New Roommate!!

             A lot has happened since I last updated! First of all, I got a roommate! I don’t think I mentioned my room set up before, but in my room there is one set of bunk beds, a dresser type thing (more just like shelves for clothes) a desk, and the bathroom (with a shower) is right next door.  So I got my roommate a few days ago (I think Wednesday night?) and she is awesome! Her name is Jessica, she is from Quebec and French is her first language and English is her second, and she knows very little Spanish.  She is 22 and looks a lot like me! Since she’s been here, I’ve had tourists come up to me and ask me if that was me they saw taking pictures in the rainforest (my camera is broke, so obviously not lol) confusing her for me!

           

            Anyway, now I have a partner in crime and can actually do things!  We did the chocolate tour and the bat tour (because volunteers get to do the tours for free!) the day after she arrived and it was fun! I saw a weevil (an adorable insect) on the chocolate tour and learned how a fungus is threatening the cocoa fruits.  On the bat tour I got to pet a bat!  They are so cute! Then, the next night, I was eating by myself because Jessica was cooking her own food, so this group of overzealous tourists adopted me and invited me to eat with them (some of them were the ones who mistook me for Jessica) and so when Jessica walked by, they roped her in to our tables too. 

           

            Later that night Jessica and I went on our own night hike by ourselves because the “official” tour-guide lead one was full.  On our hike we saw sooo many cool things!  We saw a giant tarantula (about the size of my palm) on a tree trunk, we saw a katydid that was camouflaged like a leaf, but he was on a pole trying to camouflage and it wasn’t working out for him.  Sorry Katydid, but last time I checked, poles don’t have leaves.  Right above him, on a tree was a stick bug!  Then we saw a juvenile pit viper (yes, they are poisonous), along with several different types of spiders and frogs.  We also saw scorpions on some trees thanks to one of the German researchers, Vito! Apparently scorpions have something in their skin that glows green when under a UV light, and Vito knew this, and had a UV light on him, so we got to see these tiny scorpions that we wouldn’t have noticed otherwise!  We have also seen a few basilisks running around here too! (no, not the things from Harry Potter, Google them if you don't know what they are, because they are cool!!)

           

            The next day we walked to the little town nearby to check it out and get supplies.  I was on a mission to find a hammock, but I forgot to look up the word in Spanish (assuming it would be the same, or close enough so people would know what I’m trying to say).  The word in Spanish is “maca”, close enough people! But alas, no one understood me, and I didn’t find any.  So we came back and since it was so hot out, we went looking for a place to swim in the Sarapiqui River, but we didn’t find a safe place to swim.  Then, around dinner time, Jessica and I went to the little party at Todd’s house, the kid I mentioned before, with some of the other students from Ball state.  I guess it was his host mothers’ birthday, and that is what they were celebrating.  So I got to meet a whole bunch of Costa Ricans, and made some new friends, it was fun.  Then, when Jessica and I got back, one of the German researchers, Simon, had found a very pretty type of glass frog that apparently he had been looking for for years, so he showed us because it wasn’t very far away.  I hope it is still hanging out there when I get my camera! I want a picture!

So, it is now Sunday and I don’t have anything planned.  I might go for a hike later or something, not sure yet.  But, that is all I had to update, and I will post again soon!

The sun is shining!!!

The sun is shining, I think it’s about time to update again! So far, since last time I updated, not much has happened.  Since the kids here are on vacation, there isn’t much else to do but paperwork.  They have me pretty much grading papers from the last time the kids were here.  They have a bat program, where the kids come here to Tirimbina and they take a pre-test on what they know and their opinions on bats, then they get a presentation from us on bats, then we go out into the rainforest to look for bats, and then the kids take a post-test, which is the same questions as the pre-test.  So right now I’m inputting the data from the pre and post-tests into excel to see if the kids learned something.  It’s no hike in the rainforest, but it keeps me busy, and I don’t mind it.

            On the social front, not much has happened, until today haha. I have kind of made friends with one of the cleaning ladies, as well as the bartender (not because I’ve been drinking!).  I have noticed that every day for lunch there is about 10-15 students my age who come to Tirimbina to hang out and eat, but I have never said much to any of them until today.  One kid named Matt came up and introduced himself and we had a nice conversation about what we were each doing here, and explained to me that all of these people my age were from a university in Indiana who were staying with families really close to Tirimbina, and their Spanish teacher was staying here.  He invited me to come play cards with them or hang out with them sometime, which was nice of him.  Then another kid from the group, named Todd, who I had talked to briefly once before came over to see how I was doing and to invite me to a party at his host families house this Saturday where pretty much all the Indiana kids will be.  So yay with my social life!

