Presentations and stuff

The last 2 weeks haven't been all that eventful which is probably why I haven't felt all that compelled to write something. However, I'll give a bit of a recap of what all I've been doing.

During the week of my last blog post (2 weeks ago) we went to the U.S. embassy for a field trip. It took a while to get through the security area and once we got inside, we chilled out in the lobby for some time. We were then taken down to a little presentation room and had two embassy staff people explain a little bit of what they do. We asked some questions relating to the topics we have been studying and/or were currently researching for our presentations but the majority of their answers left us feeling pretty dissatisfied. Someone from my group asked about the idea of Free Trade (we had our presentation on economics the next week) and we were told that free trade generally benefits everyone. It seems like a pretty understandable opinion from someone that is uneducated, but what was a bit annoying was that as students, we have a better grasp on the issues associated with free trade than people working at the U.S. embassy. They were friendly and it was a cool experience but yeah...

Later in the week we had a musician come and play music for us while also giving a brief history of the music in Latin America and how it is a mix of mostly European, indigenous, and African styles. He was good and friendly and it was overall pretty neat.

In my Spanish class we had a 3 page paper due over our experiences so far in Costa Rica. It was much easier than the 6 page paper from the week before.
This past week we mostly worked on preparing for our presentations for Wednesday and Thursday. On Wednesday I did a short presentation over the Costa Rican civil war of 1948 that lead to Costa Rica abolishing their army, giving voting rights to women, and adding a lot of rights for blacks. I felt like it went really well.

On Thursday my group presented over the economic relationship between Latin America and the U.S. and we had to address what economic system Jesus would have wanted/supported. Our thesis was that economic systems are bound to be corrupt and defective if the people in them are corrupt. So while a truly Christian society may look almost communistic, it isn't really possible unless the people involved are on board. So yeah.. that went pretty well too.

In the evening I made Tres Leches with my friend Nathan and my host mom. It cost about $14 U.S. to make it but it is incredibly delish. I really want to make it for people in the US. It's essentally a normal cake with whipped cream on top except instead of being dry or even moist, it is soaked in condensed milk and just dripping with goodness.

On Friday we officially 'graduated' from our ICADS/Spanish Language class and we no longer have to walk 45 minutes to class every day! We're also done with the "Core Seminar," which involved the field trips and random history/culture talks twice a week.

Today I went, with 4 other people, to the Children's Museum!

Museum from afar

It was way bigger than I expected and actually was built in what was once an abandoned prison. It was definitely an enjoyable time.

After the museum we stopped by Wendy's and I had my first true American food in over a month. I ordered a double queso burger with bacon... and realized that they gave me someone else's cheese burger (it was covered in onions and mushrooms) after I had already eaten too much. It was a pretty big let down. I tried eating it with the mushrooms and onions but peeled them off and as I figured, it was much more satisfying. It's pretty sad that I missed out on bacon :(... I haven't had it once since I've been here. The Wendy's fries tasted the same, which is a good thing.. and I got a coke too. It's weird but Costa Ricans pretty much only drink juice it seems... carrying around water is a 'Gringo' thing to do... so I have had very few soft drinks since I've been here. I mean, I'm sure it's healthier so I'm not complaining.

Pristine Costa Rican Wendy's... pre-burger defilement

After Wendy's we stopped by a discount store... it was kind of like a dollar store except stuff was more than a dollar at times. I bought 3 blank paper notebooks, some crayons, and a super thin towel for Nicaragua.

Oh yeah- I won't be updating until I get back from Nicaragua and Spring Break trip, which will be probably ~2 weeks from now.

So for Nicaragua, we are leaving Monday and are only allowed to bring our backpacks. We will be staying in the city of Managua for the first 3 days, learning/taking tours and doing stuff that they won't tell us about until we are on our way (that's usually the way it works here...). After the first 3 days, we will be taken out to live with a family for 5 days. The families are supposedly 'in poverty' and it will be pretty uncomfortable living I assume. During those 5 days, we will just be chilling with the families and getting to know them.. and usually a lot of students get sick... so that sounds exciting :p. I've also been told that it is one of the best experiences that students leave with. So I'm a little anxious but definitely pumped to go. For combating the likely sicknesses, we all were told to buy a handful of certain meds: I have this one pill that you take in the morning and it is a bug repellent.. I guess it uses the skin pores? I've also got some laxatives, some anti-lax (immodium), some pepto, and some allergy stuff. Fingers crossed that the bug repellent pill + bug spray will keep me from getting Dengue fever. Just kidding! But seriously.. After our 5 days with the families, we will go to Granada for a couple days. Although I've never lived out of a backpack for 2 weeks nor lived with a family that has very little, I am certain that this will be an awesome experience.

