RESEARCH

(Nellie is not a name understood by Costa Ricans. Banagrams = life)

Happy Thanksgiving! Today, appropriately, marks the TWO WEEK point. In fourteen days, I will be on my trek home to Portland. It’s unreal that I have been here for 81 days. My blogging has become much more infrequent. I have begun to forget that my life here is only an excerpt from reality. That my day-to-day is still abnormal, and that this will soon be nothing more than a memory… WEIRD.

(This puppy loved me. How sweet is this floor?!)

The last week I spent with my directed research group in little cabins near Carara National Park. Remember my last blog entry about Carara? It’s a beautiful wet forest with lots of biodiversity. People visit it mostly to see scarlet macaws (lapa roja). There are also peccaries (sainos), pacas (tepezcuintle), guans (pava negras), and many other types of rodents and birds.

That’s kind of a pitch for our research project. We spent the week interviewing families in surrounding neighborhoods about hunting practices in and around the park. Essentially, illegal hunting is happening and is a serious threat to the preservation of biodiversity there. (It is also really, really humid and hot in this part of the country. Hence us being ridiculously sweaty all the time, and in all the pictures in this post.)

So we went around from house to house speaking horribly broken Spanish and asking someone in the household to take a twenty-minute survey. And honestly, people did it! Not only were they willing to do it, but they greeted us with smiles, invited us to sit in their living room or on their porch. Can you imagine if someone knocked on your door speaking Spanglish, asking you incoherently to take a 20-30 minute survey about illegal happenings in your neighborhood? If not totally annoyed or uncomfortable, I would at least be unwilling. But if anything could give you an idea of what Costa Rican culture is really about, I hope this does.

There were times when people started getting visibly uncomfortable when we probed about hunting. People in these communities definitely hunt, and definitely know it’s illegal. But most of the people we surveyed were women (ama de casa, or women who work in the home because they were the ones home during the day), who don’t do the hunting themselves. It’s husbands, or sons, or neighbors they see walking up toward the mountains at night. Most people recognized that we weren’t out to get anyone, just innocent college students collecting data. There were some who gladly told us how ricisimo paca meat is and how much they love it.

I wasn’t stoked to be giving surveys for my research project. But, in turn, I got to meet forty Costa Ricans, and practice my Spanish, which I needed desperately. And it was so much less painful than I had expected, having forgotten that Costa Rica’s way of life is pura vida, and just don’t harness as much stress and hostility as most Americans. This woman welcomed us into her home and then we bought homemade coconut ice cream from her for 50 cents.

(I realize this is the least attractive picture of me ever. Being abroad takes a toll, okay?)

The schedule and accommodations were also kind of a plus. We gave surveys for about three hours each day, and then got to spend the rest of the day swimming in the pool, napping, watching movies, reading, playing soccer… And we got to go out to eat for every meal. Dinner most nights we spent in Jaco, a fun nearby beach town. One day, we spent the whole afternoon at the beach, shopping and eating and lounging. Other groups had ten hour days in the field, under the sun, doing laborious work on steep coffee farm hills. We were living pretty luxuriously, to say the least.

The group dynamics were also great. It was nice spending some time away from the center and with only 8 other people. Also, our prof Sergio is the shit. He was so chill and understanding, and hilarious. We tried to teach him how to swim once, which was just comical. We all had a really, really good, relaxing time.

Coming back here, the staff and students can already feel the tension of the last two weeks setting in on everyone. But all we have left is a ten-page paper and presentation, and a whole lot of free time. Oh, and cooking Thanksgiving dinner. And somehow, I am playing the role of head chef today! I am trying to channel my mother’s Italian cooking gene, as I prepare turkey, stuffing, gravy, casserole, potatoes, and pumpkin pie for close to 50 people. Oh my goodness, wish me luck.

And lastly, in two days, my best friend, love of my life, and daughter, Kirstin Anne Moline, turns 21! I can’t believe that this is the year that I, and everyone I know, am turning 21. Watch out world, this could get dangerous.

(Nellie showing her deep love for me.)

oops!

Apparently my last post was really depressing? My bad. I'm not actually really depressed. Sometimes you just get emo, you know?

Anyway, I'm just writing to let you know that I'm off to do Directed Research first thing tomorrow! In Carara National Park. This is going to be a great week in my life. And I will share it with you when I return! So just... be excited for that. And miss me for the next six days, because I will be missing you. As usual.

Love love love.

the downfall

Ah well, I am afraid I have reached a breaking point. I no longer look upon this country’s idiosyncrasies with amusement and exuberance. I have lost all tolerance for the inadequacies of the center, and I have lost patience for dysfunction, annoyances, and disappointments. Something that once gleamed with so much luster, now simply has melted into a dull, two-dimensional painting in which I am forced to exist.

Depressing, no? I can’t help it! I am tired of health problems and sweat and having to obey irrational control constantly. And I am forced to be around my fellow students, I have no escape, and I have grown to care about them so much that it hurts me to need to escape from them. I do not want to feel resentment and disdain, but deep down I do. And I cannot muster a mask for it anymore. My eyes are narrowed and my back is hunched and I slug along slowly, miserably, waiting for it all to be over.

The things I once saw beauty in (the tropical climate; the creative, and colorful attire of the ticos; the hearty casados; the isolation of the Central River Valley; the surroundings of 26 other enthusiastic college students; the endless winding roads; the inexhaustible amount of flora and fauna and creatures that roam every inch of this country; the absence of large-scale American enterprises), now portray dismal, hurtful burdens to the very core of my self (incessant heat and humidity; tacky clothes; fattening, bloating, boring food; stranded and lonely and so far from any true comfort; 26 enemies; car sickness and a big waste of time; mosquito bites blanketing my entire body; the absence of my home).

