they would know when we were planning on leaving Costa Rica. Before we left for Panama the program coordinator made sure we did not need any of this paperwork. Apparently, a law had been passed saying that when you enter into Costa Rica you need proof of when you are leaving in order to get a visa stamp. So, the majority of the students, I included, had to walk back over to the Panama side and go to an internet café to somehow find and print out our flight itinerary. This took awhile with how many of us there were. Once back inline on the Costa Rica side, there was a different person working at the entrance office. When I got to the window, the man didn’t even ask for my itinerary, he just stamped my passport with the 90 day visa. This showed us that the new ‘law’ they created is completely up for the interpretation of the person working at the booth. How ridiculous! Once everyone had gotten their entrance stamps, we had to unload everything from the bottom of the bus and have our bags checked. I think everyone was overjoyed when our bus finally pulled up at the center and we were able to sleep in real beds.

It was an experience worth doing though, Panama was very different than Costa Rica. One of the things I found most interesting was that in Panama, they use US dollars as their currency. I’m still not sure I fully understand how they have control over their monetary system when they don’t produce their own currency.

The week after we got back from Panama was finals. Not too much to say about that. The week after that was all about preparing for our directed research (DR). It involved many statistic classes. Not too much to say about that either.

Now we are in the middle of our DR field research. This week my DR group is staying near Carara National Park so we can conduct surveys about the park. This park has a very low visitation rate, so when my partner and I are here the day is very slow. (Hence why I am writing this right now.) When my partner and I are at the Tarcoles bridge doing surveys, like we did yesterday, it is very different. We are out in the sun all day along, it is very hot, and the bridge sidewalk is very narrow. It’s really only wide enough for one person. The traffic on this bridge is also very high; there are a lot of big trucks that fly by. It’s not really the safest thing, but the foot traffic there is a lot higher than at the park and you can get a lot more surveys.

Here are some pictures from Panama and some from us making a constructed wetland at the center.

High Tide

 This week seemed to harbor the worst luck the group has had so far. Sunday evening we had no water. The center had to buy a bunch of 20 gallon jugs of drinking water. This water was only for drinking for course which meant showers turned into a dip in the pool. Luckily this only lasted a few days and we had are water back. It was interesting to see how different day to day life was without one of the simplest necessities I’m use to having. It is hard to imagine that one billion people on our planet do not have access to adequate drinking water.

Early last week we went on a day trip to a local organic coffee farm. We got to see how the coffee is harvested and processed. The farm was pretty small and practiced agroforestry. It was pretty interesting to see how labor intensive coffee farming, especially organic farming was. We walked through part of the farm and I was shocked to see how steep it was.

Last weekend we went on a field trip to Santa Rosa where we camped in the (very hot) dry tropical forest. We got there Thursday around lunch and went on a hike after we set up camp. We saw a bunch of spider monkeys during our field lecture, which was quite distracting. Our tropical ecology professor just couldn’t compete with them. The next day we broke down our campsite and hiked nine miles to the coast. We planned to camp on the beach that night and hike back the next day. I didn’t make it very far on the trail before my back started hurting. Luckily there was a vehicle transporting our camping gear to the beach and I was able to get a (very bumpy) ride the rest of the way. After everyone else made it to the beach we were informed of the tsunami that had happened in Japan the night before. An 8.9 quake? Waves already hit Hawaii? I felt so helpless and out of the loop, I had no idea this had happened and no way of getting updates about it. We were then informed that the entire pacific coast of Central America was on alert and the beach we had just arrived at was closing due to the possibility of affects from the tsunami expected at 4pm. We were able to walk on the beach for about an hour before we had to hike all the way back to the original campsite. The beach was amazing and beautiful and I hated that we couldn’t fall asleep to the sound of waves that night. This beach is a very popular surfing destination, although we didn’t see anyone, but I’m not sure I would want to surf there, at least at my level, due to the high occurrence of riptides. This was also the location of the famous ‘witches rock’. It is a huge rock a little ways out from the beach. We attempted to walk to it but didn’t seem to make any progress in the short time we had. I wish I could have seen it closer, because even from as far away as we were, it was huge. And as beautiful as that beach was I would most definitely go back, when there isn’t tsunami after shock warnings preferably.

