I don’t even know where to start… Costa Rica continues to be amazing, and I am loving it. This past week was full of sun, hiking, collecting data, delicious food, cows, adventure, stars and so much more.
I don’t know how much I love my project. It isn’t bad, it just isn’t like I wake up every morning super pumped to go work on it. Basically the bad things are that it’s hot and lonely. Whenever I head out onto the trails it’s great at first, but after about an hour hiking alone in the woods I tend to get a little jumpy. I kind of let my mind wander to the point of thinking every rustle of the leaves is probably caused by something that wants to eat me. And then there’s the whole thing where I’m off creeping in the brush when some civilized people walk down the trail and see me crawling through the understory-- I can only imagine how weirded out they must be. But even if I don’t always love it at the time I am glad that my project is straightforward and requires me to be active. Because I could easily sit on the porch all day doing nothing and be perfectly content.
San Luis is incredible. Those of us who live down here refer to ourselves as the “san luis sloths” (I’m not sure if I already mentioned this). The Bradypus variagatus (three toed sloth) was one of the species we had to learn and we seem to have some striking similarities with these creatures. For one, sloths come down from the trees one time a week to poop. We go to monteverde one time a week for class. Sloths eat dirt. I’m more than positive that we’ve consumed some dirt in our time down here. And finally, sloths have something like 900 bugs living in their hair. While I’m not positive I actually have bugs living in my hair I do have bugs living in my clothes, my backpack and just about anywhere else you could imagine.
On Wednesday I went to church with my host family. There is something about church in a place like this that makes me feel a little more into the whole church and spirituality thing. I think it’s because these people have such simple lives—they wake up, do chores on the farm, do things around the house. Some have jobs elsewhere these days. But the main point is that their lives are so far from materially focused, and there is something about this that makes me feel like their faith is more of a central part of their lives. Some of these people hike rather long distances in the tropical sun just to get to church, and there is such a sense of community and family within the town. It’s hard to explain but I just think it’s an interesting contrast to our culture.
Somewhere around the 20th there was a meteor shower here.. I wish that I had remembered this on the actual day and I would have hiked up la troncha to watch the stars. It is so incredibly dark here at night, and when it is clear you can see millions of stars. But I forgot, and my bedtime is like 9 o’clock. However, I was reminded a couple of days later while watching the sun set from T.O. Notch’s porch (aka tio nate). his porch looks out over the mountains and you can see all the way to the pacific coast. it’s breathtaking. Literally. You know, people refer to views as being breathtaking, but I think this is the first time I’ve ever really consciously experienced such a phenomenon. Every time I’m sitting on his porch and I try to talk, I end up looking at the view and then I just kind of forget that I was talking. So anyway, I went back to his house that night to watch the stars. Again, it was incredible. The nights are pretty chilly because of the elevation but my friends and I laid out in the cool breeze, bundled up, watching the lightning bugs and the stars. I probably only saw like 5 or 6 shooting stars, but it was still cool. Walking alone at night is scary though. I thought I was going to be eaten by a puma while I was walking to his house. And of course as soon as this thought popped into my head I looked up to see 4 sets of eye-shine in my light. They were on the side of the road just staring at me. So naturally I panicked for a minute and considered my options—run, scream, go home, keep walking. Trying to convince myself it was fine, I walked a bit closer, and one of the sets of eyes started barking at me. So now I’m thinking, great, this puma can bark, now I’m even more screwed… of course in the end it was a dog and a couple cats, but I do know there are pumas here, and I am scared of them.
Yesterday we had to hike all the way to class. Usually we can ride the bus, but 1) it’s semana santa so the little kiddies didn’t have school, and 2) it was Saturday. So we made the 500+ meter climb to the station, and it was rough. Mostly the first part that goes straight up the mountain, but by the time we got to the station I was drenched in sweat. That night my professors band was playing at Mata é Caña—imagine old biologist hippies dressed like hipsters playing rock music in a bar full of mainly 20/21ish year old biology students. IT WAS GREAT. My professor is the goofiest guy. And my TA moncho is arguably as goofy. He is probably about 30, and he is this Costa Rican guy with a big gut. He was front and center the entire time Alan’s band was playing. Jamming out. He even lost his shirt at one point and when I asked him about it he said “I always loose my shirt at these things.” We decided he’s probably the band’s biggest groupie. Also Isa’s twin was here and her friend and it was really fun to meet them and hang out with them.
So it would appear that we’re getting to a strange point of the program. There’s just over three weeks remaining and it’s incredibly bittersweet. For one, I’m at a point where I am starting to want to go home, just a little. I miss family and friends. My bed. Cooking. Sometimes I miss things like going to the grocery store (though, I’m not sure how I’ll actually feel about a grocery store when I do go to one, food here is just so fresh and good..). I miss the northwest. My time here has made me really want to explore the areas around where I live, and I am kind of eager to do that and see what kinds of things I’ll find. I am looking forward to being done with schoolwork—finishing my data collection and my project, finishing up with reading a million articles about tropical ecology, finishing with studying and exams. But on the other hand that all means that this is over—finishing my project means moving out of my homestay and out of San Luis. I’m not ready to say goodbye to this place, I haven’t even seen most of it yet. And finishing reading articles means no more time hanging out with Alan, Anjali, Moncho, Pablo, and Gisella, all of whom I am going to be extremely sad to say goodbye to. Finishing my paper means the program is over, saying goodbye to the tropical cloudforest that has been my home for a few months now. And ultimately, saying goodbye to the friends I’ve made here without knowing when I’ll ever see them again. Last night I was realizing that in a very short amount of time I’m going to have to say goodbye to Isa and Val and Jacob and Cassie. some people I’m sure I will see again but some will require a lot of effort and traveling. I guess all I can really do is make the most of the time that I have left here, but that’s so hard. It’s hard to go out and explore when I don’t even have to leave my front yard to have an adventure, and when I have papers and exams hanging over my head, and when everyone else is also busy and it’s hard to coordinate. And it’s hard not to think about how quickly the end is going to come and how fast it’s all going to slip through my fingers.. But in the end it’s all pretty representative of what I see as sort of the beauty of life—moments don’t last forever and adventures and experiences must come to an end. If you dwell on the future you’re taking away from the present, but if you don’t fear or at least consider the future and how fast time does pass, you miss out on maximizing the present. And in the end, a new adventure is always ahead—I’m going to leave here and it’s going to be strange and sad, but then I’m going to move to Washington for the summer where I’m going to see old friends and make new friends and have many new adventures. When I look back on my life I can think of a lot of times that I wanted to last forever, but of course they have all ended, and they have been followed by yet more eras that take over as times which I wish didn’t have to end.
