A Farewell to Paradise

              Today is my last day in paradise. To be honest, I’m not sure how I feel about it. On one hand, I am really excited to see my family and friends, whom I haven’t seen since the beginning of this year. But on the other hand, I’ve had such an unbelievably amazing time here in Costa Rica, I don’t want this experience to end.  

I am going to miss so much here, especially all the little things. Some of the things I am going to miss (in no particular order):

·      The friends: I have become so incredibly close with the 35 other students here. They are all so wonderfully weird, crazy beautiful people. Individually, they are incredibly unique people. Together, we make up such a beautiful family.

·      The professors: I have never had such wonderfully amazing professors. Words cannot describe how unbelievable they are, how much they care about their students and subjects they teach. I have never been in a situation quite like this, where I basically live with my profs (they have little houses right up the hill on campus, and frequently come to the dining hall to eat meals with us). They are all ridiculously smart and funny people, and I admire them greatly.

·      Living on a farm: We live on an orange and mango orchard, with 2 cows, chickens, turkeys (until we killed them), and pigs. There is something to be said for freshly laid eggs in the morning, and being able to pick a fresh piece of fruit off the tree on the way to class or whenever else you want it. And related to that:

·      Fresh squeezed orange juice. There is a world of difference between juice that you make from freshly squeezed oranges straight from the tree and the crap you buy in the store. Especially when it’s made here with all different kinds of oranges.

·      The lizards: Instead of squirrels running around everywhere, we have iguanas of all different sizes that scurry all over campus. When you sit out on the hammocks (like I am right now) you can hear them scurry over the metal roof. And sometimes, you have to chase them out of places they shouldn’t be (like the two giant ones I had to wrangle out of the kitchen).

·      Constantly trying something new: every day was a new experience, and a new opportunity to do something that I had never done before. Like hiking in a rainforest for the first time, bungee jumping, white water rafting, ziplining, swimming in the Pacific, harvesting oranges from the tree, trying mangos, and so many others.

·      The outdoor classroom. There is something to be said for having every class outdoors in the fresh air instead of stuffed in a classroom. It’s a better way to learn.

·      Field lectures. Learning about an environment or environmental issue in the place that we are talking about is an unbelievable experience. We had classes in the middle of all sorts of different forests (rainforest, dry forest, tropical montane, cloud, among others), in the middle of a fire break, on a beach, in a boat in the mangroves, on a bridge, in a tree, on an island, and so many others.

·      Trits. They are a wonderful creation that I wish we had back in the states. Vanilla ice cream with a bit of chocolate swirl on top stuffed in between two almost gramcracker-like crusts. Absolutely delicious.

·      Chickys. My other favorite treat here, they’re basically chocolate chip cookies dipped on the bottom with chocolate.

·      The hammocks, where if you can watch the sun rise, and hang out with friends or read a good book

·      The number of people who read, and actually read good books. I read a lot more here than I have in a long time. I think the total count for number of books started and finished here is somewhere in the teens. It was fun discussing books that we had read in common.

·      Doing research for a month.

·      Random dance parties

·      Presidents and assholes (card game we were obsessed with and played for HOURS.)

·       Late night chats and the most glorious star gazing I have ever experienced.

There is so much more I could say. I wish I could write more, but I have to head to breakfast and get going with the day. But I just want to say that I have woken up every single day so incredibly thankful for everything that I have been able to do, and excited for what the day was going to bring, even if it was just class and chores. I am so grateful that I was given this opportunity, and I will cherish it for the rest of my life.