Yesterday I went to the chiropractor. This was much needed due to how much pain I was in. Not getting adjusted for almost two months when you are use to getting adjusted weekly is not fun. It was amazing though and totally worth it. I felt so much better and I was in such a better mood after that. Today some of the students wanted to make pizza for dinner in the cob oven that’s on campus. This was planned ahead of time and took all day. The oven needed time to heat up, dough needed to be made, sauce need to be made, pizzas needed toppings. It was a huge endeavor, but totally worth it. That pizza was so good. Forgetting the fact that it was the closest thing I’ve had to American food in two months, it was still very very good.  

Midterms Anyone?

That’s about all week five consisted of; midterm reviews, lots of studying, and midterms. In another month we will have finals and finish up our classes so we can start our directed research. On Friday we did host a dinner for all of our homestay families. It took all day to set up, but the outdoor classroom was transformed into a more or less banquet hall. We ate dinner and there was a DJ for the music. Some of the students did little performances for the families. There was a skit called “a day in the life of a gringo’ that involved a lot of (purposely) bad Spanish and it was pretty funny. We had a piñata for the kids that came. We let the youngest ones (2-4 years) go first without a blindfold, of course they did no damage, but everyone knows you let them go first to feel included. We than let this older girl go. She was standing in corner acting all shy and my friend (since I can’t speak Spanish) had to talk her into going. She said she would only go if we didn’t blindfold her. After she took stick, she just stood under the piñata for a minute and I wondered if she was really going to hit it. She then beat the thing so aggressively it only took four hits to knock it down. This was extremely frightening, because she seemed so shy and then so angry and egger to destroy the thing. I really didn’t know what to think of her.

We had our first weekend away this weekend, which is not a full weekend just getting Saturday and Sunday off as appose to just Sunday. All of the students went somewhere (mostly the beach), but I stayed at the center. I just wanted a day to myself to lie in a hammock by the pool reading my book. It was wonderful and I think I took at least six cat naps though out the day, being as hot as it was and how sleep deprived I was. Sunday I did homework and baked my mama’s cinnamon swirl bread. I had to put all three loafs in a large glass pan, because the kitchen doesn’t have bread pans. It took a little longer to bake, but turned out really good. And that’s about all I have to say about this week. Midterms were stressful, I think I did ok, but I haven’t gotten grades back yet, so we will see.

Tastes of Costa Rica

Well another week has flown by here in Costa Rica. Monday we went on our fifth field trip to the University of Costa Rica in San Jose. We had a guest lecture on GMOs and ate lunch in the city. After we got back to the center, the rest of the day consisted of talking about GMOs. We talked about the economic, social, and environmental aspects. I have to say I dislike them even more now than I did before. I had bathroom pandilla this week. We had to clean the bathrooms every day after lunch. It didn’t take very long but it wasn’t enjoyable. We had another outreach this week as well and I decided to go to the orphanage. We thought we were going to hang the sign that we painted, but we ended up just prepping it for that. We scraped off (some) of the rust on the back of it and put an anticorrosive on it. We were given a talk about chagas, which was a little unsettling. Apparently there was an outbreak last semester and they felt the need to inform us about them. Weird little bugs, I don’t feel like passing my fear onto all of you by explaining them. We met with the INA kids again and played jeopardy. It was fun but also frustrating due to my poor Spanish. We had another Spanish class which I continue to do poorly in. We had our ECON FEX due Friday night; it was a little easier than the last one. My partner and I powered it out and got it done before dinner Friday. This allowed me to bake banana apple cinnamon muffins to give to my host family. I left after breakfast Saturday morning and walked up to my homestay house. A couple other students were right up the road, but the majority of the students went into Atenas to get picked up. I was really nervous to meet them. The father is retired and the mother works at home. They have one daughter. Their house was fairly small, but it had a big back yard. They had a lot of chickens and fruit trees. There were many orchids in their yard that were very pretty. There were many different kinds and they were flourishing! I couldn’t believe how many flowers there were on one plant. We picked sweet lemons which taste exactly like they sound. They are shaped like an orange and have a slight lemon flavor and a hint of sweetness. They are really good! I helped make lunch which consisted of chopping lots of vegetables and picking oranges that I squeezed for orange juice, which was again, amazing! I couldn’t stop drinking it. So much better than anything you can get in the US. All the meals I had (four total) were good, I think I liked anything they made. After lunch the mother taught me how to make bread using the cob oven they had. She mixed together the dough and I helped form the loves. We put each one on a plantain leaf and into the oven. It didn’t take very long for it to cook and it smelled so good. It was crunchy around the edges and sweet and delicious. We watched bullfighting on TV that night. I don’t think I’m a very big fan of it; at least down here there is a law that requires them to wear helmets. I went to bed really early and got woken up early by the rosters. I was pleasantly surprised when there was hot water for the shower. I was expecting the freezing cold water of the center and the hot (well I guess it was more warm) water made my day. Oh, the simple things. We went to church in Atenas. It was a really big church; almost everyone in Costa Rica is Catholic. We got back and watched some fulbol. I had trouble communicating, but I had a good time. I walked back to the center before dinner and started homework. Now to start studying for midterms....

