My Final Blog Entry (at least for this blog)

Snow!!!

Well. I am back in the States! It’s weird to think that less than a week ago I was in sunny Costa Rica. I could tell that there had been a snow storm in Minnesota from the plane; the ground was whiter and whiter the farther north we got. I saw Albert Lea from the sky and got a bit teary eyed, knowing that I would be home soon, that this was reality. My semester abroad had finally come to an end. I was remarkablely non-choked up at the final dinner and slideshow and saying goodbye to everyone. Even 5 days after I am back, I really am not as sad about leaving than I thought I would be. This is not saying in any way that I didn’t enjoy my semester; it was the adventure of a lifetime! I guess what I am saying is I never thought I would miss my country this much, and with that my friends and family. It is good be home.

More snow!

Being home has brought a bit of shock to the system though. It is about 70 degrees colder in MN than it is in Costa Rica right now. I have taken to wearing multiple layers, even wearing my coat and hat indoors for the first couple of days. And it is so strange, they have hot water here!! The first time I took a steamy shower it was pure bliss. Hmm…what else. Oh, being out and about I have noticed that I am definitely in a different ethnic region than Costa Rica. Most of the people I see are pale skinned and tall. Also people seem fairly large, it seems true that Americans are a bit on the hefty side on average. Or more than a bit. There were obviously bigger Costa Ricans, but on average they just seem so much more fit than us. Just an interesting thing to notice; a friend that went to China for a semester and came back recently actually noticed this same thing right away. There could be any number of factors that influence our weight, but it could be that practically everything we could ever dream of having is in our neighboorhood grocery store! Seriously, they are HUGE compared to any I saw abroad. I was sent out to get a gallon of milk and while walking through the aisles just noticed how many brands and kinds of cookies, juice, crackers, candy, and everything else there was. It was overwhelming. They say variety is the spice of life, but surely too much variety would make life taste a bit cluttered.

I missed my violin!!!!

So those are the major things I have noticed, but I am sure others will pop up at random times. It is good to be home though, I have never had a December without snow, and it feels good to hunker down indoors and listen to Christmas music and talk with my family and know that I am home. I do want to travel abroad again, and hopefully within the next couple years, but it is good to come back to a place that is utterly and entirely home. Thank you to all that read my blog this semester and for supporting me through this crazy adventure I had! You should all get out there now and have adventures of your own J

The Cure for Homesickness

I have to admit, this last week in Costa Rica has been a bit difficult for me. All we are really doing now until the end is writing our research papers, and it has given me plenty of free time to think about things at home. I have been missing the luxuries that are commonplace in the States: hot water, a bathtub, musical instruments such as a piano and violin, a diversity of food that does not include rice or beans in any way, shape, or form, etc. Plus, I really miss family and friends that I hold dear. So while I know that I am studying abroad and should be enjoying every moment since I have so little of time left, I am having trouble keeping my focus here.

I think an element of this program that sort of aids in making you homesick is that we are so isolated from town. Anytime we want to go anywhere, we have to pay for the ride there and back. Granted, it’s not that expensive to take a cab, but for a girl on a budget every penny counts. Also, the beginning of the program we had no time to become involved in the town, and so now at the end of the program when we have free time we have no idea what to do. I think if I was more involved in the town, I wouldn’t be focusing so much on wanting to go home. This is pure speculation of course, but I do think the next time I study abroad it will be in a program that is more focused on immersion into a community, whether it be local town, university, or whatever. This feeling of isolation doesn’t help matters. Don’t get me wrong, I have learned a lot from this program and I wouldn’t take it back. However, I think next time it would be fun to have a different kind of learning experience and environment.

Another complication this week was I had the unfortunate luck to get sick. The gland in my armpit swelled up, making it hard for me to use my right arm, and I was sleeping about 11 hours a day and having more trouble than usual focusing on my paper. I went to the doctor in town (it is an interesting experience when you can’t understand all of what the doctor is saying, and they start doing things to your body like digging into your elbow with a needle and you have no idea why until later) and she told me that I not only had an infection that had probably entered my body through a large open bug bite on my elbow (hence the needle), I had a fungus growing in my armpit. A fungus. IN my armpit. ….what?? I have to say I have never had anything like that before. My guess is one of the coffee farms I was working in gave me an early Christmas present. I can’t see any sort of growth in my armpit, but I feel like I should name it, so if you have any suggestions let me know J

However, I found a way this morning to lighten my spirits. I discovered that I still had a can of SPAM. I had brought it to give to my host family, but they don’t eat meat so I decided it probably wouldn’t be the best thing to give them. So, this morning I made one of my favorite breakfasts: SPAM and eggs. For any of you who haven’t tried it, I know that you are judging me. But seriously, don’t knock it ‘till you try it. When the eggs are fried just right and the SPAM is crispy….no words. Plus, to make matters even better, while I was eating breakfast I read an article my mom had sent me about one of my favorite authors, Barbara Kingsolver. She is my hero, I want to live my life like hers: have a farm where I grow my own food and be an advocate for social change. This combination of factors made for a great start to the day, and today I don’t feel as anxious to get home.

