Getting Oriented

The past day and a half have been about getting oriented. Last night we had a group meeting where we essentially just ate snacks, drank beers (drinking age is 18, as in most countries except the US) and got to know one another. After an hour or two of socializing, we all went to bed, exhausted from a full day of traveling.

This morning we woke up at 7am, bright and early, to enjoy a typical Costa Rican breakfast of fruit, eggs, fried plantaine, toast, cheese and, you guessed it, rice and beans! For beverages I enjoyed a glass of some sort of rice-based fruit juice and a steaming cup of coffee, which was quite necessary at 7am. I'm going to have to get used to this new schedule. Karen, our program director, told us that because we are so close to the equator, there are only about 12 hours in a day. The sun rises around 5am and sets around 5pm, so Costa Ricans typically wake up and go to bed with the sun. This will certainly take some getting used to, but I'm sure I'll adjust fairly quickly. According to the calendar we received at our meeting, it appears that classes will be held every day from 8am-6pm.

After breakfast we had an orientation presentation where we introduced ourselves again and viewed a slide show about what to expect for the next four months. I am very excited about heading to Monteverde and meeting my host family tomorrow! After breakfast we walked to the market and did an activity where we had to inquire about the prices in colones per kilo of a variety of foods. The markets here are incredible! There is one central location with a variety of specialized stores such as a meat shop (carnicería), a cheese shop (quesería), or a vegetable stand. During our discussion later, we compared the prices to those in the US and talked about some of the reasons behind various price differentiations, such as the cost of living and government subsidies.

After taking a nap, we had our first lecture in the hotel about urbanization and we got our syllabus for our Sustainability: Environment, Economy, and Society (SEES) course. The program appears to be very demanding already, but I'm excited for the challenge. After our lecture we went out to dinner at a local restaurant that specialized in corn. The food was delicious!

Tomorrow we will go to a slum town called La Carpio where we will be looking at a landfill and learning more about urbanization, poverty, and the environmental factors associated with shantytowns. Afterwards we will head to Monteverde, where we will have an orientation about our homestays and then head off to meet our new host families! Can't wait!