And so I wish I can emerge from this slump, through some miracle or the improvement of my will. I know very well I need to appreciate the time I have left, and not regret wasting it, and at least for the benefit of my blog, not look back and feel like an unappreciative, ungrateful, whining idiot.

Now let me try and recap what has happened, aside from my “emotional difficulties” if you will. I also apologize, I have lost my enthusiasm for documentation through photography because nothing seems to be as precious and unfathomable as before. So the photos are few and of poor quality. Except the farm party, pictures courtesy of Nellie.

After finals, directed research started. This means not a lot of work and a lot of informative classes about statistics and research and GIS and lots and lots of workout videos. I am doing a project on illegal hunting practices and value of wildlife to tourists in Carara National Park. This was by far my last choice of projects (there are three total), as it was everyone else’s last choice, so I switched over. My reasoning was also assuaged by the fact that we get to stay in a nice hotel for a week with a pool near the beach and we don’t have to do any fieldwork we just have to interview people, which should improve my Spanish… Basically it’s going to be great. We’re leaving Thursday, with little to do until then! I am about to start a class relating to GIS technologies. Kinda cool.

Friday night, a bunch of us went to a party in the neighborhood. We pregamed a little at Don Yayo’s, the local bar, and then caught some taxis to take us down winding dirt roads off the main highway, and finally stopped at some abandoned farm. There was a bar and a dance floor and a pool, but it was completely empty, except for several 12-year-old-looking boys and their liters of guaro. It was a little weird when we got there at first, but we started pounding shots and making a night of it. We found some boys socializing over some mota, and made friends. This was great! Real tico friends! And we were all together and partying and dancing and listening to American hip-hop from the nineties. Several boys offered me besos galore. There was one boy who was actually kind of tall and he was really adorable so I decided that he was going to be my future husband and struck up a conversation. I don’t speak Spanish so we mostly just talked about… well, nothing. I asked him what the word was for different things in Spanish and whether he could speak English. He couldn’t. Regardless, I am not daunted. I am sure that this silent, drunken, one-time meeting will evolve into the constitution of the rest of my adult life. And lots of babies.

I don’t indulge in partying much here, but sometimes it can be surprisingly fun. And for once I got to enjoy my classmates’ company instead of feeling stifled by it.

The next day we had another weekend away! Meaning we got a Saturday night where we didn’t have curfew!!! Lucky us! About half the group decided to go to San Jose for the weekend. This happened to cause some drama because I really don’t like traveling with more than, oh, one other person. Maybe two. But there was something like 15 people going to San Jose. So here I tried to avoid coinciding travel plans with other people, but some people found that somewhat offensive and so there was a lot of DRAMA. Which was stressful and not fun. But we figured it out, and it was a successful weekend in a lot of ways.

When we arrived there, we had to wait for quite a while to get money out of an atm, and figure out where our hostel was at. We got in a cab and had them drop us off at the cross streets, and still could not find this place we were looking for. It turns out it was just behind this wrought iron gate with barbed wire and was delineated by a small sign posted on a red door. And when you enter, there is this massive labyrinth of dorm rooms and bathrooms and a pool and a restaurant and dance floor and bar and tv room. It was actually a little overwhelming. And definitely not one of my favorite hostels. It was dark and dismal and on a scary street. The staff was incredibly friendly and helpful and all spoke English, so at least there was that.

Our next plan of action was to meet up with Dayla (the student affairs manager, aka the most amazing woman in the world and the only tolerable woman on the SFS staff) so she could show us some hip places to shop in San Jose. Because she has impeccable taste. Unlike most Costa Ricans. We found her, in the pouring rain, downtown and hopped in taxis to take us a few blocks to two little shops. The first was owned by her ex boyfriend, a clothing designer, and everything was homemade and new. A little expensive, for my taste, but very indie and cool. The 10 of the girls were pretty successful. Nellie, Jackie and I headed off to the other store, while they continued to shop. The second store was a little thrift store ran by the most adorable girl. She altered and repaired used clothes, and then resells them with little extra detailing. It was absolutely precious. The three of us were very successful there (Nellie, the fashion expert, helped me compose a cute little outfit with a white dress and belt and bag).

I was in a hurry to leave because I had made plans to meet up with Patrick Moreno-Covington! Who is also studying abroad in Costa Rica in San Jose. So Nellie and I snagged a cab over to San Pedro, the neighborhood of the University of Costa Rica. We got a delicious Italian dinner and caught up about this and that, our perceptions of Costa Rica, what we’ve been doing. After dinner we met up with Jenny Natleson and another girl from the ACM program. The national soccer game of Costa Rica versus Uruguay was taking place in San Jose that night, so they headed to a bar to watch it over some pitchers. Nellie and I went back to the hostel to change out of our wet clothes and drop off our new purchases, and then went back to watch the game.
Of course, in this transition, I forget to bring my ID with me. Which it is illegal not to carry with you at all times in Costa Rica. And this caused a predicament in getting into bars. (Let me just say I have never ONCE been carded in Costa Rica for any reason whatsoever, except to book hostels so it wasn’t the STUPIDEST oversight on my part. But it was pretty stupid.) But we snuck in to a really crowded bar, and then another after where we could get a table. This is also because the people on the ACM program frequent these places several times a week and know the bouncers. Also I am blonde. Anyway, all ended up well, and we spent some hours reminiscing about “camp college” and I reveled in being in the presence of different, friendly people in a new environment. Nellie and I tired way too early, and returned to the hostel, where everyone from SFS was hanging out and drinking beers. Nellie, Allie and I watched Borat and passed out.