A Wildlife Array

Weekly update:
Well this week was filled with interesting wildlife, that’s for sure. Sunday night I found a scorpion in my room. It was just crawling across the floor with its claws out and tail at the ready. I was quite freaked out and was the only person in my room at the time. I thought quickly on my feet though and took the bag out of our trashcan and put the trashcan on top of it so I could go find a boy that wanted to get rid of it for me. As soon as I said the word, there were many volunteers. The scorpion was then put into the trashcan and kept until Tuesday to show to our Tropical Ecology professor. It was not kept in our room.

This week my pandilla group was farm/land care. This meant waking up an hour before breakfast at 6am to water the garden, take care of the chickens, and various other farm activities. I have to say I was not thrilled with the early hour. One day this week we spent all morning building hydro-beds for the garden as a community activity. I started by going down the road to get dirt and then unloading the dirt. I took photos of people mixing dirt, moving dirt, and digging holes. A lot can be done with dirt.

We had our first two Spanish classes this week. I was undoubtedly put into the level one class. My Spanish is in need of MUCH improvement. For the first Spanish class we went outside and sat under one of the mango trees. This was where I was bit on the legs/ankles several times by tiny black flies. The next couple of days they hurt so badly, my ankles swelled up and it hurt to walk. Now, almost a week later they are almost gone.

There were several hours of every class this week and luckily discretional time to write up my TE FEX report. My partner and I spent hours on it making sure it followed the guidelines to a T. I am very happy it’s over with, even though now we have our ECON FEX to work on and turn in Thursday (more about this bellow). Our second outreach was this week as well; students our age that are learning English in Atenas came to the center. Our SAM had several activities lined up for us to practice our Spanish and them to practice their English. It was fun meeting other people our age but, a little stressful since I don’t know that much Spanish.

Our third field trip was on Friday to Carara National Park. We had breakfast at 5:30am and got right onto the bus. We stopped at the Tarcoles River to receive two field lectures. We took a short boat trip to a beach-ish area. The trip consisted of seeing many crocodiles and various species of birds. As we approached the beach area we saw a huge crocodile laying on it close to the water. As we got closer it slipped back into the water, which was very muddy. The boat driver then pulled up to the beach, and I mean this literally as there was not even the inkling of a dock, where our professor then told us this was were we would be getting off to have our NRM field lecture. Yes, right next to where the crocodile had just been. This beach was littered with trash. The Tarcoles River Basin drains the whole central valley and is very polluted. I proceeded to take a seat on a piece of driftwood in the boiling sun to listen to the lecture. After this lecture was over we got back onto the boat only to ride a short way down and get off again. This time we went into the mangrove forest for our TE lecture. When this was finally over and we left the mosquito infested area, we took the bus to Carara National Park. We hiked around the transitional wet-to-dry forest and saw lots of wildlife. When we first walked onto the trail we felt a light mist and everyone thought it was starting to rain. Only after some students started basking in the cool mist were we informed that what we were actually feeling was cicada secretions. It made the rest of the muggy hike a little less enjoyable. I did get to see toucans, butterflies, lizards, a snake, and millions of leafcutter ants. It was very cool to see the ants marching in their cleared pathway for what seemed to be miles to them.