Immediately after our Nicaragua trip, our spring break starts and lasts for 4 days. I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to end up doing but it's looking like I may be getting dropped off in Guanacaste with a group of people on our way back from Nicaragua. Guanacaste is one of the prettiest/touristy providences (Northwest part of the country) and is supposed to be really beautiful. It will potentially be kind of sucky to not get a freshly washed batch of clothes before Spring Break but maybe we'll be able to find a laundromat or something in Guanacaste.

After Spring Break, 2 weeks of Spanish Language and Literature study begin for me, living with my original family. Then after those 2 weeks, we have a final month of internship/living with a third family.

Thanks for reading!

ps. This past week I got hired to be an RA at South Hall Complex East next year!

Volcano and other stuff...

Sorry it's been so long since I've written a blog. I had wanted to write one over the weekend but I kept forgetting...

Last week was cool... on Tuesday we had class about Latin America perspectives of the U.S. and we had a presidential candidate for the 2014 election talk to us. Most people really liked him although I felt like he spoke a lot like a politician and was reluctant to admit how much the U.S. has screwed things up for Latin American countries. One of the readings we had the night before pretty much went through every single Latin American country, gave a date, and explained negative things that the U.S. did to said country that most people in today's day and age might be shocked to know. Basically, if a country in Latin America was looking like it might change its policies or elect someone that wouldn't be in the interests of the U.S., the U.S. would either assassinate said person or send military help/supplies to whichever force would be in the interest of the U.S. This means that we have historically preferred very evil dictators that do things that benefit us as a country over democratically elected people that might do things which hurt us economically/policy wise. Why don't they teach us these things in our mandatory U.S. history classes? Fear maybe? It's frustrating to find out that the things we have been taught in school have been heavily filtered so that they don't make us anti-American... which ends up making me more frustrated in the end than if we could simply admit our mistakes!

On Thursday we went on a field trip to a cool organic/sustainable farm. The 'farmer' guy basically lives off of his land with his family and farms most of it himself. He uses tons of practices that mainstream farming has given up on due to them being time consuming. He pretty much re-uses everything organic that is normally considered 'waste' (banana peels, duck poop, head hair, etc. etc.) in order to fertilize his plants. The sad thing is, he can't sell his coffee for what it's worth because Starbucks (for example) will only give him the same rates that it gives to the mainstream coffee plantations (where no love and care is given to the crops and pesticides/insecticides are used).

I found out that for the last part of my semester (the internship part), I am going to be working on a farm similar to this one. I'm excited to learn hands on sustainable agriculture techniques and probably mostly nervous about the big spiders that working out in the country brings...

During my language class this week we had a pretty relaxed time. Our professor was brand new to the program and mostly just taught us a lot dichos (cultural sayings/expressions) and spent a good amount of time just conversing and working on conversational skills I guess. We didn't have a quiz nor a presentation at the end of the week either, like every other class, so that was awesome... although I think we were supposed to? What ever though, no complaints.

Oh yeah, and by Thursday morning I had to complete a 6-8 page paper over Limón. It was a research paper and was really pretty awful to have to write... I ended up only getting 3 hours of sleep that night and turning in a hastily written paper in Spanish that I might have not read over after completing.... I mean... it's just a paper... and it was late... quit judging me.

On Saturday I went with some other students to the closest volcano. It's called Irazú. It was a pretty nauseating drive up to the volcano but the I definitely enjoyed my time up there. The actual volcano wasn't very adventurous feeling, but being up above/with the clouds was cool. We spent most of our time just chilling up on the highest area enjoying the view and the breeze that came as the clouds kind of drifted over where we were at. Here is a video from my phone of the view:

Evidently, even when it's chilly, you can get really burnt.. and so right now my face is peeling from the pretty bad burn I received while we were at the volcano. 