So here’s a tip to any of you who decide to study abroad: bring things that remind you of home. I don’t care if you don’t think you will get homesick; bring them. You will get homesick, trust me. I didn’t think I would, but I have been the most homesick here than I ever have in my life. Bring anything that reminds you of home, whether food, music, pictures/videos, games, whatever. It might be difficult to think of what reminds you of home while you are still at home, but definitely try.

So I don’t know if SPAM and eggs or newspaper clippings or Star Trek or any of the things that I brought or were sent to me from home are exactly a cure for homesickness, but all I know is that I feel good today J

Research in Coffee Fields

Taking a break in the shade.

Wow. Research is a lot harder than I thought it would be. I always glamorized it in my head, thinking of PBS shows such as Nature or NOVA. Watching those, you don’t really think about the little things, like how they feel being under a hot sun for many hours a day, or if measuring the same kind of things over and over gets tedious. Or, very importantly, where they go to the bathroom! Don’t get me wrong, it has been a great experience. Coffee fields are a lot different than corn and bean fields though. One of the farms was VERY steep!! We had to GPS the perimeter, and there were many a time where we would fall slide down a bit. There was even one section that we turned into a slide, it was so steep (for those that have seen it, think Lemurs with John Cleese). The coffee bushes are sometimes very think and close together, and there also often at least some other trees in the field, so walking through it can feel like you are in a forest instead of an agricultural area.

Road going through one of the organic coffee farms

Coffee harvesting season starts soon for many farmers, and we could tell from the plethera fof red beans (this picture was taken at our class visit to a farm, so they weren't quite as red then, but i thought it would be a good reference). A nice small sugar snack was to pick a red bean and suck out the "honey" that is on the inside.

My job is to take soil cores in the sub-plots that we made in the fields. I am looking at the difference in carbon content between the conventional and organic coffee farms. I didn’t even think about the fact that soil holds carbon before I started this project, so I am excited to learn about it. Our research could be very beneficial to farmers, because if there farms store a lot of carbon they can apply to be part of a Payment for Environmental Services program. So that is exciting J

Back to soil cores. So there is this thing that is a bit like a shovel but with a core thing on the bottom that I push into the soil at each corner. Abby and I work together, she is taking the leaf litter from the area first (she is measuring the carbon content of that). We find ways to make the time pass, such as singing ridiculous songs at the top of our lungs (for example, Bohemian Rhapsody and Fergalicous were in our collection).

The tools that became my dear friends over the past couple of days. Most important: water bottle!

Abby taking her leaf litter samples. We kept losing the stakes for the set 30 cm x 30 cm square of string we had to use, and so would improvise with sticks. It got pretty interesting by the end of the day!

Today we got done early, and I think we will tomorrow too, so I think we are almost done with the data collection. Yesterday was the roughest day, so it was good that today was lighter. Lol yesterday when we got back at 4:30, I walked 10 steps into the dorms until I got to the living room and passed out cold on the mattresses that are in front of the TV. I don’t think I have been that physically tired in a long time!

So, on the whole, I think research is difficult but also very beneficial. And who knows, when I have to sit down and start writing the research paper, I might long for the days of data collection J

A breath of fresh air

Semester break came hard after the heels of the trip to Nicaragua. We were only home for a couple of days, including Halloween, and then we had time off. Halloween was good but weird. I usually go pretty all out on costumes and do crazy things, but Halloween isn’t really celebrated here in Costa Rica. We had a grill out that I helped make food for and dressed up a bit and watched some movies.