The next day, the plan was to do a little souvenier shopping, eat a delicious lunch, and trek home. Which is exactly what we did! We found a little artisan’s market and spent a decent amount of time and colones on Christmas presents and other essentials. From there, we visited one more of Dayla’s recommended shopping stops, which was too expensive for me but, yes, adorable. Then, Nellie, Allie and I were determined to find a Thai restaurant called Ting Jao advised to us by none other than the incredible Dayla.

As soon as we entered, we were greeted by a congenial dressed in an authentic Chinese gown. When we sat down and opened the 10 page menu and watched a busser fill matching vasos con agua, we felt instant happiness. Things that don’t happen at restaurants in Costa Rica: personable service, automatic glasses with water when you sit down at a table, and large arrays of options on a menu. We were clearly in a little over our heads.

Just reading the titles off the menu (pad thai, vegetarian curry, tofu salad, miso soup) made our mouths water. As our glasses of water were being refilled without any sort of request (!?!?!??), we ordered. Shortly, we received a steaming bowl of thai eggplant curry, a cone-shaped bowl of miso soup, fried tofu squares, a spicy tofu mixed salad, and a heaping plate of vegan pad thai.

Okay, now you might be thinking, Costa Rican restaurant options are never good. They don’t understand anything but casados. Every attempt at Asian food you have ever witnessed has been a disaster. And there is no tofu in Costa Rica! This sounds like a disaster.

BUT NO!!!!!!!!!!! What arrives in front of us is the most delicious meal I have seen in what seems like an eternity. A heaping pile of incredibly fresh and crunchy and green lettuces with onion and REAL mushrooms and tofu. Real, grilled, spicy tofu. Oh my god it was heaven. And my next course was vegan pad thai! Real rice noodles and peanuts and bean sprouts and it tasted like pad thai! It was heavenly. We stuffed our faces full. And I had never felt so satisfied since I had been here. And as they kept refilling our water, they brought us dessert menus which we couldn’t pass up. Blackberry cheesecake, ginger and mint figs, and tempura bananas. These were real, gourmet desserts. It was unbelievable.

I can’t express how good this lunch was. I didn’t feel like I was in Costa Rica. I was in a real, gourmet, American restaurant that charged Costa Rican prices. This did not help with my homesickness.

We meandered around the markets and city a little bit before we caught the three o’ clock bus back to the center. San Jose, overall, is a pretty shitty city. It is scary and unsafe and impossible not to get stared at and hassled and ripped off. It is also just polluted and crime-ridden. It's really too bad, because so much of the country is monitored so well. But it is the most city-like city. And it has a lot of potential. But being there made me so so so so so grateful I go to school in the country and don't have to live there.

And now, back to the grind.

beautiful waters

A week ago Sunday (man time flies), I set out on a solo journey in the wilderness of Costa Rica. That’s not entirely true. I’m reading Into the Wild right now and realizing that my adventure is nothing to write home about compared to dying in the-middle-of-nowhere Alaska. Nonetheless, it was an experience for me, and therefore my blog and I DID see a beautiful beach, so. (I didn't take too many pictures on this trip because I was alone and it seldom came to mind, so I apologize in advance if these are less cool than previous posts. The following picture is the only picture I have of myself from the trip)

I left the center around six, when Nellie’s family kindly dropped me off at the bus station to the beach. It was funny, the whole night before we left until the time after we left… like 10PM to 6AM, there was some CRAZY techo music and jungle sounds blasting from the canyon. I could not figure out who or why people were partying all night so close to us and why we weren’t invited?? This was a puzzle. Anyway, I got to the bus stop around 6:15 and ended up waiting for hours for the bus. I didn’t actually know what bus I was supposed to take, I was just waiting for one for Puntarenas, the town I knew I needed to take the ferry out of. Buses to Jaco and Quepos, other beach towns, kept going by, but I was waiting with another woman and two girls so I figured the bus I wanted was the one they wanted.

Finally, two hours later, their bus came. It was going to Orotina. I had no idea where Orotina was, but I didn’t want to look like an idiot for waiting two hours for a bus with these other people, so I just got on and figured if I was totally off base, I would take a bus back to Atenas. The bus was crazy overcrowded because obviously it was extremely late, and I stood and jostled around with people, freaking out that I was traveling millions of miles into the abyss of nowhere and I would be lost forever.

I did see this weird thing on the bus where people were washing all the monuments at a cemetary and putting flowers down. Everyone together having a mourning moment, I guess.

About thirty minutes later, we reached the end of the line: a dreary, closed down strip mall with four other buses that all said San Jose-Orotina (the route I had just gotten off of). After pacing around slowly for a bit, I got up the nerve to wait in line for what I assumed was the ticket box and say to them “Yo necesito ir a Puntarenas.” And the man pointed and responded, “En el parque.” Finally a Spanish conversation I could understand! I walked nervously in the direction he pointed. And found a park. And then a bus. To Puntarenas. Ah, the sweet smell of relief. I dozed in and out on this bus ride (where several people were drinking 40s at 10 in the morning?) until we reached our final stop. Puntarenas.

“Ahhh glorious Puntarenas! You will take me to my destination! Now tell me Puntarenas, where is the ferry dock?”

Puntarenas didn’t respond. I walked a block. “Puntarenas? Can you hear me?” There was no answer.