On Saturday we went on our fourth fieldtrip to Poas National Park. This is the most visited park in Costa Rica and one of top most visited in the world. We got to hike up to see the active crater and since we were there so early in the morning, in was very clear and the view was beautiful. My group then booked it up to the older crater, now looking more like a lake. It was very steep going up and down and it wore me out. Even with the professor practically running, we were 30 minutes late for lunch. After I ate lunch I started, or attempted rather, to conduct the ECON FEX my professor had earlier explained. He gave each student ten surveys about the park. Five were in English and five were in Spanish and he gave us an hour and a half to complete them. Now I would like to make this very clear; there are 28 students, each with ten surveys, all of us trying to complete them at the same time at the same place. I am aware that there are a lot of visitors at Poas but, it is a very small park. Most of the people I got the courage to ask had already done it, or didn’t want to. Americans. I couldn’t even build up the courage to ask someone in Spanish. Let’s just say I did not complete all ten of mine. I know a lot of others who did not get to ten either, but I felt helpless not even completing a single Spanish one.

I did get to bake cookies earlier in the week as well as banana bread muffins. I couldn’t bake anything today due to far too much homework. As I was writing this, I would say during the Spanish class part, I felt my first earthquake. It was quite real; I assure you and kind of freaked me out. I felt strong shaking and then it slowly died away. It didn’t last very long but, long enough to make me stop what I was doing and wonder if other people were feeling what I was feeling. A little frightening due to the signs posted everywhere that say: “In case of fire, earthquake, or other emergency, meet by the main gate.” No one in the common room even got up so, I guess it wasn’t that frightening. To wrap up on a wildlife note; I found a second tiny tick on myself; it was on my arm this time. I am starting to wonder were I get them due to the fact I was in long sleeves all day Friday and Saturday.

Head in the Clouds

Monday, February 7, 2011
Today we were introduced to our pandillas. These are our chore groups and chores. We have been spilt up into six groups of 4-5 people. The chores consist of kitchen setup, kitchen cleanup, dishwashing, bathroom cleaning, common room cleaning, and farm/land care. Each group rotates chores weekly. The rest of the day consisted of very long NRM, LANG, and TE classes. We got a homework assignment to NRM. It is a group project to find more information about how to increase productivity for the mango and orange trees. My group is researching the effects of the scale insect on oranges. The farm on the center mainly consists of mango and orange trees. They also have some chickens and a garden, which unfortunately is not in season due to the dry season.

I now have several reading to do and very little time to do them. But on a better note, today was the first day since I’ve arrived, were I actually enjoyed every meal! I see that as a reward in its self.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011
The entire day today consisted of classes and a few chores. I am not kidding when I say this. After RAP we had three and a half hours of ECON and then lunch. After lunch we had our chores, DR, and more ECON. I was able to call my parents before dinner. This was the first time I had called home since being here and it was much needed to hear their voices. At dinner there was a pasta dish with a white sauce that was pretty delicious. After dinner I attempted to do homework but, I fell asleep soon after I started my readings in bed. I now understand that I should not lie down to do work, even if my intentions are honorable.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Today we had no classes! In the morning we did our first outreach program. The night before we all chose out of four different programs. There was one to go out into the forest with the ecology professor to learn the names of different trees. This group will late teach local boy scouts the same knowledge. The second group was going into town to help with recycling efforts. The third was going to paint two signs for the local orphanage. The last one was going to a farm with goats to help out. I have to say a lot of people wanted to go to the farm. I chose to stay at the center and paint the signs for the orphanage. One of the signs was small and just has their name and an arrow on it. This they wanted to put on the road leading to theirs. The second sign was much larger and we put their name and logo on it. Their logo was a little complex but, it turned out easy to draw onto the sign. I still have some paint on me because; we used oil based paints on the large metal sign. At lunch today we had rice pudding, or the closest thing to it, and it was so good! I am liking the food more and more, it seams. I am unsure if this is because the food is getting better or just because I’m finally getting use to it. After lunch were meetings and chores and the briefing for our next field trip to Monteverde. We leave at 6am tomorrow after a 5am breakfast. I’m hoping to sleep most of the four hour drive and not get motion sick again.