In the morning, at 4 am, I headed towards the Caribbean coast. Don’t ask me why so early. We were taking a large taxi to the bus station in San Jose to cut cost, and that’s when they wanted to leave. We got on the right bus and Carrie and I got off in Cahuita several hours later, a small beach town. Carrie and I decided to travel together outside of the larger group going to Puerto Viejo because we needed some space from so many people. Our personalities are very alike, and so we decided that we might be good traveling buddies. The hostel we were staying at picked us up from the bus stop. It was run by a very nice and helpful German family and it was so cool! We had a little cabin with 2 beds and a bathroom with hot water for $10 a night! Near the beach! Nowhere in the US could you do that. It was fun, when we got there we sat with one of the owners and she just told us about what it was like to live in Cahuita and the school system there and all sorts of things. It was a very homey atmosphere. Our cabin had hammocks, so we definitely spent a good amount of time reading. And napping J

The town was a bit of a distance away, but the place we were staying let us use bikes free of charge. They were a bit old and the chain on mine came off a couple times, but they worked fine:

The blue bike was mine, the pink one Carrie's. They were really cute bikes, the basket in the front completed the whole ensemble :)

The roads were HORRIBLE! Gravel, and potholes everywhere full of water. Town was cute though. There were great places to eat, SO much fresh seafood! A national park was right near town as well, and we went there one day and hiked through it. The Caribbean water was so warm and seemed really salty, it was very easy to float. We ran into our friend Brian from the center, he was staying there too. We all went snorkeling the next day in the coral reef, which was an incredible experience! There were so many colorful fish, my favorite were tiny blue ones with electric blue spots. And the coral itself was a sight to see: brain coral, fire coral, etc etc. Some of it was huge!! And so many organisms were living on it and near it. I even saw a shark! I haven’t been able to look up what kind it was, but it was at least 4 feet long, if not bigger.

Really cool trees that we saw in Cahuita National Park

There was a lot of coral pieces on the shore. I hope this is normal and not a sign that the coral reef is in trouble! I don't have any pictures from snorkeling, I wish i did because it was soo amazing. But at least you can see a bit of coral

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you! So, snorkeling was only possible for me because Brian gave me some contacts to use. Important lesson: don’t agree to watch movies until 1 am if you have to leave at 4 am. I was mostly packed before the movies started, but I still had some things to throw in. One important thing I forgot to throw in was of course my contacts. I was wearing my glasses in the morning. The climate on the Caribbean is rather muggy, making it not an ideal glasses-wearing climate. They would slide down my nose unless I wore a headband. AND THEN the first morning in Cahuita, one of the side parts of my glasses completely snapped off. It was like a nightmare, I couldn’t believe it at first. It was a pretty solid stream of bad luck. But then the sun came out a bit. One of the owners of our hostel used to be an optometrist, and while she couldn’t completely fix my glasses, she was able to expertly tape the side back to the rest of the frame. And then when we bumped into Brian and he learned of my predicament, we found out that we have the exact same prescription for contacts and he had some extra. What are the odds of that?? So I was able to go snorkeling after all J

After 3 nights in Cahuita, we decided to go to Puerto Viejo before we had to head back to the center. We stayed at a really cool hostel called Rocking J's, it had mosaics all over the place, and the room we stayed in felt like a ship’s cabin, complete with a metal door. We ran into others from the program in town, and it was good to see them again. We had had enough time away that it was fresh. We hung out at their hostel and had a great meal and just had fun together.

Carrie and I in our hostel room. The cooler mosaics were on the pathways and stuff, but ours still gave it a cool vibe.

The beach behind Rocking J's. I walked out on the flat rocks and looked at the tide pools, crabs, and fish. It was so peaceful, there were benches on the beach where Carrie and I read for quite some time

It was a pretty eventful ride back to school the next day. Our bus got stopped by a protest against the United Fruit Company. It was really interesting though, we were in the very front so got to see all the signs and hear the megaphone speeches. It was about the company cutting worker’s benefits. One lady even apologized to us, saying that she was sorry that we were being held up. This was the only way that they felt they could show their displeasure with the company. The road that we were one was a major artery to the fruit transport of the United Fruit Company, so they were hurting the company. We were only there for an hour or 2, but I didn’t mind it so much. I knew that they felt like they were doing something, and they were getting press for it. Who knows if it will help in the long run, but it was the way that they felt like they could make a difference. And I think it has a chance of doing something, because there were protests like that holding up traffic all over the country. We found that out from our taxi driver that took us home from San Jose.

The view outside our bus window of the signs and speach making.

All around, it was a great week away. I was a lot more comfortable traveling than I thought I would be. I might even consider traveling on my own someday, who knows. I can tell I know the language more, which always helps!!

