The last night at the Soltis Center

So I've already been in Costa Rica for over 2 weeks... uhhhh wut?!?! That is still so shocking to me. Today was our last full day at the Center, but I'm pretty ready to see what the rest of this country has to offer. I've heard only great things about this country, and I'm really excited to get out on my own and being to experience it first hand. We presented our projects this morning (FINALLY!) and ours went really well!! I'm so glad that they are over with, but it was a great experience to come up with our own project, physically collect data ourselves, then write a huge proposal and paper over it. I don't think I would have gotten a chance to get experience like that anywhere else. We didn't get too much of a break today though. As Dr. Quiring left the Center after lunch, and then Dr. Brannstrom gave his first lecture a few hours after lunch.

This next class that I'm taking is going to be awesome. It's going to be completely different than anything I've ever done. Basically, Brannstrom is giving us a few tasks to do which mostly deal with interpreting the culture and drawing/journaling about our findings. We are pretty much going to be on our own schedule the entire time. No classes. No tests. Just a meeting at 6 oclock every night to keep in touch with him. It's going to be so much fun! The way he described it was:

“If you learn something between now and departure… it is because you discovered it—you sought it out, you engaged it, you dug deeper—not because you took notes in lecture.”

It's going to be interesting to see how the class goes! It sounds like it's going to be a lot less work than this first class that I just finished... but since we are completely on our own it is going to be so much more money. Paying for every meal each day as well as gifts/random things/excursions is really going to add up. Oh well, I guess I should just live it up, right??

Some things that I'm going to miss about the Soltis Center:

• Having 3 meals cooked for me each day
• Being basically inside the rainforest
• Having Dr. Quiring with us
• Hanging out on "The Stoop" and just talking at nights ("The Stoop" is the patio right outside of Brandon and Eric's room where we would all hang out at night and just talk)
• Being disconnected from the real world and not having anywhere to be or anything to do
• The amazing view from our patio and the balcony in the academic center
• Dr. Eugenio Gonzales and all of the other extremely nice staff that works here
• The ping pong table and playing "fly pong" where we try to hit the huge bugs flying around with the ping pong paddles
• Being forced to spend a lot of time with all of the other people I'm studying abroad with

Some things that I'm NOT going to miss about the center

• Not having A/C
• Having nothing to do or nowhere to be/go
• Getting chiggers (which are finally almost gone... still a bit itchy)
• Eating rice and beans all the time when I'm tired of it
• These small squeaky beds in our super hot rooms
• Having to go to class in a room that has huge windows taunting you with the view outside
• All of the other people that "invaded" the Center... we got here first!

Random fact of the day... for dinner tonight, we didn't have rice OR beans! We had pizza and Coke! Everyone was so happy when we walked downstairs and saw our dinner. And sorry, I don't have the video tour of the Center tonight. Right when I was about to go out and take my video, it started to rain. I'll get one for sure tomorrow morning before we leave for La Fortuna!

I can't wait for these next 2+ weeks!! P.S. my Costa Rican beard is coming in nicely if I do say so myself

Presentations are tomorrow!

Tomorrow is the day that we have all had our eyes on for the entire 2 weeks we've been here! The one major project that we have been working on for over a week is due tomorrow at 8:30 in the morning. The entire day today was devoted completely to finishing our paper and perfecting our slide shows and presentation (which still aren't perfect). I'm going to be so glad to get this over with. This project has felt like it has dragged on FOREVER. Tomorrow around 10 in the morning, I will be a free man again and won't have to worry about any more projects for a while.

Like I said yesterday, I again relied on music today to get me through the day! Mac Miller and lots of Owl City got me through the day at first, but then out of nowhere a real gem caught my attention. Out of nowhere, "I Believe I Can Fly" by R. Kelly (yes the song from Space Jam) popped into my head and I was singing it all day long. It was plain perfection.

