But Ben convinced me to keep a blog while I'm in Costa Rica. Really good idea...now let's just see if I can follow through haha. So here goes:
DAY 1 (Sunday, June 20)
I left LAX in the whee hours of the morning on Saturday, June 20th. 12:30am to be exact.
Had a layover in Houston, TX. First time ever in Texas woot!...although I only saw the airport haha. On the flight to Houston, my seat happened to be across from two girls who were also in the program. Who knew one of them would end up being my roommate? heh. I tried getting some sleep on the plane but it didn't work out too well...landed in Houston at ~5:30am their time (which was around 3:30am in CA). Surprisingly, there were many more of us on that flight than I had previously thought...I believe almost ten of us. By the time we left Houston, we were almost 20 people strong. Houston airport was nice...that four hour layover time gave us time to get to know each other and to get some stuff to eat. Food was a little expensive and forgettable. Left Houston at 9:20am and landed in at the Juan Santamaria International Airport in San Jose, Costa Rica at around 12pm.
View of Houston, Texas, United States of America
San Jose, Costa Rica
I swear our bags fit like Tetris in that van.
Arrived at our hotel which was surprisingly nice. We weren't expecting much since they literally changed hotels last second minute (aka the day before haha). The rooms were all updated, decently sized, bed was comfy, was gated, had a pool and cable TV. The street our hotel is on is freakin' shady though lol. Luckily it's a small street...once we get to the larger intersecting street, it's better. Though when my roommate and I decided to grab a quick dinner at the AM/PM at the corner we practically ran there...but I'll get to that in a bit. Anywho, when we arrived, we were given our assigned rooms and roommates. They were supposed to pair us up by personality and living habits but the fact that Jennifer and I were paired and the Alex-s were paired makes us believe otherwise haha. But it's all good since we get along great =]. I unpacked and relaxed 'till Jen arrived (she had a later flight from Houston). We had a welcome dinner at Mirador. It was somewhere high up in the mountains...the drive there really gave us a taste of Costa Rica's roads. It didn't help that it started to pour too. Let's just say I would be perfectly happy to never have to drive here haha. It was like Asia. No one followed lights or road signs or bothered to stay inside the lines. Pedestrians walked through traffic like it was nothing and you have to run across the street because here, cars have the right of way even if your light is green. It was pretty awesome when we saw that even the walking figure for the crosswalk light was 'running'...the figure would even speed up when the timer was running out. We have now officially named the running man "Carlos" haha
Anyways, for our welcome dinner, we had a traditional Costa Rican meal (basically rice, black beans, some sort of meat/fish, salad, plantains, rice pudding/coconut flan and real fruit juice).
The food was really good albeit a little salty for my taste (maybe I just like bland food?). The fruit juices here are amazing...ugh I'm getting so spoiled by all the cheap fresh fruits.
I look so innocent! haha
That night, we pretty much met everyone in the program although there were really just too many of us to remember all the names. Our group consisted mostly of students from UC Irvine, a few from UCLA and UCSD and one from UC Berkeley. The girl to guy ratio was ridiculous. 24 girls and 5 guys. Lucky boys eh? haha.
Jen (ROOMIE!) and I in front of 'Jamie' (the sculpture?) after welcome dinner
After dinner, most of us basically crashed. Yes, it was only 8pm and yes it made all of us feel old. But hey, we were all exhausted from our flights (<---no that is not an excuse haha >__>)
DAY 2 (Monday, June 21)
We were told to meet at 8:15am so that we could bus to the Universidad Latina de Costa Rica for our orientation. Had breakfast at the hotel before leaving. They had changed our hotel really last minute (literally the day before we left for CR) and instead of being 5-10 minutes from our hotel, it takes us now a good 20-30 minutes to get there. Kinda sucks since we have to get up earlier...but luckily, I'm a morning person =P. Orientation was the usual. Received the necessary information, ID cards, materials, etc.
My international student ID for Universidad Latina de Costa Rica
I think the favorite was the dessert. It was a cheesecake topped with fig, strawberries and a passionfruit sauce. Their cheesecake was really light...almost like the texture of flan...whatever they used, it was yum!
YUMMMMMMM!
By the end of lunch, most of us felt like we had to be rolled back to our rooms. We went back to our hotel and took a little break. At around 3 or 4, we met up with Fernando since he was going to give us a tour of the area around our hotel. Most of the group went although some did stay behind to sleep.
Ready for our tour!
Walking around the area was an experience. At first it was a honk or two here...mostly from taxis that wanted to get our attention. But after a little while, it became like a freakin' parade. Guys were hooting and hollering and many of the cars/trucks that were driving by were honking and catcalling. Guess that's what you get when you have 20+ girls and less than a handful of guys walking down the street in San Jose haha. The travel guides I read warned me about how the catcalling, etc was pretty common behavior but it was getting ridiculous how excessive it was lol. We all joked about how we might as well carry around banners since it was like pretty much like a parade anyways...
