Costa Rica es Pura Vida

6/22 to 6/24 For my final weekend excursion, I traveled to the town and national park of Tortuguero with the tropical ecology class and others. It is a small island off the northern coast of the country. The small town is located along the beach of the island, in the middle of the protected land. The park is so well preserved that it is impossible to drive there because there are no roads. So, Friday (6/22), we took a bus to a small port on the river south of the park and traveled by boat to our lodge. We arrived fairly early, so we went to the town after having a quick lunch. It was a very quiet, small, and isolated area. The town itself was basically a single path crowded with shops, food vendors, souvenir vendors, and local Costa Ricans. We bought some things to bring back with us and enjoyed rich ice cream on our walk along the beach. Our tour-guide brought a bag for us to fill with plastic scraps we found as we walked. This meant a lot to me because I had a lot of previou...

6/18 to 6/21 At this point, the thing on everyone's mind is returning to the U.S. It's right around the corner and many of us are ready to see our families. While I share this sentiment, part of me wants to keep eating the food, seeing the sites, and meeting the people. But above all, the most difficult aspect of leaving is abandoning the rapid learning process. My Spanish has improved so much and it feels amazing. At this point, I would feel comfortable writing and reading literature in a fairly formal fashion. However, listening and speaking is still difficult. I can understand my professors and respond somewhat clearly, but in reality, Spanish speakers talk at a much faster pace and use many idioms/phrases that I do not yet understand. For these reasons, I have seriously considered joining the Spanish club at UNH and taking another class or two. I just feel that I have come too far and I am not ready to move on.  Monday (6/18) I enjoyed my final "Micro Gi...

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 ...

6/6 to 6/12 In the past week, I knocked a few things off my bucket list while also significantly improving my Spanish. On Thursday, I gave a ten-minute presentation about myself in Spanish without reading from a paper or PowerPoint. My professor openly admitted that he only heard a few mistakes, but could not identify any sort of pattern of error. On Friday, I gave a presentation about the volcano Turrialba, one of the most active volcanoes in Costa Rica. I enjoyed learning about this, but it was a little worrisome discovering how much danger we are all in because of ticking time bombs like Turrialba and others. Regarding the presentation, I was able to discuss many of the scientific topics and answer questions in Spanish without too many pauses or mistakes. After two days of successful presentations in this language, I was left feeling pretty good about my progress toward conversational fluency.  After my classmates and I finished presenting, we prepared for our weeke...

6/1 to 6/5 From Friday 6/1 to Sunday 6/3, the entire UNH group went on an excursion to Manuel Antonio that was planned by the Institute coordinators. We stayed at Karahe, which was essentially a hotel, but not really (hard to explain). There were several small buildings located at various points up a very steep hill and had hotel-like rooms and amazing views. Across the street was the Karahe beach property, which included private beach access, a restaurante, and a pool. On Saturday, we went to the national park of Manuel Antonio, which is located just a few minutes south of Karahe, also on the beach. We were able to see sloths, monkeys, and crabs. We were also allowed to enjoy the beach on the edge of the park and take many photos. Afterward, we traveled north to visit a mangrove site. Those giving us a tour of the mangrove provided lunch and gave us the option of kayaking or taking a small tourist boat. I chose to kayak and enjoy the natural system on a more personal level. T...

5/17 to 5/31 Hello, my name is Jake and this is my first study abroad blog post. I am studying Spanish and tropical ecology in Costa Rica. I attend the Instituto de San Joaquin de Flores. I have had experience studying Spanish individually and at UNH. I hope to be at least conversationally fluent in the language by the end of my six-week study abroad term. It has already been two weeks in Costa Rica and while it has passed quickly, it feels like I have been here for much longer. Everyday is a complex series of experiences and introductions to new ideas. I constantly flow in and out of speaking Spanish and use it for many different tasks. So far, the greatest gift has been the hospitality of my host family. My family is rather large, but the members most involved in my life are my mother Elizabeth, my father Julio, and my brother Daniel. When I eat at home, one of them is always there to eat with me and engage in conversation. Daniel is the only one who knows English, which...