The reality that tomorrow is also our last full day at the Soltis Center is finally setting in. Earlier today, Dr. Brannstrom (the professor that will be teaching the geography class where we are in different Costa Rican cities) arrived at the Center. He met us here so that he could ride the bus with us to the first city that we will be going to on Friday, and he is also going to be listening to our presentations tomorrow. For these first 2+ weeks, each individual day has seemed soooooooo ridiculously long because we've had so much to do. But I cannot believe that the trip is almost halfway through! :( But I am really really really excited to go on Brannstrom's part of the trip and travel all across the country.

These last 3 days it has actually felt like we were in a rainforest because it finally rained!!!! Up until Monday, it had barely rained at all, but we have actually gotten quite a bit of rain these last couple of days. I have actually enjoyed the rain. With everything being so open at the Center, you can hear the rain in the forest and see it all. It's been pretty relaxing and I can now say that I actually experienced the "rain" part of the rainforest. Tomorrow, I'm going to try to get a video tour with my camera of the Center so that everyone can see what I've been talking about for the last 2 weeks.

Today I heard/figured out one of my new life mottoes. This isn't just a motto that is a joke and will last for a day, but I really hope that I can use this for the rest of my time in school... and the rest of my life in general. Here is the background behind it: Along with Dr. Brannstrom, a guy named Kelly Lemmon came to the Soltis Center. Kelly is working on his dissertation, and he is doing it on the impacts of study abroad on students... or something along those lines. Before we got to Costa Rica, all of us students completed one of Kelly's surveys, and he came today to talk to us in person. He's also going to be hanging out with us for the last 2 weeks of our trip which will be really cool. Basically, today he put us into groups so that he could facilitate a discussion group about different questions he had about why we studied abroad, why we chose to come to Costa Rica, etc. One of the questions he asked was something along the lines of "What were your reasons for chosing this particular program?". Most of the people in my group answered that they chose this one for an academic reason. They knew that we would be able to work closely with the professors, and their main reason for being here was to get the academic experience that isn't as available in a classroom in College Station. After hearing their answers, I blurted out that, as bad as it sounded, I didn't choose to come on this trip at all for academic reasons. I could actually care less about the grade that I got in these classes here and that I didn't want to spend my whole time doing classwork while I was abroad. I told Kelly that I was here almost completely for the experience/knowledge that I would gain from being on my own and experiencing another country/culture. As soon as I said this he just looked at me and smiled. He replied with "That reminds me of something my grandfather used to tell me. He would always say: Don't let class get in the way of your education." This statement had me thinking all day long... and I realized that that phrase PERFECTLY sums up why I chose to study abroad. The education that I have been seeking by coming to Costa wasn't knowledge about the geography classes I'm taking, but the education I have truly been looking for is to figure out more about myself and other cultures. Grades may seem important, but down the road I know that I would regret it if I spent more time here focusing on school than I did focusing on having a good time and learning what I want to learn about. I'm so glad Kelly interviewed us so that I could realize this. I'm definitely going to spend the rest of my life living by this motto.

Other than today being stressful, I'm so relieved to have our presentations almost done. On another note... HAPPY 26TH ANNIVERSARY MOM AND DAD! Y'all are amazing parents and I'm so happy that y'alls marriage has been so successful. I couldn't be any luckier than I am to have y'all, and I look up to both of you so much.

Time to go practice my presentation a little more so that I don't bomb it like I did the last one!

So tired of this project!

Can it please be Thursday morning already?! These projects are getting so annoying. All that we did today was work on our project, go to class, make graphs for our project, go to class, work on our project... oh and write the paper for our project. ALL DAY LONG. A few days ago, I thought that designing our own project would be really fun, and it was then! But now that we've been doing about a months worth of work in the last few days, me (and the rest of the students) are all sick and tired of it. Today everyone was pretty much going insane. There were periods where people were tired this morning, angry this afternoon because things weren't working out right or data was getting messed up, and then tonight everyone was so delirious from writing and working for so long that nobody could focus anymore and everyone was giggling at everything.