I hung my head, Sonny Meyer Bear in hand, and walked aimlessly around with my tail between my legs. Sonny shortly spotted a tourist map! (Here is a picture of Sonny if you've never met him. Or you forget what he looks like. Or you just miss him. He goes everywhere with me. We are best friends.)

Ah, Puntarenas, thank goodness when you take a nap you leave me a little guide. I moseyed over to a large billboard of the map of the Puntarenas peninsula. “Mapo de Tourismo” it read. It was covered in little bubbles with pictures of tourist activities I might want to partake in and their Spanish names, and then pointed to where they were on the map. I saw several things that looked like boats and said Paquera. Good. So I have a direction.

Now, where was I on this map? I was standing next to some buses and a pulperia. Two streets are intersecting. Fancy that, it is UNDISTINGUISHABLE on this map from every other road. In fact, it would probably be indistinguishable from any other place in Costa Rica, period. And the little “You are HERE” symbol was nowhere to be found.

And the map instantly became useless. Well, Sonny, it’s just you, me, and the streets. Let’s go find this damn ocean. So I walked. Toward what I thought was the ocean. And I saw a dock of some kind! And a man yelling hola at me, go figure. Then he proceeded to try to have a conversation with me. Finally, I picked up “Paquera” (my destination) in his speech and said “Si!” He said something like, no hay mas. Mañana.

Then I remember, shit, it’s Sunday. What if there are no more ferries today? What if I’m stuck in Puntarenas, this sketchy, dirty beach town? My heart sank. I went to look for a phone to call Dayla and tell her I was lost. Phones here don’t take money, you have to have a phone card. So I walked, looking for some place to stay, or some other desperate solution. I walked for blocks and blocks and blocks. I turned right. I found the beach! With lots of people on it. I don’t really know what was going through my head at this point. I was just fumbling my way around, trying to figure out something to do. I found another tourist map. I studied it intently and memorized some street names where there might be possible ferries, and figured I would guess where I was and try to find street signs (which are very hard to find here). After ten minutes of studying I turned around. Immediately a blue sign caught my eye:

“FERRY A PAQUERA 1KM” and an arrow pointing straight ahead.

Praise the heavens. I began walking. And then I became discouraged that I had somehow missed it. I kept walking. I saw another blue sign. And then I saw the FERRY itself. My joy was abounding. I didn’t want to miss it so I power walked (ignoring the multitude of cat calls I was receiving in my over-sized t-shirt, spandex shorts, running shoes, and with a giant white teddy bear tucked under my arm) alongside the beach til I FOUND IT! THE FERRY DOCK! WHERE THERE WERE LOTS OF PEOPLE TRYING TO GET ON A FERRY! I found the ticket office, bought a ticket for the next ferry two hours later, and went to get some lunch.

Ahh, relief. Puntarenas, you done me good. Your maps might not be as helpful as you want them to be, but your blue signs are primo and so are your casados con pollo.

The ferry ride was nice—I ran into two of my classmates who were also traveling to the Nicoya Peninsula. I rested and watched the amazing Costa Rican scenery pass by. This place is really really beautiful. I watched pelicans go fishing for a while too, which reminded me of my mom. I wondered if my mom had ever seen pelicans do this. They start flying and then they swoop down and fly parallel to the water so their wings are almost touching. They glide slowly until suddenly, they dive head first into the water and emerge with a fish in their beaks. And then they eat and start again. It was really amazing to watch.

After the ferry was a looong bus ride to Cobano, and then to Montezuma. We got there just as the sun was setting, so I took a leisurely stroll down the beach. I wasn’t sure where I wanted to stay in Montezuma, so I kind of scoped out my options and settled on a hotel that was almost completely empty. It had kitchen access, so I went to the store, bought some bread and cheese and a box of wine and made a little dinner. The wine went undrunk though—I was tired and my feathers a little to ruffled to feel comfortable, so I crawled in bed with The Two Towers at seven and was asleep by 8.

This was nice because I woke up at five with nine hours of sleep and set out to go on a hike to some waterfalls. The turnoff was about a ten minute walk down the road, and the hike was an undelineated trail that weaved around a river. It was a little harrowing at times, to be honest. But since I was alone, I could go at any pace I wanted so often times I stopped and just looked at the river and enjoyed its presence. I really love rivers. They are something I’ve realized that I really truly love.

After a few wrong turns, I saw a glimpse of the fall and took off my shoes and bear crawled across the river til I was right in front of it. Oh waterfall, you are so large and powerful! Thank you for letting me just watch you while you surge.

I hiked back, packed up my things, and went to the beach to lay under the little bit of sun that existed while I waited for the bus. Also to dry out my clothes that, against my effort to keep dry, got soaking wet in the river. Here are some weird fungi I saw. How much do you love all my fungi pix?

I waited for the bus for about an hour (much better than two hours) and headed to Santa Teresa. I will never stop being fascinated by the array of people that ride on buses. There was a woman with a cat and 3 feet long flowers, people with their wares to sell on the street, a man with two rolly suitcases and a Hawaiian shirt… Maybe more interesting if you see them. Anyway, I arrived at Mal Pais, and walked to the Tranquilo Backpackers Hostel that was in my guide book. It was actually perfect. They had a huge beautiful kitchen, a computer room, free pancake breakfasts, and best of all, about three gazillion hammocks. I had a nice dorm room all to myself for three nights.