It was fun to see the area around the hotel (despite the ridiculous amount of noise we were causing lol). Found some stores to buy some necessary supplies, met some street 'vendors' or 'performers' and found a good place to eat dinner (Soda Tapia).
After the tour, most of us went back to the rooms to rest for a bit and shower. A group of us decided to grab dinner at Soda Tapia later that night (so glad they're opened late although we headed there around 7pm). I got the Huevos Rancheros and a scoop of homemade ice cream.
'mmmmmmmazing homemade ice cream
Same routine, those who had class headed to school (I do every morning so I'm basically stuck on campus from 8am-5pm with not much to do in the afternoons).
On the bus. First day of class!
On Tu/Th, I take Biodiversity and Conservation at the Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad (INBio). It's about 10 minutes from campus and is a world renowned research, biodiversity and conservation institute.
Let's just say it is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. Learned a lot about climate and how it works from the guest lecturer that day and got our syllabus for what goes on for the rest of the course. It looks freakin' crazy. We'll get to visit their conservatory, they give us a coffee break during every class and serves it with seriously delicious Costan Rican pastries, we'll get to sample different edible tropical fruits, fungi and insects during some later coffee breaks and we're even taking an exclusive all-day field trip to Hacienda Palmichal where we'll even get to learn how to cook Costa Rican food and make fresh tortillas.
After the course, they shuttled us back to campus for lunch. We basically eat rice and beans with every meal lol. We'll see when I get sick of it. Don't think I'll get sick of the fresh fruit or fruit juices though. They are all soooooo good. Much bigger, sweeter and waaaaaay cheaper than back in the States. I'm totally getting my papaya, guava and mango fix here. Even got to try some fruits I never had before (like guayabas...not sure what they're called in English but they're good).
Those who didn't have class went to the mall across the street to shop and to exchange money.
Goodness knows that was an experience. I had changed my moolah at the ATM so it wasn't too bad, but those who wanted to convert US $ to colones at the bank had it a little more complicated. You need your passport and since I'm basically Spanish-handicapped, I would've been pretty screwed. Luckily, some people in our group can speak a little bit of Spanish (although Costa Rican Spanish is a little different from Mexican Spanish, it was better than nothing haha).
Some of us also decided to start some of the readings assigned for the courses. My roommate was assigned over 100 pages of reading during the first lecture. Thankfully I'm not in that class haha. Shuttled back with the group at around 5pm. Hit traffic. God-dang traffic. You follow me like the plague. Took forever for us to get back. The group decided to get seafood for dinner at a local restaurant. Jen and I were pretty full so we decided to save money and stay in (not that I spent much anyways). We went to the AM/PM to grab some yogurt and bread for dinner. Basically everyone else had gone to dinner and we were getting a little hungry at that point. On our way back we hit a dilemma. To get back to our hotel, we only had to walk less than half a block down the street from the store. However, the right sidewalk was occupied by a group of young drunken guys. The left sidewalk was occupied by these two ginormous guys. Considering how ghetto our little street felt and how unlit the street was...Jen and I felt pretty screwed at that point. Standing at the street corner wasn't really much of an option either. Luckily, by coincidence, we had ran into two people from our group who had just gotten back from the seafood dinner and was at AM/PM picking up water. We decided to walk back with them instead 'cause hey, four was better than two haha. And at least one of them was a guy. Let's just say we're planning on getting pepper spray now lol. A little sad seeing how it was only 8:30pm.
All in all it wasn't too bad. Worse comes to worse we would've just hailed a taxi to go down the street. The street itself isn't really that bad...just a bit unlit and rundown. We usually travel in large groups anyways and would have gotten one of the boys to go with us if they had been there. Still, to be on the safe side, I think half the girls are planning to pick up some pepper spray haha.
Got back to the hotel, ate our yogurt and bread (which I think they bake fresh everyday...was surprisingly good), hung out with the boys next door and went to bed, ready for the next day.
Day 4 (Wednesday, June 23)
My Alternative Medicine course hasn't started yet so we didn't have to get to campus till around 11:30am. Most of us got up to watch the USA vs Algeria game in the World Cup 2010. Ate breakfast, watched the game by the pool and jumped in after. Overall, a fun little morning before class. Ate lunch at school and had coffee at the little coffee shop on campus.
Yum coffee!
The lattes and cappuccinos were decently priced (~$1.50) and was really good. Spent most of the afternoon pretending to study (aka facebook-ing, people watching, taking pictures during our study break haha)... but hey, I got some reading done =P.
My Costa Rican version of 'studying'
Headed back to the hotel after and relaxed for the rest of the night. Afterall, there was still homework to be done... =/
