2 weeks in already

Hey everyone, its really odd to me how time works. I can't believe it has been two weeks already since I last saw and talked to a lot of you, but it also seems like more than two weeks have passed because so much has happened for me in such a short period of time.

Changes since the last post include the following: I am now at my third homestay, We have started doing a lot of work to prepare for the students, and the rainy season (winter) has begun.

My second homestay, as I mentioned before, was in a beautiful house with a very nice family who treated me quite hospitably. Perks included a free tour of the coffee farm (in which I helped be a translator for some Canadian tourists) and also homemade ice cream bars in the fridge (I developed a slight addiction for the coconut flavored ones).

My third homestay is in the only multiple level home in San Luis.. it is designed very interestingly, with basically one or two rooms on each level and a few stairs between each level (four floors in total). The family I am with is very relaxed and talkative and I feel very comfortable living with them so far. They talk to me like they would talk to any of their friends, without slowing their speech or exagerrating annunciations. It makes them a little bit harder to understand, but makes me feel better about using spanish. They also have a coffee farm, along with many chickens (one of which we had fried for dinner last night) and lots of home grown fruits and veggies. Oh and my homestay father has done tons of long distance running and his medals and trophies from all this races and marathons are proudly displayed on the living room walls. I am excited to talk to him more about his running when I get a chance later tonight.

As far as course prep goes, it is really interesting for me to get a different perspective this time around.. I never realized how much "behind the scenes" work must go on for everything to run smoothly. As a student I thought everything just kind of worked out, but now I realize that very detailed planning and not letting students know when something goes differently than planned is key to making them focus on their work and studies rather than worrying about potential scheduling problems and such. Its kind of like the difference between being a performer and stage crew. For example, part of yesterday I spent deciding during exactly which lectures/activities we should provide snacks for the students, then went through a box of assorted cookies and treats labeling which snacks were appropriate for when. I always thought that they just gave us snacks when we looked hungry or something , I had no idea it was all planned out haha.

A little bit about the program... We have 20 students enrolled, 9 male and 11 female, between the ages of 19 and 24. Most of them come from UGA, but some are from other universities in GA and there is one from Hartwick college (small world). The program begins next monday, when we pick the students up at San Jose airport. The next morning we head directly to La Selva Biological research station on the caribbean side of the country and spend 8 days there. Our next destination is Cabo Blanco Biological station on the pacific coast (8 days here as well). Then we return to San Luis to finish up the program. It is going to be incredibly fast paced compared to the one I took in the fall because the students are going to be doing almost as much work in about half the time. For this reason, I am very glad I took the fall course and had a good amount of time to just enjoy being in the country and hanging out with my friends.

Since being back on campus a little bit I have met some of the new volunteers that are here for the time being. They are a really great group of people and I am looking forward to spending more time with them in the future.

I will post some pictures in a little while. As always, miss you all and hope everything is well up north : )