And on that note, I should get off of here and go do my homework so that I can get out and ADVENTURE.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Monday, April 11, 2011
Está Feliz en San Luis
It is so weird to say that we have only a month and 6 days left in our program. It’s amazing how time flies… I can’t even believe that we have been in our homestays for almost a week already, and my Spanish is (or seems to be) improving dramatically. I find myself thinking in Spanish all the time. And today when I was working on an essay I looked up to answer a question in Spanish to Isa’s Mamá Tica and when I looked back down at my paper I couldn’t understand what was going on (because it was in English)!
So, a TON has happened since I last wrote. Some things I have learned:
1. if it’s not rice and beans, it’s beans and rice.
2. you feel a little bit left out if you miss the daily conversation about fecal consistency… (sorry for this one)
3. don’t think your toast is ever safe from a cat.
4. while cow fields are good for getting internet reception, they are not good for soccer and will often lead to ankle injuries and cow poop everywhere.
We moved to our homestays. I live on a quaint farm in the San Luis Valley, about 600 meters lower in elevation than the station (that’s well over 1500 ft). My Familia Tica consists of a woman in her 40s, Xinia, her boyfriend, and her son, Eduardito, who is 14. He is really smart and speaks English really well. I live on a road with a lot of other family members though. My mom has two more children who live down the road and they each have students living with them as well. Between the whole family we have maybe 20 cows, though I think just one is for milk. The women go out every day and milk the cow, and as far as I can tell we use the milk to make mantequilla (butter), queso (cheese), yogurt (self explanatory), and para cocinar (to cook). We also have a lot of gallos y gallinas (roosters and hens) and fresh eggs every day. The chickens all just roam about all day long. We have 2 pigs that I guess will be eaten one day, and a ton of random dogs. There is also a garden with a lot of vegetables. So basically, most of what we eat comes from our farm, but my mom also goes into town to buy some fruit and other things every once in a while. At first I wasn’t really sure that my family was going to work out, because I didn’t feel like I was getting to know them very well and everyone else’s families seemed so much more hospitable. However, as I work through the language barrier, I am starting to really like my family. Plus it is a lot of fun to have so much family all around us on the road and stuff.
My house is very small. It has a couch and tv room, a kitchen with a table, 3 bedrooms, and 1 bathroom. The bathroom is a shower and a toilet. With hardly enough space to get dressed. The kitchen has a stove and a sink. And my bedroom has a bed. I also have a small table which is currently being used as my dresser. My room appears to be an add on to the house. I can’t exactly tell what the walls are made of but it’s something not far from dry wall, and you can see outside between the pieces that make up the walls. However I do have a nice large bed.
I’m feeling like it’s time to ditch all of the things I brought with me. It’s hard because there are things I need when I go up to monteverde once a week that I will never need down here. But I can’t keep things at the station… but at the same time I have so little space here that I just want to ditch everything. However, I think I will get over it.
I think this is all I’m going to write for now, as I have a lot of homework and studying I need to do. But expect updates.
So, a TON has happened since I last wrote. Some things I have learned:
1. if it’s not rice and beans, it’s beans and rice.
2. you feel a little bit left out if you miss the daily conversation about fecal consistency… (sorry for this one)
3. don’t think your toast is ever safe from a cat.
4. while cow fields are good for getting internet reception, they are not good for soccer and will often lead to ankle injuries and cow poop everywhere.
We moved to our homestays. I live on a quaint farm in the San Luis Valley, about 600 meters lower in elevation than the station (that’s well over 1500 ft). My Familia Tica consists of a woman in her 40s, Xinia, her boyfriend, and her son, Eduardito, who is 14. He is really smart and speaks English really well. I live on a road with a lot of other family members though. My mom has two more children who live down the road and they each have students living with them as well. Between the whole family we have maybe 20 cows, though I think just one is for milk. The women go out every day and milk the cow, and as far as I can tell we use the milk to make mantequilla (butter), queso (cheese), yogurt (self explanatory), and para cocinar (to cook). We also have a lot of gallos y gallinas (roosters and hens) and fresh eggs every day. The chickens all just roam about all day long. We have 2 pigs that I guess will be eaten one day, and a ton of random dogs. There is also a garden with a lot of vegetables. So basically, most of what we eat comes from our farm, but my mom also goes into town to buy some fruit and other things every once in a while. At first I wasn’t really sure that my family was going to work out, because I didn’t feel like I was getting to know them very well and everyone else’s families seemed so much more hospitable. However, as I work through the language barrier, I am starting to really like my family. Plus it is a lot of fun to have so much family all around us on the road and stuff.
My house is very small. It has a couch and tv room, a kitchen with a table, 3 bedrooms, and 1 bathroom. The bathroom is a shower and a toilet. With hardly enough space to get dressed. The kitchen has a stove and a sink. And my bedroom has a bed. I also have a small table which is currently being used as my dresser. My room appears to be an add on to the house. I can’t exactly tell what the walls are made of but it’s something not far from dry wall, and you can see outside between the pieces that make up the walls. However I do have a nice large bed.