So, on this epic afternoon, I prepared for my four day stint at Playa Carmen! (Located in between Santa Teresa and Mal País… a vast stretch of pure surfer beach heaven.) So much to do. So much LOTR to read. So much sleep to get. So much guacamole to make. So many long romantic walks on the beach to go on…

Here I began my long contemplation of what I was going to do each day for the next four days. I was faced with puzzling conundrums such as, When do I want to eat lunch? and How long do I want to walk on the beach? Evaluating when and how long I wanted to do different things consumed my brain. This was one amazing thing about traveling by myself. I never got distracted from the thoughts I would have about what I was doing at that very moment, or shortly thereafter. It was refreshing! I got lost in a world between Middle Earth, and a tropical beach.

And it’s hard to really explain what it’s like to not talk and to keep all your thoughts to yourself and to be the sole reasoning in any decision. To be completely self absorbed in a way that effects no one. To have such a minimal impact on all your surroundings, while all your surroundings have a much more intense effect on you. It was amazing. But I would say that it’s difficult to travel, especially in a place like Costa Rica, in this state. I would enjoy immensely finding a retreat and being there for a while in my own head. You know? A little Mary Oliver action? I’d be down.

My one big event (if you don’t consider drinking boxed wine at two in the afternoon and reading The Two Towers a big event) was taking a surfing lesson! My instructor was this beautiful blonde man from New Zealand (the stereotypical hot surf instructor, if you will) and, as I felt for the majority of the trip, I would have been a little bit more excited if my beach-ready body were a little bit more… ready. Regardless! I got equipped with a rash guard and a humungous surfboard (apparently better for stability, but super annoying to carry to and from the beach barefoot). He showed me how to jump up onto the board on the sand, how to hold the board up to let waves pass you, how to turn the board around when you’re ready, how to paddle into the wave when it’s coming… it was good! I have the basics down. The best part was basically he did everything for me and all I had to do was stand up. Which I did! Twice! Two big waves I rode all the way in. But surfing is hard! And waves are really powerful. And the ocean is salty. Well, it ain’t no breeze, but it was really fun.

I rewarded myself with a lazy afternoon in a hammock. I watched the incredible beach sunset for a long time and the surfers crashing against the white waves and orange clouds… Oh it’s one of those “I’m in paradise” things, you know? That’s really all it was.

That night I was social for the first time, and asked some girls what was in their delicious avocado concoction that I had noticed them eating a few times. The hostel was located directly next to the grocery store, so I walked right over and bought four avocadoes, a tomato, an onion, cilantro, a lime, and two bags of tortilla chips and made a little feast of my own. I could live off guacamole. It was so so so delicious. I might have made a little too much, but I was able to share with some other guests. I was invited to play cards by the two girls and these other three guys who had just gotten there. And here I learned the joys of backpacking life, and the amazing people you can meet.

The three guys were 22 and 23 from Israel. They were actually three of the funniest people I have met in my life. And did you know that people from Israel have to serve in the army for three years after they turn 18? So they were army vets. Teaching me an army card game. After we finished cards, we just talked for hours and hours and it was some of the most rewarding conversation time I’ve experienced since coming to Costa Rica. Their story, briefly, was after they got out of the army, they worked for 6 months as waiters or bartenders and made about $10,000. Just working and living at home. Then they got volunteer positions in the states or Canada at summer camps for kids with special needs. This gave them free round trip tickets to North America from Israel, so they booked their return flights for 4 or 5 months after the end of their camp, and have been working their ways down from Pennsylvania and Toronto since. They did California, Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and now Costa Rica, befriending other adventurous souls, riding on chicken buses, and looking for great parties. It just fills me with wells of emotion to meet great people, you know? They were polite, good-spirited, and hilarious. I don’t think I’ll ever forget them, though I was probably just one of many foreigners they will encounter on their epic journey, which ends in Argentina. I suppose you would call this a feeling of serendipity.

The next morning I awoke bright and early to catch a bus back to San Jose. The travel back wasn’t painless (the bus didn’t have enough traction to make it up a steep hill, so we all had to get out and walk up the hill and wait for 45 minutes for it to get towed to the top, and then the bus attendant had neglected to give me a ticket after I paid my fare and the bus driver almost didn’t let me back on…) but went smoothly enough. I returned to the center with much less bitterness than I had left with.

Even though the internet still didn’t work.

And since then, we have finished our two final lab reports, and final exams, and are starting anew on directed research. The last week was filled with a lot of stress and anguish all around, but I think we are all ready to start (and finish) this final chapter in our educational adventure in Costa Rica. Pura vida, no?

Not me and not my boyfriend on a romantic walk down the beach.

evaluation

Today, we finished finals. Which means the conclusion of CLASSES for the whole semester! We have four weeks of Directed Research, and then this part of my lives, my friends, will be over. Pretty unreal, huh?

Well, as I compose my thoughts about my solo trip to Santa Teresa, I thought maybe you would be interested in reading my midsemester evaluation of this lovely program. (Then again, most of you probably won't because it's boring and doesn't have pretty pictures or really talk about any events. Honestly, I thought my mom might like to read it.) It's mostly critical, but I thought maybe you would get a better idea of how it works around here, if I haven't given a well enough impression.

I thought of this because today we had a house meeting and it was just really frustrating and awful. People in the house butting heads. And THEN my pandilla was assigned girl's bathroom duty (which is by FAR the worst job, we have to scrub all the mold off all the shower curtains, clean hair out of the drains, bleach the toilets, change the toilet paper waste baskets [in case you didn't know, you don't flush toilet paper here, you throw it in the trash]) for the THIRD TIME out of the five house cleanings that we've done, and the other two times we were the boy's bathrooms and the other bathrooms. Why don't we get the porch where all you have to do is sweep? I just don't understand. This made me grumpy and reminded me of all the things I dislike about being here. Here are some more things.