Thursday, February 10, 2011
Today we went to Monteverde and I slept most of the way there. We stopped in Tilaran for lunch and to see a privately own wind farm. As soon as I stepped off the bus, I could feel the strong winds. They didn’t stop or slow the entire time we were there. We were shown around and we got to walk right up to windmills. They weren’t as big as the ones I’ve seen in the US, but it was still a little nerve racking to stand right under them and look up. The clouds made it appear as if the entire tower was swaying from the wind. They had a total of nine windmills but, several more, owned by other people, could be seen on the surrounding hills.

After lunch we took a very bumpy road to Monteverde where we settled into our rooms. We then had an ECON and TE class with dinner in between. The food at this station was really good! I went to bed soon after TE because; I was exhausted from getting up at 4:30am!

Friday, February 11, 2011
Today we got to hike in the Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve and see the continental divide. The hike was about 3 ½ hours and at one point on the trail I could see all the way to the Pacific cost and the Pacific peninsula. When we got back to the station we discussed our ideas for our first TE field exercise (FEX). We then had NRM, dinner, and another ECON class.

Saturday, February 12, 2011
After breakfast we went back to the preserve to conduct our research. My partner and I decided we wanted to see how tree growth affected bromeliad location. We spent three hours looking for sub-canopy trees with bromeliads on them. In the end we collected 20 tree samples. We are going to have class Monday to analyze our data and our report is due by midnight on Friday.

After we collected our data we headed back to the station to eat lunch and pack up our things. We then made our way back to the center.

Sunday, February 13, 2011
Today I was planning on making banana bread for everyone but, we didn’t have any bananas! I was shocked that this was the only ingredient the kitchen didn’t have. We are supposedly getting a delivery tomorrow, we will see. I spent the entire morning and afternoon doing readings for class. By dinner time my craving to bake took over and I searched for a recipe for a no-yeast white bread. It was a really easy recipe and turned out pretty tasty. I can’t wait to have more at breakfast tomorrow! I will take fresh bread with pineapple jelly over rice and beans any day!