Me coming in hot on the zipline!

I feel bad for Shelly and Trey, my other two partners. They are getting to experience my terrible writing skills first hand, and you can only imagine how bad I was writing at 10:00 tonight after working all day long. When they read over the few paragraphs that I was supposed to write, they busted out laughing because some of my sentences made me sense at all. I guess it was good because it gave us all a good laugh to end the day which was exactly what we needed. We finished the rough draft of our paper today though which is great. Now we just have to survive one more long day tomorrow of revising everything, making sure it is all perfect, and practicing our presentations for Thursday morning. I'm going to be SO GLAD when this project is done with.



The 3 of us that got cool colorful hats... at the hot springs

 Other than that, I've really been missing American food lately. I would give anything (well... almost anything) to have a cheeseburger even just a pb&j. Yes I can still buy them here, but since we've been in the rainforest we haven't had too many opportunities to go out and get food. Don't get me wrong the food at the Center isn't bad, I'm just getting so tired of it. I've noticed that I eat less and less of the rice and beans everyday. We all still get a kick out of how they "recycle" the food here. This morning we found spaghetti noodles in our omlettes (we had spaghetti last night...) and we are starting to find plenty of other similar foods used meal after meal. Hey I'm glad they aren't wasting the food at least!

Another random thing that I don't think I've wrote about yet... there are so many dogs in Costa! I'm not sure if they are people's pets or what, but everywhere we go there are always so many dogs just roaming around. The weird thing is that the dogs don't look too dirty/skinny/ugly like the stray dogs in Texas do. These dogs look like they are pretty well off! They are all really friendly too. I'm sure they can tell that we are tourists because they always come up to us and walk with us around because they know that someone will pet them or give them food. All of the natives just go about their day, so I guess the dogs are more like "community dogs" and just roam around wherever they want!

It's been weird getting adjusted to the other students/professors being here. The lines to eat are so much longer and we have to share the common area with them. It wasn't too bad today because they are doing a lot of field research, but after having the whole Center to ourselves for over a week it is different... but nice... to see new faces walking around. It made me feel like I was in WCL (West Campus Library) today though because so many people were walking around when we were writing our papers and it was so loud, just like WCL always is.



Sitting under a waterfall that was hotter than 100 degrees!



I've got a long day ahead of me tomorrow! I'm sure I'll rely on my music to get through a lot of it. Today was filled with the band Passion Pit... who knows what tomorrow's band will be that keeps me dancing and in a positive mood!

Goodnight world :)

FORWARD TEAM!

Ahhhhhhhhh today I got to go white-water rafting!!!!!! I now have a new obsession. We woke up this morning, got on our bus, went to La Fortuna, got on a new bus, and rode for another hour or so to the Rio Balsa which is where we rafted on class 2 and 3 rapids. I kinda wish that it would have been more intense... but it was still a blast!

When we first got to the river, we got all suited up in our lifejackets and helmets, and after a safetly lesson, we got into groups of 5 and were put into groups with a tour guide. In my group it was me, Eric, Maggie, Shelly, and Daniel... and our guide was Jorge! Jorge was super cool. He kept making jokes with us the whole time and you could tell that he really loved his job (considering he has been doing it for 5 years)... but who wouldn't love that job?! I now have a new life purpose/goal and that is to move to Costa Rica and become a white-water rafting guide. I mean it's the perfect job for me. Getting to be out on the water all day long where I don't have to wear a shirt and can play in a raft! It's going to happen. Sorry for wasting 2+ years of money on college mom and dad, but at least I found my calling now!