I’m feeling like it’s time to ditch all of the things I brought with me. It’s hard because there are things I need when I go up to monteverde once a week that I will never need down here. But I can’t keep things at the station… but at the same time I have so little space here that I just want to ditch everything. However, I think I will get over it.
I think this is all I’m going to write for now, as I have a lot of homework and studying I need to do. But expect updates.
Monday, April 4, 2011
Who said anything about a minute to breath?
The last few days have been way more busy and stressful than I had anticipated. I made the mistake of letting my mental guard down when i realized we had a week without class, and i failed to consider the fact that in that time we have to decide on an independent project, write a proposal for it, study for our exam, go to spanish class (3.5 hours monday and tuesday), study for spanish, pack up and move to homestays, and catch up with everyone back home.
Saturday was a much needed day of relaxation. I went to a bar with Isa and Jacob and we watched the Barcelona game and went out to some bars that night. But sunday brought the realization of how much we have to do in the next month, let alone the next week. Sunday we were supposed to meet with one of our professors to talk about our independent projects. I knew exactly what i was going to do and who i needed to talk to and i was second on the list. Then after talking to Anjali (my prof) for a while, we realized that I can't do my intended project because of the location of my homestay. So then I had to sign up to talk to Pablo. Which I had to wait ALL day to do. However, once i finally talked to him i determined a new project evaluating trends of habitat shifting in butterfly species because of climate change. But i still needed to talk to Alan (my other prof), which i didn't get to do till this morning. My talk with Alan quickly came to the point that I wasn't going to do this project either. Now, more than 24 hours after the initial meeting with Anjali, and with only 48 hours to finish my proposal, I was back to square... zero. but this point i was getting really frustrated because i could not think of a single thing that i wanted to study. everything was either not really doable with the resources at our disposal or just not interesting to me. finally after a few near-meltdowns, Alan and I decided that I can do my original project idea only slightly modified to the location of my homestay. so I am going to collect plant saplings and determine if they grew from plant fragments or seeds. then i am going to look at the ratios of all of the species i find and determine if there are any trends based on plant growth form, pollination and dispersal methods, and whatever else i can come up with. Though at this point i was also frustrated that I hadn't just started writing my proposal about this project in the first place. So here I am, and i still haven't started my proposal. I did however spend three and a half hours in spanish class with my brain turned off. I wasn't even day dreaming or letting my mind wander. there actually seemed to be not a single thing going on in there. I'm very used to having a hard time concentrating because my mind is going in a hundred different directions, but today was different. I think i just sat there the whole time with a blank look on my face, and every time it was my turn to answer a question or something I had no idea what was going on (and it's not just because i'm bad at spanish).
On a different note, I started reading my book last night, finally. I suddenly am finding myself wanting to do nothing but read my book. this should come as a shock to you. I'm generally way too hyper and distractible and unfocused to read a book, but lately it's like i need something semi-concrete that i can just let my brain focus on for a while. My brain is so fried from learning species and trying to memorize every detail about every living thing that crosses my path. there has been way too much intake and shuffling of information going on up there. I feel like my head is a filing cabinet that got hundreds of papers just thrown into it, and it's up to me to go through them all and organize them and file them in some strategic manner, and I just want to let it shut down for a while. but if i let myself veg for a while i feel like i can't even form my usual random and wandering thoughts. It's like i need a book or something that my brain can simply take in and chew on for a minute.
anyway, i must now start that proposal.
Saturday was a much needed day of relaxation. I went to a bar with Isa and Jacob and we watched the Barcelona game and went out to some bars that night. But sunday brought the realization of how much we have to do in the next month, let alone the next week. Sunday we were supposed to meet with one of our professors to talk about our independent projects. I knew exactly what i was going to do and who i needed to talk to and i was second on the list. Then after talking to Anjali (my prof) for a while, we realized that I can't do my intended project because of the location of my homestay. So then I had to sign up to talk to Pablo. Which I had to wait ALL day to do. However, once i finally talked to him i determined a new project evaluating trends of habitat shifting in butterfly species because of climate change. But i still needed to talk to Alan (my other prof), which i didn't get to do till this morning. My talk with Alan quickly came to the point that I wasn't going to do this project either. Now, more than 24 hours after the initial meeting with Anjali, and with only 48 hours to finish my proposal, I was back to square... zero. but this point i was getting really frustrated because i could not think of a single thing that i wanted to study. everything was either not really doable with the resources at our disposal or just not interesting to me. finally after a few near-meltdowns, Alan and I decided that I can do my original project idea only slightly modified to the location of my homestay. so I am going to collect plant saplings and determine if they grew from plant fragments or seeds. then i am going to look at the ratios of all of the species i find and determine if there are any trends based on plant growth form, pollination and dispersal methods, and whatever else i can come up with. Though at this point i was also frustrated that I hadn't just started writing my proposal about this project in the first place. So here I am, and i still haven't started my proposal. I did however spend three and a half hours in spanish class with my brain turned off. I wasn't even day dreaming or letting my mind wander. there actually seemed to be not a single thing going on in there. I'm very used to having a hard time concentrating because my mind is going in a hundred different directions, but today was different. I think i just sat there the whole time with a blank look on my face, and every time it was my turn to answer a question or something I had no idea what was going on (and it's not just because i'm bad at spanish).