1. 1. What do you think about the overall level of difficulty and content of the academic program?

The program material is definitely challenging and interesting. I think the professors could present the information in more dynamic ways. I understand that lectures are an efficient and effective way of transferring information. However, it is extremely difficult to not fall asleep, let alone focus, in the hot humid weather. Sergio is the only professor who attempted doing other activities to help us gain knowledge about his material. (These, I think also could be executed a little better.) Dynamic activities like this really help us think about the topics in different ways, as opposed to just memorizing slides. Some of the discussions in the outdoor classroom went really well also because a lot of group participation was enforced (I saw this mostly with Sergio’s classes as well).

I think it would be effective for people to do small presentations on different topics, similar to the style we had to do for crops. The problems with the crop presentations were there were too many people for each crop and the amount of information we needed to know about the crop. This made it so there was a lot of extraneous information in the presentations, and I didn’t really gather the important facts. If we did presentations where each person got a topic throughout any of the courses, for instance someone could have coffee, another person could have wind energy, another person could have bananas… etc and then actually make it a noticeable percentage of our grade, I think we would work a lot harder on the projects and pay a lot more attention because they would be included on the exams. In general, it is difficult that we basically only have 4 things contributing to our grades, and, like in the case of NRM, when we receive our FLAB, FEX, and midterm back all right away, we have no way to improve our grade if the only thing we have left is our final.

In general, I really love what I am learning here and I think it’s a great place to learn it. It is challenging, but mostly only because of the way information is presented.

2. 2. What do you think about the contribution of faculty and staff to the program?

This is obviously a very intensive program for the staff that work here. I have never had a problem with professors being unavailable for help with assignments, or unprepared for class. The staff is extremely attentive. Especially Dayla. She is a godsend to this program and we are so lucky to have her. I cannot say enough good things about Dayla. It is great that there is a position like that in this program; it is a great resource for students when we are having any sort of problems. I can tell that everyone here works really hard and is great at what they do.

I think there are some problems with the intern position, however. It is really difficult to have someone who is pretty much our age, yet takes such a condescending stance over all of us. I also have seen that the intern maintains preferential treatment towards the males of the group. I think that this position could be fulfilled a lot better if the person acted more as a liason between the students and the staff, as opposed to taking a higher authoritative stance over all of us. It is very isolating, and in many cases just plain rude.

3. 3. What do you think about the community opportunities organized by the Center?

I have loved community outreach. I have learned the most through my close interactions with the people and community here. It would be nice to do projects that we get to continue throughout the entire semester, especially with children, so we could create bonds with them and actually get to know them. Spending time with kids is also a great way to improve our Spanish.

Homestay was AMAZING. This should be extended to be longer than one weekend, definitely.

I think we garden too much. Most of the times I’ve gardened, I haven’t felt like I’ve really accomplished anything. I am just being put to work for the sake of being put to work. If this isn’t the case, then I think we should be explained to about why we need to rake unseen areas of the property and the bare lawn, or machete the edge of the fence, so at least we understand our purpose. Gardening might also work better if we weren’t all doing it at once so we could have a little more direction and oversight. I genuinely love gardening and I would do it everyday if I actually thought there was a purpose to it.

I think the staff are very willing to listen to the students. I just wish that we didn’t have so many problems to begin with. I think a lot of things are poorly organized and our time isn’t managed wisely. For instance, we should not be given study time for exams BEFORE we have the review from the professors.

4. 4. Overall satisfaction with program: 3 Why?

I am frustrated that things are getting stolen from the dorm. In the future, I think the risk of not locking your room and locking up all valuables needs to be emphasized more in the future years.

It is frustrating that we have so many rules and restrictions and responsibilities, and yet people do not get penalized when they disobey them. I feel like there are a LOT of people who don’t carry their weight in pandillas, but nothing happens about it. Like during house cleanings, a lot of people don’t consider cleanliness one of their main priorities and half-ass their jobs and then the house just stays dirty and nothing happens about it. If people don’t show up for breakfast set up, while some people show up on time everyday, nothing happens. I know that this is a huge problem with community living, but there should be a way to regulate it better. It is unfair for the people who carry their weight.

The internet needs to work when we have projects requiring in depth research due. Either change the requirements of the assignments, or provide us the resources to complete them well.

Things should be planned better. For the Nicaragua trip, we were told to go pick up our passports after RAP. Then, we were told we needed to return to Yendry’s office with them to give her our passport number. Then, on the bus, we just handed our passports back to Victor. We really didn’t need to get them in the first place. Little mishaps like this happen a lot and it’s frustrating. It’s a double standard if we are expected to abide to a strict rigorous schedule, and then are forced to wait while people actually figure out what is going on.

I love our field trips. It’s awesome that we get to go to so many amazing places and learn about them really thoroughly. Field trips and outreach definitely form the most lasting impressions in my mind, and what I have learned from them has stayed with me so vividly. This kind of learning is the point of going abroad. You could never go wrong with more outreach and more field trips.

5. 5. Overall satisfaction with trip to Nicaragua: 4

6. 6. What might we change or improve about the trip?

Lots of driving for not that much activity. It would be nice to have a few more educational opportunities and excursions to natural areas. Or museums.

7. 7. What do you like the most about the trip?

Free time, really amazing hostel and hotel, hikes, experiencing Nicaraguan culture in comparison to Costa Rica.

