The Final Day by Aundré Bumgardner

Just to give you a taste of my experience the last 11 days, here’s my haiku for Spanish class:

Atenas C.R.

Me encantan las ticas

No queiro salir

My time in Atenas has been utter amazement. Most of my days have consisted of a morning run around Atenas with Mario and Jeff, an afternoon chilling in the park with Jeff and Eagle, and some partying with my family. Now that is coming to a close, I cannot help but wonder what life will be like when I leave Atenas. I love it here.

The families have been more than a homestay. They’ve become family. After just over a week an Atenas, I am family. Nothing felt better after I walked out the house, and my family told me whenever I would like to visit, I had a place to say.

“Quieres regresar a Atenas?,” Mi familia dijo. “Si, Era todos los dias.”

In the morning, we began with Spanish classes as usual. Most of my days have consisted of a morning run around Atenas with Mario and Jeff, an afternoon chilling in the park with Jeff and Eagle, and some partying with my family.

In the afternoon, we went out for Ice Cream. With Jeff Dinardo, a close confidant of mine, along with his host brother and his two cousins Tati and Efren, whom I met while I spent a day at the pool with the previous Saturday. Seeing How Jeff and I have swag, we waited for Tati at the high school. From there, we finally went out for Ice Cream. I treated out my adoptive second family for some good ol’ chicle flavored helado. We all chomped down, then took the final afternoon stroll through the infamous “el parqué,” and went off to “la casa de Isabel” to prepare for the evening fiesta.

Seeing all the families I spent so much time with made me quite sad to leave. They have treated me with the up most respect and hospitality within the last week. I will genuinely miss the great people of this town, and the endless fun and interactions I have had.

From Luis my video game loving 14 year old brother, to Monica my 20 yr. old sister who’s a Costa Rican National Fútbol Team Phenom, to Tefi, my corky happy go lucky 17 year old sister, to my hardworking stocky father, to the ever so loving host mother… I can thoroughly say I am sadder to leave a place so wonderful then I ever have. Without a doubt will I be returning...

For now, to be continued from Atenas… See y’all in a couple weeks.

Pura Vida.

This is not Jeff

For the past 4 days, we have all woken up to either the sound of waves or rain, which are actually rather similar sounds. So far, it is usually rain (this is probably why they call it a rainforest).

I, Knaide, am rooming with the lovely Sarah, Kate, Kayla, Brianna, and Mikaela, as well as a dozen or so pale orange geckos that seem to be living in the rafters. I hardly ever wear shoes here, as the activities generally include walking across sand or snorkeling in the sea, which is only some 40 yards away from our room.

Despite the paradise like atmosphere, this is far from luxurious. One of the 4 sinks in the bathroom work, and the toilets seem to be clogged half the time. The showers aren’t much more than hoses sticking out of the wall (It makes one appreciate showers with good water pressure much more when it takes several tries to rinse all the soap out of one’s hair) The spacers for the to bunk of the bunk beds are oddly spaced, causing some of us to wake up half sunk into the bed. Everything seems to be perpetually damp, from clothing to our science notebooks, and many of us have legs decorated with bug bites. However, we are still laughing and enjoying every moment.

Everyone has split into separate groups to conduct field studies or projects. Tom, Kayla, and I, Knaide, are focusing on medicinal plants in comparison to modern medicine, and how the uses of both have changed over time. We spent the day yesterday doing research and creating and translating a questionnaire. Today, we are going into town to interview some people who live here and see what they know about medicine and what type they use.

-Knaide

hellooooo from kayla

so we´re leaving costa rica in a couple days, which is terribly sad. I love my host family even though they try to feed  my five time sthe amount of food i  can possibly hold, but it´s out of love and it´s delicious so  it´s  ok. My little sister has declared i am her best friend and doesn´t want me to go,  which makes me only want to stay more.  I´ve had a lot of fun with my family teaching the three kids ukulele, joining in family dance night, running around the block with them and the  neighbors, playing monopoly (imperio here), swimming in the  pool, and tons of other stuff. I definitely wish the homestay part of the trip was longer, it feels like we just  got here  and already have to leave!
I´m really excited for the next part in panama,  sunny beaches and wild jungles definitely are the best!

bits and bobs

These last few days have felt strange, but in a lovely sort of way. I didn´t think eleven days could pass so quickly. I think most of us can say that we´ve fallen into pleasant patterns with our host families and have gotten to know our way around the center of Atenas. I know I´m going to miss getting up at six to have coffee with my host mother and watch daylight creep up from behind the mountains of the valley.