On a different note, I started reading my book last night, finally. I suddenly am finding myself wanting to do nothing but read my book. this should come as a shock to you. I'm generally way too hyper and distractible and unfocused to read a book, but lately it's like i need something semi-concrete that i can just let my brain focus on for a while. My brain is so fried from learning species and trying to memorize every detail about every living thing that crosses my path. there has been way too much intake and shuffling of information going on up there. I feel like my head is a filing cabinet that got hundreds of papers just thrown into it, and it's up to me to go through them all and organize them and file them in some strategic manner, and I just want to let it shut down for a while. but if i let myself veg for a while i feel like i can't even form my usual random and wandering thoughts. It's like i need a book or something that my brain can simply take in and chew on for a minute.
anyway, i must now start that proposal.
Saturday, April 2, 2011
SB'11
We have returned to the MTV (monteverde) in one piece. some of us with less than perfectly functioning intestines... but no casualties. the past 18 days were full of adventure, learning, hiking, sunbathing, snorkeling, dirt, happiness, sadness, bus rides, illness--pretty much everything. I learned a lot about various tropical plant and animal species, i learned a lot about the pineapple industry, and a lot about myself. I could write about every single thing we did and it would take days, and yet i would still fail to include all of the amazing details. sometimes i wish that i could capture a moment with my senses forever. things like the sight and cool refreshing feel of a monteverde sunset, the damp feeling and fresh scent of a rainforest downpour, or the feeling of a hilarious moment with my friends. it's frustrating that I can't capture what anything is truly like here with my camera, and i struggle to put words to these moments in some way that I can refer to later. I guess that is what makes them so incredible to experience, but it's so frustrating when they're gone.
Our trip began with a long backpack to a field station in the rainforest on the Atlantic slope. It was a long hike but not super difficult, plus there were more than enough distracting things to look at on the trail. at Eladio's, which was basically a shack in the woods, we slept on the porch in bug nets. falling asleep in the breeze and sometimes to the sound of rain pattering on the roof or horses chomping grass nearby, and waking early in the morning to the sound of birds chirping away. We did a lot of hiking and swimming in the river and one day we all hiked in the river up to a waterfall. it was raining and we 'boots and suits'ed it, and then we had a group bath in the pool of the waterfall. We were here for 4 nights i think, and then we backpacked out to Pocosol. this hike was brutal. it was another ten miles from Eladio's and there were many uphills and river crossings. I was so exhaused and struggling to get one foot in front of the other. Isa, Cassie and I hiked together, and it got to the point where one of us would fall every time we had to go down hill. it was all muddy and slippery and we just too tired to even try to stay upright. by the time we could finally see the pocosol station it was still up a very small hill. normally seeing your destination gives you the final energy you need to reach it, but on this day we were all still considering just stopping and dying there (of course not really dying, but we were ready to give up). This station was brand new and very nice. still no warm water, but at this point sometimes when i have the choice i still take cold showers, it's just something i don't even really think about any more. And still no clean clothes. For the whole first week of the field trip we were all living off of one pair of "dry" clothes and one pair of "wet" clothes. it would be a stretch to say one clean and one dirty-- perhaps it's more accurate to say one dirty and one absolutely grungy pair of clothes. we were in pocosol for 2 days, and we did a lot of bird watching. I got really into lounging with the binoculars and checking out the birds. [birdwatching is the best when your attention span is about 4 minutes. because you get to look at something cool and in a minute it's gone, and then you find something else to look at until that disappears too...] the last night there we had a statistics lecture, which lasted all of about 10 minutes. the accompanying activity was to look for a correlation between our taste in rum and the price of the rum. SO, our professors provided us with 12 kinds of rum, and our job was to taste them and rate them on how they tasted. then the teachers compared that to how much they cost. interestingly enough the most expensive rum tasted like jagger? then that night just got crazy from there. the next morning we rode out on cattle trucks, up and down winding dirt roads, through the rainforest. I swear it felt like a ride at disneyland, except for it was real life. another one of those moments i wish i could replay from my head over and over, but sadly it doesn't work that way.
from there, we got our extra clothes, boarded the bus and drove to another station called La Selva. really nothing too exciting happened there. but i did see peccaries and learned where they sleep. we went on a night hike and i asked my TA, Pablo, where peccaries sleep, wondering if they just curl up on the side of the trail or what. he rolled his eyes at me and basically told me he didn't know and didn't care (but it's ok, all interactions with Pablo involve a lot of sarcasm and most are only half serious). he then told me that i should read the three pigs and that peccaries sleep in houses made of different materials. Sure enough, about ten minutes later we came across a house under which all of the peccaries were asleep! who ever would have though that pablo was right? we also have a joke that i never see any wildlife, and that I'm kind of bad luck to have around when you are looking for things, but apparently my luck in changing because i was walking back with the TAs and we saw a porcupine and some other mammal... though we didn't see what it was. So we finally got to do some laundry, just in time to head back out of civilization. we bussed to another place called tirimbina where we just did more hiking. We also did another humans day where we learned about "sustainable" reforestation and timber extraction (which really is just a load of bull) and then we went to the Dole pineapple farm! that was cool, we met the guy who has his picture on a tag that is stapled to the pineapples! ha and we learned about conventional and organic pineapple. turns out that conventional pineapple has some chemical sprayed on it before it ripens that makes the pineapple appear yellow from the outside when you see it in the store. I had no idea, but apparently people have some crazy misconception that a pineapple is supposed to yellow (now of course the inside is supposed to be yellow, but we're talking the skin, or rind or whatever, here). ACTUALLY, it is supposed to be green. and we have all been lied to for our entire lives. Pineapples are not supposed to smell strongly of pineapple, nor are you supposed to be able to pull out the leaves easily, nor should it be yellow. pineapples are best to eat the moment they are picked, and from there it's all downhill. the ones all you guys get in the US have been off of the plant for about 20 days... i don't know how i'm going to go back to pineapple in the US.
