Day 2: More San Jose

Last night we went to dinner at a place in San Jose. I had chicken covered in cheese, served with rice and beans and salsa. It was served on a giant leaf instead of a plate. After dinner we went to the hotel bar with the TAs to watch Costa Rica play Honduras in futbol. We didn't have to pay for our drinks, which was awesome. My TA Pablo, wrapped himself in the Costa Rican flag while watching the game. I wish I could understand what he was saying, he flipped out over everything. Costa Rica ended up winning 3-0.

Today was our first day of class. We had breakfast at 7 AM again, and then class at 8. Our only class today was Humans in the Tropics, and we learned about urbanization. Pablo gave the lecture, but had a hoarse voice from the game last night. We had lecture from about 8-10, and then was thrown out in the city again with our first assignment. We were supposed to go to three different places in San Jose: the university, the mall, and the central market to interview local Costa Ricans about their carbon footprint. Luke and I finished our interviews by 1, so we had a couple hours to wander around the central market and San Jose. We heard stories about bull testicles at the central market, and we were on a mission to find them. We did find them, and they were huge, one is about the length of my palm. It was certainly interesting. After the market Luke and I ate lunch at this little place in the back of a store called Soda Mary. It wasn't on the list of reccommend cafes, so we were hoping we weren't going to get sick (we didn't).

Luke and I then headed back to the hotel to calculate our carbon footprint and compare it to Costa Ricans. My footprint was about 3.5 Earths. The Costa Ricans I interviewed had a footprint of 0.5 Earths. Another interesting thing was if we changed our location to Costa Rica, but kept all our habits the same, our carbon footprint dropped to about 0.8. One man I interviewed misunderstood some of the questions, as he claimed to live in a climate like Moscow, Russia, and made over $120,000 per year. oh well. We then met up to talk about our experiences and findings. We got to drink in class (and didn't have to pay!) which was cool.

After the final class this afternoon we had a little down time before dinner to pack and do some homework. We then headed to a really cute italian place for dinner. I had fettucini alfredo with seafood. We pretty much all had seafood dishes. You could tell we were a bunch of biologists because we all sat there and dissected our mussels and squid. Some girls even knew all of the anatomy.

We are now back at the hotel for the night to pack and do homework. We leave at 8 AM tomorrow for a 2.5 week field trip up the Pacific Coast. We are travelling by bus, and the roads are really bad so it should be interesting. We are first heading to a high point up in the mountains where it will be really cold, and then down to the lowlands where it will be hot and humid. Our desination is Corcovado, a national park in the far southwest corner of the country. We then go to an island in the park too. I'm really excited. It's the most preserved rainforst in the country, and I hear it's absolutely beautiful. There's even monkeys there!!! YAY! On a less academic note, I made my first alcohol purchase tonight! It was very exciting. I bought a little bottle of vodka to bring on the trip. I didn't want vodka, but I wanted something plastic so it wouldn't break.

Well I think that's it for now. I won't be blogging for the next two and a half weeks, or have any sort of communication. Should be a great time!