The excursion to Nicaragua

A view of Granada from a Cathedral bell tower

Phew. I am FINALLY done with the stream of papers and finals we have had the beginning of this week. Thus I now have time to work on other things, such as my blog J I have so much to catch up on!! We have been quite busy the last couple of weeks.

Alright…I will start with our trip to Nicaragua. To get across the border and to our hostel at a reasonable time, we left the center at 3 am. Not the funnest hour of the morning, but the charter bus that we got was VERY comfortable. I was able to sleep until the border, where we had to get out and do paperwork stuff. Once in Nicaragua, we were headed for Island Ometepe in Lake Nicaragua. That involved the bus then a ferry and then vans on very very bumpy roads. It was an interesting ride to where we were staying, Hacienda Merida. We had learned about Nicaragua a bit before coming and knew that it is a considerable bit poorer than Costa Rica. In fact, Nicaragua is the 2^nd poorest country in this hemisphere, Haiti being the first. Many of the houses that we saw on the way were very rough, some just having palms for roofs and no covers for the doors and windows. All the animals looked very skinny, even the horses that they used for regular transport did not look well fed. The place we were staying was right on the lake, and the view was really pretty. It reminded me a bit of Driftwood up north in MN: the lake, birds that looked from a distance like loons, they rang a bell before every meal, kayaking, etc. One of the differences though was there were volcanoes on either side of us! You wouldn’t see that in MN J And there were mosquito nets over the beds. My net was hanging really to me so made me feel a bit claustrophobic. Plus, it had mold growing in it when I got there. I cleaned it out, but it still made me weirded out a bit.

A view from the dock at Hacienda Merida....so beautiful!!

sunset on the dock and a fisherman out with his net. A lot of people on the lake fish for a living

For the 3 days we were on Ometepe island, we stayed at the same place at night but would travel to different parts of the island during the day. We went and saw some petrogliphs. It was interesting, because I had seen petrogliphs before, and the way the whole thing was sent up was a lot different. Jeffers Petrogliphs in SW Minnesota are part of a museum and there are certain areas that are roped off, aka you can’t walk on the petrogliphs. On Ometepe, these petrogliphs were just sitting in the middle of a forest and you could walk wherever you wanted to. There were some signs and we had a guide, but it was very informal. The petrogliphs are exposed to the elements and the wear of visitors. It was really cool to see them though, there were some really cools designs. Our guide explained some of what they mean, like a spiral means eternity. We saw a howler monkey up close too, which was pretty cool. I have a video I can show you when I get back J

Me with petrogliphs on the stones right behind me. It was so wierd how they were just on these random stones in the middle of the woods, except for the signs it kinda felt like we were the first ones to discover them

Let’s see, what else did we do. We did some hiking on Ometepe, on one of the volcanos. It was very muggy that day so it was a bit of a struggle, but we made it. Also, during free time that we had one morning at our hostel, I paid to rent a kayak. I was so glad I did, the lake was beautiful, I could see both the volcanoes and there were tons of white herons and other birds on the shore. I really like kayaking, it is some work but also very peaceful.

This was one of the times that always carrying my frisbee on me has been beneficial :) We were at a natural spring, and someone would throw the frisbee from the side and we would jump in to grab it

Well, after 3 days we were on to the next part of our trip. We headed back on the ferry to the mainland and headed to Granada. It was a very beautiful city, influenced a lot by the Spaniards and other Europeans that came there a long time ago. I have never been to Europe, but it looked a bit like how I imagine some cities would look: fancy cathedrals, cobblestone roads, restaurants with outdoor seating right out front:

A main street in Granada with the main Cathedral in the background

It took a bit to get used to the city for me though. Even though it has the façade of elegance, it is very very poor. There are children wandering the streets trying, sometimes very aggressively, to sell you things such as clay whistles, gum, or cigarettes. Otherwise they beg for food or money. Our professors advised us that it is not the best to give them money, because they often don’t use the money to take care of themselves, instead sniffing glue or other stuff. Some of the students would give some of the kids the rest of their meal if they couldn’t finish it, which was better than giving money.