The next stop was parismina, on the caribbean cost of CR. we were here for 2 nights, and the first night we went turtling. we walked on the beach in the middle of the night looking for leatherback turtles, which would have been amazing if we had seen (they're like over 2 meters long!). however, we didn't see any turtles so the walk actually just sucked. it was like we were in limbo. i don't know how to explain it but it didn't seem like we were really alive? or awake? we couldn't have any lights so we were walking on the beach but couldn't see anything and balance was difficult because of the lack of sight and because of the unstable surface. and it was super hot and humid. moonlit walks on the beach? maybe short ones. the next night we had a talent show! it was hilarious. our staff is hilarious. they did a species report on one of the boys in our program and one of the guys in our program sang songs about things we have learned. then we were off to panama! panama was also really cool. the best day by far was marine diversity day. we snorkeled ALL DAY! but other than that, i was sick most of the time. so it's kinda just blahh in my head.
it's really nice to be back in monteverde. but it's amazing how even though there is so much to do and see here i still am feeling antsy. or restless or something. i don't really know how to explain it. maybe i just want to get away from all of the people in my program for a while? it's not that i don't like them because really i like them all, but i just need some time to me. all thirty of us have been living in the same 1-5 rooms for a very long time now. but we start our homestays on wednesday... which actually could end up as me getting too much of what i wish for. I am nervous and excited for my homestay. i know that it will be a great experience but i'm still nervous for meeting my homestay family! and for the spanish aspect... I also was so mad at myself on the whole fieldtrip for not bringing my book! i'm not one to usually be saying i wish i could just sit and read for a while, but there were SO many times on the field trip when people were off doing whatever. and i didn't just want to sit doing nothing, but i didn't really want to be around everyone. and i didn't want to study. it's weird, how you can be wanting to be alone but also be lonely when you finally get to be alone? i don't really know how that works... I also am starting to miss a lot of things. not in a bad way, but i think i'm at a point where i'm starting to realize how much some things mean to me, and in some cases it's surprising what those things are... i miss my family a lot. my parents and my brother, but also my grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins. I want to see them all so bad. sometimes i think it's because i want them to be here seeing and experiencing everything that i'm seeing, and i can't even get across to them how cook it is. I also miss school a lot. i miss going to parties where i get to see people i don't see all day every day. and strangely i really miss my study spots! i miss a lot of foods, though the food here is amazing. it's also funny because i am in such an amazing place but in my head all i can think of are other places i want to travel to! i want to go to new york, and martha's vinneyard. i'm even really excited for atlanta, because i want to go explore. and i want to go everywhere in the northwest this summer. I MISS MY FRIENDS! it's strange being with people you don't know very well, and are only going to be with for such a limited time. i have a few really good friends in the program but it's still hard to get super close to them knowing that in another month and a half i will probably not even see them again... BUT! i still love costa rica and i'm excited for the exploration that will be taking place in the next couple of weeks. we've been here for a long time but i still haven't seen half of the things i want to!
So, now that we're back in civilization, i'm going to go out on a limb and say that i'll be better about updating this. and we'll see if that happens or not.
Our trip began with a long backpack to a field station in the rainforest on the Atlantic slope. It was a long hike but not super difficult, plus there were more than enough distracting things to look at on the trail. at Eladio's, which was basically a shack in the woods, we slept on the porch in bug nets. falling asleep in the breeze and sometimes to the sound of rain pattering on the roof or horses chomping grass nearby, and waking early in the morning to the sound of birds chirping away. We did a lot of hiking and swimming in the river and one day we all hiked in the river up to a waterfall. it was raining and we 'boots and suits'ed it, and then we had a group bath in the pool of the waterfall. We were here for 4 nights i think, and then we backpacked out to Pocosol. this hike was brutal. it was another ten miles from Eladio's and there were many uphills and river crossings. I was so exhaused and struggling to get one foot in front of the other. Isa, Cassie and I hiked together, and it got to the point where one of us would fall every time we had to go down hill. it was all muddy and slippery and we just too tired to even try to stay upright. by the time we could finally see the pocosol station it was still up a very small hill. normally seeing your destination gives you the final energy you need to reach it, but on this day we were all still considering just stopping and dying there (of course not really dying, but we were ready to give up). This station was brand new and very nice. still no warm water, but at this point sometimes when i have the choice i still take cold showers, it's just something i don't even really think about any more. And still no clean clothes. For the whole first week of the field trip we were all living off of one pair of "dry" clothes and one pair of "wet" clothes. it would be a stretch to say one clean and one dirty-- perhaps it's more accurate to say one dirty and one absolutely grungy pair of clothes. we were in pocosol for 2 days, and we did a lot of bird watching. I got really into lounging with the binoculars and checking out the birds. [birdwatching is the best when your attention span is about 4 minutes. because you get to look at something cool and in a minute it's gone, and then you find something else to look at until that disappears too...] the last night there we had a statistics lecture, which lasted all of about 10 minutes. the accompanying activity was to look for a correlation between our taste in rum and the price of the rum. SO, our professors provided us with 12 kinds of rum, and our job was to taste them and rate them on how they tasted. then the teachers compared that to how much they cost. interestingly enough the most expensive rum tasted like jagger? then that night just got crazy from there. the next morning we rode out on cattle trucks, up and down winding dirt roads, through the rainforest. I swear it felt like a ride at disneyland, except for it was real life. another one of those moments i wish i could replay from my head over and over, but sadly it doesn't work that way.
