San Jose to Monteverde 5-30

We woke up early, ate and went to a lecutre on local architecture style of Costa Rica. Then we took a bus 20 minutes to get lunch- the drivers here are crazy and ride each other´s butt and go kinda fast. Pedestrians for sure have NO RIGHT OF WAY! After lunch we took a 3 hourish ride to Moneteverde and stayed in a field station, the scenery the whole was was beautiful and captivating. Everywhere you look there are mountians and as we ascended into the mountians you could see the clouds. It rained and at one point there was a rainbow that you could actaully see through because of the green background. The place we stayed at we had to put bags on a fourwheeler and then walk behind. It wasnt too bad of a walk. We chilled then ate dinner and watched the sunset. We all went out later. The one mile hike to the bar was more like 2. I was out of breath and sweaty by the time I got there. I felt UGGS! Hiking boots dont look hot at bars let me tell you and learning to salsa in them-definately didn´t feel girly. I tried their beer but again I don´t like beer so it wasn´t anything I fell in love with. At another bar I ordered a piña and malibu and got maulibu and water. yumm...Anival taught me salsa and Tracee and Criag learned as well. You will hear about them much more trust me! While everyone is great, I probably get along with 5 of them the best, because they have lots of energy too. Kameron, Cameron, Craig, Tracee and Heather (all from U of Maryland). But Asia (Acea) and Ann and Carl and Laura are great people too! There are only 11 of us total.

Anyways so we all went out... The first bar had some stray dogs come in. One thing about Costa- lots of dogs everywhere-and you walk everywhere. My flashlight that I was told to bring was because they do not have paved roads or street lights and you need it so you dont fall in a pot hole or go off the side of a cliff. It gets dark super early here like 7ish we went out and were probably home by midnight. I sweat soo much and my legs for sure are gonna be toned by the time I get home! Well hasta luego (see you next time)

Traveling 5-29

Well the day started off pretty well. My stomach was in knots and we couldn´t find Midway. But then things started to look better, we got there, I got checked in fast and switched to an aisle seat and got to the gate fine. Still nervous, I flew from Midway to Newark, NJ. I had a four hour layover so I spent that time getting some food and then reading. I was looking around hoping to find someone that I thought would be in my program but no luck. At the last minute they changed my gate number so I had to run to the new gate. I got there early so it was all good. The plane ride was interesting. I met an Italian man whose name translates to Paul. We watched the sunset from the window and listened to each others music. Italian isn´t so bad- he had never heard of ALFREDO sauce though apparently its not authentic (he said thats an Italian name for a man), we even named the clouds according to what they looked like and watched the heat lightning. I had a few drinks and felt less nervous- except for not knowing Spanish or how to contact someone if they didn´t pick me up. Luckily Paul knew Spanish and went and found the institute representative. Our program guy- Anival. Hés 23 and fun, we goes out with us. Anywho a lil later I met 6 people from U of Maryland. All were landscape architects. We road on a pimp bus to the hotel---stacey told me the wrong one so my parents tried to call and couldn´t find me (they got scared then). We met the rest most from U of Buffalo and then went to dinner after unloading our bags. It was fun but I was super hyper and I dont know why. The people probabaly wondered what I was on but it was a combination of being tired and being in an airport alllllll day. I was soo excited that the people were easy to get along with even though I will be lost when we talk architecture or landscape acrchitecture. There is one other UP person.