Week Three(?!)

            Like I said in my last post, I’m really sorry that I haven’t been diligent in keeping up with this blog. Our days are so crazy I barely have time to breathe. And when I do have free time, I try to read or write but end up just sitting there watching the birds or the clouds pass overhead. I spend pretty much every second of the day outside. I’ve been here for three weeks, and still can’t get over how beautiful it is here. The weather is perfect, and the views are unbelievable. I’ll try to give a quick summary of what I’ve been up to recently.

            Last week we spent Sunday through Tuesday at the center, with the usual class from 8:30 to 5. On Wednesday, we visited a mangrove forest on the Tárcoles River. As we started to sail down the river we saw what looked like large logs floating in the river. We quickly realized that these “sticks” were actually crocodiles coming to check us out and see if we had any food. Some of them were ginormous! The biggest one we saw was probably between fifteen and seventeen feet long. They were really cool and reminded me of dinosaurs. (The dinosaur thing seems to be a theme here in Costa Rica. And fun fact- apparently the original book Jurassic Park was set here in Costa Rica!). We then had class on the boat in the middle of the Mangrove forest, which was neato. There were several crab species that lived on the root systems of the forest. This ecosystem is really interesting, and is incredibly important in terms of both how it benefits humans and other organisms. It acts as a natural buffer against storms and helps a lot with erosion control. On a grander scale, it helps sequester a lot of carbon. But the mangrove forest is under a lot of pressure from deforestation, because many people just think of it as a breeding ground for mosquitos (which isn’t really true). The trees that grow in the mangroves are specially adapted to grow in higher salt concentrations, which is something most species of trees can’t do. The fate of these forests is unknown, but a lot of education is needed to save this beautiful environment.

            After our lecture, we went on a hike and had another tropical ecology class on a bridge in the woods. This lecture was pretty interesting, because it was on road ecology and the effects of anthropogenic noise on the surrounding areas. This is a global issue that  impacts virtually every ecosystem. One of the most important effects is the habitat fragmentation that occurs when you put in a road. This causes a loss of habitat, and acts as a highway for invasive species to move in (invasive species are essentially organisms that move into as system, and have huge detrimental impacts on native species). Roads also increase the amount of erosion and heat that goes into the forests (cars push hot air further into the forest). We also talked about possible solutions to this issue.

            We then went to a Pacific beach to have our next lecture of the day for natural resources management. But it wasn’t as nice as it sounds. This beach is at the bottom of the watershed, and so all of the trash gets swept down during the rainy season to be deposited on the sand. All of the waste from San Jose and the Central Valley (where most Costa Ricans live) is swept down here as well.  It apparently wasn’t as bad as it has been in the past (when the class would have to climb over piles of trash four feet tall), but it was still pretty disgusting. Costa Rica is still considered a developing country, and has al the growing pains that are associated with it. One of the biggest problems developing countries have to deal with is waste management, and its an issue that doesn’t lend itself many easy solutions. Most of Costa Rican burn their trash, and the rest of it is sent to giant landfills that are not properly managed. Most landfills do not have the proper containment systems, and so a lot of pollutants simply drain into the soil. Medical waste is thrown in with normal waste and can also leach into the soil. They also don’t deal with the gas buildups that normally occur, and so fires and explosions can occur. The problem with this area is there is a high number of people and amount of wildlife, but the surrounding community is incredibly poor. They have no way to pay the billions of dollars it would take to clean up the river (some studies say it would take twenty years and a billion dollars to properly clean up the river). It’s really unfortunate that the people who have to deal with the consequences of the issue are not the ones causing the problem. About twenty years ago, a management plan was enacted to try to counteract the issue. It almost worked, and was an inspiration for many other watersheds. It was a bottom-up approach, and had a commission composed of locals from the watershed. I say almost because unfortunately a change in government officials resulted in the new government changing the committee to a top-down approach, which failed horribly. Now the Tárcoles River is basically back to the same way it was twenty years ago.

            At the end of the day, we went to El Sur, which is about a three, three and a half hour drive from the center. We stayed in a tiny village just outside of the park. And I mean TINY. There were eighty people total who lived in the village. There was a church, an elementary school, a large dormitory style house for visitors like us, and a little bar-snack-hangout place in the center of town. There was also a large building that was large enough for the community to gather in which was apparently also where the doctor had his office for his once a month visits to the town. The nearest hospital was an hour and a half ride down an extremely bumpy unpaved road. Moral of the story? Don’t get sick. Ever. It was here in this area that we had our final class of the day at 5pm, where we learned more about the history of Costa Rica.