from there, we got our extra clothes, boarded the bus and drove to another station called La Selva. really nothing too exciting happened there. but i did see peccaries and learned where they sleep. we went on a night hike and i asked my TA, Pablo, where peccaries sleep, wondering if they just curl up on the side of the trail or what. he rolled his eyes at me and basically told me he didn't know and didn't care (but it's ok, all interactions with Pablo involve a lot of sarcasm and most are only half serious). he then told me that i should read the three pigs and that peccaries sleep in houses made of different materials. Sure enough, about ten minutes later we came across a house under which all of the peccaries were asleep! who ever would have though that pablo was right? we also have a joke that i never see any wildlife, and that I'm kind of bad luck to have around when you are looking for things, but apparently my luck in changing because i was walking back with the TAs and we saw a porcupine and some other mammal... though we didn't see what it was. So we finally got to do some laundry, just in time to head back out of civilization. we bussed to another place called tirimbina where we just did more hiking. We also did another humans day where we learned about "sustainable" reforestation and timber extraction (which really is just a load of bull) and then we went to the Dole pineapple farm! that was cool, we met the guy who has his picture on a tag that is stapled to the pineapples! ha and we learned about conventional and organic pineapple. turns out that conventional pineapple has some chemical sprayed on it before it ripens that makes the pineapple appear yellow from the outside when you see it in the store. I had no idea, but apparently people have some crazy misconception that a pineapple is supposed to yellow (now of course the inside is supposed to be yellow, but we're talking the skin, or rind or whatever, here). ACTUALLY, it is supposed to be green. and we have all been lied to for our entire lives. Pineapples are not supposed to smell strongly of pineapple, nor are you supposed to be able to pull out the leaves easily, nor should it be yellow. pineapples are best to eat the moment they are picked, and from there it's all downhill. the ones all you guys get in the US have been off of the plant for about 20 days... i don't know how i'm going to go back to pineapple in the US.
The next stop was parismina, on the caribbean cost of CR. we were here for 2 nights, and the first night we went turtling. we walked on the beach in the middle of the night looking for leatherback turtles, which would have been amazing if we had seen (they're like over 2 meters long!). however, we didn't see any turtles so the walk actually just sucked. it was like we were in limbo. i don't know how to explain it but it didn't seem like we were really alive? or awake? we couldn't have any lights so we were walking on the beach but couldn't see anything and balance was difficult because of the lack of sight and because of the unstable surface. and it was super hot and humid. moonlit walks on the beach? maybe short ones. the next night we had a talent show! it was hilarious. our staff is hilarious. they did a species report on one of the boys in our program and one of the guys in our program sang songs about things we have learned. then we were off to panama! panama was also really cool. the best day by far was marine diversity day. we snorkeled ALL DAY! but other than that, i was sick most of the time. so it's kinda just blahh in my head.
it's really nice to be back in monteverde. but it's amazing how even though there is so much to do and see here i still am feeling antsy. or restless or something. i don't really know how to explain it. maybe i just want to get away from all of the people in my program for a while? it's not that i don't like them because really i like them all, but i just need some time to me. all thirty of us have been living in the same 1-5 rooms for a very long time now. but we start our homestays on wednesday... which actually could end up as me getting too much of what i wish for. I am nervous and excited for my homestay. i know that it will be a great experience but i'm still nervous for meeting my homestay family! and for the spanish aspect... I also was so mad at myself on the whole fieldtrip for not bringing my book! i'm not one to usually be saying i wish i could just sit and read for a while, but there were SO many times on the field trip when people were off doing whatever. and i didn't just want to sit doing nothing, but i didn't really want to be around everyone. and i didn't want to study. it's weird, how you can be wanting to be alone but also be lonely when you finally get to be alone? i don't really know how that works... I also am starting to miss a lot of things. not in a bad way, but i think i'm at a point where i'm starting to realize how much some things mean to me, and in some cases it's surprising what those things are... i miss my family a lot. my parents and my brother, but also my grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins. I want to see them all so bad. sometimes i think it's because i want them to be here seeing and experiencing everything that i'm seeing, and i can't even get across to them how cook it is. I also miss school a lot. i miss going to parties where i get to see people i don't see all day every day. and strangely i really miss my study spots! i miss a lot of foods, though the food here is amazing. it's also funny because i am in such an amazing place but in my head all i can think of are other places i want to travel to! i want to go to new york, and martha's vinneyard. i'm even really excited for atlanta, because i want to go explore. and i want to go everywhere in the northwest this summer. I MISS MY FRIENDS! it's strange being with people you don't know very well, and are only going to be with for such a limited time. i have a few really good friends in the program but it's still hard to get super close to them knowing that in another month and a half i will probably not even see them again... BUT! i still love costa rica and i'm excited for the exploration that will be taking place in the next couple of weeks. we've been here for a long time but i still haven't seen half of the things i want to!
So, now that we're back in civilization, i'm going to go out on a limb and say that i'll be better about updating this. and we'll see if that happens or not.
Friday, March 11, 2011
never coming home
So, it turns out i'm officially a failure at documentation (actually, this is only partially true, i have HUNDREDS of pictures from this trip). Why is it so hard to take ten minutes or so to write in my journal at night? maybe because we are so ridiculously busy that i'm usually asleep before my head actually hits the pillow? I have always had a hard time with things like that. it's hard for me to take time out of my crazy active and hyper lifestyle to sit and write for even ten minutes.. i think i'm a.d.d.
