Pictures!

These should work for everyone, let me know if you can't see them!

Center

I think I'm going to be wandering around Atenas on Sunday, so I'll try to get some pictures of that too.

A couple of things I didn't expect:
-my hair appears to LOVE it here. I don't understand, it always protested so vehemently to humidity. It was great in Mexico too, I guess it just wants me to go abroad all the time.
-it pays to be neat and clean. Scorpions like piles of clothes...so I feel like the time it takes to make my bed is worth it.
-the food is MUCH better than the travel blogs say.
-plaintains (platanos) are awesome. Ok, I did kind of expect that.
-my spanish skills depend on who's talking. I understand Yendry perfectly, but can barely catch the gist of the cooks.
-lizards everywhere, from itty bitty ones to iguanas that destroy the lettuce beds.
-people with the same name as me (more or less). The name Katy is pretty common, and pronounced kah-tay. As a result, I'm Katy to half the people here.
-two words: MANGO TREES. Everywhere. The season's almost over, but there's still a couple hanging around (haha).

Costa Rica!

Well, I made it to Costa Rica in one piece, as did my luggage. Actually, that's a lie. There was a box that broke into multiple pieces, but that's not important. I was met at the airport by another intern Mark and Yendry (pronounced JEN-dree, not sure what her job is yet). Atenas is a little over half an hour's drive NW of San Jose. Turns out, Mark and Amara (Student Affairs Manager) are leaving soon and tonight was their going away party. I was warned that it would probably be a little weird, since my first introduction to everyone would be at a party. There's so many people at this center, I need like a cheat sheet. Unlike Mexico it looks like almost everyone brought their family to live here, and the default language is Spanish. Last night I realized my Spanish needs a lot of work! Everyone was really really nice, even when I couldn't understand them lol. It's obvious that everyone here is really close.

I'll update on what the center looks like once I get some pictures.

Reflection: One Year Later

I was thinking recently that it's been about a year since I left Mexico. I remember I cried as my plane left the ground at Mexico City. My friend Dylan and I went as far as DFW airport together and we both teared up when we parted on the SkyTrain, because it meant that it was all over.

We were warned about reverse culture shock, and some of the frustrations we'd encounter. Our friends and family lived so many months without us, and they certainly weren't sitting twiddling their thumbs waiting for news. Most people would ask "how was Mexico" and you'd think how in the world can I sum up four months of my life in a foreign country in a few words? And there were things about American culture that we'd temporarily forgotten about. Like the neighbors' Turf Wars and the existence of an entire wall of breakfast cereal when you've been used to three.

I've realized that 2010 was extraordinarily good to me. I spent three months abroad experiencing a new culture, came home and went almost directly to Pymatuning to (finally) do my own experiment for the first time, acquired a new niece, and moved in with some great roommates.

Apparently I've changed some over the past year. Studying abroad made me more outgoing and confident. For some reason studying abroad had been something I'd thought would be nice but would never actually happen. It came as a bit of a shock when I realized I was two days away from leaving the country for three months.

I did a lot of things that I would have been terrified of- I'm thinking specifically of a hike across a mountainous island on loose rock with steep hills. I managed to get directions from a security guard in the Guadalajara airport with my rusty Spanish.

Over the summer, I learned to really push myself and expect more out of myself. Big kudos here to my mentor Dr Rickey Cothran, who leads by example and is never worried.



Around New Years I was worried that there was no way 2011 could live up to 2010. Five months in, I think it might. I pushed through my last semester of college (and sometimes I really had to push!) to finish my thesis and graduate. Breaking my back was less than enjoyable, but it followed news that I would be spending the next year in Costa Rica.

**Correction**

A correction: I will NOT be spending the summer in Louisiana. I will be spending part of the summer and the next (a full year) in Costa Rica!! I got an internship offer from the School for Field Studies (the same organization I studied abroad with). I'll be doing a combination of research, TAing and logistics.

Not less than three days after hearing back from SFS, I fell off a horse and broke a vertebra. I'm fine, but have to be in a brace for 8 weeks. So I called SFS and had to push back my start date by a month. I'll now be starting in early July to give me time to get all the certifications I need. Luckily, it'll also let me get everything ready and perfect my stick driving skills!

Next Adventure: Mississippi River

I've decided I'm going to keep up with this blogging thing, since I'll probably be spending the next year or so in the field(s). I spent last summer at the Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology in northwestern PA doing research on aquatic ecology.

I decided that post-graduation I wanted to take a year to work before going to grad school. I originally planned to save some money, but then I realized I want to make sure that I'm doing what I want to be doing. I was a little worried that I just wanted to go into ecology because that's what I've done for the past two and a half years.

Today I accepted a summer job working with Fish & Wildlife at some refuges on the Mississippi River. Specifically, I'll be living near St Catherine Creek, which is outside of Natchez, MS. I'll be doing bird surveys, bat monitoring, wood duck assessments and banding, and invasives control. I'm hoping I'll get a feel for resource management, and for Fish & Wildlife.

Last Few Days

We've been taking it easy for the last few days. Sunday we had a formal dinner, where dinner crew made sushi (all cooked fish-we get sick often enough without raw fish!), and had a massive picture-taking session. Then Monday everyone else presented their DRs in Spanish at the high school...except we got there and no one had told us that they had the day off for their version of Labor Day. We did have some of the fishermen show up, so we still had presentations. When we got back Vero gave a practice presentation of her conference talk, about the crab fishery in Magdalena Bay.

Then we had "disorientation," where Brady talked about reverse culture shock. I've been expecting it, and people raised a lot of concerns that I had thought of, and a lot that I hadn't. I realize that my friends back home all had interesting things happen in their lives without me, but I didn't think that people would have changed since I last saw them. Especially with other people who went abroad (like Sarah who went to Spain), the two of you may have changed in different directions and it may be weird. I'm also really going to miss some of the people I've met here. I'm thinking I'm going to miss Laura, Christina and Jenna the most. And Jenna and I have gotten fairly close, and we get along beautifully. It's going to be weird not having them around. And as for the Mexicans, it's soo hard to think I may not see them again. Especially Guadalupe, she's like a cool cousin or something, and a lot of time kind of acted as my guide to Mexico-language and culture.

Today we all went to the dunes for one last panga ride, and everyone, staff and students, spend the morning on the beach. It was nice and relaxing. Then we came back and packed. I think I've got everything in, but I'm almost positive my big bag's overweight. I just can't move stuff around, my smaller bag is packed to the gills. But Dad would be proud, I got everything in and just about the only thing I'm leaving is one towel and some shower stuff I didn't need.

Brady suggested we write a letter to ourselves that she'll mail us some time in the next year. It's crazy, there's so much I don't want to forget. I feel like I've changed here, and I think it's a good change and I don't want to forget everything. I was also thinking about how a lot of people are going to hear that I studied abroad in Mexico and think "oh man, she went to Cancun and partied for a semester." I also already know some people who think that it's not a real abroad experience because it's not sophisticated like Europe. But I think it's an even more important experience, because even though Europe definitely has a different culture from the US, it's in the same sphere of experience. Rural Mexico is a whole different ballgame, where the government is so corrupt you can't prosecute anyone, where some people have never heard of global warming, where fishermen die because they're diving using a hose for a breathing tube. I think it makes it more of a study abroad experience, and also more important because we live so close to Mexico but most of us know so little about it. It's going to be really hard to hear people talk badly about Mexicans, because I'll be thinking about Vero, or Poncho, or Gustavo.