            The last activity of the day was a night hike, which was probably the best night hike I have ever been on. We saw so many different frogs and toads. We found a bunch of cane toads (which are extremely loud and ginormous). They vary in size, with the biggest approximately the size of my head. When agitated, they swell up in size and shoot out a posion that can cause you to go blind. The one that I found had a tick on its belly (which Edgardo, the prof leading the hike, promptly took off and stuck in a vial to study later). There were a bunch of different tree frogs of all different colors. We also saw a few scorpions. But the most prolific of all the species we saw that night were the spiders. They were on pretty much every single surface- the trees, the rocks, the roads, everywhere. We saw tarantulas, wolf spiders, and little tiny spiders. I don’t really mind spiders, but I did find it creepy how if you shone a flashlight into the darkness you could see hundreds of spider eyes glowing back at you.

            The next day was also really neat. I milked cows for the first time, which was really fun. There were three cows with calves, all of which were under a two weeks old. The youngest calf (who was two days old) couldn’t figure out how to get the milk and kept on ramming the poor mother in between her two front legs. He eventually had to be led to the udders and shown how to drink. After breakfast we went on an extremely strenuous hike. I thought I was going to pass out it was so hot! We hiked to a series of cascades or waterfalls and got to swim in the water. It was unbelievable. It was absolutely gorgeous and so refreshing.

            Once we got back from the hike we had two more lectures and a community discussion where we got to meet some of the locals and learn more about their lives. Apparently they used to have a much larger community. They originally moved there because the government gave them cheap land. But in the mid nineties, the government forced about half of the village out to make that land a nature reserve. Before half the forest moved out, the village mainly relied on agriculture (which wasn’t very good because the soil is very poor). An NGO helped start ecotourism in the area, and they are slowly growing the number of visitors (they currently have about 200 visitors per year of mainly volunteer groups and student groups).  Those who are not part of the ecotourism work in small-scale agriculture, government positions and within the national park. Their biggest concern is what the next generation is going to do. Kids have to go elsewhere for their education, and they are not sure how they are going to provide opportunities for kids so they stay. There are currently twenty-three families here. They are optimistic that they will be able to convince their children to stay, but time will have to tell. They are also concerned with how a new paved road would impact the community; would it be a blessing or a curse? Again, only time knows the answer to this. I hope that they can keep the authenticity of this beautiful little town.

            Friday was our last day in El Sur, and it also started early with a bird watch and then breakfast. We went to a sugar cane farm and got to make sugar. It was really fun- they had two giant oxen that were attached to a large grinding machine. They showed us how to do it, and then left us to it. They then showed us how they boil down the sugar (similar to how they make maple syrup), and then gave us sugar cane juice and solid sugar to try. The candy-like solid sugar was delicious. We had one more lecture and then had free time for the first time in days. There was a little river by the dorm where we stayed, and I went down and just sat by the river and read. Across from me a cow slowly ambled toward me and watched me for a little while. It was a nice hour well spent. The entire time spent in El Sur was amazing, and I wish I could go back. The people were incredibly open, and invited us back any time we wanted.

            On Sunday we went to Poas National Park, which I was really excited about. But I was rather let down by what we saw. It was my first chance to ever see a volcano, and it was cloudy the entire time. I was really sick that day, and thought that I was going to pass out on the hike. It was pretty bad. I saw the volcano for a grand total of thirty seconds when the clouds cleared. The rest of the time in the park was spent doing research for the park (they only have maybe ten people who work in the entire park and have no one to help). We conducted surveys for the park so they could make improvements. The Costa Ricans we interviewed were extremely nice (and patient with my rudimentary Spanish), but the Americans and other English-speakers were all for the most part pretty rude. But that’s enough of that day.