but i figured it was time for an update. if i'm able to at least get most things in here then at least that's something, right? How long have i even been here? I believe it's been two weeks since my last post? and probably the most insane 2 weeks of my life! Monteverde is incredible. we live atop a big mountain at a biological station. my front yard is literally the cloud forest and we have to hike to get anywhere. running is quite a trick. it's almost a 200 m elevation drop to get to town, and when i run i probably go down at least 120 m, so the run back up to the station is BRUTAL. the first weekend we were here we went to the bar on saturday night. when we got to the bar my friend isa and i devided we were going to find something to drink. we ended up buying this super nasty stuff called Menta. it was BRIGHT green, and tasted like the dentist. ( i love Isa! she is by far my best friend here. we do almost eveything together and she is so much fun and so cute). we took it back to the bar with us and hid it in the bushes outside so we could come out and make drinks. eventually it got stolen. haha. we basically just danced ALLL night. and then got back probably at two or so, and then on sundays breakfast is always at 8, and if you know me at all you know i couldn't miss that. so sleep is a limited commodity around here. sunday is usually a mad homework day, but i went into town with isa and charlie and we bought mangoes and rubber boots and a few other things and then we hung out at a cafe and did some studying. That week was absolutely insane, monday we had class from 8-6, tuesday we had a field day. which means we got into small groups and went out to do a small research project. My group was looking at the ratio of plantlets to seedlings there were at varying elevations in the forest. so this required hiking all morning, and getting super dirty, and then after lunch we had to analyze our data until dinner at 6, and then after dinner everyone had to present. i think in the end we got all done at 9:30, and then of course it was time to study. Wednesday we had Humans in the Tropics. for this class we always have a morning lecture and a fieldtrip all day. we went to a small, organic, fair trade coffee farm and the growers taught us all about coffee and the process from growing to when the coffee is finally sold. we then continued to follow this process throughout the day, ending at a coffee shop that grows, processes, roasts, and sells their own coffee. it was pretty interesting, but another exhausting day. thursday and friday we had class 8-6 again, and Saturday we had a huge exam! we had to know the life and natural history of 106 plant and animal species, as well as the scientific names and be able to identify them all. on top of that, we had a short answer exam on 6 diversity day lectures: fruits, flowers, plants, snakes, mammals, and mangroves. Studying on top of our busy days was BRUTAL, but it the end it worked out rather well.
of course once that was over we had to celebrate. so saturday night we hiked (for an hour) to get to a girl in our programs house (she is like 26 and has lived here for 3 years, but she has always wanted to do this program). it was my dream house! so quaint and like, in the forest. haha. it was literally a kitchen/living/dining room, a bedroom, a bathroom, and a little loft. we had a little fire while we were there. then we went to the bar and danced until like 3 in the morning. sunday we were back to the books. this week has been a little bit more laid back. Monday we had class all day, tuesday we didn't have a field day but hiked up over the continental divide and down onto the atlantic slope. It was the most fun hike of my life. Pablo, our TA had to bush whack the trail with a machete! and we were right behind him so Isa and I picked up plants as he was cutting them and make outfits out of them (check it out on facebook). towards the end of this arduous hike we were at the La Seva insect exhibit. It was INSECT DIVERSITY DAY! which isa was super pumped about because she's an entomologist. her love of insects is definitely rubbing off on me. we went to the butterfly garden and got to watch butterflies come out of their cocoons and try to catch them. also something super cool was that at the humming bird feeders, if you put your finger up by the place they eat from, the humming birds would PERCH ON YOU FINGER! it was amazing. wednesday was another humans day, this time we were learning about livestock. We went to the Monteverde cheese factory and learned about cheese, and then we went to a farm. we saw the pigs and it was probably one of the saddest things ever. there were thousands of pigs. each in a single containment unit just big enough to hold them, standing. we were there during feeding time, so the pigs were all SCREAMING. it sounded like hundreds of trucks driving past you on the freeway honking their horns. they feed the pigs the whey that is left when they make cheese, and soy concentrate, and corn (what else?). then, they take the pigs waste, which still has about 25% of the corn in it, wash it, so they're left with the corn, and feed that to the COWS! WHATTTTT is wrong with this picture? everything. the most natural part of the whole process was the smell? maybe the sound? also, they were telling us all about how the pigs have babies, then like 2 weeks later the babies are taken away from the mothers, and the mothers are re-inseminated. they also have to cut off the piglets tails so that they don't suckle on the tails when they're under stress--which is constantly. i have read about all of this stuff before but seeing it was sort of traumatizing. then we went to another dairy farm that was all small scale and organic and everything. it was at least kind of reassuring. we got to milk cows! which was really cool. then, we learned about Gisela (another TA)'s pig farm. SHE HAS HAPPPY PIGS! they get to eat grass like they're supposed to, and they get to poop where they want. and they get to feed their babies until they're actually ready to be weened. AND they get to keep their tails. Thursday was just another class day. and now it's friday. we actually have the morning off. crazy. but it's "Reading day" because we have another exam tomorrow and another one on monday. but we have spanish this afternoon... for 3 hours.
Next week we head back out into the wilderness for field trip numero dos. we'll be backpacking for a day and then camping for 4 nights i believe. then backpacking again. We then go to Panama for about a week and then head back here for our homestays... I feel like this will be over before i know it and WAY before i'm ready for it to be. I've been meaning to change my ticket home so i can beach it with Isa for about a week and surf after the program.. i should get on that.
well that's all for now. i should probably do this more often to keep the posts shorter. but this is more for my own record i suppose...
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
is this real life?
