I am finally in Costa Rica!!! Woohoo!!! I flew into San Jose on Monday at 11:30am, local time (2 hours behind eastern standard time). After the long journey through immigration, baggage claim, and customs, I finally made it to the El Sesteo Hotel and met up with the 27 other OTS students. Our professors had a little pizza party for us, and fun was had by all. Then we got the opportunity to explore the city a bit. We found a bank and exchanged some money. The exchange rate is roughly 500 colones for 1 dollar (it is so strange to walk around with thousands of colones on me, I feel like a high roller!). San Jose is a very busy and interesting city (not to mention beautiful!), and I can't wait to explore it more during my homestay.
Tuesday, we went to the OTS headquarters and had a long day of orientation - paperwork, introductions, and syllabi galore! Another night at the Sesteo, and we were up at 6:00am on Wednesday to begin the long bus ride to the Las Cruces Research Station where we will be spending the next week. The bus ride was frustratingly long, but the sites were well worth seeing. The Costa Rican countryside is absolutely stunning. Las Cruces itself is gorgeous as well. It is located near small village called San Vito, and the station is surrounded by the world renowned Wilson Botanical Gardens. I haven't had a chance to explore yet (its pouring - surprise! its the rainy season), but can't wait to take some pictures (hopefully tomorrow!).
My first lecture is in 15 minutes, I can't wait!!! The courses I will be taking down here are Global Health and Tropical Medicine, Ethnobiology, Culture and Language in Costa Rica, and our own independent research practicum. The Spanish language classes will be at the Costa Rican Language Academy in San Jose, while we are with our host families (3 weeks). The other courses will be taught all over the country (whichever station we are at) and by all three professors. The professors will be working as an interdisciplinary team, and our schedules vary from day to day, depending on the various field work and fieldtrips we will be doing. Regardless of the specifics, we are busy from 8am to 8pm Monday through Saturday, and only have Sundays off. So I anticipate being VERY busy the vast majority of the time. The courses all seem really intense, but extremely interesting, so I can't wait to get going!
Alrightie, that is all for now! Time for class! :)
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