            We had a free day off on Sunday, and a large group of us went white-water rafting. It was such an unbelievable life-changing experience. Its something that was on my bucket list of things to do, but something that I was absolutely terrified to actually do. It was rated one of the top five places to go rafting in the world, and well worth the trip. There were categories three and four rapids (out of five), which were really intense. We paid seventy dollars each for transportation, breakfast, lunch and a three-hour rafting trip. What I found interesting was how I didn’t have to sign a single waiver form. Our guide (named Fernando) was really cool. He was nineteen, and was the best on the river.  We only got stuck twice (most groups got stuck at least ten times), and both times was because the river was so shallow. It was at times really scary, especially when I almost drowned. During one of the level three rapids, we hit one of the rapids  just as Fernando told us to stop paddling and get down into the raft for safety. Our raft tilted to the side at a ninety degree angle, and my foot came out of the strap attached to the raft, and I was thrown into the water. I was trapped at the side of the boat and the water kept on pushing me and holding me under the boat. I couldn’t do anything but hold on to the side and try to keep my head above the water. I thought I was going to drown. Fernando jumped to save me and hauled me in. There were a couple of other times when I thought I was going to be thrown out again., but luckily that was the only time. During the last level four rapid, we had to hold onto our foot strap to avoid being sucked under the water. It was a beautiful trip down eighteen miles of river. We passed so many giant waterfalls. I am so glad I got to have this amazing experience!

Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve

I have to apologize for the fact that this post is so late. We have had almost no free time in the past few weeks, and the free time that we have had has been filled with trying to finish all of my assignments. This post was written on February 17^th, but I have not had a chance to upload it (the internet has also been especially bad recently).

            The beginning of my week, though fun, was not particularly exciting.. We had a ridiculous amount of classes (including five hours of econ in one day). On Wednesday, we had a really awesome outreach volunteering experience. There is a school in Atenas that has an intensive English-learning class for students around my age. They have been taking this class for three weeks and needed to practice with native English speakers. It was the perfect setup- they knew about as much English as we knew Spanish. It was a lot of fun trying to figure out how to communicate with them. We played a lot of different games in English and Spanish. We played the game Taboo (which is when you have a word that you are trying to get your teammates to guess it by giving them clues about the word). That game is really hard to do in Spanish. We had a lot of fun hanging out with the Costa Rican kids, and are going to meet up with them again next week to go to a nearby waterfall. It was really nice to meet them, especially since many of the kids are the ones that we will be staying with during our two-day homestay.

            On Thursday we were off to the most unbelievable trip. We went to Monteverde Cloud Forest National Park, which was paradise. We got to Monteverde in the early morning and had class outdoors on one of the larger trails. The class was all about cloud forest ecology, which was very interesting. It was a very interesting lecture. Monteverde is a cloud forest where they have three main seasons: misty, dry, and wet. About twenty percent of their rain is horizontal rain (which means it doesn’t come directly from the clouds). About forty-three percent of the biomass here in Monteverde is composed of epiphites (which are plants that live completely on other plants with no contact with the soil. To give you an idea as to how lush this place is, there is about 1000 kg per hectare of plant growth in the secondary forest parts.

            After the lecture we went on an orientation hike with Edgardo (the tropical ecology professor). The park looked so prehistoric that I half expected to see a brontosaurus walk out of the forest towards us. There was a really cool suspension bridge that took us through the canopy of the rainforest. It was interesting to see the forest from a different point of view than normal. It was also really interesting because most of the biodiversity of a rainforest is located in the canopy, so we saw a lot of the organisms we wouldn’t normally see. We hiked up to the Continental Divide, where on one side of the trail we could see the Caribbean Ocean, and on the other the Pacific. We were literally walking through the clouds. It was an amazing experience. After lunch we had a short break, and then more class. In the evening, we had dinner at an Italian place (with delicious vegetable pizza), and then went on a night hike. We didn’t see much wildlife because the other people were way too loud, but we did see some bioluminescent larvae. Some of the other kids stayed outside after the hike, and we sat and looked at the stars for a few hours. There wasn’t much light pollution at the reserve, so the stars were brilliantly bright. I saw four shooting stars!

            The next day we began our FEX (Field Experiment, which is required for every class). We could conduct an experiment on anything we wanted to related to ecology. We were given two hours to explore the park with our partner and to begin designing the experiment. My friend Lauren and I decided to test how human traffic on the trails impacted bird activity. We compared the most heavily used trail and least used trail. We quantified the number of people that passed and compared it to number of birdcalls that heard. I still haven’t analyzed the data, but the raw data seems to point to a trend of significant decrease in calls made during and after a visit of noisy groups. And apparently our professor is doing similar research on the impact of road noise on long-term bird activity. Overall it was a very nice experience to get to sit in the woods for three hours and just listen to the birds.

