Two Excursions, Two Beaches, Two Languages (6/13-6/17)



6/13 to 6/17

The past few days seemed to go by very quickly. Lately my friends and I have been realizing how long we've been here despite how short our stay has seemed. It's crazy to think there are only twelve days left. 

Wednesday, I joined my tropical ecology class for the third of four small excursions. We traveled to three forests to study types of plants and how they are characteristic of certain climates. There was a dry forest, humid forest, and a cloud forest, all of which were at fairly high elevations. For Spanish class, I read my weekly essay assignment, but this one was particularly interesting to me because it compared environmental protection practices in the U.S. and in Costa Rica. It seemed that overall, Costa Rica has done much more, but it is slightly easier because of the size of the country and access to large amounts of fresh water. The one weakness I found was a lack of an adequate recycling system, but I imagine that this stems from the country being generally less developed.

For the most part, Thursday was a day for doing homework before the weekend began. In the afternoon, after my Spanish class, I taught my third English class at the local library. My most invested student was the only one who attended, but we made amazing progress. She is a woman in her mid-forties who has a very extensive and accomplished background in accounting and business administration. Though, like me, she decided the field was not for her, and despite her skill, she chose to abandon it for a career that interested her more. We connected very well on this topic, which made it much easier to understand her employment goals. We continued working on her interview preparation, specifically on her "elevator pitch" to answer the question "Could you please tell me a little bit about yourself?" This question is almost always one of the first questions asked in an interview. In the process of crafting this short pitch, I learned much about her, while she was also able to pin point her interests and objectives in life. Tomorrow (Monday 6/18), I look forward to our next class. 

Friday, I gave my final tropical ecology presentation. I discussed the characteristics of humid forests in Costa Rica, what their ecosystem services are, and issues with deforestation. Afterward, I joined my friend group for our final, personally-planned excursion. We went to Playa Grande on the northwest coast of Costa Rica. We relaxed at our Airbnb for the night. Early in the morning, we were picked up and brought to an ATV touring center. We all hopped on four wheelers and rode through different forests and beaches. Then we returned to our Airbnb, spent some time at the beach, enjoyed the pool, and cooked food. On Sunday, we went to Playa Tamarindo, which is said to be one of the nicest beaches in the country. We arrived home late in the evening, very tired, hungry, and ready to take showers. Having dinner with my host family was slightly difficult at first because I had been speaking English all weekend, but I was able to quickly transition into Spanish. 

As always, thanks for reading! I will write two or maybe three more posts after this one.

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