After we got in our groups, we set off on the river! The route we went on was about 11 miles long and took a little over 2 hours for us to do. The first half was the class 3 part with the more intense rapids. We were all laughing and smiling the whole way... the pictures prove it. Eric and I got to be in the front of the raft which was so much fun! Not only were we in every picture, but we got to see the whole river and ended up taking the hit from most of the waves. Our faces were priceless. I'm really glad that the company had a photographer following us the whole time taking pictures of the whole trip. One part of the first half of rapids we came across a HUGE drop which literally engulfed our raft. One of that commands that we had to follow from Jorge was "GET DOWN!"... which, as it implies, we had to sit all the way in the raft and put our paddles straight up in the air so we wouldn't hit anyone. The photographer got an aweome picture of our group going down the drop while we are all down inside the raft. As you can see, the 4 of us in front are literally completely underwater.

At our halfway point, we met up with all of the other rafts, parked them on the bank, and had a nice snack of pineapple and watermelon. The guides flipped one of the rafts over and sliced up tons of fruit for us. I'm so glad that Costa Rica is famous for their watermelon and pineapple... we eat them all the time and they are two of my favorite fruits! After our delicious snack, we got back on the river for the last half of our trip. Since the last part had weaker rapids, Jorge let us have fun and when we went down some rapids, he would tell the left side to paddle forward and the right side to paddle backwards so that we would spin and do 360's the entire way down. Some of his other commands (which made us laugh every time) were to go forward... and everytime he said it he would either say "Forward friends!" or "Forward team!". Those phrases are engraved into my mind, and they really show how friendly everyone in Costa Rica is. We had only known him for a few minutes before he was calling all of us "friends" or "amigos". Also, every time that we made it down a section of rapids, we would give each other high fives with our paddles and yell "PURA VIDA!"

I can't believe that I got to go rafting. It has always been something that I thought would be very cool to do, but before this study abroad trip, never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that I would be rafting down a river in Costa Rica. On the river we also saw a sloth in the tree! It was right above it so we were able to see it very well. That was the animal that I wanted to see most, so I was happy :)



Me, Maggie, Shelly, Eric, Daniel, and Jorge (front)

To top the night off, when we got back to the Center, me and Eric got some front row entertainment when a few of the girls decided to sing karaoke downstairs and sung songs from Backstreet Boys and N-Sync. Being on the river all day made everyone really tired, so everyone is pretty much being lazy and is already in bed or laying down. Costa Rica... you never fail to amaze me. Pura vida!

Sunday (no) fun day

Just a warning, this post is going to be more of a venting session. Today was probably my least enjoyable day of the trip so far. It started going poorly... right when I woke up. I woke up with my stomach hurting super badly but I pushed through that for most of the day. And then today was completely devoted to our projects. We collected data 3 times today which meant that we had to hike down to the river, which is down a super steep and long road. Walking up and down that road 3 times a day is not fun at all! My legs and butt are so sore from all the uphill and downhill walking. One of the times we went to get measurements, I guess I wandered through some chiggers because my legs and arms and parts of my back are COVERED. I itch so much and there isn't really anything I can do about it. When we weren't collecting data, we were writing our paper... which I am so tired of doing. Everyone today was on edge because we were all stressed/tired/sick of working on our papers. Also, about 20 more students/professors got to the Center today. There are enough cabins for all of us, but the main academic building is not the biggest place ever, so it was really awkward when they got here tonight because we haven't been used to sharing our space with other people. I'm not too sure how well it's going to go down, but we will manage. The other group seems like they will be pretty cool... if we ever actually interact with them. It's awkward like a junior high dance. Ok I guess that's enough venting for now.

I am really excited for tomorrow though! We are going white-water rafting! I have never been before so I'm stoked to go. It will be a nice break from the Center and all of the work we've been doing.
Sorry there's not really any more to this post. It has been a long, rough day and I'm about to pass out. Don't worry, I'm still having tons of fun, today just hasn't been my favorite day.

PS I miss Camp Edwards SO MUCH. It was really hard to be here this weekend and not with y'all for workday 1. Getting to skype with y'all was awesome, but seeing all of the pictures and all of the messages/emails/facebook posts made me feel like I missed out on so much. I hope y'all know that I feel really bad for not being there, and I miss y'all more than ever. Edwards love!