            After FEX was completed, we went to Bajo de Tigre and the Children’s Eternal Rainforest (which is a nearby reserve). There, we saw one of my favorite animals of all time a SLOTH. I don’t know how Achim (one of the professors) saw it. He was sleeping about thirty feet up a tree about twenty feet off the trail. I didn’t really get a good picture of him because he was so far away and had his back to us. But I was very excited to see him. Not ten minutes after we walked past the sloth, we saw two white faced capuchin monkeys a fair ways away. One of the monkeys saw us and ran over to beg for food. Apparently they have learned that if they pose for the tourists, most people will give them food as a reward. One of the girls had a banana peel that he definitely smelled. When she tried to put it in her bag, he noticed and ran to a tree right next to her. We took a few pictures and left, but he decided to follow us. He followed us for a good part of the trail until we got to a part where a tree hung over the trail. Then, he jumped onto the tree branch and stood over us as we gathered around him. He was ridiculously close-maybe two feet above my head. That made me a little nervous, because I was afraid he would try to jump on our bags and try to open them for food. We quickly left, and thankfully he didn’t follow.

 Other cool wildlife we saw this trip:

-       -Kuwati (one of them trotted up the trail towards us and nonchalantly walked by)

-       -Quetzal (male and a female pair, who were sitting in a tree outside of the lodge that we stayed in at the front of the park)

-       -Frogs of all kinds

Today was our day off, and once again I woke up without my alarm at seven this morning. Its impossible to sleep in here! We attempted to go to the beach, but got stuck at the bus stop for an hour and a half because the Costa Rican public transportation system is very convoluted and not very well organized. We got fed up with waiting, and so walked to a restaurant and then went home. The rest of the day was in the pool and nearby trying to finish the mountain load of homework that I have for the next few days.

An update on the past few days

            The past few days have been jam-packed with so many activities. It’s hard to believe that I have only been here for a week as of today. Every single day feels like many. On Thursday we went to Barilla National Park, which is on the Caribbean side of the mountains that run along the center of Costa Rica (the center is technically on the Pacific side). It was my first time in a rainforest, and I must say that it was one of the most exciting moments in my life. I’ve wanted to go to a rainforest ever since I learned what they were in my second grade science class.

            The day started with breakfast at 5:30 with breakfast. We drove for two hours through the mountainous roads. The roads are absolutely insane with the curvy hills and crazy drivers. People’s definitions of “safe zones for passing” are extremely broad. We most often pass and get passed on the largest curves going down the mountains. Keep in mind that we are in a large school bus-sized bus with pretty much no shoulder or in some cases even a guardrail. But thankfully we have an amazing bus driver that is able to safely navigate us even under the most adverse conditions. He was also able to fix our bus when it broke down on the way home after we slashed a tire. 

           We started off our time at the park with an orientation hike through the rainforest. We saw literally hundreds of different species of trees, plants, and insects. I cannot even begin to describe the level of biodiversity that exists in the rainforest. I’m used to walking through forests in the US where there are maybe ten different kinds of trees and a few dozen types of vascular plants (which for non-science people are plants that do not have a woody outside. Think of any plant you have in your garden). Here in the rainforest, we might see one of each type of species through the walk. We ate our lunch on the side of a stream/river that was home to hundreds of red-eyed tree frog tadpoles. On our way back, I found the first fer de lance (which is Costa Rica’s most poisonous snake). We were walking around down the path and the girl in front of me kicked a few leaves and he slithered across the path in front of me and hid nearby. When I told G (one of my professors who led the hike) that I saw a snake, he poked around it with his umbrella to see what kind of snake it was. At first he thought that it was a non-poisonous snake but quickly realized that the head was angular (which generally indicates the snake is poisonous). It was a baby snake (maybe six inches), but that didn’t mean that it didn’t pose a threat. Apparently the smaller snakes are more apt to bite (for fear of being attacked) and are also not able to control how much poison they inject. But don’t worry, I was not bitten, and was wearing my gum boots (which we have to wear every time we go hiking in the forest to prevent any sort of snake bite). It was interesting because the center stressed how important the boots were, but I definitely passed by several American tourists walking around after we saw the snake with open toed sandals. Definitely not a good choice of footwear. We also hiked past a stream with naturally polluted iron from a nearby stream. It turned the water orange! We also hiked to a nearby waterfall. The hike was incredibly treacherous trying to climb on slippery rocks.

