Current Events

This past Friday there was an earthquake here, It came in on the Richter scale at 5.9 magnitude. However, I didn't feel it because I was on the Caribbean side of the country in Puerto Viejo, far from the epicenter in the Central Valley. Luckily, no one was hurt and the city is fine.

Drawing your attention away from Costa Rica for a moment, a terrible ecological disaster has happened in Hungary. On Oct. 4th, a reservoir broke, releasing one million cubic meters of alkaline red sludge which flooded three villages, killing seven and injuring about 150. The Hungarian Aluminum Manufacturing and Trading Company is responsible for the contamination and legal actions are being taken. I hope that all my friends and family are ok.

I'm learning so much about culture and life here in Costa Rica. The world is my classroom. I have Spanish class every day from 8 am - 12 pm and in the afternoon I get to practice with all the Ticos. Ticos are the native born people of Costa Rica, the name originates from an over usage of diminutives. For example, the word for small in Spanish is pequeño. However in Costa Rica, you're much more likely to hear a Tico say pequeñito-- super-d'duper'd intsy-weensy small.

In the evenings I have my Environmental Science classes, Sustainable Development on Mon/Wed and Tropical Ecology on Tues/Thurs. The same professor teaches both courses. Her name is Daniela and she is awesome. She worked for five years with the Nature Conservancy and is a leading expert in Fungi and Lichens. I dork out so hard! I’m getting to learn incredible things about Costa Rica and will be doing field work for both classes. I’ll keep you posted on my topics of research.

My homestay is going really well, I love my mama Tica so much. She’s so accommodating and helpful. We’re going to a concert together soon, I’m so excited. Tonight Steph, Myra and I sang Disney songs at the top of our lungs accompanied by my interpretive dancing. You wish you could have seen that :)

Pura Vida