0 sundays

This morning as I was riding the bus into san jose, I was reflecting on the past month, and remembering everything I have done. Being here for a month has made me a better person in all aspects of my life. For example, my stomach has grown accustomed to any fathomable type of motion sickness, turbulent airplane rides, bumpy boat excursions, smelly bus rides sitting next to complete strangers, hot taxi rides packed people, and crazy stick-shift van rides spiraling up and down the mountains of Costa Rica on narrow roads shared with huge charter busses. But more importantly than acquiring a strong stomach, I have gained not only educational insight, but also insight into my own life. Though the pain of being away from my family stayed with me, I gained an independence I never thought I could achieve. I have been so very blessed to have this experience of a life time. I have worked and cooked next to the locals, played soccer with the ticos, had class on the beaches of Tarcoles, under the beautiful mangrove trees, and in the tropical rainforests. I have learned by doing and experiencing, which is the most rewarding kind of learning. I would not trade this experience for anything in the world. I have encountered so many challenges while here, however, each challenge left me a stronger and wiser person. In the beginning of this trip, I saw the challenges as obstacles to overcome in any way possibly, however, now I see them as stepping stones on my journey of life…without these challenges, I would have no foothold to progress forward in this life long journey.

Classes are DONE!!

Yes! classes are done, I just finished my last exam and it feels great! The exam itself was not too difficult! When I first started this program I was so focused on the final outcome- my grade. However, over the past month I have learned to focus more on the learning experience, the knowlege I acquire, and the obstacles I face that all make me stronger and wiser as a person. While I still hope to do well in the class, it cannot measure the amount of knowlege, experience, and understanding I have gained from being here.

presentations...

All of today was spent working on our oral presentations, and correcting our papers we turned in yesterday. After putting in about 2-3 hours of correcting my paper, I accidentally deleted it..and had to start all over again. Then when I went up to give my part of the oral presentation, I got to about 2-3 min. into my presentation when it started raining harder than it has ever rained all month. Granted, we were inside, but the classroom we were in was open to the outside, and the roof was tin, so no one could hear anything I was saying. I had to literally scream for the entire 10 min!! I have realized, though, that I cannot let these small obstacles get me stressed out or upset, I am slowly learning to take things as they come, pura vida! Tonight a lot of us are going out into Atenas to do some authentic dancing with the locals..it should be fun! Tomorrow is our last exam, actually its more like a quiz, but after that the class is over! I have to say im very excited for it!! I love you all and miss you so muchh!
Alyson

Some pictures...

These are just some pictures from while we were out in the field. Notice my lovley legs with mud smeared all over them to keep the mosquitos from eating me!!

A little piece of home

Writting, writting, and..yes..MORE WRITTING! Yesterday, and today, have been and will be spent writting my directed research paper. Yesterday, though, I took a little break to walk to the kitchen and to get some frootloops to eat while writting. While I was in there Miella (one of the cooks) came out carrying a huge plate of corn bread and ordered me to take some. It reminded me of going over to nana's house and her always having something prepared just in case any of her grandchildren came over hungry. It's little things like this that make me miss home, though Miella cannot and will not replace nana, or her cooking, shes a good replacement while im away.
Writting and reading scientific articles these past two days have taken a lot out of me, so last night I took another break just to sit out on the hammocks and look at the night sky. The moon was so beautiful with orange and red clouds all around it. Looking up into the sky made me think about how small we are compared to the whole scheme of things. I often times will take things way out of porportion, making things a much bigger deal than they really are, and I have to always remember to put things into perspective, and look beyond the relm of my own life. We are here only for a short period time, and I have to remember to live my life to the very fullest. Pura Vida!

Directed Research

There seems to be a lot of questions about the research project I am doing here. I'll explain it more in full detail when I get home, but here is what im basically doing. I picked to go to Carara National Park to collect data on the effects of noise transmission from the near by highway on the density of birds. So what we did was surveyed two difffernt trails one close to the highway and one far away from the highway, we measured the sound transmitted from it with a sonometer, while four other people looked, listened and identified any birds that were nearby. Now that the data is all collected we each have to write a directed research paper on our own topic..mine being the effects of noise transmission on bird density..its tough becasue ive never written a scientific paper before, but im learning a lot, so i dont mind it. I better get back to writting my paper! love you all and see you soo soon!
Alyson

Data collection continues...

Tomorrow is our last day of data collection! After so many mornings of getting up at 5.30AM, and becoming the mosquiots main meal while in the rainforest, I have to say I am excited! I have probably at least 50 mosquito bites all up and down my legs, and that is WITH repelland AND pants!! im praying that none of the bites are Dengue..that would be bad to gett! Yesterday after collecting data we were able to see an ocelot, which basically just looks like a small lepard. However, it was dead becasue it was hit by a car, and it smelled extremelyy bad, but it was awesome to see becasue generally they are hidden in the rainforest! Also, yesterday I saw some random guys on the side of the street holding up two gigantic fish to sell, just standing at the side of the road selling them! no refrigerator or anything! There were also horses roaming around in the middle of the street and we had to beep our horn for them to move! After being here fore 3 weeks, i still cannot get over how different somethings are here! Every day while here we go to this ladies house who makes us lunch and dinner, and while there i have made a new friend!..her name is chick'i'tee'tah..i named her..., and she is one of the stray dogs around town! now whenever I go to eat she is always there! Last night i sneakily äccidentally¨dropped my bread on the ground so she could at least have something to eat..i cant help but give her attention,she is so cute!! Tomorrow late afternoon I will be back at the field station, to analyze the data we colected and continue writting my paper, the draft is due Wed by midnight. Im off to kareoke now tonight!..I miss you all and love you so much! talk to you soon!
Alyson