            The second day on Manu Lodge started off rather early. My first class was at six in the morning catching birds in a mist net. The mist net is a very fine net that catches the birds when they fly into it. It does not harm the birds in any way and is a common method used in bird research. We set up the net three times in the course of an hour and let it stay up for about fifteen minutes each time. Over the course of the next hour, we caught six different kinds of birds, three of which were humming birds. It was really cool to see how their phenology was different depending on their food source and behaviors (especially their beak shape; birds that eat nuts typically have large beaks to break open the hard shells and nectar eaters have far more delicate beak structures).

            After breakfast we went to a truly inspiring farm that was run by a single family. This farm was fairly large (about 80 hectares) and completely run by this family. We were given a tour by the matriarch of the family and one of her sons. They first started the farm thirty years ago primarily as a pineapple farm. They were a conventional farm that used pesticides and were not particularly concerned with being environmentally friendly. Over the years, they realized how incredibly important it was to live with the earth instead of trying to fight it. They began to switch to more environmentally friendly practices, and decided to not grow pineapple. A quick thing about pineapple that I did not know- it is incredibly bad for the environment. It is grown on areas of former rainforest that have been clear-cut to make way for the crop. It’s grown in a monoculture (which means no other plant is grown with it), and generally requires a huge amount of pesticides and causes a lot of soil erosion. Currently there are no practices in place to make it more sustainable. Honestly after learning about how bad it is, I’m not sure if I will be able to bring myself to eat this fruit. And if I do, I will definitely reduce the amount that I eat. The farm that we visited did away with their pineapples, and now have a polyculture farm where they grow bananas, mangoes,  cattle, and vegetables to support their family. Today, they produce between sixty and seventy percent of the food they consume on the farm. What’s even more interesting is that studies done by a local university have found that they are considered carbon negative, which means that they sequester more carbon than they produce. They are part of many sustainable initiatives and serve as inspiration and guidance for other local farmers. We were able to take a tour of their farm and forest, and help with some of the chores they had to do. We helped create an organic compost fertilizer by collecting a white fungus in the forest and mixing it with molasses, sawdust, and yeast. Over a few weeks, the fungus and microbes would break down the remaining leaf litter and other stuff to make an incredibly rich compost that can be spread on their crops.

            What I found most inspiring was the people themselves. They were incredibly happy and friendly. They opened up their home to us, and made us feel as if we were their family. They made us a giant feast consisting of all food grown on the farm, and then showered us with gifts. They gave us coconuts from a tree in their backyard, fresh honey from one of their beehives, and fresh cheese they had made the day before. They also told us that if we ever wanted to come back and help out or explore the farm more, they would welcome us with open arms. And they were so incredibly thankful that we were interested in learning how they lived and that we shared their goal of making the world a better place. The woman thanked us again and again (even though it was us who should be thanking her), and left us with this message: “we [in the farm] live in a little slice of heaven, [and] can choose to either live in a heaven [that we create], or hell. We chose heaven. What do you choose?”

            The next day was a complete 180 from the day before. We visited a Dole banana plantation farm, which couldn’t be more different. We drove for several miles past hundreds and hundreds of banana plants and these very poor little villages. We were given a tour of the plantation by this man who apparently ran this farm. He was… interesting. He felt very much like a used car salesman who had a very cheery exterior that masked a tyrant underneath. He stopped his presentation several times to yell in Spanish at the workers who were walking by and talking. Everything felt incredibly fake. We asked him about the kinds of pesticides that he used, and he kept on changing his answer. At first he said that they didn’t use anything, then he said that they used “mainly” a fungicide, and finally he said that they used some pesticides. He also failed to mention the rodenticide that they obviously used (there was a large container of it near the bathrooms). He also did not really talk about how the workers were treated. He did however stress the fact that they were Rainforest Alliance Certified, which is something I suppose. For those who don’t know, RAC is an environmental certification that promotes sustainability, worker’s right, etc. And they do a lot with physical removal of the parts of the banana that can attract insect pests. The biggest thing I didn’t realize about banana farming is how incredibly labor intensive it is. Each banana plant has to be visited at least three different times during its lifespan. And after that, there is a lot of work that goes into the processing and packaging. It uses a lot of water during processing (they cut the bunches off of the branch and throw them onto a conveyer belt that has several hundred gallons of chlorinated water to cool them off), although they do reuse the water for a few days. The workers work long shifts (often between 10 and 12 hours a day with few breaks) sometimes six days a week. It’s been very interesting to learn about how food is produced and to see exactly how that process works.