I didn't do that much more exciting over the last week- basically just school stuff. Tonight I have to write a 3 page paper in Spanish about my experience so far in Costa Rica and then next Friday I have an 8 minute verbal presentation over a topic of my choosing & and group project at LASP about economics. After that, we are off to Nicaragua with just a backpack for everything we are taking. I'm definitely excited and anxious about that portion of my time down here- I think it will be an incredible experience.

That's all for now. Thanks!

Limón was neat

On Friday we got up early and listened to a very intellectual afro-carribean guy that was raised in Limón and has some huge experiences under his belt. He explained the education system, reiterated about the history of blacks in Costa Rica, and encouraged us to dream big and not let money keep us from doing so. Afterwards, we loaded up into a mini-bus and two cars to head to Limón. On our way, we stopped at some coffee crops, a banana plantation, and some pineapple crops. The banana plantation/facility was really interesting to see and although we didn't go out into the banana lines, we were able to drive by other plantations. I was amazed to see fields of banana trees stretching as long as any field of corn might in Indiana. The pineapples grow from little shrub thingers that literally just come from the "tops" of pineapples.

Costa Rica is really huge on exports of coffee, banana, and recently, pineapple. We learned that this can create big problems because if the developed world ever faces disaster and can no longer afford to be importing luxuries like pineapple, banana, and especially coffee, Costa Rica is going to be at a huge loss.

Anyway, Limón was not really much like what I was expecting, but my expectations were pretty uneducated. We stayed right in the city of Limón, Limón and after we arrived we went out in small groups to interview, check out the city, and eventually get dinner. The resounding problem for Limón that Costa Ricans seem to agree on is a lack of jobs in Limón... combined with poverty, drugs, and decades of governmental neglect.

That night a lot of us went to a nearby bakery to get some pastry things for the breakfast tomorrow. While I was there I noticed a blind man with a cane who was brought up to the big opening of the bakery and was just standing there. The security guard on duty and the blind man began arguing and after a few moments the security guard pushed the man away from the entrance. The blind man began beating his cane on a window, cursing, and then walked a few steps back over to the entrance and began bickering while standing there. I noticed at this point that he had a knife in his right hand (the cane in the left) and the security guard was getting very noticeably tense. I watched as the security guard sized up the blind man and then quietly got behind him before grabbing the man's arms and forcing him out across the street to get him away from the store. Probably in an effort to not get shanked, the guard let go and pushed the blind man away once they were in the middle of the street. The blind guy fell to the ground and lay there lifelessly and after a few moments some bystanders walked over to help him. I was genuinely at a loss for what the 'correct' response might have been.. so I just walked away with the group I was with. I guess to elaborate- had I tried to help him, it's possible I might have gotten stabbed.. it's likely that the guard and store have seen this man around before and I have no interest in being the naive American that thinks he can fix all the problems in a place he doesn't know. In all, it was a pretty intense thing to witness and a good reminder that they real world just isn't always as pretty as we try to paint it to be.

On Saturday we went to an indigenous reserve and heard from a renowned leader of the community. She explained the issues that her community has had with their land being bought by private individuals/companies  and the government's unwillingness to intervene. They had an iguana project with tons of iguanas that they breed and have been reintroducing into the wild since their natural habitat was previous destroyed. So a bunch of peeps held iguanas... I was more interested in looking at a sloth that some people spotted near the road. Afterwards we went to the beach. I saw a few more sloths during this time and we also had some interactions with some small monkeys and racoons that wanted our food. The water in Limón (Atlantic Ocean) was colder than the water that I went to a few weeks ago on the Pacific.. but still really comfortable.

Saturday night we had some traditional Limón food and then danced to live music performed by a local band. Musicianship-wise, they weren't that fantastic- however, they were tons of fun and we all had a great time dancing.

We went to a local catholic church this morning, for the English service.. and they had maybe 40 local english speakers (all afro-caribbean) and then our group of almost equal size. A few of our group members got asked to read stuff for the service. It was pretty interesting.. better than the Spanish services I have been to for sure (because I could read along/understand what was happening). After church we headed back to San Jose. On our stop for lunch I ended up sitting with the minibus driver and had some conversation about Limón and his opinions on it. He was the first Costa Rican that I've met who doesn't like the Limón food... I mean, I didn't really love it all that much, but it wasn't bad by any means.

Okay... that's a lot of stuff. And kind of anti climactic... oh well, thanks for reading :p