Costa Rica: Arriving and First Impressions

Hello readers! First off I should probably explain who I am, what the program is, and why I'm writing this blog... My name is Diana, I'm finishing up my 3rd year at the University of Florida (Gainesville) and I'm  currently pursuing a dual degree in Political Science and Natural Resource Conservation with a minor in Sustainability Studies. I've always wanted to study abroad, especially in Latin America, and found out about this program through UF and it happened to fit my interests and elective requirements perfectly. The program has two sessions in all. I decided to attend the first session which is 3.5 weeks, two courses (6 credits) covering "Carbon, Climate, and Livelihoods in Tropical Agro-Forestry Systems" & "Making Agriculture Sustainable". The program consists of lectures at EARTH University (one of the two professors of the courses worked on the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Inconvenient Truth documentary with Al Gore), field trips to rain forests and farms, trail systems, home stays, and small projects (i.e. measuring carbon stocks, researching specific cash crops), presenting on related topics (tropical forest policy, REDD, forest measurements etc.)... and blogging!

My interests that influenced my academic pursuits began as I started as a freshman Political Science major hoping to work in the international humanitarian assistance sector with an emphasis on human rights issues and poverty. I quickly realized that I couldn't see myself slaving away in law school or even a non-profit-- and I had the room and time in my schedule for another degree. After experimenting with some environmental science courses, a field I was always interested in, I realized that the plight of natural resources is tied and entrenched in the issues that surround those of humanitarian issues (see: natural resource curse, environmental justice). After meeting with advisers in the Natural Resource Conservation department I immediately started working on a concentration in environmental sociology/human dimensions and decided to sign up for the UF in EARTH Program!

My flight was on 5/19 and during the week leading up to my departure from Florida I spent most of my free time gathering gear for the trip which (hiking boots, ripstop pants, 'breathable' clothing, you know, jungle gear). The plan was to get to my classmate/friend at University of Florida's home in Broward by 9am to carpool to the Miami Int'l Airport. However, things didn't go exactly as planned! She found out as we were trying to get our boarding passes that she needed a yellow fever vaccine before boarding the plane because she had returned from Peru just days before; I would be taking my first solo flight ever (international no less!) and I was pretty nervous. After a few hiccups (I left a full bobble of water in my purse during the security checkpoint) I finally got to the terminal and noticed that there were some college-aged kids wearing chacos and immediately intuited that they were probably in the same EARTH Program (which I confirmed later after arriving in San Jose). The flight itself was really interesting: I met a retired accountant from New York who moved with her husband to start a goat dairy farm and a girl from North Carolina who was doing a social work program with her college in CR. 

So after a very short ~2hr plane ride we arrived at the airport and I met up with some students from Missouri University (the fellow chaco-wearers) and the other students (besides Kellee! who ended up getting her vaccine and taking a later flight and joined us in the morning thank goodness!). The first day was frankly a blur: a long bus ride to Gaucimo, crazy driving maneuvers on narrow roads through extensive rain forests, small water falls, gushing rivers, reviewing our Spanish vocabulary (ten ways to say excuse me/sorry-- very important). We got our keys to our dorms, took a quick tour, a delicious dinner in the cafeteria, a cold shower then sleep. In short, we were exhausted.

Thanks for reading! More to come soon...