We went went to a volcano on Sunday. The change in temperature was incredible-- We went from being dusty and overheated to shivering in the bus, closing our windows and appreciating our host mothers´ insistence on bringing along extra layers. Further up near the crater was covered in fog and you could feel yourself breathing it in. There were viewing platforms where you could stand up against the railing to look  at the crater but for most of our hike up all we could see was heavy, white fog and it felt a little like looking at the end of the world. But by late morning the sun came and the fog dispersed. Supposedly this is a peek into what the cloud forrest will be like, on the last strech of our trip.

The past few days we´ve been working on a project having to do with recycling in Atenas. We broke up into groups that approached the issue in different ways: a survey for our host mothers, finding key informants to interview, systematically observing people in the park. It wasn´t until we came together this afternoon that all the pieces started fitting together that we had a clearer, wholer picture of what was going on.

We´ll be leaving on Thursday for Panama. Wish us luck.

Costa Rica

Well our time in Costa Rica is drawing to a close. Atenas, where we are staying with our homestay families, is year-round sunshine and good company, and everyone here is amazingly kind-- especially our families. This past weekend we visited, as a class, the rodeo and fiestas that took place right near where we are, and we were able to see bullriders, races, and general games of taunt the bull until he chases you (pictures online), which was very amusing. In additon to that entertainment, we did have time to visit a volcano and do group activities on the recycling habits of the citizens of Atenas. So, while I can´t honestly say I´ll ever want to leave, we will be doing just that on this Thursday, off to see the wild vegetation and animals of Panama. Unfortunately we do have a final exam for our spanish class here tomorrow (it is school), so I think I should go and prepare a bit.
Jeff

This is sort of a late post due to not having internet, but here's an update for yesterday, our third day in Atenas and our second day of classes. It's amazing how fast you adapt to a way of life that's different from your own. In the states, I am not a morning person, but here, I wake up exactly at 6 every morning amd spend time with my host family.
During our four hours of spanish we had a dance class with a special teacher, and I believe there are videos somewhere on the cswoffcampus website.
After lunch and siesta, we went to a nearby forest to do some comparisons to the others we've seen so far. We talked about the imprtance of watersheds and the distribution of water before our walk, and during our walk we could hear a river but not quite see it because the sides of the ravine were very steep.
And on a more personal level, during lunch I was spending time with the cousin of my host sister who is about 6 years old, and I showed her how to use my watercolors and watercolor pencils. Later on I'll post her drawings because they are very sweet. Now everytime I see her she asks if we can draw and I can't wait to see what she draws next.

IN ATENES!!

So! after a long journey in Santa Rosa, we finally made it to our host families! no doubt that we were all nervous, but hopefully we will all survive. My feeling is that we will. Tomorrow, we will have our first day spanish school. Alex is looking forward to playing ping-pong. well I am not really sure what else to post, so hopefully someone else will post something! Deséenos la suerte!!!! (wish us luck)

Second Night in Costa Rica!

So it looks like another peaceful night after an amazing day at the Santa Rosa Dry Forest. Today we saw tons of animals, with deer everywhere and a band of white-face monkies coming right outside of the cafeteria. The food, maybe not so suprisingly, is delicious. Here, it seems rice and beans with some other option is the staple, as well as variations of ham. Tomorrow we go to a volcano to hike and observe the vegetation, which has been nothing short of incredible. Already, I have learned tons, mostly without trying, as there are so many types of plants and animals that I didn't even know existed. So hopefully tomorrow will not be too hot for our hike, and it turns out to be a good one.

Jeff

the url of this blog may be misleading

...though there have been quite a few monkeys.

We are in Santa Rosa, after a long day of planes and buses and the realization that we have really and truly left the snow behind. There will hopefully be photographic evidence coming (maybe of the monkeys!).

This is to be a student-run blog, updated daily so you all at home can be terribly jealous of our adventures.

More to come!