Week 1: Getting Adjusted to Life in Costa Rica

Day 1: Monday, January 31, 2011
I woke up at 4am for my 9am flight out of Pittsburgh. My two checked bags weighted 45 and 50 pounds, a very close call. I did have to get a body scan and then a pat down of my back pockets and then my hands wiped to test for residue. It all seemed a little crazy to me. I thought it was either or but, apparently not in my case. My plane out of Pittsburgh was delayed first because of maintenance checks and then from the deicing the wings of the plane required. My Dad bought my plane ticket with his miles so; I got to sit in first class! The ride to Charlotte was smooth besides my anxiety about missing my next plane. I arrived in terminal B and had to make it to terminal D with only fifteen minutes until the scheduled departure time. Boarding time had started nearly 40 minutes ago! Boy did I power walk it! When I finally found the gate, the line at the front desk was huge, so I had time to catch my breath before the next anxiety attack came at the desk. I showed my passport and ticket to the man behind the counter and he asked me how long I was planning on staying in Costa Rica. I responded with a simple 3½ months. He looked at me as if what I said was wrong. The travel visa you get when you enter the country is only good for 90 days. I explained to him that I was studying abroad and in the middle of the trip, the entire group takes a 10 day trip to Nicaragua. When we enter back into Costa Rica, we get a new 90 day visa. He told me unless I had proof of enrollment and an itinerary of the trip; I wasn’t allowed onto the aircraft. This almost gave me a heart attack. I HAD to be on that plane and I did not have either of the forms he was talking about. Luckily there was another SFS student right next to me having the same issue. He had booted up his laptop and was thumbing through his emails trying to find a document proving his enrollment. After he had found one, the man approved it and gave him back his ticket and passport. The student then offered me the use of his computer so, I wouldn’t have to boot up my own. Who knows how long that would have taken! I finally found an email with a link to a post acceptance form the man behind the counter approved. He handed me back my documents and I was free to go to the gate door.
Once on the plane, we were informed that a traveler trying to get on the plane had problems with his passport and wouldn’t be allowed to board. This meant that we would have to wait for the ground crew to find is his bags bellow and remove them from the aircraft. Overall the flight wasn’t as long as I was expecting, I discovered the lunch in first class was pretty tasty, and I only arrived at San Jose 30 minutes late. Luckily I had no problems getting through customs in Costa Rica. After I got off the plane I found my friend Brandon who was on the same plane as I was. Brandon goes to Virginia Tech, we are in the same department, and he is studying abroad in a different program this semester. We made our way to find our bags and our rides. Having found my bags I left Brandon to nervously search for my group. Once I fully exited the airport and spotted the SFS sign, the nerves subsided. I met the group and once everyone arrived we all boarded the bus to Atenas.
 The rest of the day consisted of a quick gide of the center, ice breakers led by the Student Affairs Manager (SAM), and my first Costa Rican dinner. One of the ice breakers was called Human Bingo. Everyone got a card with various characteristics in each square. The goal of the game was to find another person with that characteristic and add their name to the square. The first person with their entire card filled, wins! It was a good way to get to know the students and their names. I got my room assignment and three roommates, and went to bed soon after I strung up my mosquito net. Sleep was much needed.

Day 2: Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Every day at the center breakfast is a 7am, lunch is at noon, and dinner is at 6pm. We also have RAP (reflection, announcements, and physicality) everyday at 8am. Today we had a tour of the center and a tour of Atenas. We got introduced to our professors and the other staff at the center. We also took our Spanish placement tests. It was a completely oral test so that the group could be assessed and spilt up for class according to their level of Spanish. My Spanish was very poor and I’m assuming I will be in level one. I do think the group is spilt up pretty evenly between the three possible groups though. That night some people went into town but a few of us, me included, stayed in for movie night. We watched Toy Story 3. I had never seen it and I thought it was very good with many humorous parts.

Day 3: Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Today we had introductions to three of our classes; Natural Resource Management (NRM), Language (LANG), and Topical Ecology (TE). We also had to take a swim test in order to swim in the pool. The pool at the center is very small and only four feet deep. The swim test consisted of swimming four lengths of the pool. Very simple. I think the main reason for this was not for our safety in the pool but, for when we go to the beach. Riptides are very common down here and they wanted to make sure we knew how to swim. The SAM also told us how to identify a riptide and how to swim out of one. In the evening we were briefed for our first field trip on which we left for the next day.

Day 4: Thursday, February 3, 2011
Breakfast this morning was at 5:30am! We got on the bus at 6:30am and left for Nogal. The bus ride was about three hours long with rough roads. We finally arrived at the Chiquita plantation and were spilt up into two groups. My group went out into the field first and got a tour of the plantation. We were shown the entire process of how a banana gets from the tree to our grocery stores. After lunch we were given a guest lecture on how Chiquita has been improving their environmental and community impacts. We all loaded on to the bus again and drove to Tirimbina. This was were the field station we stayed at was.