Costa Rica is amazing. really, simply amazing. i don't even know what else to say about it. we just got to monteverde, where we spend the bulk of our time in the program, after two weeks of camping! we first drove from san jose to sierpe, where we spent the night and played a (sort of) pick up soccer game. then we boated down the rio de sierpe, learning about mangroves, some water plants, and boa constrictors along the way. after lunch we got back in the boats and boated down the river and into the pacific ocean where we saw dolphins! we camped in corcovado national park for a week. it was easily the most amazing place i have ever been. the most green forest expanded back miles and miles from the sand of the beach and we camped right on the brim of the sand. every night i fell asleep to the sound of crashing waves and buzzing cicadas. every day we hiked and swam and hung out-- upon arrival to the camp our professor told us that we would be having free time daily from 4-6, and during this time we were not allowed to nap or study. but we had to play and explore all of the beauty and nature and incredible biology of the area we were at. and on our daily hikes we would stop at different plant and animal species we saw and learn about them. we have learned almost 100 species now, and we have an exam in a week and a half and we have to know every scientific name, class, family, order... reproduction, region. a lot of stuff, it's a little overwhelming, but i almost don't even care. while we were in corcovado we saw sooo many cool things. I wish that i could remember every single one but, here's what i do remember: dolphins, whales, fish, sharks, turtles, lizards (many kinds), BUGS! (SOOO many kinds), bats, ant eaters, howler monkeys, scarlet macaws, boa constrictors, crocodiles (we actually accidentally swam with the crocodile in the ocean! for a long time..), pelicans, caimans. and really so many more. we did a small research project one day that involved catching lizards all morning which was really fun. after that field trip we boated back to sierpe and got on the bus. We stopped part way up the pacific coast for that night. My friend Isa and I ran down the beach during the sunset to find a place we could rent surf boards but everywhere was closed! so we were asking everyone if they knew where we could get a surfboard and no one spoke english.. and for some reason didn't understand our spanish..? then we ran into a guy and asked him, but his response was "ladies night! aqui!" apparnetly he wanted us to come to ladies night. and then we found a security guard who was finally able to understand our spanish and pointed us to another man, who just happened to be the owner of the surf shop. so we rented surf boards and got back to the hotel just in time for dinner. after dinner we went to ladies night, and then slept for about 4 hours and woke up at 5 am to surf! it was so much fun. i had never surfed before and it was definitely hard but so amazing. Maybe not the best beach for beginning? we were at playa hermosa which is where the world surf tournament was a couple years ago (i think..) and it had a pretty bad riptide/undertoe, but we survived (somehow). Isa is actually a really good surfer, she's been surfing for like 5 years, so it's good she was there to direct me. then we ate breakfast and got back on the bus to head to Santa Rosa national park. this was a much drier forest and was so different from corcovado. it was sunny and hot but dry, and there wasn't a close beach.. but it was still really cool. we saw so many monkeys! and learned about many more species. one day we hiked to the beach (26 k round trip! plus about 4 miles on the beach) where we saw sea turtles! one of them was laying eggs. it was really amazing. and we also saw a live sand dollar and a really big crab. the hike back sucked though, about 8 miles uphill! but, so worth it. another day we drove up to a volcano and hiked around there. I hiked up to a waterfall with some of my friends. it was soooo pretty. but on the way up we passed a woman who asked us for a phone or something because her friend had fallen and she was trying to get help. she was really shaken up and didn't seem to know how seriously her friend was hurt. so then we were all wondering what was going on and we booked it up the mountain, but right near the top we saw three more people coming down. as it turned out, her friend had fallen off a cliff/waterfall and died. it was such a strange experience, being so close to something like that happening. you never think that you're going to go on vacation and never come home. and when the other friend told us that she didn't make it we were all really shocked. we kept on hiking and saw that there was a cliff edge with a small amount of water going over the edge. but the trail went off the other way. so we (very cautiously) continued on the trail and got to the waterfall, half expecting to see a dead body in the water. but we quickly realized it would be pretty hard to injure yourself there. we were all still pretty shaken up but we still enjoyed the water a bit. Then when we headed back down we couldn't deny the curiosity and had to look and where she had fallen. It was a big cliff (like way over 50 ft.) that was pretty much just rock. there was a small stream of water going down... i don't even know how to describe this. but the body was in the water at the bottom. it was so unreal that it wasn't even really hard to look at. and then the whole way down we couldn't stop thinking about it. we would try so hard to change the topic but just kept coming back to what had happened. we realized that if we hadn't dawdled on the way up we could have been there when it happened, or even passed them and not realized the trail went the other way and one of us could have slipped. or we could have been even later and not known something had happened and peered over the edge of the cliff to see a dead body floating in the pool at the bottom. I wish that none of it had happened at all, but it totally makes you stop for a minute and think about life. it's so fragile. but anyway... it was kind of a rough part of the day, and it's hard to know how to take those things. you can't dwell on it. it's absolutely horrible that it happened, but what can we do? really i feel like i had to make a decision not to be too caught up by it, but to think about my life for a minute and realize what it's worth. realize that you need to tell the people you love that you love them. I couldn't walk away being scared of life, but realizing that time is limited. life is finite and you have to live it fully.
that was yesterday, and then today we basically packed up camp and drove all day to monteverde! it is beautiful here. we're at a biological station at the top of a mountain basically. i'm reaallllly excited to explore the town over the next couple of days!
You should check out photos on facebook.. because it's too hard to put them on here, and the internet is kind of questionable and slow with stuff like that.
hopefully i'll have a chance to write again soon.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
anticipation
i leave for costa rica in 2 days. i honestly never thought this day would come, especially in the last 7 weeks that i have been sitting around. feeling sooo lazy because i have had absolutely nothing to do. and of course i waited until the week before i leave to start working on all the things there are to be done... though i did have a good break. i got to see my brother over christmas, then i went to minnesota to visit ned :) which was so much fun. sooo much snow and ice skating on a real lake. and then i went back up to school for a week to work with a professor and visit friends and get away from salt lake. i turned 21 (that's right bitches, i can drink in public) which was exciting and my birthday was a lot of fun! so now here i am. eagerly awaiting my adventures in costa rica. I'm nervous-- definitely. but currently i'm nervous about packing, getting my proposal done in the next 2 days.. and a looongg 12 hours of traveling complete with a red-eye flight. i don't even know what to expect when i get there. i know it's going to be amazing, but it's also going to be a huge adjustment. but the only thing i have heard from anyone who has ever been to costa rica and other people who have gone on the same program is that it is ABSOLUTELY amazing, life changing, and that they wish every day they were back there. so here's to keeping an open mind and being up for adventure. because i know i'm going to find it. or more like it's going to find me...
so i'm going to try desperately to keep this up while i'm gone. i know that i will want to remember this trip forever, and i also know that i'll be very busy. hopefully i'll find time at least semi-regularly, though internet access is also an issue, but here goes..
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