So the course began about 5 days ago and we are now in La Selva biological station. The students are working on the data analysis from their research projects so I have a bit of free time and figured I would give an update.
So its really different being on the other side of things this time around. Scientists never really achieve the "old pro" feeling, but it does feel nice to be able to know more about whats going on around me and be able to share my knowledge with the students. One of my favorite parts was leading a group of students around San Jose and getting them to places they needed to be to errands, though my knowledge of how to get around the city is pretty lacking I just pretended to know where I was going, used a lot of Spanish, and it worked out pretty well for us. They are an enthusiastic group of people and there is a huge range of personalities and backgrounds, but they all get along fantastically.
La Selva isnt my favorite place to be down here because its terribly hot and humid and generally just uncomfortable to live in.. but it does have a great diversity of plants and animals. We've seen many things so far... all kinds of birds including parrots and toucans, peckari, monkeys, red eyed tree frogs *actually the group of students I was with got to see the tree frogs mating, which was like a nat geo special in real life haha.. , also some snakes though none of the really poisonous ones that tend to hang around this place a lot. Although I no longer get the thrill and urge to take as many pictures as possible of every animal I see, its really fun to watch the excitement in the students and actually a lot more satisfying. Anyway, I am really enjoying my role as TA, and get along great with the two other TAs.. its definitely helping me learn and mature in big ways because for the first time I have to think about 20 other people before I think about myself.
Today I had my first experience with the health care system down here, which is a free system. Yesterday I found myself coming down with a tonsil infection.. not sick or anything, just had white spots on the one side of my throat that hurt when I swallowed. There was also a student who was feeling ill with different symptoms.. in any case we decided to go to the health clinic today to take care of it. We got there and handed the receptionist our passports... no forms to fill out.. nothing. we were called in after about 20 minutes and saw a doctor immediately. She asked me my symptoms , looked in my throat, told me I had a throat infection and prescribed me an antibiotic and tylenol. The student was also given an antibiotic as well as a shot of pain medicine. We went to the back of the clinic and waited for our prescriptions. We got them and went on our way. It was an efficient process and we didnt have to pay a cent!
Hmm well I guess thats all for now, I am lingering in the computer lab because it is air conditioned and much nicer than the air outside. Maybe I will post some pictures later, but maybe not since I have not really taken too many.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
mas photos
Photos in order of appearance: 1. White faced cappuchin monkey on my way to work 2. Picture of the student union on campus 3. My 2nd homestay house 4. The finca (farm) at my 2nd homestay 5. View of the sunset over the gulf of nicoya from my teachers' house 6. My homestay sister Mariangel and her cousin Brandon 7. Self-taken portrain of me with a HUGE tree with an incredible root formation 8. Blue crowned mot-mot (light is bad but these birds are beautifully colored) 8. Me with 2 tico friends (not going to attempt to spell names here..) 11. Yard/medicinal plant garden at my 2nd homestay
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 : )
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 : )
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Picturas !
My First Homestay House
Magpie Jay (very large/noisy bird)
View of mountains with gulf in distance
Magpie Jay (very large/noisy bird)
View of mountains with gulf in distance
Road to my homestay 
Social Flycatcher perched
Social Flycatcher perched
Me with the other Kimberly after swimming in the river
Living room of my first homestay
My house with a rainbow.. que lindo!
Living room of my first homestay
Me riding the mule to pick up some groceries!
My house with a rainbow.. que lindo!
Me with my 1st homestay family
El primero
Ok since this is my first blog I feel I am obliged to give a bit of a background of what exactly I am doing here in Costa Rica for those of you that may know nothing other that I am spending three months is a place that sounds like a tropical paradise. Ok, so it IS a tropical paradise for me, but I am actually the TA for a tropical ecology class (the same course I took in the fall, except shorter). However, I came down a couple weeks early because I wanted to spend some time getting reaquainted with the country, the people of San Luis (the town in which our 'campus' is located), and especially the Spanish language.
Therefore, I am spending the first two weeks of my time here living with three different Costa Rican families in San Luis (homestays). Doing a homestay was very difficult for me in the fall, and I felt awkward and shy the entire time because of my lack of fluent Spanish. However, I brushed up on my verb tenses over the winter and while I am far from fluent, I am able to communicate everything I want to say and understand most of what is going on around me. So the homestay experience is much more comfortable for me this time around.
My first homestay was 6 days long and with an older couple named Dignorah and Victor Manuel. They lived in a very modest "rustic" home that had a majestic view and a beautiful flower garden... I will post picture of this after this blog. Since I did not have any work on campus to do during that time period I spent most of my time enjoying the rural lifestyle. We went for a lot of walks down to the river (which is very calm now that it is the dry season), and to Victor Manuel's farm where he raises organic tomatoes, chili peppers, and potatoes. One of my favorite part about life here is that every family has some type of small farm or garden where they grow several types of fruit/vegetable/coffee/cows/pigs that they use for their own consumption or to trade with neighbors and family who grow things that they don't. The system works out nicely because everyone gets a variety of fresh food and gets to socialize when they go to deliver and trade with neighbors. While I was at my homestay there also happened to be a lot of vendors that stopped at the house selling fruits, fish, rugs and hammocks, and cold drinks.