            Last post I commented on how I was probably going to walk to town soon.  Well, so far I have only walked to the supermarket, which is 10 minutes away, and only half way to town.  It was pretty uneventful except I got a lot of honks and shouts (because I am CLEARLY not from around here hahaha).

           

            So far just walking around the main part of Tirimbina where the cabins and reception area are I have seen several little lizards, some cool bugs, some pretty neat birds and once I saw some monkeys playing around in the trees.  My camera is broke, so no pictures for now, but hopefully soon! I miss everyone and I hope to update soon again :D    

The First Few Days

          So I finally made it to Tirimbina Thursday morning! I was supposed to get here Wednesday, but there were a few hitches, because nothing can ever go according to plan.  I got up at 4:15am Wednesday and mom and I were on the road at 4:30.  My flight was supposed to leave at 7, but they had to de-ice and anti-ice the plane before we left, so of course we left late.  I was supposed to get into Orlando at 10 and get on my connecting flight to Costa Rica at 10:35, but my plane didn’t get in until 10:25. Luckily they let the people who were going on connected flights get off the plane first.  I just made it to my second flight.  The plan was to fly into San Jose, take a taxi to the bus stop, get on a bus to the Sarapiqui bus stop, and take another taxi from there to Tirimbina.  Once I landed safely in San Jose, Costa Rica, I got a taxi to the bus stop.  Once I got to the bus stop, around 2pm I tried to buy a ticket to Sarapiqui, but the first guy I talked to spoke quietly and wasn’t very patient with me, and all I understood was that something was closed.  So after a brief panic attack, I asked the other ticket guy and he gave me a ticket and said the bus was leaving at 3:30.  So I got on the bus (I almost missed it because it wasn’t labeled) and was on my way to Sarapiqui (after the bus hit a taxi on the way out of the parking lot).  Two hours later, we stopped at a bus station rest stop and I was very confused as to where we were because my instructions said the bus would only be a 2 hour ride. 

            So I asked a woman who I had heard speak English what was going on, and she explained to me that the main road that the bus usually takes to Sarapiqui had a landslide and is closed (I guess that’s what the first ticket guy was trying to tell me), and the bus we were on was going the long way around the landslide.  Instead of 2 hours of a bus ride, it ended up being a 6 hour bus ride.  I got to know the woman who spoke to me in English, she was from the U.K. and now lives in Costa Rica as a biologist (AWESOME!!!!).  So we didn’t end up getting to Sarapiqui until 9:30ish at night and there were no taxis in sight.  So Alex, the woman from the U.K. and her boyfriend Felix, said they’d give me a ride to Tirimbina in their cattle truck, in hopes that someone would be there to give me a room.  Alex had already offered the third seat in her car to another woman she met on the bus, so I ended up sitting on Alex’s lap for the first few minutes until we dropped the other woman off.  When we got to Tirimbina, turns out everyone had already left, and I was S.O.L.  So Alex and Felix brought me back to their place to sleep for the night.  They live about 5-10 minutes (drive) away from Tirimbina.  They were soooo hospitable! I don’t know what I would have done without Alex!!  Probably would have had several breakdowns. 

           

           Alex and Felix have this quite large farm with dogs, and cows and ponies! Alex told me a little about the research she was doing, and I hope I get time to go help her out! In the morning, they made me a traditional Costa Rican breakfast!!!  When I was talking to Alex in the morning, she said she had missed the 1:30 bus to Sarapiqui by 5 minutes, and I told her that it happened for a reason! So she could adopt a poor lost student!

           

            Then Alex brought me back to Tirimbina where I was welcomed by the volunteer coordinator and showed my room.  The woman in charge of the environmental education program wasn’t here when I arrived so I prepared my room and walked around a bit when it wasn’t pouring.  Since the kids are on break, I am just pretty much grading quizzes that they did last year and putting them in excel.  The fun part is that I get to read all of the names of the kids, which have at least 4 names to them, and they usually write their whole name. LOL.

           Other than the small hitch in the beginning, everything else is going pretty well. The food is great (they really do have beans and rice as a part of every meal) and even though it is pretty much constantly raining, it is warm (60-70s).  The internet here is sporadic so I will update when I can! The next adventure I assume will be walking to town to buy supplies (by myself!).