However, there was a really cool outreach that we were able to do that directly helps the kids. It is this program called Caritas Felices (in English “Happy Faces”) that haves some classes for children ages like 4-17 or something like that, and in the evenings they can get a free meal. We were able to go and see their talent show, where they showed off the dances they have been learning in class. Some were traditional dances, some were a bit more modern, and one group even did break dancing. It is cool that they give them something to do, something constructive. We were invited to contribute something to the talent show, so some of us sang “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” and did the MJ Thriller dance. We then served them a nutritious meal. They ate so fast! It seems like I just had passed out the plates and they were done. I was SO glad that our program planned for us to do this outreach, it made me see that there was a still a bit of hope for these kids. If I ever do a peace corp-like thing or an NGO abroad, Nicaragua would be a place that I would want to go. There is a lot of need there. There were times in Nicaragua, especially Granada, that I felt like we were in a movie like Slumdog Millionaire or City of God. I had seen poverty before, but not like this.

A view from the back in Caritas Felices, the kids sit at the tables and the stage up front is where the talent show took place

Lol now that I am finally writing about my experience in Nicaragua, I am remembering so much that I want to talk about! There is so much to say. I will try and keep it down though, I know you don’t have all day to sit here and read my blog JI will definitely still have stories I haven’t told when I get back. Overall, I had a lot of fun in Nicaragua. We didn’t have a ton of schoolwork to do, which was really nice because then we got to just focus on our experiences in Nicaragua. There were some not so fun times, like having to give out surveys one day, but all around I really enjoyed my time in Nicaragua. It took some getting used to, but I think I would like to go back someday and help out through an NGO. Here are some more pictures to let you see what I saw:

This is a statue of Sadino, the great revolutionary of Nicaragua, that overlooks the city of Leon. The revolution is still fresh in the minds of the Nicaraguan people.

Ha this is a picture for those that go to Our Savior's in Austin: look at the building to the far left, the one with a bunch of spherical things. That is apparently a church that just was built. Aren't you glad that our church won't look like that?!? This looks too wierd for me. I don't know, maybe it looks cool on the inside, but still

This is one of the restaurants we found, and they advertised...

SO TRUE!!! This was the best fish and chips I have ever had in my life! Complete with malt vinegar and everything. I went 2 nights in a row, it was that good. I wish I could bring some back for you :) We were joking about trying to sneak the chef of the restaurant home in our pocket

One of the students, Tom, was invited to play at a bar called Imagine (Beattles themed of course) in Granada. He is a very good guitar player, it was awesome that he got the opportunity and we got to see him play!!

Me and my MN buddy Nick in front of a volcano in Nicaragua

Montezuma

I’m going to try and post a video. I’m at an actual internet café, so downloading might be easier. Anyway, this is from the weekend away we had a while ago. I went to Montezuma with 4 other girls, and this was the highlight: a giant waterfall with a pool that we could swim in. The rock to the left of waterfall could be climbed in order to jump off (don’t worry, it was far enough away from the falls, I was safe J ) It was so much fun. It was a LOT of effort to get there, climbing over rocks and using rugged trails, but the end result was worth it: the water felt so good once we got in. Apparently there are 2 more waterfalls there, but it takes more hiking and we were already on a tight schedule. So much fun though!!

Pictures of my host family!!

I finally have pictures of the family I stayed with. These ones are from my host brother Alicio; he took some that weekend and sent them through email:

This is my host mom Rocio. Well, actually she and her sister Lucia were both my host moms, I was pretty much raised that weekend by an entire immediate family!

Here is most of the immediate family. We had been playing basketball and Alicio decided to take a picture of all of us. From left: Rocio, me, Mari, Camila, Mike, not sure who holding the baby Isabela, Lauren, Edwardo with hands on shoulders of Luis Pedro, Alicio, and Luis Gerardo

Rocio wanted everyone to wave to "la madre de Marta" :)

And these are from the host family dinner that we had on campus. We invited all the families to come and had a dinner and a short presentation about what we are studying by our university director. After, we had a short talent show (there were guitar pieces, group singing Wagon Wheel (reminded me of camp!), Lion Sleeps Tonight, a Spanish soap opera, and the Thriller dance), a piñata for the kids, and a dance with a dj in the outdoor classroom. It was really good to see my family again and talk with them. I definitely feel more comfortable around them now that I know them more, and I am trying to plan a weekend to go see them again:

This is my host mom Lucia and her 2 children Luis Pedro and Camila. Luis Pedro goes to a bilingual school, so if I ever don't understand anything, he will try and explain a little in english and then I will get it and answer back in spanish. It is nice to have that, for when I really don't understand!

So added on is Lucia's sister Rocio and her son Luis Gerardo. He is very funny, we both have a sarcastic sense of humor. I think I also get along with him because he is the same age as my brother Stuart. They are all cool though :)