Week 2

“Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.” ~André Gide

This past week Sam shared this as her reflection for RAP, and it really struck a chord with me.  Although it was nerve-wracking to plan to study abroad, I believe it is so worth it to “discover new oceans” so to speak.  So lemme give the highlights of what happened to me this past week:

The Sunday before last I ended up hiking to a waterfall with a small group of people, including Ranulfo, a local who we met at the sports bar and has close ties with the SFS center.  The hike was a lot longer than I expected, it was an oppressively hot day, and it included a trek through the woods that I didn’t anticipate, but the destination was definitely worth it!  The waterfall was absolutely gorgeous, and the mist was cooling and refreshing.  I got to dip into the water, and although I got chilled fast it felt fantastic.  The waterfall seemed popular for locals as well, since two other families were there.  One of the families had moved to Costa Rica from Florida because they had fallen in love with the country while on vacation one summer.

Afterwards I went into Atenas and I bought an ice cream sandwich that came in a plastic container with a spoon that was delicious.  Afterwards I watched part of the superbowl at the sports bar, and then heading back to the center to do some homework.

The following day we started pandilla chores, which are chore groups (pandilla means gang in Spanish) that switch out responsibilities each week.  That week I was in dishwashing, and I unfortunately ruined one of my shirts at bleach!

This past week I was finally able to stand completely underneath the cold shower!  I finally managed to do it after playing soccer on a particularly humid afternoon.

I also had my first meal this past week that didn’t involve rice and beans!  The cook at the center made spaghetti with a spicy meat sauce, spaghetti with alfredo and mushrooms, and garlic bread.  It tasted heavenly!  I also had an alfredo and garlic bread dish at Monteverde that I loved.  I feel kind of guilty about being so excited when I get to eat “gringo” food, since I should be enjoying the local food culture as much as possible.  I think though that no matter how much you love the local food culture of a country you visit, there is nothing like food that reminds you of your homeland, your heritage, and your childhood.

I got up early on Wednesday morning to birdwatch with Edgardo, our Tropical Ecology professor, at 6am.  We walked along the road from the Center.  It was very refreshing to be up that early, with the sun rising and the birds singing.  It was like witnessing the world waking up.  It was amazing the variety of species we saw: doves, wrens, woodpeckers, flycatchers, blackbirds, and a yellow-billed toucan.  Dogs are very popular in Costa Rica; they were almost at every house we passed, and most of them barked.

At 8am I participated in my first community outreach project.  I visited the municipal forest in Barrio Jesus (barrio means neighborhood) to learn about tree and plant species, which I will teach in turn to local children in about a month.  I was nervous about signing up for the project because of my lacking Spanish skills, but it will be a great way to finally learn some Spanish!

In the afternoon we had our first sustainability and house meetings.  I signed up to be on the sustainability committee.  I was very surprised to learn that the students had not begun to actively participate in sustainability at the Center until last semester, and then only due to their initiative.  Since it’s a program based on sustainable development I had assumed that students would have been automatically expected by SFS to play an active role in SFS sustainability initiatives.  It shows that the concept of sustainability, the lifestyle that goes with it, and transparency of organizations, are all still relatively new concepts.

On Thursday, we road mostly on the bus for our second field trip.  In the morning we went to the wind farm run by Aero Energia.  It was very strange to see the extensive cattle pastures on the bus ride to the wind farm, in part due to the fact that everyone thinks of rain forest when they think of Costa Rica, and also because the pastures were on very steep land and rolling round hills, which is very different from the flat land associated with ranching and agriculture in the US.  On the bus ride to the wind farm I also saw a flock of scarlet macaws fly by: they looked absolutely beautiful.

That weekend we stayed overnight at the biological center in Monteverde.  It was nearly like a hotel stay: we had sheets, blankets, a towel, complementary soaps, and a private bathroom for each room with hot water for the showers!  It was the first and probably the last time I took a shower in Costa Rica.  There was also a stray kitten wandering around the center.  The workers forbade us from feeding it or letting it inside, but it was very fun to play with.

On Friday we hiked through the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, and gathered ideas for our first FEX (Field Excursion Excercise).  It is an elfin forest, which means the canopy is low with a very dense understory.  There are also a lot of epiphytes: plants like bromeliads and moss that grow on the trees.  As a result the trees looked like furry animals from the moss.  At the top of the trail there was a lookout.  It was beautiful to see the clouds drift over the continental divide, with the Carribean on one side and the Pacific on the other (which could be seen in the distance).  Also Monteverde had strong temperature changes: I was very cold in the morning but had to take all my extra layers off while hiking back down the trail midday.

That night we went into the town of Monteverde and had some drinks at bar Amigos.  There was dancing and it was a lot of fun, but it was definitely more expensive than drinks in Atenas due to the high amount of tourism in the area.

On Saturday morning we did our FEX, which involved doing an experiment showing that we know how to use the scientific method.  My partner, Hannah, and I studied a hummingbird called the violet saberwing at the Hummingbird Gallery, and observed their behavior between individuals of the same and different genders.  That afternoon we bought some ice cream because Monteverde is famous for its dairy, due to a tradition in dairy farming that began when a colony of Quakers settled in Costa Rica to avoid participating in World War II.  We then returned to the Center.  That night we had dance classes.  I really enjoyed them although I was completely exhausted.  We learned salsa, meringue, and cumbia.  The first two dances I had done before, but cumbia was completely new to me.  It is a dance that is endemic to Costa Rica, so that was very cool.

On Sunday I went into Atenas to use the internet café.  I also had a delicious treat: a snow cone that consisted of a layer of shaved ice, a layer of powdered milk, another layer of shaved ice, and sweetened condensed milk on top, with strawberry flavoring on the shaved ice.  It was delicious!

On Valentine’s Day (Monday), we celebrated by decorating heart-shaped sugar cookies. They were very good, although the chocolate tasted different than it does at home.

On Tuesday morning, we all worked on the farm to help plant trees, vegetables, and start to build hydroponic beds.  I planted lettuce and chile plants, and helped dig a hole for one of the hydropnic beds, which is a very difficult task!  We also had our first two Spanish classes this week.  I wish we had started having them sooner, since I feel like I have been limping by so far.  The classes are mostly speaking, which is really helpful since I need to speak Spanish as much as possible to improve my conversational skills.  I am getting to the point that I realize that the staff wasn’t kidding when they said what you learn is a lot on your own initiative.  I’m going to try to speak as much as I can now outside of class.

On Wednesday morning we had a language exchange with students our age from the area who are in an English program.  They had been taking English classes for a month.  We did a bunch of activities together with us speaking in Spanish and them speaking in English, including constructing a device to catch a falling egg and creating a commercial for it.  It was a lot of fun.  Hopefully we will be able to meet them again and see them around Atenas.  I noticed that all the English students wore very different clothes from us: they all wore jeans (no exceptions!), whereas we were all wearing shorts or short skirts.  Also the majority of them ironically had shirts from iconic American brands, such as Aeropostle, American Eagle, and Hollister.   At night we drafted up our sustainability “contract” to agree to adopt sustainable practices, from recycling to having two meatless days a week (Monday and Thursday).

Today was mostly classes and working on my FEX report write-up.  I noticed today how much I’ve already become addicted to coffee.  I had a small craving for some in the afternoon, but I’m trying to limit myself to having one cup of coffee a day, usually at breakfast.  It’s a great way to start the day.  I have breakfast tomorrow morning at 5:30 and then we are going to Caracara National Park and some other places, and then returning to the Center at night. Ciao!