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.