8. 8. Additional comments:

More environmentally friendly lifestyles should be encouraged. We should at least talk about at the beginning of the program how we should consider the environment when shopping at the store (bottled water, individually wrapped items, buying bulk, bringing our own shopping bags, etc), packing our lunches (We have Tupperware! We don’t need baggies and tinfoil!), water conservation (taking shorter showers, turning off the faucet when washing our dish), NOT bleaching the sidewalk (?????), turning off lights when we don’t use them, minimizing driving as much as possible… etc. I am shocked at how inconsiderate people are about environmental lifestyle changes like this on an environmental science program, including the staff. I feel like we are learning about it at a broader scale, which is great, but in a community living situation like this, we could learn a LOT about working together to make a difference in our daily lives.

We either ALL get to run on tico time, or we all need to adhere to the schedule. For days that are as tightly packed as ours, it’s important to be respectful.

Communication needs to be improved. Announcements need to be made when everyone can hear them. People need to LISTEN to announcements so they don’t need to be repeated over and over. I think it would help a lot if there was a large go-to bulletin board or white board where people could write important announcements and it could be referred to throughout the day. Gerardo has a tendency to repeat the EXACT same thing someone will have just said, which can be exhausting especially because we have such a tight schedule.

Our break should not be the day after we return from Nicaragua. This travel time should be more spread out.

In general, for how planned out everything is, I think a lot of things could be planned a lot better. Field trips are perfect and really well organized. From a day to day basis, it seems our schedule never really runs according to plan. Organization and flexibility are yet to be in a friendly balance.

Questions? Comments? Talk soon, about real stuff, I promise.

so many volcanoes

PHEW. So now I am finally home from a two-week adventure of a lifetime! I will do my very best at recapping now, mostly for my own benefit, again, because I have so many thoughts about everything that no one here wants to hear because of course, they are all experiencing the same thing. Also, it all seems like a dream now, and the memories are slipping, so I will do my best to preserve them. Oh blog, what would I do without you. It still shocks me that someone, maybe even multiple people, still read this and are interested. But I guess life in Costa Rica isn’t reality for most people, as it is for me. Go figure!

How are YOU speaking of which? How is life in the real world? I expect no one will answer that. Though if you would, I would be grateful. I am genuinely interested.

Two weeks ago today I set out at 3 in the morning for the beautiful country of Nicaragua. Nicaragua is a VERY impressive and underrated country. It is ecologically, topographically, and environmentally much more diverse than Costa Rica! And yet, it is significantly more impoverished. They make an interesting comparison.

We rolled out of bed to find this massive charter bus waiting for us outside, complete with full-recline seats (yes, completely laying down), leg rests, plush seats, televisions, and lastly, a butler. Everyone was really thrilled about this. I personally found it a little wasteful… individually wrapped lunches and whatnot? And so many extra seats…. For an environmental science program especially, it seemed a little unnecessary. Regardless, we went on our way (watching Twilight on the TVs) and crossed the border and at about 10AM we were on a ferry to Ometepe Island.

After the ferry, it was about another two hour drive down unpaved roads in vans to get to our hostel.

Also, these roads are ridiculous because we would stop every so often in the middle of nowhere, and I'd look out the windshield to behold just a ton of cows chillin in the middle of the road so we couldn't pass. Also, just the views of the infrastructure on the island was so crazy. People cooking over wood fires (50% of Nicaragua's energy comes from wood fires), bathing and doing laundry in the lake, and the most stray and starving animals I have ever seen in my life. I did not witness a single healthy dog or cattle on the entire trip; they were emaciated, every single rib showing. And they were EVERYWHERE. I was so fatigued on this drive and kind of out of this, and everything I witnessed was so different and weird and dream-like. The island of Ometepe is still lingering between being desolately impoverished, and becoming a major tourist destination, which is strange to witness.

So by about 3, after 12 hours of travel, we reached our destination. It was worth the wait. Our hostel was a secluded bunch of wooden buildings on Lake Nicaragua. As soon as we all secured our room, we ripped off our clothes and jumped in the lake. Which was warmer than pee. There was an amazing view that spanned the whole lake, and to our right was Volcan Concepción, looming directly above us.

We had a lecture on the dock while the sun set (can I just mention how necessary my Crazy Creek, with trout patterned on it, has been on this trip…). I have no idea how we all managed to focus, considering the lack of sleep and the amount of travel we had just endured. After, we feasted on one of the most delicious meals of my life (seasoned rice, beans, salad, pizza, pesto pasta, homemade wheat bread, fish, rice pudding, dragonfruit juice... a buffet nonetheless) which was exactly what we needed, and then went to bed and passed out.

The next day we were off on a field trip (after another one of the most amazing meals of my life… gallo pinto, pancakes, oatmeal, fruit, homemade bread, quiche, tamales… we had massive feasts every single meal, and every dish was the most delicious I had every tasted. It was heaven) to an organic coffee farm slash petrogliph minefield. Our host was this hilarious, worn and shrunken Nicaraguan man who showed us organic coffee farming, Nicaraguan style. Which was basically the same as Costa Rican organic coffee farming, just a little more old school.

Then we saw some petroglyphs. From ancient times. Que interesante.

Then I had a conversation with a howler monkey. This was great! A big macho howler monkey was all up on us yelling, and so I just started yelling back. And then we talked for quite a while. And then he tried to poop on us, so I decided our conversation was over.

The rest of the day we spent swimming at Ojo de Agua which is a natural swimming pool filled with crystal clear water.

We were back in time for a ridiculous sunset on the lake, and another fantastic feast.