            Sunday was our day off from class (we have class six days a week), and most of us signed up to help out at this chili cook-off that benifited the local orphanage. Sounds great, right? Unfortunatly, the experience left something to be desired. But I guess I should have known that going in. When the woman running the event came to our campus to ask for help, I asked her if the language barrier was going to be an issue (since my conversational Spanish is pretty weak). Her response was “Oh don’t worry about that. I’ve been here for TWENTY YEARS and I STILL can’t speak Spanish. I keep on meaning to take a class to learn some but I just haven’t gotten around to it” Hold on.  This woman has been here in Costa Rica for twenty YEARS and couldn’t be bothered to even TRY to learn the language?! How could you POSSIBLY live here that long and NOT know at least SOME Spanish?? I have been here for a week and have made every effort possible to speak with the people in town and the workers here at SFS and I have learned more than she has. How is that even possible?!

            It was even worse when we got to the event. It was basically a big huge gringo fest with mainly ex-Pats from all over the US and Europe. There was maybe ten Ticos (which is what Costa Ricans refer to themselves as) in the entire event. And the other volunteers were not happy to see us there. We were sent from tent to tent to do work, and eventually were just turned away. Our intern went and had an argument with one of the people in charge so we could help, but all they gave us to do was serve iced tea and try to not get in the way. When asked if we could do something that would help us practice our Spanish, we were told to “go down to the parking lot and find [ourselves] a Tico.” We were disgusted at how rudely they treated us and soon left. All I have left to say about them is that it’s a good thing they were supporting a good cause.

            Once we left, I left with a group of other girls to go into town to run a few errands and go to the local gelato place to use their internet. When we were done, we walked back to the school (it’s about an hour walk). The way the drivers treated us pedestrians was another eye-opener. Costa Rica at times can be a very male-dominated society, and women are oftentimes definitely not treated in the same way as males. We received a lot of honking, catcalls and whistles on our way back. We were also briefed during our safety education meeting that as females, we need to be extremely careful of how we speak to strangers. Even a smile or a friendly hello can be misconstrued as an invitation for something more. And as an American, we are often perceived as “loose” and very wealthy. We stand out like a sore thumb. It has been very interesting for me to go to a place where I am the minority. All my life I have been part of the majority, and have never experience the hyper-awareness of my skin color that comes with being a minority. But don’t worry, I am perfectly safe. I never go anywhere alone, and SFS takes every precaution possible to make sure that we stay safe. And so far, I have not had any issues with Ticos. Everyone is incredibly friendly and open to talking. They have very strong family ties and try to make sure that everyone feels as welcome as possible. Their core values are centered around the importance of family and a good education. They try to live by their motto “Pura Vida,” which translates to “pure life” and basically means hakuna matata. Definitely a phrase that I can get behind. 

Impression from my first few days

I am here at the Costa Rican School for Field Studies, and I swear it's like I've stepped out of feal life and into paradise.  Today marks my second full day here in Costa Rica, but it feels like it's been a lot longer. It's amazing how quickly I got used to the warm weather! It's currently a little cooler now- it's about seventy degrees. I'm sitting in the dorm room watching the futbol match against Panama (who is currently winning). I wish I could show you what it looks like, but there is barely enough internet to check my email and write this post. I'll try to take pictures and upload them when I go to the internet cafe in Atenas on Sunday. But I'll give a quick description of the "campus" to give you an idea:

-       There is a large dorm where all 36 students live. We have a large main room with a couple of couches, the tv, and a ping pong table. On the walls are different murals that students from each semester have made. Up the stairs on one wing is all the girls' rooms and the bathrooms. The bedrooms are pretty bare- we each have a bunk and a rod to hang some clothes, and a desk with a few shelves to store everything else. The boys have a separate wing, as do the two interns and SAM (basically a hybrid residential assistant and assistant professor). We also have a tiny kitchen (with fridge and sink), a library, classroom and a computer room. Quick note about the bathrooms- we have no hot water, but since it's the tropics the frigid water feels almost refreshing. The hammocks on the porch overlooking the distant mountains are my favorite part of the dorms. They’re wicked comfy.