I have gotten to try many new and different types of food while in Costa Rica, and I absolutely love the cuisine here. In San Luis the people are very hospitable and constantly feed thier guests, so going hungry is never a worry (only once so far was I served something I could not eat- basically it was a cow's hoof and pieces of fat in a bowl of broth, apparently it is quite a treat to many people here). In fact, one night around 8pm four men and a little boy came by our house. Turns out they were strangers, but knew some family of my homestay family. We invited them in, gave them food and coffee and provided a place for 3 of them to sleep and sent the other 2 in the direction of a friend's house who would take them in. I had to smile when I thought of what our response at home would be to four strangers showing up on our doorstep at night. We'd probably give them directions to the nearest Motel 8. It is very nice to live in such a small community here because the levels of trust are much higher.
Another favorite part of my first homestay was that since I lived with grandparents/parents of many people in the community, I got to play and spend time with many of their grandchildren. The children are very easy to talk to here because they find ways of communicating even if I can't understand certain words or phrases. At one point, my host mom and I hopped on the school bus to catch a ride back to our house. She sat down with her 13 year old grand daughter. I thought of what my reaction as a middle schooler would be if my grandma got on my bus and sat down with me.. complete mortification probably. But kids here don't seem to go through the "embarrassed of family" stage. Everyone knows that family is the most important aspect of one's life, and therefore they love spending time with one another (the houses are so small that they usually don't have a choice!)
I am now at my second homestay, with a family that has three daughters (two my age and one toddler). They live in a very nice house, nicer than any other house I have been in in this community, so it is a complete 360 from my first homestay. My favorite part about it is the small coffee farm that surrounds it. It is quite beautiful and today I joined a small tour of Canadians around it led by my host dad. I was quite pleased that my Spanish has improved so much that I was able to understand almost every word on the tour, and helped provide translations to the tourists when neccessary. Yesterday I got to go to a baby shower in town with the woman who teaches the course. It was very similar to a baby shower in the states.. lots of silly games and then the woman opened all the presents with exclamations of 'aww.. que lindo, precesioso!' (how pretty, how cute). Tonight I am going to a going away party for two of the volunteers that work on campus here. It is at the house of one of the staff members, Leylo, which means there will be fresh friend tilapia since he owns a tilapia pond... I can't wait!
feel free to leave me comments! so far the only thing I am homesick for is the people I love!
Therefore, I am spending the first two weeks of my time here living with three different Costa Rican families in San Luis (homestays). Doing a homestay was very difficult for me in the fall, and I felt awkward and shy the entire time because of my lack of fluent Spanish. However, I brushed up on my verb tenses over the winter and while I am far from fluent, I am able to communicate everything I want to say and understand most of what is going on around me. So the homestay experience is much more comfortable for me this time around.
My first homestay was 6 days long and with an older couple named Dignorah and Victor Manuel. They lived in a very modest "rustic" home that had a majestic view and a beautiful flower garden... I will post picture of this after this blog. Since I did not have any work on campus to do during that time period I spent most of my time enjoying the rural lifestyle. We went for a lot of walks down to the river (which is very calm now that it is the dry season), and to Victor Manuel's farm where he raises organic tomatoes, chili peppers, and potatoes. One of my favorite part about life here is that every family has some type of small farm or garden where they grow several types of fruit/vegetable/coffee/cows/pigs that they use for their own consumption or to trade with neighbors and family who grow things that they don't. The system works out nicely because everyone gets a variety of fresh food and gets to socialize when they go to deliver and trade with neighbors. While I was at my homestay there also happened to be a lot of vendors that stopped at the house selling fruits, fish, rugs and hammocks, and cold drinks.
I have gotten to try many new and different types of food while in Costa Rica, and I absolutely love the cuisine here. In San Luis the people are very hospitable and constantly feed thier guests, so going hungry is never a worry (only once so far was I served something I could not eat- basically it was a cow's hoof and pieces of fat in a bowl of broth, apparently it is quite a treat to many people here). In fact, one night around 8pm four men and a little boy came by our house. Turns out they were strangers, but knew some family of my homestay family. We invited them in, gave them food and coffee and provided a place for 3 of them to sleep and sent the other 2 in the direction of a friend's house who would take them in. I had to smile when I thought of what our response at home would be to four strangers showing up on our doorstep at night. We'd probably give them directions to the nearest Motel 8. It is very nice to live in such a small community here because the levels of trust are much higher.
Another favorite part of my first homestay was that since I lived with grandparents/parents of many people in the community, I got to play and spend time with many of their grandchildren. The children are very easy to talk to here because they find ways of communicating even if I can't understand certain words or phrases. At one point, my host mom and I hopped on the school bus to catch a ride back to our house. She sat down with her 13 year old grand daughter. I thought of what my reaction as a middle schooler would be if my grandma got on my bus and sat down with me.. complete mortification probably. But kids here don't seem to go through the "embarrassed of family" stage. Everyone knows that family is the most important aspect of one's life, and therefore they love spending time with one another (the houses are so small that they usually don't have a choice!)
I am now at my second homestay, with a family that has three daughters (two my age and one toddler). They live in a very nice house, nicer than any other house I have been in in this community, so it is a complete 360 from my first homestay. My favorite part about it is the small coffee farm that surrounds it. It is quite beautiful and today I joined a small tour of Canadians around it led by my host dad. I was quite pleased that my Spanish has improved so much that I was able to understand almost every word on the tour, and helped provide translations to the tourists when neccessary. Yesterday I got to go to a baby shower in town with the woman who teaches the course. It was very similar to a baby shower in the states.. lots of silly games and then the woman opened all the presents with exclamations of 'aww.. que lindo, precesioso!' (how pretty, how cute). Tonight I am going to a going away party for two of the volunteers that work on campus here. It is at the house of one of the staff members, Leylo, which means there will be fresh friend tilapia since he owns a tilapia pond... I can't wait!
feel free to leave me comments! so far the only thing I am homesick for is the people I love!
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