The next morning, we woke up to do our Ecology Field Exercise. The goal of this was to determine the ratio of invasive fish species (tilapia) in Lake Nicaragua to other native cichlids. However, the fishermen who were out to catch our fish unfortunately did not understand that we wanted them to catch tilapia so they used the wrong kind of net so basically we couldn’t collect any data. So, for the sake of putting us to work, they had us organize all the rest of the fish by species and weigh and measure them. So have no fear, we still got to get our hands all up in some dead slash still dying fish. Thank god. (Sophie, read that and tell me it doesn’t freak you out just a little bit. I am so proud of you for saving one fish. I, meanwhile, tortured and killed hundreds and then manhandled them. Awesome.)

That afternoon, we went to a biological station where they fed us more delicious food, received a lecture from Achim, and then went on a hikety hike. This hike was part of the way up Volcan Maderas, the inactive volcano on the island of Ometepe, a massive tropical dry forest. (At this point, I am supposed to be able to tell you all the differences between dry forests, transitional forests, wet forests, cloud forests… I don’t think I could do that. I hope that’s not bad. Finals Monday? Whoops.) The hike was disappointing because we could only go up halfway before we turned around because the trail was unsafe or something. So we didn’t get to see the lagoon or the waterfall or anything. But it was still really beautiful. And there was a shit ton of howler monkeys that were all like what up and then tried to poop on us.

The next day we left the island of Ometepe to go to Granada, with a stop in Rivas.

Long travel day. We also switched from little travel vans to a straight up ghetto school bus filled with gnats.

When we got to Granada, we were staying in this super nice hotel with, get this. You won’t believe it. Air conditioning. Cable TV. A pool. AND hot showers. It was too much. Nellie and I had a cute little couple room just the two of us. We honeymooned and canoodled all week long.

We got a little tour of Granada and then had the rest of the day to get drunk and eat dinner. (The picture below is the newly repainted cathedral in the central square of Granada, which is basically a reference point for the whole city. Que linda!)

The next day we bussed over to Managua, the capital of Nicaragua, and got a really random and stupid tour of national monuments or something.

And then we had lunch in a mall. Why did we have lunch in a mall? I don’t understand why they think we like mall food. I had gotten sick off my omelet breakfast (I haven’t eaten eggs for two months! Go my cholesterol) which I ordered for some stupid reason so I didn’t eat anything. Also probably because my only options were gross mall food. After lunch, we went to see the great silhouette of Sandino, the liberator of Nicaragua. If you want some more Nicaraguan history, please request it. Otherwise I’m going to assume you find it as boring as I do. And we returned to Granada for a little rest.

That evening we had an outreach project at Caritas Felices (Happy Faces), a soup kitchen for kids in downtown Granada. This is where shit gets kind of intense. If you couldn’t tell by my angsty political tirade in my other post, the economic situation in Nicaragua is grim. Here, hundreds of starving children gather to receive, for most of them, their only meal of the day. Careful watch had to be made to make sure every kid got one meal, and weren’t stuffing it quickly in their bags and then waiting for another. We were supposed to help out, but mostly we just watched some of them put on a talent show (SOME OF THE COOLEST BREAK DANCING I HAVE EVER SEEN. If the video function on my camera hadn’t broken at this point, I would show you, but they were great) and then served the food, which took a total of 5 minutes.

I think the experience was more for us to witness more deeply the effect of poverty on Granada. Ah, but I won’t go into it. I have reflected too much already, and there is only so much you can say.

The next day, we went to Volcan Mombacho. This was basically just so we could go on a really intense three hour hike, because apparently people like to do that. It was actually cool, lots of epic 360 vistas of Lake Nicaragua and the volcanoes and stuff. And then we were exhausted. And that’s all that we had to do that day, so it was good. Ah, except we did have to have another discussion….. in the pool at the hotel. Who gets to have class in a pool?! So ideal.

The next day we went to Leon, which was a really unpleasant and sweaty three hour drive. Then we got a really terrible lecture from this overly pretentious man who had no public speaking skills and teaches at the University of Nicaragua. My friend Ellen wrote me a love poem instead of listening to the lecture, which made it all worthwhile. Once she gives it to me, I will transcribe it for you.

Then we had to subject more Central American people to our obnoxious surveys, and walked around Leon a bit. A very cool city that we didn’t get to spend enough time in. Actually, that day pretty much sucked, looking back on it.

Our very last day in Nicaragua, we spent the morning at an artisan’s market in Masaya. It was HUGE and beautiful and filled with lots of (maybe not so authentic) Central American things that we could buy. So we did just that.

After the market, we went to Volcan Masaya National Park to go tour caves! There were definitely caves. With bats that swarmed around you, which was a little terrifying. I have been in caves before so I wasn't like BLOWN AWAY. But if you have never been in a cave... you should definitely go in one. Also watch the Planet Earth about caves.

There was also a steaming volcano. These were very cool things to see. Our guide spoke in English and had this really adorable accent, which I could not imitate for my life. We watched the sunset there, and got back on the bus as soon as a MASSIVE rainstorm hit. I love perfect timings.

Drive back on another ridiculously luxurious bus, actually this one even moreso, and then we’re home! I guess that was our trip to Nicaragua. That wasn’t a very interesting synopsis I guess, but we really didn’t do or learn that much. There was just a lot of hiking and seeing beautiful things and watching cable tv in the hotel room. So hopefully you will get enough out of the pictures for it to be interesting to you. (For instance, this sloth we saw on Mombacho)

The pictures, however, take three zillion years to upload because our internet has gone to shit. It's basically nonexistent. This is a very frustrating thing. Because we have to research projects due on Monday. Lame.

Next up: midsemester break to the beach. Coming soon.