·      There is a separate outdoors classroom that has a large tin roof. So far we've had all of our classes out here. I absolutely love it, and wish every class back home had an outdoor classroom like that. 

·      Next to the outdoor classroom is the pool and a few hammocks to hang out in during our few moments of free time.

·      A little bit up the hill are two buildings which contain the kitchen and eating area, the professor’s offices, administration office, and study room for students.

·      We also have a basketball court as well as a soccer field which doubles as a volleyball court

·      There is an extensive area set aside for farming. Something that I find really cool about SFS is that our farm is Rainforest Alliance Certified. We have a bunch of chickens, two geese and a giant sow. Apparently we are supposed to get a cow in a few weeks! This school is a working farm and produces mangoes and oranges we can pick any time. I can’t wait until the mangoes are ready and we can pick them on the way to class! Food and sustainability are really important here, and everything we eat is as local and environmentally friendly as possible.

And speaking of food. Everything is absolutely amazing! Mom would love it- we eat beans at virtually every single meal, including breakfast. I’ve noticed that rice and beans are definitely a staple of Costa Rican food. We have a lot of plantains in many of the dishes, which are delicious. How ripe the fruit is dictates what it tastes like. The super green fruits are very starchy and taste almost like a sweet potatoes. The more ripe and brown ones are very sweet. I have no idea what most of the dishes they have made are called or even sometimes what’s in them, but everything is unbelievably good. I love all the fresh fruit and fruit juice they make us every day. Every meal has a different fruit drink with different squeezed fruits. Most of the drinks so far have had bananas and then a bunch of various fruits. They also have a lot of fruits that I have never had before. I’ll have to find out what they’re called and try to get a picture of them. Once of the ones I tried yesterday was related to the papaya and eaten like a pomegranate. It was sweet and tasty, but looked like fish eggs, which was rather odd. And the avocados. I could go on for hours about how delicious they are. We have had them in most of our lunches and dinners so far. Fresh, in guac, and in some weird pseudo guac with tuna (which sounds gross was was surprisingly delicious).  I’m excited because I asked Trig vy (one of the SAMs), and he said that we could arrange to have Costa Rican cooking lessons so I can learn how to make some of these delicious dishes.

We went into Atenas (the city nearby) yesterday, and it was very interesting. I’ve definitely forgotten more Spanish than I thought I did, though I was glad to find out that I can understand a lot of what they say. At least when they speak slowly and give me time to think about it. They had a store near the center of the city called “Mucho Gusto” that had a little bit of everything. Candy, sunglasses, bags, clothes, jewelry, watches, nail polish, transformer toy knockoffs; you name it, they had it. The center park area that we went to was gorgeous. It had several sidewalks bisecting the park with benches all along the sides, and palm trees to shade the children playing with their families. I haven’t really had a chance to explore the town, but I plan on going on Sunday to explore more.

I feel like I’ve done so much in the past two and a half days that I couldn’t possibly describe everything I’ve done. The days are jam-packed with things to do from when I wake up (without an alarm clock!) at six-thirty and get ready for breakfast at seven to the time we’re done with dinner at seven pm. Today I had three classes (lasting between an hour and a half to two and a half hours each), three meetings, a swimming test, a tour of the farm, and a briefing for our first trip tomorrow. We are leaving tomorrow at 6:15 to go on a three-day, two-night excursion to one of the national parks on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica. We are doing so much during those few days- bird banding using mist nets, a few hikes, touring a Dole banana plantation, a small family farm, and all of our classes. I am very excited but dreading having to wake up so early. Even though it’s only quarter till ten, I think I’m going to head to bed very soon. Or maybe head to one of those hammocks on the porch.. It’s a tough life. 

PS- I will not have any computer access till late Saturday night, but I will let you know how my trip goes and more about the first few days once I do!