Flight, Sickness, and Night Life: April 28, 2007

To start this travel blog, I will tell you why I am going to Costa Rica. In the fall semester, previous to this trip, I took an environmental methods course for elementary education. It absolutely blew my mind and opened up a world of possibilities that I never knew existed. I fell in love with the class and continued my education towards a degree in environmental education. In the spring I took a class called Teaching Global Issues in K-12 Education. This class had an optional field trip (to Costa Rica) that of course I had to attend. So myself, 5 other students (4 girls and one guy) and a professor (female) traveled down to Costa Rica for the time of our life. As a part of this trip, we would soon be exploring rainforests, volcanos, and schools of Costa Rica.

So now that you know why I was, I will tell you about the trip.

The first day. If you read my Germany blog, you might know that I was crazy nervous before I left. I was up until about 3 the night before packing. And by packing, I mean overpacking. I left my house around 430, picked up three of the other students, met the professor and tailgated down to the Orlando airport. We arrived, went through check in, ate breakfast and took our flight to Miami. We met up with the last student there and had a few hours to kill in the meantime. So a group of 21+ year olds college kids on our way to Costa Rica with a few hours to kill at around 1:00.... hmmm.... and theres a bar over there... with specials.

As we toasted our margaritas, we all talked about how excited we were and what we expected from the trip. We all were so excited and anxious to get started. This was the end of the spring semester and for some, the end of college. It was a celebration trip!

[PHOTO_ID_L=flight.jpg] The flight was good. I was so energized and tired that I slept uncomfortablly for maybe two minutes. And then we landed. It was so exciting. I walked into the airport and there were so many people that all looked like they had something to do. I love airports, I love watching people and thinking about where they are going or what they are doing. There is a kind of magic in it. My favorite people are military or business men. They are always walking around with a purpose.

Anyways, we went through customs and met our driver for the trip. He didn't speak English and only one person spoke Spanish, and it wasn't the professor. This made for interesting times when he showed up late to take us to a scheduled appointment. It was a lot of "Mi professor dice que..." Anyways, he was incredibly nice and thought we were an odd group, which we were.

He takes us through San Jose and to our hotel, Costa Verde Inn in Escazu, right outside San Jose. Once we arrived there, we were to meet our the head of our sponsor school. They helped make it possible to be able to call this trip a study abroad trip, and also set up a lot of what we were going to be doing. So first impressions were important. Now, I have had maybe an hour of sleep the night before, a total of 10 minutes on the plane, a delicious drink, and no food combined with a diesel smell that I am not used to and driving that is, lets just say, different from US driving. Shake that all up and you have me getting sick behind a tree while we are supposed to be making good impressions.

[PHOTO_ID_R=costa-verde-lodge.jpg] We checked into the hotel and I need to tell you about this place. It is the nicest place. It is more of a lodge and is surrounded by a wall. Within the walls are lots of trees and a few courtyards, with a pool and jacuzzi. The rooms are all different and each has a cool feature. There isnt airconditioning but it isnt really needed. I was never once hot or uncomfortable at night. I would sincerely recommend this place to anyone staying around San Jose.

Anyhow, once in the hotel, showered, and I drank more water, I was ready to go to dinner that night. We went to Tiquicia for dinner which is this cool restaurant that overlooks San Jose. We arrived when the sun was setting and saw all of the lights of San Jose turn on. It was really cool. Dinner was good but company was better.

Because we had class together all semester, we knew of each other and about the little things that you find out about people during class, but we hadn't really connected yet. This was the dinner that we connected. Usually on these types of trips, it takes two or three days before the group becomes a cohesive group. And usually there becomes a seperation in the group, not a horrible thing, just a clique-ish type of seperation. Usually, one group is the partiers and the other is the ones that wake up early. Typical group dynamics. However, this group defied all of those dynamics. It helped because we were a small group of 7 people total. There was a sort of seperation in the group, but that only was during the night and it had to do with age, the professor and an older student and the 20 something students. [PHOTO_ID_R=view-from-tiquicia-.jpg]
Most of the group, with the exception of the professor and the older student, decided to go out that night. When we checked into the hotel, the hotel manager became another person in our group. He wasn't able to go on trips or anything with us but he became a group member when we were at the hotel. Needless to say we became great friends and our professor and him had a love-hate relationship, which made it that much more enjoyable. After spending two hours of quality time, we decided to get dressed and go out. Now my packing consisted of what I would wear into a jungle or on the beach through a jungle or what I would wear to a school, while trying to make a conservative, good impression. It did not consist of what I would wear if I were to go out. Therefore, my going out outfit consisted of nice capris, a nicer shirt, and tivas because my nice school shoes were closed toed shoes only fit to be worn with pants. Very stylish, let me tell you... tivas going out, downtown... hot!

Going out on the first night with a guy we just met was one of the most interesting experiences. We didnt go to the tourism going out places, we went to a local bar area. It was a bar that was three or four stories tall, packed to the max, and had the loudest music ever. It was a great time. After being scared sh*tless from the travel nurse and told not to drink the water or the ice, even to the point of brushing your teeth with bottle water. She also said something about drinking in foreign places with people you don't know, but I must have missed that part. So, I of course ordered a rum and coke (because that is my signature drink) and had it with ice. We all danced, stayed together in a close group, and had a blast. Our new friend introduced us to Sambuca, which is a licorice flavored alcohol that you can put in your mouth and light on fire. You put the fire out by swallowing. Amazing!

So we got back to the hotel around 3 in the morning and had an absolutely wonderful time. One girl got her camera stollen, we all were yelled at for being American (which I can understand seeing how at the time the Free Trade Agreement was in the news and there were many different strong opinions about it), and we almost died in the taxis that honk through red lights instead of stopping. But besides all of that, we had an absolutely amazing time! We bonded that night and that was one of the reasons this trip was so memorable and exciting!