Day 5: Friday, February 4, 2011
Immediately after breakfast we had directed research (DR) class and then ECON in the outdoor classroom. It was a lot like the one at the center and overlooked a beautiful little river. After lunch we took the bus to the Tirimbina Biological Reserve headquarters. This was the beginning point for our hike though the rainforest back to the Tirimbina field station. The hike took a little over three hours; we stopped a lot to talk about things. My group’s leader was the ecology professor, which I was very thankful for. After we made it make to the station, we ate dinner and then went on a little night hike. This was just down the road a little ways to the pond. (and when I say road I mean the grass/gravel downward slope of a road.) Here we saw some red eyed tree frogs and a really big frog in which I forget the name of.

Day 6: Saturday, February 5, 2011
This morning I woke up extra early with half of the students to do some bird catching with the ecology professor. We only caught one bird because it started raining soon after the nets were put up. The bird we caught was the national bird of Costa Rica. After breakfast we took the bus to Demasa where we received a brief tour of the heart of palm plantation that was located there. I had thought that this was going to be similar to the Chiquita tour but, it was not. Once at the plantation we took the bus on a very bumpy road to the back of the plantation. As I walked off the bus, the smell of manure was a blast to the face. We proceeded to stand in the roofed outdoor area that held several huge piles of steaming compost. There we received a brief lecture about the plantation and why they use the compost. However, I thought it was not brief enough because, the speaker spoke Spanish. This meant that one of our professors had to translate the entire lecture to us part by part. Luckily when this was all over we got back on the bus to drive back to SFS. During this ride I did get motion sick and felt bad for the rest of the night once back at the center. I called it an early night.

Day 7: Sunday, February 6, 2011
Today was pretty chill. None of the meals are scheduled on Sundays; it’s kind of a free for all with the leftovers. I got to sleep until 7:30! Some students went to the beach and some went into Atenas early in the day. I stayed at the center to start on the reading for Monday. At about 4pm two other girls and I took a Taxi into Atenas. It was my first taxi ride here and my lack of Spanish made me nervous. Luckily one of the other girls had much better Spanish then me and new what to ask. Once in Atenas, the ride was only about five minutes, we bought ice cream and found our way to a store so my friend could look for things she needed. Almost everything is closed on Sundays, which is our only day off. I have a feeling this will create major problems. We then made our way over to the sports bar where several other students were. This was one of the only places playing the SUPERBOWL. I am a Steelers fan through and through. The bar was surprisingly packed. As halftime approached, my group decided they were ready to leave and had called for taxis. Not one person wanted to stay with me and watch the entire game. I was very upset with this. There was no way I was staying in that bar by myself (I am a strong believer in the buddy system) especially since I was in Costa Rica and my Spanish is extremely lacking. I obviously left with the group. As I am typing up today’s events for my blog, I am anxiously waiting on updates from a friend through facebook.

As for a summery of last week’s events; I have several weird looking bug bites. I think I know about 90% of names. The food is taking awhile to adjust to; my stomach is just not use to eating this way. And the weather is jjjuuuust right.

Prep Prep and More Prep

Well then! The semester is over, Christmas presents have been unwrapped, and a New Year has begun. I have been preparing for months now for Costa Rica but, only small things. A semester of 18 credits and work seems to push everything else to the back of your brain. I just finished typing up my packing list, and by finished I mean I’m sure I have forgotten several things I will later add. It is four pages long and has many categories, being the organized person that I am. I met with an international travel doctor to make sure I have all the necessary vaccines and medications for the trip. This I highly recommend for anyone traveling abroad. It gave me answers to all my questions including my uncertainty about the CDC recommendations. The one I went to was located at the local University as part of their student health department. Even though it is set up for the students, the local community is welcome to make an appointment. Money is money after all.

Knowing that my program is not the traditional college semester and field work will be a daily occurrence, I felt the need to get my cardio into shape. Deciding on how to do this has been a struggle. I don’t like going to the gym alone and I only run if being chased, plus it’s freezing outside. I tried starting a workout program, but I just don’t have the motivation.

Also to prepare for my trip I have been gathering up all the things I will need to bring with me. My desk right now looks like a drug store. It’s amazing how much you need to prepare for when you’ll be living in another country for three and a half months. My todo list is long, the doctor’s visits are many, and the nerves are starting. But I must say, so is the excitement.